Search found 515 matches

by ChrisOntLancs
25 Jul 2017, 12:29am
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: shrinkflation
Replies: 9
Views: 1122

Re: shrinkflation

661-Pete wrote:To be honest, I never actually read Chrisetc.'s post.


just trying to make light of light of bitterness that seems to always occur between us, but i think adding me to ignore list might help, that's why i suggested it last time it happened, and possibly six or seven times before that. take care!
by ChrisOntLancs
24 Jul 2017, 7:58pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: shrinkflation
Replies: 9
Views: 1122

Re: shrinkflation

i thought you might be trying to tease me with what is actually quite a controversial issue, meal portions in comparison with annual income.

...believe it or not i've been trying to make you laugh (most of the time) :oops:
by ChrisOntLancs
24 Jul 2017, 5:26pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: shrinkflation
Replies: 9
Views: 1122

Re: shrinkflation

you baiting me pete? :P well if you are you're not far off the mark, i have to agree. it was a prison in school, falling in with what my teachers would call "the wrong crowd" because their parents did "propoh" portions when i went round for tea. i dread to think what i'd expect in a nice part of town. two beans atop a toasted soldier? pfft

EDIT thanks to social mobility i now have a middle class pallet with a working class plate :lol:
by ChrisOntLancs
24 Jul 2017, 4:39pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: shrinkflation
Replies: 9
Views: 1122

Re: shrinkflation

"it's a classic curly wurly i wanted, a curly wurly should be the size of a small ladder"

"your hands have got smaller"

there's the "fredo" economic commentary by people who only really understand the market's rise and fall through the pricing of childhood snacks, and like many others i was pleased to be vindicated upon waking up to the beeb's coverage of this. no longer shall we suffer in silence.

what can you do? i noticed it most in bottles of coke, with the default now being much smaller. the store-to-store inconsistency also leads to a constant state of uncertainty, and you can never be sure if you're getting good value for money. since i started "properly" cycling again i've had to stay away from fizzy drinks but i'm afraid this is true of all bottled drinks.
by ChrisOntLancs
23 Jul 2017, 5:32pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Looking for my first hybrid
Replies: 12
Views: 15303

Re: Looking for my first hybrid

i should have warned you that i'm not so technical minded :oops: so i'm not sure i'd attribute any of this to the wheels alone.

put simply i think it's stability in the voodoo vs maneuverability in the subway. i think the voodoo is better at rolling over bumps, but the subway is better at avoiding them. when the voodoos off road i found i had to commit to my lines a lot, but on the subway i had a bit more freedom to make it up as i went along. again with tarmac the voodoo is great at going fast in a straight line, but if you have a lot of obstacles the subway is definitely more nimble. i never bothered filtering in the voodoo for example, but it was great at accelerating away from lights.

i have done quite a bit of riding on the subway, as i used to live with the owner, but i don't really have enough experience to say yey or ney on it unfortunately.
by ChrisOntLancs
23 Jul 2017, 3:30pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Looking for my first hybrid
Replies: 12
Views: 15303

Re: Looking for my first hybrid

i can vouch for the marasa, having owned and ridden one to death. they're an absolute work horse and besides a couple of bent mech hangers, i never had any problems with it. the price is also often reduced to £320 also, so maybe snipe yourself a good deal.

I MISS THAT BIKE SO MUCH and have to say overall that it's far better than the £479 btwin i'm currently riding.

my only gripe (which might be a pro for you) is that the wheelbase is very long, as the bars are wide, so it isn't fantastic in the city (which is what you'd expect from a bike with slick tyres). that said it's great for just "going anywhere" even on the ropiest of canal paths, and it's really comfortable for long rides. i switched to road for a quicker commute but i do miss the leisurely cycling i used to do on the voodoo.

this is sort of pouring out from the heart so if you have any specific questions i'd be happy to answer them.

one of my friends has a subway, which probably would have been a better bike for myself, but it's a lot sportier than the voodoo. the handling is a lot quicker, but it's another bike that's great for spending all day on. it's a little heavier than the voodoo and the tyres are a little slicker, but it's quite capable off road (his main ride is to salford through dirt paths, then through manchester)
by ChrisOntLancs
20 Jul 2017, 5:30pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: Pedestrians that think they're the path police (rant)
Replies: 42
Views: 5831

Re: Pedestrians that think they're the path police (rant)

"shared use" is my latest gripe so i had to look it up on street view. maybe it's changed since but it doesn't look clearly marked either way, be it with a "cyclists dismount" sign or something warning pedestrians like floor markings or you know... a shared use sign *eyes council*. pedestrians probably assume that they have absolute right of way, which is fair enough if there's nothing to tell them otherwise. inevitably some handle this better than others and quite a lot of people aren't going to believe you, because you're a "b***** cyclist" :roll:

by the looks of things i'd probably assume there was a dismount sign (because... you know.... swinging your leg around the back of your bike in a busy area is the safest solution, again *eyes*).

it just looks like one of those things, where the needs of pedestrians and cyclists get so little priority, and the solution is prejudice and arguments. OR what i've noticed a lot recently, somebody seeking to improve info on cycling infrastructure has been busy on google maps, recommending routes without leaving the office to try them.

i have a lot of these problems on the a580 and i've just started using the carriage way for the duration. it's much quicker, but we cant really expect everybody to do this (though many do, including one elderly gent i saw grinding away on it just this morning)
by ChrisOntLancs
19 Jul 2017, 10:38pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Acid Attacks - what do we do?
Replies: 64
Views: 4086

Re: Acid Attacks - what do we do?

