What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread

[mat_the_cat]

Our dog, after excitedly running outside last thing this evening felt the first raindrop on her and immediately turned round and went back indoors. Now, I normally give her a treat as a reward for coming back inside when she's called, but this time after escaping the rain she sat on the door mat and made eating motions as if to say "Where's my reward for coming indoors?"

[Pillock]

 

 

Diggerland sounds most excellent, wonder if there's anything similar up here in the SVM region.

There were Scottish folk at the Durham one so I think that's your closest. I did 417 miles that day and diggerland was worth it.

 

On TripAdvisor, the only people slating it are families who have paid £100 for five people, when the parents and maybe a teenager they've had to drag along aren't too fussed. If the adults are willing to get stuck in, it's worth it. I went on an experience booked through BuyaGift, had three spectators and it was just a free-for-all, the three that had paid nothing went on just as much as me! They just didn't race.

 

Highlight was the manager loading all the female spectators onto the Spinny round excavator ride, raising it up and then bouncing it around to make their boobies jiggle around. Class.

[mat_the_cat]

Great fun! We borrowed one a few years back to clear a spot to build the workshop.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW6Z3e0maTg

[dollywobbler]

I rather naughtily got to use a JCB's rear digger bit when we were repairing some greenlanes a couple of years ago. Grading is bloomin' difficult! That was great fun. We effectively went greenlaning with a JCB. When it got stuck, the chap could just push himself forward with the back shovel. Very impressive to watch a skilled operator. They make it look very easy.

[messerschmitt owner]

My dad was a skilled operator of one for a while. Summer holidays were spent on the m9 helping build it and sitting on my dad's lap driving it back home.

[andy18s]

Worked the 1999-2000 new years eve 12hr shift driving a Komatsu WA650 front loading shovel.fair old piece of kit.had a widened bucket to carry an extra 4 tonne of wood chips in 1 run.Downside was a blindspot the size of Snowdon....couple of staff got run down by it when they went wandering in the no - go area

[trigger]

My mate text me earlier, he's just got back from a week in Somerset and spotted this, apparently as I like shit cars he thought he'd photograph this for me, he only knows me too well!

 

[panhard65]

I saw that going up the M5 the other week but didn't have a camera to snap it.

[155V6]

The Maestro Ice Cream Van has just turned up on Coronation Street,driven by Les Dennis 

[andy18s]

The Maestro Ice Cream Van has just turned up on Coronation Street,driven by Les Dennis 

Just told the Mrs we may have to start watching Corrie 'cos there's a Maestro ice cream truck on it

Spat her tea all over her lappy!

Hehe

[ShiteRider]

Mate of the gaffer turned up on this. Bought new by his dad and uncle, it was the wirkhorse of their joinery business till it was replaced by a transit in the 70's.

He's just finished restoring it.

It's a Panther 650 outfit, and despite the twin pipes it's a two valve single.

[dave21478]

I can haz electric operated gates across the driveway like a proper posho!

 

A client had a basic electric system on a back gate that is now blocked off. He told me to remove and bin them, because rich people have too much money or something.

 

Anyway, I snagged the whole thing, both rams, the control box etc and spent today fitting it to my wobbly garden gates. It seems to work a treat, but I cant give it a full test until the concrete limit stops I put in have dried.

[cort16]

I was rummaging around my lock up trying to find one of the cooked starters my sd1 has worked its way through on the last 2 months so I can get it rebuilt and found onr at the bottom of a box of parts I'd been given about 3 years ago! Result it even works.

[fordperv]

I have just been walking doggy fordperv and spotted some white dog poo on the pavement, how retro is that

[Asimo]

That Panther outfit is wonderful! D reg! one of the very last as the business closed in 1967.

Made by Phelon and Moore of Cleckheaton.

 

Sidecar outfits always make me grin, possibly because I was brought home from maternity hospital in one.

[dave21478]

My brother in law is a total sidecar perv. I dislike motorbikes at the best of times and absolutely hate being a pillion on one - something to do with not being in control I suspect, but riding in a sidecar seems to take it up to the next level of horror for me. I dunno, it all just seems so ridiculously unsafe!

 

His latest thing is some fancy one where the sidecar tilts parallel to the bike, allowing proper leaning into corners. Fuck that.

[steve_earwig]

I seem to remember something like that coming out when they restricted learners to 250s, with a sidecar on it was still unlimited so someone came up  with it as an idea to get round the law. I think it was called a Sidewinder?

 

Pillion - I am part of the bike. A lot of people who aren't used to riding pillion try to remain upright whatever the bike's doing. so when you're leaning it into a bend they're trying to climb onto the opposite side - "I'm leaning the bike over, why isn't it turning?" Never been in a sidecar though, I can't say I like the idea of it either.

 

Anyway, that's an amazing job on the Panther outfit, nicely done!

[chaseracer]

I have bartered the XM spares in the lockup for investigation and repair of the Merc's crusty bits.

 

XLNT  

[daveb47]

In 60,s Collin a friend of mine had an identical panther outfit but with no body on sidecar as a learner machine.

He passed his test and came round mine to get sidecar removed.

