Shared path bad behaviour

SteveA said:

Steve("where's my fourth pensioner? - there is gardening to be done"😉A

You could always sign up for WWOOFers.

dtmeister said:

Vincent Patrick said:

My old three speed Malvern Star was used during the seventies and
eighties with different seat/handlebar configurations. My current bike is
a cheap Diamondback road bike, which I understand is a Malvern Star of
sorts.

Look anything like this?

http://dt.c47.org/bikes/target1.html

That's my daily commuter. Tough bike, very happy with it considering the
cost. I've replaced the 2200 derailer with a Tiagra, it changes much
better than it used to.

Yes indeed. That's a great picture! I see another bicycle in the
background, so your Diamondback is not lonely. I guess the Trek in the
other picture is your 'real' bike.

There are some differences: your bike has a much much better looking paint
job, looks in near perfect condition, and you have your seat a bit higher.
Mine is a rather daggy black/grey with a few red slashes - there was no
colour choice when I bought it. I have made things aesthetically worse by
cluttering up the nice clean bicycle lines with a seat bag for tools and
puncture stuff, lights, bicycle lock and speedometer. I changed the seat
to one with a large hole through the centre after reading about possible
medical issues with normal seats. I haven't looked too closely, but I
think everything on my bike is Sora. Even after careful adjustment I get
some chain drag in the front derailleur for the extreme cross-over gears. I
suppose Tiagra might help to cure this.

Is that some sort of rear carrier on the back of your bike?

You have pedal cages, which is interesting. My bike came with cheap one
sided SPD-copy clipless pedals - mountain bike style, I think. As a
beginner I bought some flat pedals with the bike, which I used until a
month ago. For my birthday I got a pair of Specialized MTB shoes, which
are extremely comfortable but won't win prizes for being light. Going to
'clipless' pedals/cleats was a big_scary_step for me, but I haven't
regretted it.

Sorry, but this has been getting more and more off topic!

My Diamondback has broken 4 rear spokes over the last month. I am not that
heavy - 72 kg - and do not go over kerbs or major potholes. When I took
off the broken spoke last time, I gave it a gentle and slight bend (once)
and it immediately snapped again as if there was a problem with the steel.
Have you had any spoke problems?

Cheers,

Vince

Stevie said:

I thought you were busy pulling down jumps in your own yard and replacing them with flower beds.:eek:

Every time I walk outside I give up and walk back inside. It's a disgrace to the entire neighbourhood and I'm ashamed of it. But I don't know where to start. The old farts who previously owned the house put in lots of square concrete garden beds and triangular brick garden beds, so it's sexy to say the least.

Quoted post said:

My Mum in Brisbane calls me "Stevie" - we must be related. 😄 😄 😄

How cute! And yes, we must be related.

Lotte

Vincent Patrick said:

Yes indeed. That's a great picture! I see another bicycle in the
background, so your Diamondback is not lonely. I guess the Trek in the
other picture is your 'real' bike.

There's two others, a "real" Diamond Back from the early nineties :

http://dt.c47.org/bikes/target2.html

and a Trek 2300.

http://dt.c47.org/bikes/target0.html

Quoted message said:

There are some differences: your bike has a much much better looking paint
job, looks in near perfect condition, and you have your seat a bit higher.

Yeah, the seat is quite high. The bike is a little small for me, even
though it's the largest frame - I'm 6ft 3. My Trek is 63cm and is the
right fit, but I find I'm a lot more comfortable throwing the Diamondback
into corners - it might also be that I spend more time on the commuter
due to lack of secure facilities (read, I can't bring it into the
office).

Quoted message said:

Mine is a rather daggy black/grey with a few red slashes - there was no
colour choice when I bought it. I have made things aesthetically worse by
cluttering up the nice clean bicycle lines with a seat bag for tools and
puncture stuff, lights, bicycle lock and speedometer. I changed the seat
to one with a large hole through the centre after reading about possible
medical issues with normal seats. I haven't looked too closely, but I
think everything on my bike is Sora. Even after careful adjustment I get
some chain drag in the front derailleur for the extreme cross-over gears. I
suppose Tiagra might help to cure this.

