Fozzie

I've been feeding my lady with false times, she actually told me to do it, but then forgot she gave me that instruction so I got away with it for ages. She'll ask what time she has to be ready for and depending on the occasion I'll say a time 10-30 minutes earlier than she actually needs to be. If it's a family meet up, just the 10, but if it's a big do or something with her friends, nearer 30. As she'll be putting in more effort and run later. Got away with it for ages before she clocked. Was tougher to spot as the variable times just made it look like I was getting the time wrong. She remembered telling me to use this tactic, but not before getting a slap when I fessed up

There's a crucial question... How do you take your steak? Anything higher than medium will be treated as heresy

Good evening. Works busy, got a trip over to Anglesey this weekend to see family, which will be nice. On the bike as well. Girlfriend is stressed as she's over worked, and got some drama in her friend group, which I then put my foot in it over. We went to a wedding last year and it hasn't lasted the year. Apparently the fella was working in America for weeks on end, got cracking on with someone who was not his wife, and not his wife got upset when he broke things off and told his actual wife. I haven't been much help as on the third time she's said "I knew something like this would happen, they had a bumpy relationship in the past" and I curiously replied with "If you were so sure, why did neither you or any friends approach her about it before she married him?". Apparently this wasn't the moment for a reasoned discussion, and "you don't get how these things work". Which is fair enough. It's why I mostly stick to bikes

For the guy on the bike yeah, but at the start of the video there's a guy on the other side of the rock (presumably he rode around the rock and made it). And at the end of the video you see him tumbling down the hill after his mate, and his helmet goes flying. Maybe he jumped down after his friend out of panic? Not that there was anything he could actually do to stop what was happening! But suppose that's a good mate, reminds me of being at school when you did something daft as a friend told you to and the teacher asked "would you jump off a cliff if he told you too?".

In that first one (posted on Monday), I'm still trying to understand how the guy on the other side also went down? You see him sliding, and his helmet cartwheeling down the hillside. ... Hope they had a good recovery package... Would have been an interesting phone call.

I'm with EE, have a Iphone 13 pro with unlimited everything, and a travel pass which lets me use all my allowances free of charge in Europe and places like America. I pay £60 a month for it, and no upfront costs, but I had to play a bit of a game with EE. Firstly, I get a 20% corporate discount from a scheme that I've not had access to for several years. Each time I bluff with "I had this discount, should I get a new code?" and they always say "no need, we'll run it through". Last time, the guy got pushy and tried to make me go for an Iphone 13 pro max. I just wanted the pro. In the end I agreed, but I called back almost immediately to ask to cancel and told them I didn't appreciate being pushed. They kept me by giving me the pro, reducing cost, and then threw in the travel pass. Don't feel bad about haggling with them and out playing them, they are perfectly happy pushing £120 a month contracts onto people who don't know better. Let them know they should have offered you the O2 deal at the time, and would need better to be convinced to leave. May as well give it a go if you're prepared to leave anyway!

Something I've been surprised by is how many people have said this is high up their list, or even a dream destination when I've mentioned it. I've always seen the majority of "holiday talk" effectively been a brag on how far someone traveled to find a beach that is 95% the same as any other in my books

I'm hoping it settles down as I'm in Anglesey in a couple of weeks for a family gathering, and the house is on a hill overlooking the Menai strait. The two land masses of the island and mainland act like a venturi and the wind can feel pretty mad. But it sounds insane at night. And I have a girlfriend who sleeps straight through these things, but wakes up the whallop me for breathing (not snoring) too loudly so I'm currently praying for good conditions not just so I can take the bike, but for my sanity