Psamathe wrote:Nasty "spin-off" crime - really makes you wonder about this country (or maybe humanity)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/muslim-women-water-attack-racist-assault-southampton-mosque-acid-attacks-bashir-ahmed-masjid-a7848261.html wrote:Water thrown at terrified Muslim women in 'fake acid attack hate crime' outside Southampton mosque


Ian


i saw that, and i'm not sure how i feel about it yet (glad i have that luxury though). so we ban water (obviously not, just hate crimes, and deal with the fear of acid attacks, probably by making an effort to stop them). i've got a rough idea - it's bad.

as if they were a fair cross section of society, i was reading the tweets in response to the indy's coverage and the overall tone was "well, it's just water, you can't send somebody to prison just for throwing water". well... what about if you threatened a bank worker with a replica gun, or sold a kilo of washing detergent to a known drug dealer?

even for people who worry that the punishment will be too harsh, there's this ability to dismiss this stuff that's really scary to me.
by ChrisOntLancs
18 Jul 2017, 9:56pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Compact full-size track pumps
Replies: 7
Views: 841

Re: Compact full-size track pumps

i used to carry one of those foot pumps from argos around with me. they're a bit heavy but they'll fit inside a rucksack no problem. pretty sure it came with a presta adapter too. EDIT max 100psi so maybe not so useful

http://www.argos.co.uk/product/1479331
by ChrisOntLancs
18 Jul 2017, 9:48pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: Train punctuality: is it really that important?
Replies: 48
Views: 3436

Re: Train punctuality: is it really that important?

another one for the connections, which is sometimes ok because the next train/bus you have to catch is also late. if they were consistently late it wouldn't be so much of a problem :wink:

i jest... right... but actually.... i've had this problem so many times! why don't they just change the time? if it's usually a couple of minutes late, lets just assume that thats how long it takes the train to get here. "usually late" would be "occasionally early" it sounds like a cop out, but.... right.. well it takes a few minutes to hard boil an egg. if anybody promises one in thirty seconds, they're lying to you, and themselves.
by ChrisOntLancs
18 Jul 2017, 7:16pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Girl gets bike back.
Replies: 9
Views: 924

Re: Girl gets bike back.

Tangled Metal wrote:BTW anyone who talks about confronting the thief/miscreant, have you ever actually done it or just talking about it on a forum? Just a quick query, no.need to answer.


speaking about myself, and feeling the need to answer, probably, but i'm not a tough or even remotely assertive guy, so it wouldn't get me anywhere. having thought about it, should i see my old bike on gumtree, i know not to make the mistake. it sounds like the sort of mistake i make a lot. the best you can hope for is that your thief/aggressor denies everything, calls for help and it's your word (stranger) vs theirs (neighbor).

i'm not doing that hypothetical violence thing, where you get the *supposed* glory of violence without having to do the violence. nobody likes that guy. this is a lesson to everybody to stay cool *click* *click* *click* :lol:
by ChrisOntLancs
18 Jul 2017, 1:47am
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Girl gets bike back.
Replies: 9
Views: 924

Re: Girl gets bike back.

saw this in one of the indy's "and you won't believe what happened next" tweets so appreciate you posting it.

this is a great story, and one i hadn't considered. why not just... steal your bike back? i've been looking out for mine but i'd probably wait for the police, or go in there guns blazing, and of course i'm into the wrong sport for that sort of behavior.

would love to know how the thief reacted, how long they waited before realising that they'd been had.
by ChrisOntLancs
17 Jul 2017, 6:32pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Do not throw your pearls before swine?
Replies: 10
Views: 1294

Re: Do not throw your pearls before swine?

LollyKat wrote:From the full article:

It took a matter of hours before local scallies worked out how to disable the GPS trackers and smash off the back wheel locks.


i'd expect nothing less from the pretend lefties at the guardian :lol:

owen jones wrote a book about demonisation of working class people, now he bullies them on twitter.

this behavior comes from all walks of life, it just manifests itself in different forms.
by ChrisOntLancs
17 Jul 2017, 5:04pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Acid Attacks - what do we do?
Replies: 64
Views: 4086

Re: Acid Attacks - what do we do?

started as an honor thing, in fact i believe in most countries it is. here it's a legal thing, it's not regarded as a weapon (like knives), the charge isn't as bad as stabbing (i.e attempted murder) and it's very easy to get away with it as until very recently the thousands of cases reported to the police didn't get as much coverage as the honor attacks that gave everybody the idea.

the guy who attacked those cousins was walking around for weeks before he handed himself in, and he had tattoos on his face.

here it's gangs, hate crimes, robberies, mindless violence and many other reasons. it's that old saying "if they had a brain they'd be dangerous"... and here we are.

somebody may have already said this, i dunno, i got fed up of reading "it's them mooslims". to be fair though on this forum they are better at spelling. i'm pretty sure there's a "u" somewhere in honor, but i have an american spell checker. see, i really am no better.

we could just say it's a cultural thing and forget about it, but how long before one of us gets a shot of it while we're waiting at the lights?
by ChrisOntLancs
17 Jul 2017, 2:07pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Do not throw your pearls before swine?
Replies: 10
Views: 1294

Re: Do not throw your pearls before swine?

i think docking "zones" would be a great compromise between the two problems - people complaining that they have nowhere to dock the bike vs people docking the bike inside their home. i believe there is some GPS magic that prevents them being left on private property, so i don't see why that same tech couldn't be used to make sure they're only left in certain areas. i mean "anywhere outside this big box is not allowed, but it's a big box and you can literally just leave it there". if the ban is for private properties it's a bit too specific to self-police, and the margin of error is very slight.