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I was pondering using something like this https://www.orbitalfasteners.co.uk/produ­cts/m4x59-interset-cavity-fixing-rawl-p-­no-r-sm-04059 but have some concerns that the anti-rotation spikes will crack the tiles when done up tightly? Any thoughts or other bright ideas.

When I had to do the same thing years ago, I just bent the spikes flat using pliers - they went back into the cutouts they are formed from, leaving a (mostly) flat disk to bear against the tile.

Use a setting tool with them - doing them up with a screwdriver mostly works, but there's always one that wants to rotate, and it's a lot more satisfying squeezing them tight than it is spinning madly ...

did you have to use a cement mixer or manage to mix by hand?

Mixed by hand - repointing in (small) stages so I was only ever using a bucketful at a time.

From that link, looks like hydraulic line mortar (so yes, NHL) is what I used - forgiving of the inexperienced, and much like cement mortar in use ...

Whatever you get if you go into a mainstream builders' merchant and look for lime mortar, basically. Straightforward to use, which suited me for our garden wall.

You can just make up a lime mortar - lime (I got a couple of bags from Selco), sand and water- and use it straight away.

I'm shit at brick laying so the bits I've 'repaired' are obvious, but they haven't fallen apart yet.

Everything I've read says it's timing belt, and that's what the parts kits seem to include ... 1.9 TTID.

Thanks for the pointer to Cromwell's, though my wife's Irish so they may be off the list on name alone

There was some Saab love being expressed a page or six back - any recommendations for a specialist, the closer to SE7 the better?

We've just acquired a 9-3 estate that's overdue for a cambelt, and no doubt we'll find other niggles, though it was fine for a rainy hundred miles last night.

What happened with this @amac090 ?

I think you were right to be having none of it. Worrying for me as my insurance is with them too and I haven't been told of the changes either.

Aye, hope the claim gets sorted satisfactorily.

Our insurance is with Pedalcover and it's up for renewal in a couple of weeks' time - which is a point, we haven't had a renewal quote through yet - and I can't see anything from them telling me about the change in ownership.

That said, the info on the site for combined buildings/contents/bikes policies looks as reassuring as it did when I took out cover, so I'm likely to just wait and see what they send through.

Blimey! Have you considered switching to another GF if she's getting on so badly with Deda?

FTFY

I've got a couple of new C15s and a used one - need to check, but pretty sure one of the new ones is black. Not carved though.

Glad to hear mate #1 is sorted, but PM me if mate #2 shows a flutter of interest ...

If you knew me, it would come as no surprise at all that I've not actually got hold of a cassette today, and instead am currently researching the fact that my chosen ratios seem unobtainable in shimano 9sp, while ignoring the counterpoint, that something suboptimal to me would make the bike actually usable, and therefore more attractive to everyone else ...

As above, I'm in SE7, so midway between Greenwich and Woolwich, and I reckon £200 feels about right.

I'll probably get this sorted and back on the road in any case - I'd forgotten how light it feels, and it might be a bit of a fun change at the moment.

It needs about an hour's work - fit cassette and skewer, ride round the block to check adjustments, bit of a wash - with love not required.

Should be able to get hold of a cassette tomorrow, so it could be usable from tomorrow or Friday if it remains of interest.

Taken me a bit of time to dig this out I'm afraid - and the photo's still crappy, and I didn't find time to clean it ...

Rear wheel is Shimano FH-2200 (Claris, I think) with a Mach1 Omega rim, front is a Xero Lite. Gatorskin (rear) and Hutchinson Excel (front) are in reasonable nick - I'd be happy to use them.

SPDs currently fitted but I can dig out some flats. It needs a cassette and a rear skewer, and a little bit of a wash ... I'd also want to make sure it all works fine and is adjusted right - but I've got no reason to expect problems.

(God, that photo is crap. I can take better ones, honest ...)

It's a Marin Mill Valley, about a 19" alloy frame, carbon forks, Tiagra 9x3 gears, mismatched wheels but otherwise in pretty good nick. Should be able to sort out a couple of pics after work tomorrow.

£200 feels about right once I've got hold of a new cassette (it doesn't have one fitted at the moment, so obviously less if you wanted to deal with that), and I'm assuming I don't find any problems when I have a proper look at it.

Got a (quite nice) Marin hybrid that needs a new cassette, an hour or two of spannering, and a new home. Right sort of size: price somewhere between £150-£250 depending on how much a new cassette costs and how hard I squint at it. Is SE7 closer than Maidstone?

Got an older version of this little used in SE7 - sure I could be persuaded into a loan for a wee while.

Was there ever a period where uni students were exempt from paying income tax and national insurance?

Grants and most bursaries are not taxable. In the olden days, you could live on the maintenance grant, so tax never came into your head. Everything else is and always was taxed without regard to your student status.

Income from employment was always subject to tax. However, there was an exception that allowed you to be paid without tax deducted at source in certain circumstances, where you did not expect your total annual income to exceed the personal allowance.

This might apply if you had a holiday job at a decent salary (so liable for tax if you're there for a year, so you end up with PAYE deductions), but you were only going to be working for, say, 10 weeks (so the total was under the tax threshold).

If you could be arsed filling out the relevant form, and your employer's payroll team was competent enough to implement it, they were allowed to pay gross of tax, though still net of NI contributions.

(Here we go - form P38(s), withdrawn in 2013. https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/paye-manual/paye46045)

He's 5'10 / 5'11, and not fussed at all re. type of bike, just that it functions!

Marin hybrid I mentioned above? SE7, so wrong side of London, but happy to offer it either as a loan, or within that budget.

Gah - sounds unpleasant. Hope you mend soonish - as for the bike, I'm in SE7 (so not far from the other end of the Greenwich foot tunnel) and happy to take a look at it, either here (where all my tools are) or in Poplar (albeit I'm not bringing everything ...).

I've got a small (49cm?) Galaxy, and a larger (56cm?) Marin hybrid in SE7. Both need a bit of attention but 48 hours notice should see either of them ridable: prefer to think of them as loaners, but long term definitely no problem.

Happy to fit parts/service/adjust other bikes too.

Needle-nose mole/vise-grips might get enough purchase on the nut (up the bottom of the steerer) to back it off an eighth (well, probably more like a sixteenth) of a turn at a time.

I know they exist because I've got a pair, but I'm buggered if I can find them at the moment, or I'd offer a loan ...

Where is this quoted from please?

It's from the "Further businesses and premises to close" document linked at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/further-businesses-and-premises-to-close - end of the 3rd para on page 3.

Same document as says bike shops are of strategic importance and should remain open in the national interest ... (Or at any rate lists them - twice - as an exception to the non-essential retailers who must close.)

Bike shops are exempt from closing, and "Online retail is still open and encouraged and postal and delivery service will run as normal."

Any recommendations for heating engineers/boiler installers who'll work in SE14?

(Searching wasn't helpful - either that or I can't drive a search engine!)

How big is that tandem?

Can measure it, but from memory you'd want a team who were something like 6'6"-6'8" and 6'2"-6'4" to be comfortable on it. At 6', I can just about stand over the back.

Swallow custom build - it's lovely. And I'd be delighted to let frame and forks go for not much money at all (or at any rate, a fraction of what they must have cost new!) - it's a total waste sitting in my loft.

I'd want a bit more persuading to leave the Campag tandem chainset on it though - I do have a home for the bits from it, just haven't got round to that project yet!