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August/September 1997 (25 years ago!) I went through recruit training at Halton. I can still remember how being back-flighted/re-flighted was considered a fate worse than death.... Accepting that it actually will have helped her ditch a huge amount of self-inflicted pressure, good on her! The 2nd time you go through a gas chamber and unmask is actually enjoyable if nobody else has been through it. It's still awful, but at least you have the advantage of knowing how awful it will be.

Congratulations to your daughter for joining up - please pass on to her that she will never forget recruit training, but as time passes it will be the fun/daft/happy bits which stay as the strongest memories (and not so much the seemingly endless bollockings.....) Assuming that the rules remain the same (not allowed to leave base) then it seems the best/only option is to provisionally book at MOT for the day after her graduation (I would suggest not early in the morning...) You can always re-schedule if she decides she loves Halton so much that she wants to stay on for a few extra weeks

If you ride any long journeys (especially dual carriageway/constant speed) then a clip on throttle rest is fantastic Scottoiler Crampbuster - https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=scott ... 66&bih=643 Or something similar. There's lots of different types and you should be able to pick them up for £5. Best £5 I've spent on bike kit I reckon.

Schuberth C3 in Fluoro yellow. About as bright as you can get, great quality, comfort, practical. None of those things I listed sounded sexy though.

I treated myself to one of these: https://www.google.co.uk/shopping/produ ... CEIQ8wIwAA The Omega range is one of the slightly posher range of Vango tents, it's light and packs down very small, alloy poles - basically all the spec you are likely to want. Plenty of room in the porch to put your bike kit. I got lucky last year - Decathlon had them for £70 - but even at the eBay/Amazon online price they're damn good value.

Ordered one! Actually, I've ordered 2 lol - one M and one L - I hate buying stuff online, deciding I want to try the size smaller/larger, sending it back, then finding I actually preferred the other size after all..... This way I try both back to back and decide. (Then find I want an XL anyway)

Lol - sorry didn't mean to pry! Couldn't see any sizing info on the website (other than just M, L etc) so thought I'd ask to get an idea. I'm 5'11, 32" waist and 40" chest, I seem to range between an S and an XL depending on where I get stuff :s

Sounds very promising - can I ask what size you bought and what your height/chest/waist size is please?

Budget is a big thing... Great features, Great Quality, Great Price. Pick any two. I use a C3 (with a Sena Bluetooth kit) and it's a great combination. Before I put the noisy exhaust on my bike I could have phone conversations at 80mph and people just thought I was in the car. But it's not a cheap option. Mind you, I don't have a cheap head.

Also seems to work really well at keeping the dust down (as it gets trapped in the carpet, then you just hoover it up) As well as being good thermal and sound insulation etc. Also better on your bike tyres if the bikes stay parked up for long periods. Yeah - and free. Free is good.

ACF50.

After we'd put the most recent lot of carpet down (whenever a mate is getting a new carpet, we remove their old one for them ) we had some offcuts so she carpeted some sections of the walls too. That way it doesn't matter how close we get the bikes when we park them, we're not gonna scrape/scratch the exhaust, mirrors, etc etc I've told her that when we get the new TV for the front room, the 50" will go in the bedroom and the bedroom TV (42") will be going in the garage. That way I can watch the Moto GP or the F1 while I tinker with the bikes, rather than having to split my time between the two

I took a different approach and just carpeted my garage floor. Helps insulate the garage, makes it nice and warm/comfy when I sit or lie on the floor to work on the bike.

Couple of years ago I got a MK3 Golf Estate - 1.9D. (Yes, non-turbo, slow as a slug) It cost me £200, and came with 6 months tax and MOT. It never did less than 48mpg over a tank (and never more than 52) and nothing broke on it in 12k driving in 6 months. Once the MOT ran out I scrapped it and got given £100 by a bloke who came to pick it up. My other car at the time ran on petrol and did 25mpg on a very good day, going gently. So every tank of fuel I put in the Golf I was saving money

I am guessing that neither the 2011 BMW nor the 2009 Mondeo were £500 cars? The reason I suggested a £500 diesel car wasn't because he could get something awesome he'd love forever and people would think he looked cool in. It was so that he had transport.