Then we decided to go for a ride,him on the now solo panther,i had a Greeves 325.

All went well till the first set of traffic lights where he stopped and just fell over.

Collin had forgotten he was now solo and had forgotten to put his feet down.

[drum]

I always thought the sidewinders rule was crazy. It wasn't like it was a stabiliser, just made the bike more difficult to corner. Haven't seen one for donkeys.

[mat_the_cat]

Ha, I remember one girl I was giving a pillion to "just shifting around to get comfortable" mid-corner! A little wobble...

 

My grin actually started with a grump - at the weekend I noticed that one of the (4 year old) tyres was slightly past its prime:

 

 

£75 for a tyre, plus fitting, and the others aren't looking too clever either. But yesterday a guy on a forum I use said he'd got a set of wheels and tyres only a few thousand miles old for £50. Surplus to requirements since he'd bought some alloys. Off on a road trip down to Tewkesbury tonight/tomorrow to collect them!

[steve_earwig]

4 years old! That's appalling, are they Michelins? What's the date on that tyre? (If you didn't bin it already...)

[mat_the_cat]

No, but the new ones are...I thought they were known for their long life?

 

Just been to check the dates, and 3 of them are from the tail end of 2008 so still not that old. They've done around 20k miles so have lasted well tread wise. But considering that we don't get *that* much sun around here (although 2 weeks each summer abroad) and it's kept under a cover in winter I'm not best pleased.

 

They're Kumho, which I'd considered one of the better budget brands - trouble is there's little choice in that size nowadays. Interestingly, one is completely missing a date code so perhaps quality control wasn't a strong point...

[Louise2cv]

I saved up for the recomm michies on the 2cv and the sidewalls had fine cracking within a couple of years. Never bothering again. Tread was almost new looking but what's the good of good tread wear if the sidewalls look like crazy paving? See my cross face!!!

[steve_earwig]

End of 2008 makes them coming up on 6 years, that's about it for them. I think it's UV light that's the problem, rather than sunlight, and that goes through clouds.

 

Makes me laugh all these 4x4s displaying a big chunky tyre on a shiny rim bolted to the back door, no cover or nuffink. Yes, very nice.

 

The yoyo's spare is the original that came with the car, yeah great it's never been on the road but it's 10 years+ old, so it never will. Unless I get a flat of course. We used to rotate tyres back in the dim & distant past, but what with all these directional tyres I don't think anyone bothers now.

[forddeliveryboy]

I saved up for the recomm michies on the 2cv and the sidewalls had fine cracking within a couple of years. Never bothering again. Tread was almost new looking but what's the good of good tread wear if the sidewalls look like crazy paving? See my cross face!!!

 

 

If you're going to wear out all the tread in 6-8 years, I'd suggest the Michelins are worth it, time and again. And possibly barely more expensive, given the more frequent replacement and associated costs of cheaper tyres. Don't forget the deep, soft sidewalls send fewer shocks through the steering, so fewer kingpins, balljoints and racks. Cheap tyres don't look cheap when you find the steering rack's knackered on a 2cv.

 

But, if your car is used very little and Michelin treads could be expected to last a dozen years or so, then those Toyos make sense. They don't grip as well and the handling won't be quite as fine with that shape of tyre on the back, but are perfectly ok - just try to avoid the worst of the potholes.

[andy18s]

Lolling at Les Dennis ' s Maestro icebreaker van being discussed on Scott Mills Radio 1 show....

[dollywobbler]

If you're going to wear out all the tread in 6-8 years, I'd suggest the Michelins are worth it, time and again. And possibly barely more expensive, given the more frequent replacement and associated costs of cheaper tyres. Don't forget the deep, soft sidewalls send fewer shocks through the steering, so fewer kingpins, balljoints and racks. Cheap tyres don't look cheap when you find the steering rack's knackered on a 2cv.

 

But, if your car is used very little and Michelin treads could be expected to last a dozen years or so, then those Toyos make sense. They don't grip as well and the handling won't be quite as fine with that shape of tyre on the back, but are perfectly ok - just try to avoid the worst of the potholes.

 

Depends what you're comparing Toyos to. They are FAR better than Michelin 125s, but not as good as Michelin 135s (but are about half the price). I'm often astonished by how grippy the Toyos are in the dry, though Michelins 135s are better in the wet.

 

One day, we might agree on something!

[mat_the_cat]

Another thing which brought a smile to my face today was when I was rummaging through my Grandad's old stuff looking for some nylon bolts to secure some bumper trim on the Stellar. He really was an old-school engineer, and clearly had only a grudging acceptance of the new-fangled metric rubbish.

 

 

He had literally hundreds of neatly labelled boxes containing all kinds of imperial nuts, bolts, taps and dies. And a single one full of random metric bolts...

[mrbenn]

The Minor passed the MOT today. Always a good thing, but even better given the amount of spannering I've suddenly had to do to it over the past few weeks. It seems to have broken if I so much as walk past it!

 

Doesn't help my stress levels that the MOT/tax/insurance all run out at the same time. Think I'm going to sorn it briefly over winter then re-tax to spread things out.