I had similar issues with front derailleur drag but with much tuning
it's okay. I was told Sora didn't have any trim positions, but mine
seems to on both the small and large chainwheel. The front derailleur is
still Sora.

Quoted message said:

Is that some sort of rear carrier on the back of your bike?

🙂 No, it's a clip on plastic mudguard for riding in the rain.

Quoted message said:

You have pedal cages, which is interesting. My bike came with cheap one
sided SPD-copy clipless pedals - mountain bike style, I think. As a
beginner I bought some flat pedals with the bike, which I used until a

Ah, that was taken last year. It now has Look SPD's as do the other two.
For a while I liked the idea of at least one bike that I could jump on
with normal shoes, but after riding clipless, you can't go back. 🙂

Quoted message said:

My Diamondback has broken 4 rear spokes over the last month. I am not that
heavy - 72 kg - and do not go over kerbs or major potholes. When I took
off the broken spoke last time, I gave it a gentle and slight bend (once)
and it immediately snapped again as if there was a problem with the steel.
Have you had any spoke problems?

Are they Alex DA-22 wheels? First day, around 3 spokes in the rear came
loose. Took it to the LBS and they tightened all the spokes and it's been
fine beside one broken spoke on the rear a couple of months ago. I'm
80kg and I while I avoid abusing it, it's a commuter that does 250km per
week. I think the issue with factory wheels is that it's a bit of a
lotto. It also helps if your LBS knows how to deal with wheels.

--
..dt

LotteBum said:

Every time I walk outside I give up and walk back inside. It's a
disgrace to the entire neighbourhood and I'm ashamed of it. But I
don't know where to start.

It doesn't matter, start anywhere. We moved into our house just over six
years ago and now have about 200 more trees (my pride is ten metres tall), a
nice vegie patch, God only knows how many roses, around thirty camelias, a
row of hollyhocks that grow to 3.5 metres every year, 700 sq metres of lawn,
several arbors where we can sit with a coffee or a glass of wine, two cherry
trees, a line of deciduous trees, whose name I can never think of, down each
side of the drive that are now 4 metres high, a large oval shaped flower
garden in the middle of the front lawn, etc, etc. I'm gathering four figs a
day at the moment, apples are ready to pick, grapes, lemons and limes next
year. Reticulation out to wazoo, must have 1000 metres of poly pipe
underground.

All done one spade full and one plant at a time. Just make a start. In two
years you'll be amazed at the change. Go girl!

Theo

dtmeister said:

Vincent Patrick said:

My Diamondback has broken 4 rear spokes over the last month. I am not
that
heavy - 72 kg - and do not go over kerbs or major potholes. When I took
off the broken spoke last time, I gave it a gentle and slight bend (once)
and it immediately snapped again as if there was a problem with the
steel. Have you had any spoke problems?

Are they Alex DA-22 wheels? First day, around 3 spokes in the rear came
loose. Took it to the LBS and they tightened all the spokes and it's been
fine beside one broken spoke on the rear a couple of months ago. I'm
80kg and I while I avoid abusing it, it's a commuter that does 250km per
week. I think the issue with factory wheels is that it's a bit of a
lotto. It also helps if your LBS knows how to deal with wheels.

Yes, they're Alex DA-22 wheels.

It's good to know the Diamondback can cope with the distance you're
travelling - on a big week I still only ride 150 km, and more usually I
ride maybe 100 km.

Cheers,

Vince

Theo writes -

Quoted message said:

All done one spade full and one plant at a time. Just make a start. In two
years you'll be amazed at the change. Go girl!

Just wondering how you handle a garden of that size after riding - I can
claim to be king of the compost (remember its always aerobic, never
anaerobic) but I am a long way short of king of the mountain. The real bed
gets lot more attention than the garden beds after a hard ride.

