Fozzie

With the handbrake auto releasing I have to say auto's are becoming more popular in my mind! I know what you mean with the reverse light. Thing is it shows a cheap design, reliable but annoying switching circuits. A basic and tiny microcontroller circuit acting parent to some relays would solve the issue of it flashing as you go to park, and it could also double up as a dimmer for the brake light intensity. A little system like that would last longer than the car as well. I design systems that do little extra functions like this all day at the new job, so I know it's easy. If I can do it, they definitely can.

Is it really easier? 1. Stop at lights, leave foot on brake. Let off and press throttle to go. 2. Stop at lights, press button. Press again and press throttle to go. Different strokes for different folks, but as a manual driver it's built into me to apply handbrake. Not having to was a novelty until I realised I didn't like having to hold the brake as in my manual I could stretch or let my legs go limp as I relaxed waiting for the lights to change. Either way, an auto dim feature wouldn't go amiss would it? As in stop/start traffic where you'd probably just use brake/throttle it would make the poor person behind have a nicer journey!

New autobox cars should be easier to use surely? When I was in the states I had a Hyundai Veloster as a hire car, snazzy piece of kit. When you put the handbrake on at the lights it dropped the idle rpms and wouldn't try to creep forward when you took the handbrake off again, just had to tap the throttle for it to go again. And my mum has a new-ish Z4 that has an electronic handbrake, just flick a switch up to put it on, press down to switch it off. Loved that little feature I must say! But that was a manual car with that feature. Wouldn't it be easy to swap that to auto drivers cars in future? It's either dim the lights at stationary, or give the auto drivers no excuse to dazzle drivers

If they can design a "hill assist" for the brakes, and an automatic slow mode for wipers when sat still, I reckon an auto-dim on the brake lights at night isn't too much of an issue. Just use the same sensor auto lights use so they dim. Not to the amount they go off the brake, but enough people don't mind.

I'm not sure then, only had a couple of motors with self levelling lights and they had a little dial to manually change the beam height a touch. If one had been out as you often see I'd have suspected that, but we went up a hill and I was happy for a split second before they "levelled" and went back to blinding me. Both beams spot on the same, and the car was not long back from an MOT at a smart dealer It must be fairly widespread not to have a switch as you mention however, as when I drive from Manchester-London I now spend my whole journey with the rear view mirror flicked into anti-glare. Not sure on their safety if they help you see but blind everyone else

Moos little smart car was fooking blinding when it was sat behind me. Same sort of lights as you describe. Climbed into the cabin and found the headlight adjuster at the highest setting, so flicked it down to it's second from lowest. She didn't even know the control existed so what chance do the general public have? Hers are self levelling but I think many of them use a reference point dictated by this control. They still light up the ground a great distance away, but they need to be adjuster so the beam is below the mirrors of cars/bikes. And you really don't sacrifice much range to do that.

It's fine to shake the shackles of PC thinking off, but my gripe was give it a few days out of respect to those killed before we move on with a plan to sort it out. Closing the borders won't do much, just takes one radical to believe something on the internet and then he will have his mates in on it. There will be more planned terror attacks with the borders open or closed.

It's horrible, and shows how small a world we live in. The show of support has been phenomenal. Although the snide remarks crept out the wood work as early as Saturday morning. Didn't get 12 hours after the accident before people began pushing negative views. So I've switched Facebook off since Saturday afternoon other than to deal with notifications/messenger. Mainly the "We must close our borders now" bunch and the "Muslims aren't terrorists but you have to ask if they would have been without the religion" bunch. Saw a couple of long posts pop up about how they wouldn't change their profile picture "like everybody else" to recognise that there were thousands of deaths elsewhere. Could have just made a statement supporting all those killed and spared me the "I want to feel good about myself" orientated spiel. And blaming people when it's the media focusing on the issue shows a personal agenda at play. Just shows that any positivity, even that of huge support can be warped to push a negative ideology. So how easy must it be to turn any religion violent?

Right hands generally don't mind this sort of thing

Get a can of brake cleaner from Halfords, a cheap unused tooth brush and use both liberally to clean out the drum. Shouldn't squeak any more after that

Carbs are a pain for this, what Stu mentions is what I'd look at first. Is the bike mis-behaving at any other time or is it just start up?

I haven't seen a hotel attached to one but did think some of them would make sense as a B&B style thing... Pint of beer and a burger with chips is still a fiver. Can't go wrong with that!

I'd be lying if I said I'd never had this issue in the past...

Ah, but if the cyclists demanded it, the UK.gov would bend over backwards to spend money building them whatever infrastructure they wish for just to be seen to be promoting green transportation. Which is bollocks if you think about it. Cycling is seen as being *truly* green, but it isn't. On average, we produce 2.3 pounds of CO2 every single day. However during exercise, which is what cycling essentially is, our C02 output increases by as much as 8 times the average rate. So if I had an electric car/bike that I charged via a solar charger, I would be 8 times more green and efficient than the cyclists mathematically. But if I went faster than them to my location I would use less time and this would change dramatically. In which case, it's better to invest in electric vehicles with clean energy sources if you want to be green. Next time one of the silly sods harasses you, hit them with that piece of info and point out the 9 grand he spent on his carbon fibre pillock carrier was not just more expensive than a Yamaha MT09 but it wasn't the most green investment that could have been made. I dislike cyclists as maybe evidenced here... 7 years in London did that.

