Cycling UK Forum

The stack of bikes at the local tip next to a sign that says they can't be removed annoys me as well. Surely the most effective way to recycle them is for someone to take one away and use it? I might e-mail the council and find out what happens to them.

During the Christmas holiday, my mother's lavatory cistern broke. When I checked, the square section rod from the handle, which lifts the syphon, had corroded. As the cistern was plastic, the rod was supposed to fit into a hole at the back for support. The universal fitting stuff from B&Q etc would have been useless.

The cistern is 22 years old so I was expecting a sharp intake of breath from a plumber, if I could find one over the holiday, plus a bill for a new lav, if not a complete bathroom suite. A quick google and I discovered http://www.plumbers-mate.org.uk/ who had the exact part I needed in stock. Their postal service was immediate (and free, presumably included in the price of the part, which seemed reasonable to me.) So, there are places which stock spare parts and provide excellent service. (I have no other connection with Plumbers mate.) (I didn't notice any 5 speed freewheels on their site )

REgarding the lifespan of washing machines this make some good points.

http://www.thetoptensite.com/Things_You ... hines.html

thirdcrank wrote:During the Christmas holiday, my mother's lavatory cistern broke. When I checked, the square section rod from the handle, which lifts the syphon, had corroded. As the cistern was plastic, the rod was supposed to fit into a hole at the back for support. The universal fitting stuff from B&Q etc would have been useless.

The cistern is 22 years old so I was expecting a sharp intake of breath from a plumber, if I could find one over the holiday, plus a bill for a new lav, if not a complete bathroom suite. A quick google and I discovered http://www.plumbers-mate.org.uk/ who had the exact part I needed in stock. Their postal service was immediate (and free, presumably included in the price of the part, which seemed reasonable to me.) So, there are places which stock spare parts and provide excellent service. (I have no other connection with Plumbers mate.) (I didn't notice any 5 speed freewheels on their site )

What! You mean B&Q didn't stock a spare? Shocking...

Wasn't one of their tag lines - "if we don't stock it, they probably don't make it".

You can't buy imperial screws/nuts at B&Q. The other weekend a tap broke in my house, one with the newer 'ceramic' parts. I found exactly what I wanted in B&Q took it back, screwed it in and when I came to fasten the knob to the fitting couldn't because the one B&Q had provided had an imperial thread... And of course they don't sell imperial screws.

In the end I made a screw for it, still annoying though.

Quote of the week?

Washing machines are a lot like men - the best looking ones are not usually the most reliable!

kwackers wrote:What! You mean B&Q didn't stock a spare? Shocking...

Wasn't one of their tag lines - "if we don't stock it, they probably don't make it".

It was a light fitting from B&Q that got me started with this thread!

kwackers wrote:
You can't buy imperial screws/nuts at B&Q.

You probably won't get them anywhere now except an engineers stores.
I had a similar problem last year, I bought an American Mantis Electric Rotavator. within a short time the head of the clamp screw holding the motor stripped. It turned out to be a Torx head (easily mistaken for the more common Allen head). No chance of getting a Torx headed screw even from an engineers stores. I had to drill out the clamp hole and fit a metric clamp screw (next size up). When will American Manufacturers wake up to the fact that if they want sell to world markets they have to use world standards.

Mister W wrote:The stack of bikes at the local tip next to a sign that says they can't be removed annoys me as well. Surely the most effective way to recycle them is for someone to take one away and use it? I might e-mail the council and find out what happens to them.

i took a visit to a local tip & picked up a useable bike wheel....no signs etc. just a laugh about them trying to charge me for it

One of my pet hates at the moment is the amount of red elastic bands i see on the 'way back' to the Royal Mail depot. Hundreds of them strewn by the roadside. I've often picked them up & taken them into the depot to say they should reuse them & that it constitutes littering that they are been dropped carelessly at the roadside.

As for white goods, I had a kenwood kettle until recently that lasted me for 17 years until the plastic disintergrated near the spout, my combi microwave(a Daewoo BTW) which is used all the time for everything from roast potatoes to crusty pizza is 16years old, my Hotpoint washer/dryer I bought 2nd hand in '96 is still going strong after looking up on tinternet on how to fix bearings & carbon brushes(effectively a new machine for £20)

Pretty much all metals can be recycled at your local tip & as for bikes my local amenity will sell you one & depending on what it is can be haggled down to a tenner in most cases. I even gave a chap £5 before he had got it out of the boot of his car, he put it straight in the boot of mine.(attendants got the hump though...lol)

Isn't it about time they stopped insisting plug in electrical items came with plugs attached so we reuse the ones on the old appliances and insisted on mobile phones being sold separately to chargers.

Two simple steps to reducing the amount of stuff made and helping stuff be reused.

And if some people electrocute themselves because they can't wire a plug that's either because schools aren't teaching what they ought to be teaching or because they're morons

Speshact wrote:Isn't it about time they stopped insisting plug in electrical items came with plugs attached so we reuse the ones on the old appliances and insisted on mobile phones being sold separately to chargers.

Two simple steps to reducing the amount of stuff made and helping stuff be reused.

And if some people electrocute themselves because they can't wire a plug that's either because schools aren't teaching what they ought to be teaching or because they're morons

I think someone once killed themselves with a badly wired plug and so the safety numpties clamped down.

As a fan of Darwin I think people should be given the opportunity to do themselves in should they prove so capable.

Kwackers, it would certainly help the population problem!

I daresay that if adopted,before you know it,some parts of the country would be virtually empty.

Old Darwin knew what he was talking about. The daft thing is though, the ones that can't wire a plug can still pass a driving test.

Perhaps everybody should be made to go up a transport ladder. Start off with bikes,then mopeds,then motor bikes and eventually if they've got the nonce - a car.
(O.K. some might struggle with a bike. They could have a hoop and stick).

Speshact wrote:And if some people electrocute themselves because they can't wire a plug that's either because schools aren't teaching what they ought to be teaching or because they're morons

I didn't get taught that at school, it was either brownies or guides. But it's hardly rocket science, there's even a diagram on new plugs.

Tonyf33 wrote:One of my pet hates at the moment is the amount of red elastic bands i see on the 'way back' to the Royal Mail depot. Hundreds of them strewn by the roadside. I've often picked them up & taken them into the depot to say they should reuse them & that it constitutes littering that they are been dropped carelessly at the roadside.

Since those rubber bands seem to be dropped everywhere in the country by postal delivery people, in spite of it generating a lot of bad publicity for the Roayal Mail, I had jumped to the conclusion that it was some sort of industrial action.

We had a debate about these lazzy bands some time ago.

I'm sure the result of investigations showed that they are different to normal lazzy bands - the postal ones are biodegradable.