hititfaster

I guess that's a fair point :huh: Cheers guys, I'll just get on with it.

Basically, I 'aquired' Windows XP Pro. It runs fine and I've had no problems so far, but just recently I've been getting a pop-up in the bottom right hand side of my screen saying 'Windows automatic updates'. I've just been cancelling it up to now because I don't know whether the fact I have NSL software will be picked up by Microsoft when I try DLing stuff from them. Also, when I got the MSN 7 beta version, it didn't have the handwrite feature on it: I tried to add it, but when I got to the site it said something about it being for registered users only (or something to that effect) which ticked me off a bit too. All I want to know is whether I can go through with the updates as normal, and whether it's gonna be ok to DL things like that handwriting feature. Cheers guys :huh:

I'm loving the O.C. I've never been into series shows of any sort before, but this just sucks you in - you HAVE to watch it once you've seen a couple of them. Another thing I'm loving... It seems that I'm the long lost identical twin brother of Adam Brodie (aka Seth) which I'm CERTAINLY not complaining about, because girls seem to get moist for a bit of Seth, and now the new series is on, I get even more attention :huh:

Wasn't at home last night and I'm working tonight :) Sorry mate. Definately up for another night ride again some time soon though. By the way, Jon... I got those pic's developed from the last night ride. Thought you might be interested in this: (it was one of the best from the night I think)

As usual, Ad is right :P (wish i had that talent!) If you have a look HERE you'll see where I started looking into this idea too. I spent quite a long time considering it and spoke t a lot of people, bit as mentioned before, you can't get a one-way clutch bearing that is appropriately sized for this appliction AND appropriately torque rated. I got the interest from a guy called George French, (who one or two of you might know from the world of BMX: he runs G-Sport, who make hubs and things). He made a proto BMX hub that worked on this principal years ago, but it engaged too fast for use in BMX.

You gotta be kidding, right?! Props to you if you do though, I've got a lot of respect for someone mad enough to drive for 6 hrs for a 2/3hr ride (Y)

We were always told to estimate at 3mph when I did DofE, but I think Ad was about right with 4. Less maths... better :)

Now THAT is cool! B) Gonna dust off the printer and have a play I think... ooooh the possibilities... 6' wide poster of Mischa Barton on my ceiling :) This could be good!

Yeah, I can't say I haven't thought that myself :P And there was some joking when I mentioned to someone that Will might consider buying some brazing stuff via Ebay, ending up with the postie going BANG as he tried to force it through the letter box :P Spot on. Any cheap and cheerful welding mask will do the job, you can get them for hardly anything - £10 ish I think. Note: brazing goggles will NOT do, they aren't dark enough. That welder was just the first thing I found you know... best check it's clos to you as most people wont post heavy stuff like that.

It would DEFINATELY be easier :P With MIG welding, all you have to hold is a handle with a trigger on it. Inside the welder case is a spool of wire that is fed through a tube up to the handle automatically as you squeeze the trigger. This wire is charged, and as it comes into contact with the metal, the circuit is completed thus melting the wire (and the material you want to join) and forming the joint. Forget the misconceptions you might hear about MIG welding, it can produce a very strong weld, and as I said, it is a LOT easier to pick up. By the way, I was looking for some other stuff on Ebay and noticed THIS So I had a look at some other stuff for you, and found THESE The Clarke one (£6 something) is almost identical to the one I have.

There's blatantly gonna be nobody who's seen this, but there's an antique BMX vid called Ride On - I'm sure a bloke in that does a front flip, and we're talking EARLY 1990's here :P If anybody can find that vid, GET IT! Some things going on in there that people don't do today (Y)

Easter is coming, Steve :P Want my advice? Don't even bother dusting off the ARC welder. ARC welding is very aggressive: to weld 1mm thick material (like the tube you probably have), you'd have to be using seriously thin rods - 1.6mm or even less if you can get them - which makes it difficult to control. You know the easiest thing you can do? Get the free-ads and buy a cheap gasless MIG welder. You'll be able to teach yourself how to use it waaaaaay easier than any other form of welder, and you can easily vary the current. They retail at about £100, but I got mine for £15, so start asking round (Y)

Oh FFS :( Left my trials bike at home this weekend because my Dad couldn't fit it in the car. How crap. I could come out on my BMX but I just end up watching then :) Meh, I'm in a grump now, I was looking forward to the next Notts ride.