Good afternoon I'm back to work today, I've just spent 2 weeks doing a tour of Japan with the mrs. It was a long pair of flights to get back, 11.5 and 7.5 hours back to back. We did a fair bit, starting in Tokyo we did a day of exploring the city, using the subway system to get everywhere. Seeing the Skytree, the huge shopping areas with the massive screens advertising all sorts of weird stuff, and then spent a couple of days at their two Disney parks. Then we went to Kyoto and spent 5 days there, exploring both the cities and doing day trips. I really liked this city as it was the cultural capital of Japan and the side streets were something I loved getting lost in, as well as eating in the ramen places where google translate was the only way I could communicate what I wanted. We saw the famous vermilion torii gates at the Inari shrine, 4km of them up a hillside. We went to Hiroshima for a day trip by bullet train, and it was a very unsettling day, but important to see. You don't even remotely get told the real story in school or on western TV, you sort of end up hating the state of the world as it is now. We then went over to Nara and the ancient forests/shrines as well as deer that literally bow to you when you approach with food. We then made our way to lake Kawaguchi where Mount Fuji is, and that was one heck of a thing to see in the flesh. We climbed a local shrine that was several stair cases that took 15 minutes of steady marching to get to the top. After a couple of days, we headed back to Tokyo, but this time on the other side of the city so we could see some of the bigger parks and the imperial castle. The last day was due to have a lot of rain after 2 weeks of sunshine, so I scored some cheap tickets back to Disney to see out our last full day. My main take away is, have a data sim for your phone and you pretty much can manage everything easily. But most of the time I was able to work stuff out quite quickly, and it wasn't the scary experience as often made out on TV. The language is hard, but there's usually numbers/times shown on boards so you can work out train/platforms easy enough. I'm suffering a lot of jetlag, and a lot of reverse culture shock coming back. I didn't realise how far behind we are in some ways

Cuba actually is a socialist state though, I just want a better regulated capitalist structure with our energy that doesn’t let a continuation of corporate knobs who lobby to erode rules and constantly drive up costs for profits sake. If I was socialist, I’d be seizing control of companies and distributing the wealth generated between its workers. Which is why I get baffled by some folk online, the young ones are desperate to call you fascist and the old ones prefer commie Taking your point on us paying for the highest rate of generation rather than the average. Shell have been shifting their interests in recent years. They get large tax cuts for their oil production as theres encouragement to boost production closer to home from the North Sea oil fields. There were whispers in the industry a couple of years back that they were using the tax savings to more aggressively buy up renewables like wind power rather than invest more in the North Sea fields. They are keen to get a car recharging network built as well. They ended up renewable assets that made a fortune over the crisis. When threatened with a windfall tax, it was reduced as they threatened to reduce investment in the UK. Namely these recharge stations and new renewable assets. And it just rubs me up the wrong way, money they should have given in tax wasn’t used to invest in the oil fields that the government had said the cut was for. They instead buy more assets with it, and when they make an eye watering return, throw toys out of the pram when they get asked to pay a one off wind fall tax on it. And corporations having power over the government is something that worries me, as I want to vote for leaders, not puppets bound to corporate needs.

If it looks like a corrupt act of corporate greed, in this market it probably is. The weather is warming up, people will be outside more, electrical load tapers off as central heating systems and large TV/sound sets are switched off impacting on both gas and electricity that the company would like to sell you. And we live in a world where making less eye watering profit than last year is considered a loss, because many accountants are only able to view a situation within a given tax year, and through their severe myopia make recommendations that suit the company at the expense of literally everyone it serves. Then there's the price cap, which is set to rise by 20% in April, and is now being hijacked by corporate busy bodies who seek to use it as a way of setting a high price that pushes over the cap, and then lets them claim the difference back from the government, while also petitioning for a further cap increase, despite wholesale energy prices going down! The LPG tankers that sit off shore for days at a time waiting for the demand to reach a point they can offload for a more "suitable" price, which they got comfortable with over the crisis period. The gas price is nearly back down to pre-crisis levels, and is bought wholesale 3 months in advance. Yet fixed price tariffs aren't expected to return until later this year, which less than coincidentally maximises the amount of people on the standard rates, often 100% higher than what they paid a year ago. And while they tell you that it's just in case the energy prices spike again, and they are hit by it, the simple fact is that they made record profits in the past year. Been saying this for a while, but capitalism is turning rampant. It only works when you have a tax and social programme system that brake checks it and keeps it from spiraling. But you mention that, and the frothy mouthed members of the older generations (a vocal minority, I hope) hurl abuse that you're some sort of socialist/communist for wanting to bring in measures that they largely lived with their whole lives with, and were eroded by corporate interests, despite the fact you're basically just trying to make capitalism work rather than abolish it... /Rant

Can you ask him if he does custom seats? I'm thinking of cutting up a seat for the ER5 Scrambler build I've got bubbling in the background. Aiming to be left with the original seat pan that works with the existing latch/lock, but strip the foam above and replacing it with new to produce a more cafe racer/scrambler type seat. Hoping it's easier than starting from scratch.