How do you balance the levels of exertion?

best, Andrew

Theo Bekkers said:

SNIP

All done one spade full and one plant at a time. Just make a start. In two
years you'll be amazed at the change. Go girl!

Christ, that sounds like a hell of a garden you have and I'm extremely jealous. I guess my problem is that I have a fairly specific 'plan' for the garden, but it's a matter of starting somewhere and implementing some sort of scheme to keep my incredibly destructive dogs from destroying the garden. It's also a matter of deciding where to start full stop - the house is 40 years old and easily the ugliest in the street. There's so much to be done full stop!!

Lotte (where do I get me a slave? Theo, you interested?)

Andrew Price said:

Theo writes -

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

All done one spade full and one plant at a time. Just make a start.
In two years you'll be amazed at the change. Go girl!

Quoted message said:

Just wondering how you handle a garden of that size after riding - I
can claim to be king of the compost (remember its always aerobic,
never anaerobic) but I am a long way short of king of the mountain.
The real bed gets lot more attention than the garden beds after a
hard ride.

I don't ride that much anymore. There's nowhere to go except around the
block. Down to the shop to get the paper involves a 20 km round trip
including a 75 metre elevation change in the first and last three kms. My
wife does more of the planting than I do and we only spend a few hours in
the yard each week.

It's not that hard.

Theo

LotteBum said:

Theo Bekkers Wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

All done one spade full and one plant at a time. Just make a start.
In two
years you'll be amazed at the change. Go girl!

Quoted message said:

Christ, that sounds like a hell of a garden you have and I'm extremely
jealous. I guess my problem is that I have a fairly specific 'plan'
for the garden, but it's a matter of starting somewhere

Quoted message said:

Lotte (where do I get me a slave? Theo, you interested?)

No way. Once you start you'll be amazed how different it looks after just a
half days work. Just start.

Theo

Terry Collins said:

Theo Bekkers said:

To save tax they should buy property, borrow the money from the
bank, rent it out at a loss, then claim that loss as a tax deduction
so that they get 30% of that loss back in their tax return. That way
they will be better off financially.

That is the minor half of it.

Quoted message said:

Sounds good.

The trick is you make it up on capital gains {:-)

But first you have to make a serious loss.

You borrow $250K to buy a less than average house in Perth. Your repayments
are $20726 of which $16833 is interest in the first year. You pay rates
$800, land tax $200, insurance $600, water rates $400. Your cost in the
first year is $22726 of which $18833 is tax deductible. Your tenant pays you
$250 a week $13000 less the 6% vacancy rate is $12220. You are $10506 out of
pocket, of which $6613 is tax deductible. If your income after deductions,
including this one, is over $62400 you will get a refund of $2876 reducing
your net loss for this year to $7630, $146 out of your pocket each week. If
your income after deductions is less than $62400 your refund will only be
$2083, leaving you $162 a week out of pocket.

Theo

Theo

Theo Bekkers said:

No way. Once you start you'll be amazed how different it looks after just a
half days work. Just start.

Are you talking about a garden, or are you talking about my house? (My
$DEITY, I never knew that the study had *floorboards* -- I thought it
was piles of paper all the way down! 🙂

--
My Usenet From: address now expires after two weeks. If you email me, and
the mail bounces, try changing the bit before the "@ to usenet".

LotteBum said:

Every time I walk outside I give up and walk back inside. It's a disgrace to the entire neighbourhood and I'm ashamed of it. But I don't know where to start. The old farts who previously owned the house put in lots of square concrete garden beds and triangular brick garden beds, so it's sexy to say the least.

How cute! And yes, we must be related.

Lotte

Dear cousin,

start by getting a man with a Bobcat and tip truck. Rip out the old farts' garden. For a few hundred dollars, you will get a clean canvas to work with. Then create your own garden.