Shame you live in North Wales, or I'd have offered to teach you. I've done all this before, so I'd like to think I know a bit about it. You're have a LOT more thinking to do before you can even start making this frame. For starters, geometry: it took Todge and I weeks to finalise the geometry for our frame. You have to sort that first before you even think about brazing. Once you have that finalised, you have to have somewhere to make the frame. At the absolute minimum you need a perfectly flat metal surface, onto which you can clamp all the bits. You can build a frame without a jig (we did) although it will make aligning all the parts harder, and you have no real solid way of making sure the tubes don't warp while you heat them. The problem is that mking a jig is hard, and the jig has to be PERFECT to e of any use - the slightest imperfaection and you might as well not bother with it at all. Right, now you have the dimensions for the frame and somewhere to make it. So you need to know how to use the equipment. I'm not going to spend too much time here because it's not the kind of thing you can explain in under several thousand words. As a very fast explanation... you have two cylinders full of gas, oxygen and acetylene. Burning either of these gasses seperately will not achieve a thing, but by mixing them at the correct ratio, you get a very hot and very accurate flame. Learning to regulate these gasses and therefore the flame is a big part of the challenge (by this point I'm assuming that you have already 'dry-asembled the frame tubes). There is something you need to check before you get any further down the line: is this equipment of your Dad's for cutting or welding? You can do both with the same two gasses by mixing them differently and using different torches. Let's assume you have the right torch. Once you have a good flame, you have to heat the metal until it goes a nice cherry red colour, at which point you can dip the end of the brazing rod in the flux (to keep air away from the joint as it forms and aid flow of the moulten rod) and then begin to feed it into the joint. The trouble is that I can't (justify spending the time to) tell you how this feels, and how to hold the rod and the torch, how much to feed in, when to stop applying the heat, the method by which you should tack all the joints first, blah, blah.... I could be here all night. What you need to do if you are determined to make a frame and do it yourself is find an engineer or a local blacksmith or someone who knows EXACTLY how to braze and be VERY nice to them. Learning the balance of mixing the gasses is a skill that you just can't explain without showing someone. If you just start twiddling knobs and experimenting with things you'll blow yourself up. Or set yourself on fire. I've seen accidents with this equipment, and it doesn't ever look pretty. If you want any advice on equipment or where to get stuff I'm fairly clued up, but explaining to you how to actually carry out the process is nigh on impossible!

No cheating here!

Come on, we can do it! What sort of a dick keeps slamming them into the corners (Y)

HAHAHHAHAHA!! That was me!!! Top right hand corner - I saw it coming so I helped out! (Y)

I think that just proves that most cats are complete head-cases! Very funny vids though - the ones where they get spooked and just jump vertically, spin round and then SPRINT to the nearest exit are hillarious (Y)

We got so bored in Halfords one sunday afternoon that we resorted to pulling a BMX freewheel apart and counting the bearings (Y) 119 in total if I remember rightly (although I think that means it was broken).

Call me a geek (second book referecne in one thread (Y)) but has anyone read Frankenstien? That has a lot to say about the 'userping of God' in the choice of whether the 'monster' lives or dies. The creation is a hotch-potch of parts taken from dead people, socially outcast and completely unaccepted, but the fact remains: it lives and it loves. It desires to live away from others and be peaceful but that isn't good enough. Who has the right to kill something that is alive? Frankenstein gave life, so is it his right to remove that life? Just something else for people to ponder over. Tom *standing back, but reading with interest*

What some people do for a living (Y)

oh my god there's some seriously WRONG links further down that page :- Two words: banana cannon. Interested, you have gotta find some different sites to occupy your time with! :(

Oooooh... controversial. Very controversial. But... some of the points you made were, although shockingly blunt sometimes, quite true. On a seperate point, it does make you wonder whether people are scared to say what they really think, especially when you discuss things like crime and punishment; and don't even mention the 'I' word... shhhhh if we say immigration and suggest it should be controlled we'll all be dubbed racists. (See news story some time last week - somebody did just that). I digress, but maybe we do need harsher punishments. Prevention is the best cure, and the thought of LIFE beind bars might just put one or two of these shit's off in the first place. Maybe if life meant life, no piss-balling around, there would be less crime? Found guilty? You're going down, simple. (Although this goes on to raise questions of 100% proof of guilt: I mean, if they have you by the balls and YOU DID IT). Another film link here, but has anyone seen Catch Me IF You Can? Better still, has anyone read the book? In that, Frank Abagnale describes a stint he did in a French prison, where they barely even gave him them minimum requirements for life. He was fed (occasionally) and had an area in which to 'go' when nature called (i.e. bucket) and that was it. He slept on cobbles and he was washed when they had the hose out. That, he said, was quite obviously why less crimes were committed in France. I think this is one of those topics where people say "something needs to be done", but it will have to reach breaking point before anyone actually does anything. It's like house prices: they have gone up and up and up, and now people are starting to think "oh shit, new buyers can't afford to buy houses, s'pose we better do something". I think the legal system will get the same way. "Bollocks" says Mr. Justice, "we can hardly move without people sueing each others arses, we better sort this shit out" and then things will change, because they have to. I don't think I'm anywhere near qualified to be ranting about this :( Anyone here do law?

Yeah, that's the one :D Keep scrolling down til you get to the 'power tootsies' :D

Check these babies out! I was doing some 'tinternet research into magnetic science toys (no, seriously, I was actually working!) and these were on a link on the same page. Check the video section where the dude flips over a car :D I want a set!! Anyway... back to work :D Edit: b*****d stoopid freaking link won't work directly... scroll down the page and click on the 'power tootsies' :D