I can see the point of PCP for cars that are often used a lot, particularly for work. As in effect you're paying for a hire car, and if you get a service plan included then it can save on the big up front cost. And it cuts hassle, as newer stuff tends to be more reliable, and if it isn't there's warranty. But it still feels wrong to many as ultimately, you pay a lot of money and have no asset. And many can't afford the lump sum payment at the end. You tend to at best pay at least 10-20% over the original cost of the car, so it's a very profitable business. I considered it for a new car recently, but have just decided to save a few years and buy a car out right. Bloody things are expensive these days, the "Covid tax" that got added on due to global shortages.

I can offer an answer. I was in New Jersey last week for work inspecting a device that converts methane to hydrogen. In short, we didn't have a good way of producing hydrogen that wasn't also extremely costly. Water electrolysis seems like a good idea, but the power requirements to produce it are astronomical, so you end up almost needing an entire new national grid just to support its production at the scale we need it. And that doesn't deal with the fact that the world is facing a fresh water shortage in the long term, and if you turn to sea water, it's even worse as you need desalination plants to process it first. I'm not allowed to give the brand name or specifics of this product, but I can explain the process which is well understood. You inject methane into a cylinder and heat it to a plasma (getting on towards 1000 degrees). The process is called plasma pyrolysis. Out the other end you get two things, a pure hydrogen gas. And carbon black, basically a type of soot. The carbon black can be buried in old mines, quarries, underwater wells etc of which we now have plenty. You then use atmospheric carbon capture to reprocess the hydrogen into a liquid synthetic fuel. And you essentially have a new type of petrol with a great power density. These devices could also be fitted inline with the gas grid, so that we fire our home boilers with hydrogen. In the short term, it lets oil companies continue production, and providing us with methane. Longer term, agricultural processes can be ramped up to produce methane. And longer term than that, we can get more nuclear and excess of renewables built, which make using sea water for electrolysis more feasible. Or alternatively, it lets battery technology develop enough it can take over reliably. But even then, you absolutely need a "power mix" for resilience.

If anyone wants an electric bike/car, the only real reason I give not to get one is simply that the tech is about to get a lot better in the next coming years. And these changes will be large. If you take an S1000RR for example, it doesn't improve much year on year. It gets an extra horse power, maybe a few less kg's, or better suspension settings. Electric cars/bikes by comparison are going to lose a lot of weight and gain a lot of range in the next 5-10 years. Often with figures exceeding 30%, so I'd make the case it is worth waiting. But even then, it will be based on need. Electric cars are far more efficient in town, and stop/start compared to petrol cars. They don't idle, and only use enough energy to move their mass, whereas a petrol/diesel uses a lot of energy which we clutch in and is very imprecise by comparison. However, this swaps on the motorway. Electric car range dies a death on motorway runs. Higher speeds placing a high load on the battery drain it very quickly, whereas with petrol/diesel, the greater energy density of the fuel combined with steady load/revs on the engine see it become much more efficient by comparison. I've compared with colleagues that have electric cars, they beat me on range in town by 20-50 miles, but when they run flat on the motorway I often have 150 miles of range left in the same conditions.

You have to wait a few years... BMW have already announced a battery that is 30% lighter and has 600 miles range due in 2025. Thing is they aren't new, they were just unproven. A lot of people have run out to buy battery cars, unaware the technology will be highly obsolete in 3 years, never mind 10-15! And it's a big unknown what this will do to second hand prices. They've been stubbornly high, but this just means they have further to fall. Be interesting to watch. I'm not planning on moving to electric until 5 years or so from now at the earliest.

Crashed once in the last 10 years. Postal van pulled out of a slip road, I dodged by swinging into the oncoming lane, but then he decided to go into a U-turn and *phwak*. Before that... Crashed twice when I was 16, once hitting a chunk of brick and I grabbed front brake with the steering not straight. Then again in heavy rain when I aquaplaned and put too much brake on. Did well until I was 19, I had a low speed drop on the Cat and Fiddle when I hit a couple of blobs of diesel going into a bend. Then when I picked it up 3 weeks later, I was hit head on by a merc at a cross roads. Messed me up pretty good, house deposit level payout, got to see my big toe bone sticking out among other breaks and cracks up my right side. Walked with a slight limp for something like 2 years. At 21 I was pulled out on by a lady who thought I'd flashed her. I'd hit a dip in the road it turned out. I hit slow, but ended up on her bonnet. Her fighting through insurance cost her over £15k in motorbike hire charges. At 23 the postal van accident mentioned above. If I make it to 33 this year, I will reset to 0

I'm guessing it's not road legal as a lot of the 450's were built as off-road only?