SteveA

Theo Bekkers said:

Terry Collins wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

The trick is you make it up on capital gains {:-)

But first you have to make a serious loss.

The trick is in minimising that loss so it is covered by capital gains.
There are many negative gearing activities that are for smucks.
Like Carbon Fibre bicycles {:-)

Terry Collins said:

Theo Bekkers wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

But first you have to make a serious loss.

Quoted message said:

The trick is in minimising that loss so it is covered by capital
gains.

I read in Sunday's paper that Australians have become twice as wealthy under
John Howard. Most of that "gain" appears to be that their houses have more
than doubled in 'value'. If I lived in a $200K house ten years ago and now
live in a $400K house, and it is the same house, and all the other houses
have increased in value by a similar margin, what the hell have I gained?
The right to pay more rates? The right to pay a higher insurance premium?
The right to pay a higher fee to the real estate agent and the state Gov't
tax office when I sell it to buy another at a greater "value". My son
recently sold his house for $415K and bought another for $650K. The real
estate agent cost $10K and the Gov't wanted $31K.

Theo

Theo Bekkers said:

If I lived in a $200K house ten years ago and now
live in a $400K house, and it is the same house, and all the other houses
have increased in value by a similar margin, what the hell have I gained?

You've gained the ability to sell your house, buy a smaller one, and
have a greater amount of money stashed away in the bank compared to what
you would have had stashed away had prices stayed stagnant, that's what.

Quoted message said:

The right to pay more rates? The right to pay a higher insurance premium?
The right to pay a higher fee to the real estate agent and the state Gov't
tax office when I sell it to buy another at a greater "value". My son
recently sold his house for $415K and bought another for $650K. The real
estate agent cost $10K and the Gov't wanted $31K.

Those too.

There's a reason why I bought a very small unit (aside from the fact
that it's all I really need) a bit over a year ago. Anything bigger and
I'd be broke.

--
My Usenet From: address now expires after two weeks. If you email me, and
the mail bounces, try changing the bit before the "@ to usenet".

[QUOTE=>>The trick is you make it up on capital gains.

Which of course are taxable as to 50% of the gain at your marginal tax rate.

Of course many of the people who do the property investment thing sometimes "forget" to include the capital gain in their tax returns.

I suspect that the ATO now has software which asks the question about capital gains on property when the rental loss suddenly stops and whilst it was too hard to go after the Late KP small taxpayers are easy targets.

Beware!

Mike

Theo Bekkers said:

The real
estate agent cost $10K and the Gov't wanted $31K.

Is there not an element of salesmanship in your family company? Surely one
of your brood could have stepped up to the mark and cut out (or preferably
shot) the real estate agent?

Graeme

In article <[email hidden]>,

Theo Bekkers said:

It's not that hard.

Liar.

;-)

--
Shane Stanley

On 2006-03-28, Vincent Patrick (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

dtmeister said:

Vincent Patrick said:

My Diamondback has broken 4 rear spokes over the last month. I am not
that
heavy - 72 kg - and do not go over kerbs or major potholes. When I took
off the broken spoke last time, I gave it a gentle and slight bend (once)
and it immediately snapped again as if there was a problem with the
steel. Have you had any spoke problems?

Are they Alex DA-22 wheels? First day, around 3 spokes in the rear came
loose. Took it to the LBS and they tightened all the spokes and it's been
fine beside one broken spoke on the rear a couple of months ago. I'm
80kg and I while I avoid abusing it, it's a commuter that does 250km per
week. I think the issue with factory wheels is that it's a bit of a
lotto. It also helps if your LBS knows how to deal with wheels.

Yes, they're Alex DA-22 wheels.

http:[email hidden]
http:[email hidden]

The OEM wheel (DA-22) was brilliant, til it took a side impact, and
this one after new spokes and a rebuild is going along just fine.

--
TimC
And for the important things in life:
"If you teach a child to read, he or her can pass a literacy test"
-- George "Dubya" Boosh - president of the Yoonited States.