A £500 diesel car will normally be cheaper to run than a £500 petrol car assuming the commute is of a reasonable distance. A turbo diesel will almost always provide better performance than a petrol car of the same economy. But if the OP wants to buy a £500 petrol car for the commute then that's just fine

Buy a £500 diesel car. It will get you to work during winter, so you can do the overtime and earn the money to save up and buy a bike to enjoy in the spring. With the ability to do overtime you'll soon find you've earned more money than you spent on the car.

I won't pretend to be anything other than insanely jealous.

I disagree - I think there's every way he's gonna be overhead in a contact. He's an Apache Pilot (or, more specifically out in Theatre he's an Apache Gunner) that's what they do. Of course the Taliban said they were planning on attacking Harry, and it was in response to some video - I'm sure if the PM had made a no-notice trip to Theatre that day the Taliban would have said he was the target too (they're welcome to him)

He will find blondes out there - there are some pretty tidy lasses working out in Afghanistan. As for the suggestion he'll be staying in complete safety inside the base.... You've clearly never been to a base in Afghanistan - rockets don't care if you're royal or not, they'll still come find you in your bed and put your insides on the outside. Someone made a point about why would the Royals be exempt from leading from the front and going to war etc... I think the Royal family have done pretty well at doing their bit in conflicts in the last 70 years or so. Now as for politicians - how often do you see MPs and PMs allowing their kids to go off to war? Heaven forbid any of them would ever do it themself. (With the exception of those who have served prior to being elected of course) Yes he should be out there - he's an Army officer and an Apache pilot, which is a very valuable commodity in Afghanistan. As for the ridiculous idea that the Taliban will "target" him.... How would they know which Heli he's in? They probably aren't going to paint a large Royal Crest on the side... The Taliban try and shoot down *every* Apache, because it's a weapon they have little or no response to and it scared the cr4p out of them, so him flying one will make no difference whatsoever.

And?

Absolutely. After the first lid I owned with a sun visor I'll never own one without. Dark visors are fine, except you need to carry a clear one as a spare if you might stay out longer/weather change etc etc and they're rubbish in tunnels. I commute east to work and west coming home - so for a lot of the year it goes from dark when I leave home, then really low bright sun, and the same in reverse on the way back. If I had sunglasses or dark visor I'd need to stop halfway on my commute each day

Do you mean on the transit across or around the 'ring? On the ring the vehicle counts for almost nothing - I was passing sportsbikes in my 37 year old car on my first (and only) trip to the NS. As for the trip over it pretty much depends how fast you expect to be cruising and how much traffic you hit. Remember he'll be filling up half as often as you. Out of interest - which hotel are you going to be staying in?

I wanted a decent flip front lid and a bluetooth kit for listening to music, sat nav and phone. I found that limiting the search to lids with bluetooth kits didn't give me the choice of lids I needed to find something as good as I wanted. I ended up going with, *in my opinion* the best flip front lid on the market for my use - a Schuberth C3. I then searched through the bluetooth kits available and did the same, bought the best one for what I needed - a Sena SMH-10. The sena kit can be moved between lids (you leave a fitting kit on each lid, then just swap the module) and I can have crystal clear phone calls at 70+ mph, it's clearer with less background noise than my car hands free kit. It wasn't a cheap option, but then I needed quality kit. In the summer I commute to work (2 1/2 hours a day, 120 miles) and with my summer holiday I covered 12k miles in 7 months from March to October this year.

If you want to get the leathers as clean as possible, without risking doing any damage to the leather or the stitching (remember, weakening them is a very bad thing) Then send them to Scrubbers Leathers. Damien at Scrubbers has been cleaning leathers for years, he's developed his own unique kit to do it, using natural products to make the cleaning gear (no petroleum based products, nothing that damages the stitching) He's a favourite with many racers, who know a thing or two about leathers needing to stay strong and protective! For the time he spends on it, and the care he takes it's an absolute bargain. http://www.scrubbersleathers.co.uk/