I hope the redundancy pay makes yours and their eyes water… For opposing reasons obviously!

Yes, but an owner should have it on their V5 if they come forward and claim it. If it matches the number on the frame, that's good enough for me. The conversation with the police went more or less like this: Me: We've recovered a stolen bike from the canal, can you retrieve it? Police: Just log it on our online system, it will tell you what to do. Me: We did, it said to bring it to the station. We can't really do that as it's too heavy and no one has a car big enough. You'd have recovered it from the canal at greater cost anyway, so can you send a van to take it to a police impound? Police: No, just log it on the system so we know. We'll put the owner in touch with you to recover it if they come forward. Me: And if they don't? Police: Just hold onto it for now. Me: ... Right ok, thank you. It was just utter disinterest. I even at one point said "this could be a 17 year olds only way to work, or an older chap who had the classic version pride and joy. Can you not trace the owner and contact them if I give you the details?"... Wasn't even interested in the VIN number, just "we've made a note of it, if the owner comes forward we will contact you".

They've only been made in this format since 2019, so it's likely only a few years old at most. It has a dent in the tank, and water will be everywhere. I wanted to take it to bits and drain it/check it. But it's technically a stolen bike so I don't fancy working on it even to help reunite it in running form with its owner. I'm putting posters up with an e-mail address asking for an owner to send me proof of ownership. V5 will have the frame number on it. But if no one claims it, I've not a clue what to do. Another group had someone with a similar experience, and he said it has sat in his workshop now for several years. ... Maybe I'll put it back where I found it

Good morning! I'm back after a week away, in New Jersey then New York for a couple of days. Was nice to walk around, but I heard that NYC had a huge rough patch back in the 80s, with huge homeless numbers and garbage piled in the street. And to my eye, it looked like it was in the grips of the same situation. If I had to go back to NJ for work, I'd probably drive down to Philadelphia the next time, which is only 75 miles from NJ. When I got back and had a night to recover from the jetlag, my girlfriends dad wanted to meet down the pub. When I got there he tells me he saw a bike in the canal, and showed me a picture. Ended up going to pick it up and dredging it out, and look! A Honda Monkey. The steering lock was still on, so I had to haul it about 150 feet back to my gfs dads back garden. We've been in contact with the police, and trying to find the owner who must be local. Looks like some people dragged it, bent the handlebars trying to break the steering lock and gave up, throwing it in the canal. So far the police haven't been interested, and no one has claimed it. Trawled the stolen groups on facebook. I hope someone does claim as I've not a clue what to do with it otherwise. The police had no interest in picking it up.

They are just being difficult, I've experienced this type of thing. Just keep cool, take the bike. Treat this situation as being one small step at a time. It sounds like you're a good way through anyway. After you have the bike, wait a few days, keep 0 contact or if he's messaging, keep it friendly as they can. And a few days later, offer to make a deal, say "The cost of a new key and ignition barrel is less than what you owe me for the finance, but I will make a deal. Give me the key and I won't chase for the finance payments, or look into taking it further, and we can end it with this deal". The problem will be, does the guy care more about keeping a bit of control over his ex than being financially let off? Him holding onto the key but no bike lets him continue the situation. Just make sure reactions are kept subdued. Apply pressure through mutual friends if there are any who will say "come on dude, just end this". You want them to feel they walked away the bigger man, even if they aren't...

Good afternoon! My last day at work for a week. And while next week isn't properly a week off, it ends with me having a couple of days alone to run amok in New York city doing some sight seeing. Should be fun.

Who needs enemies with locals like that Glad you came off ok, but be careful with retribution style attacks. This sort of stuff often escalates. Unless apologies were exchanged, getting shit on someones face may well end up with some form of revenge. Wouldn't be surprised if windows, or through the letter box were a target. If it kicks off again, or there's a threat of it going physical again, just record him with your phone. Pop it in your pocket but leave the part with the camera sticking out. And as I was once told "record, don't react, or try to get a rise. Let them do it all". The issue is, he knows where you live. And you don't know how much of a nutter he is, or if he has any nutter friends. I speak with some experience in this where no amount of discouragement was enough to dissuade one side.