When you're above sea level and have just a rudimentary drainage system in place, floods should not be a problem for tunnels. Where it would be a problem just build over... Unfortunately a fly over or tunnel would cost millions per town and the government is determined to not spend anything, especially on us skivvies.

Politics, or rather, the loud mouths who think their left/right wing stance is *the* right stance. Your stance is mostly built up on personality combined with background. It's unique but it's similarity to the nearest group will be the one you vote for. So there is no right stance. Also when people throw up things like "amazing read, this is why the country is this way". Christ. It's like having a painting and then choosing the frame you want to look at it through. Like points of view there are hundreds of them and they all change how you see the final picture. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it can be made to fit many points of view. Cyclists who use the "I'm allowed to be here" mentality when they do something incredibly stupid that I wouldn't even attempt on a powered 2 wheeled machine.... Great, you are f**king allowed to be there, but it's stupid that you are, and being right won't do you any good when you're dead. And finally the self entitled phase that seems to be rolling in on top of team offended by anything and everything. Like a couple who have never worked but have 4 kids and now saying they need more than a 2 bed flat. Get a job then and pay the difference as why should we? I'm not being charged for your poor choices. I tend to stay off many media outlets to avoid my gears being ground. I lock myself in a garage, listen to capital gold and drift off into motorbike repair nirvana.

Hahaha Not done anything recently, but once encountered an arguing married couple. The sort who screamed at each other and were mentally divorced looooooong ago. He is going on about the way he did something, she is calling him thoughtless. The bloke turns to me and starts to angrily relay what has happened. He doesn't like her mother because she doesn't like him, and when said mother made a joke about her not being on the Earth much longer he chuckled as he thought she was looking to make humour of a bleak situation. The wife took exception to this... He asks me what I think and I don't want to get involved, I put on a thick polish accent and say "I speak bad English" then point as if to compensate for poor language skills saying "you two" then made the time out gesture with my hands. This only made things worse as the wife then says she could tell just looking at me I'm polish (I'm a manc), and how thoughtless he is for not thinking before he acted yet again. As the lift arrives at its destination I hop out leaving the two of them. With nothing better to say I just turn back as the doors close and in my best Ron Burgundy voice say "stay classy". I have no idea what they must have thought, but I bet it ground that argument to a halt. I have no idea why in a panic I just did that rather than just say "leave me out of this". A bat shit crazy moment that was terrifying at the time but quite funny in hindsight.

I've had that same complaint actually made to me via people close to me... As in, the *expletive* actually got hold of someone they knew and I knew who was close, then told them I wasn't liking their stuff, and was essentially counting on me finding out and then rectifying the issue. People are quite sensitive on the issue with recognition. I could go on for days about those who essentially engineer a system where they milk likes continuously, some use humour, some use negativity/positivity, some use good old fashioned attention seeking. Simple method is just ignore it as we all have areas where we want to be recognised for something, even sometimes for recognising people can be weird on facebook

I have a Sony KDL40W605B, and I picked it up last Christmas. So far it has been phenomenal as TV's go. It is a cheaper unit but it is very good, and I heard about it after reading many reviews saying it had advantages of TV's far more expensive than itself. It retails for less than £400 now. 40 inch, it is a smart TV but like others have stated you might find them novel at first but you will find more effective means as time goes on. I don't know if you have a console, but if you have an Xbox one it makes a very good pairing. My brother has the PS4 so I will have to check but my Xbox essentially does all I need it to do... If you have it this description will be pointless but being able to walk in and just say "xbox on" and it turn my TV on with it and start playing digital tv is pretty good. Then obviously you can be in Iplayer/Netflix/Amazon Prime with a single voice command. So I highly rate the TV I have, but for what you want, you may as well use a console, which on top of it all will play awesome games.

Well there's a first... First time I've decided I'd rather use my feet than the brakes fitted on the bike

Do you have a Rieju or a Derbi? I haven't seen what bike you have yet. Just wondering why it would need 5 minutes unless it was 2-stroke.

Find a place with a garage, maybe just one with the garages in a block. When I had a 2-stroke that needed 3-5 minutes of warm up time when started but that was due to an extremely temperamental set of characteristics. So I just pushed it to the top of the road, fired it up, replied to texts etc and then rode off. So I suggest you get it out of ear shot too!

There is nothing worse than *any* motorist warming their vehicle up for a length of time like that early in the morning! After 15 seconds on average oil is circulating around everywhere normally, in less than a minute the oils temperature is at the start of its optimal working range. Switch the bike on, put your gloves and helmet on, do all the usual checks like phone/wallet/keys. Get on the bike and it will have been around a minute. Job done. Other than that, don't be a nob. Get somewhere you can put the bike, like propping up a shed in the garden etc and you'll be fine.

He's given you false time scales and has not performed any services for you. You have every right to cancel. I'd ask Joeman as he's experienced with dealing with these kind of plebs. But from my point of view, no contract has been established, you were given a quote and a time scale from the sounds of it. The latter has not been met. If he claims you breached contract, you can claim he has breached it first if he wants the courts to decide. Keep all communication handy like e-mails and so on as you'll be amazed how lazy a contractor is until you turn down their custom. Then they seemingly have all the time in the world to take money off you via the courts.

Could just move petrolhead in next door if we're going to be evil...