coldel

The simple mods are the ones which are actually of more use to the majority on here

If you can't post up pics of your 350z on 'the biggest 350z forum in the universe' then what can you do

Looks great. Carbon Dipping is definitely the future!

I think its fine to post up stock cars - they come in very different states of wear from showroom to tatty. Its also good to have a start point, my first mod was an aerial which I posted up on a build...next thing you know I had various bits of Stillen all over the car, vinyl wrapping and modifications to the BHP output. Also quite handy if someone else on the forum recognises the car as something they previously owned and can add some history to it. And a welcome message is all the more boring without a pic...and you always get the pic police come up with the smiley having a rant if you dont post one!

I am astonished that people would want to nick £5 worth of dust caps - things must be desperate

Nice if you got the room on the pavement - most around my way are on the road.

And cycle lanes in the roads, plenty around here. Probably only on the pavement where the road just isn't justifiable (councils doing it cheap?). To be honest they shouldnt be on pavements at all, only takes a toddler to fall over and an oncoming cyclist will inflict serious damage.

Cyclists are only classed as pedestrians when pushing or walking their bike, not when they are cycling on it (which is why its illegal to cycle on the pavement)

Hmmm, we're all in the same basket though aren't we? As 84% of cyclists own cars anyway and all that. I've got 3 bikes and pay over £600 in VED every year, so I think i'm covered. Not to mention cyclists and every other person pay 20% tax every time they buy bike parts/cars/other goods. We all pay enough. I jumped red lights and all that when I was at uni in Bristol, Mostly it was to save time, as in that special way that overtaking people in the car sometimes gets me there 30 seconds faster. Obviously it's pointless in the grand scheme of things, but people still do it, and as a cyclist, you know you can get away with it. Strangely, I didn't always do it, a lot of the time I stopped at the lights like everyone else. It was just down to mood and perceived need I guess. Cycle lanes are too often a fudge, many take you too far out of your way, make it slower to get where you're going, or are blocked by cars or shitting dogs and their owners. The problem with cycling tests etc is that bikes and cyclists are far too numerous to be effectively tracked or monitored, so how would you ever do it cost-effectively? Make me glad to live up here though, cycling is a lot easier! Some interesting points above 1. Most cyclists already pay VED, so I agree there shouldnt be a road tax as such, but they should be insured 2. The middle paragraph is typical of most thinking of cyclists (and no dig at you AK) but yes cars over take to grab their 30 seconds back but that doesnt justify cycles going through red lights. Going through a red light is illegal, overtaking is not. Also cycle lanes do sometimes take you out your way, but so do lots of one way systems but as a driver you dont see them going the wrong way around it just to save time. I actually have no problem with a decent standard of cyclist using the road instead of a cycle lane, if they are of a decent standard - unfortunately its the cyclist who cant cycle straight, uses no road sense, undertakes cars and generally is a hazard on the road that drivers have a problem with when there is a perfectly viable cycle lane available. But seriously, not obeying the rules because they 'delay your journey' is not an excuse 3. If there was a financial incentive for enforcement officers to target cyclists to check for test passes/bike IDs etc then it would happen - unfortunately the law is not set up for that so it wont happen. In fact things like dangerous cycling (and subsequently accidents) and bike theft would all be reduced if a concentrated effort was put in

Yeah the lycra is wrong in so many ways on a lot of cyclists, wish their nearest and dearest would point it out to them instead of inflicting certain views on other road users!

And still think cyclists who dont own a driving licence should pass a knowledge test of the road. If you need to pass a theory test based around what road signs mean etc to drive a car, not sure why that isnt required for a cyclist. But then again that would really throw a spanner in the governments policies so it will never happen.

Many more laws and enforcements in place to punish drivers, naff all in reality to punish cyclists. Probably a big reason why they do it.

Yeah come on pull your finger out - pics required!

The driving of cars is irrelevant if we are talking about cyclists. Yes there are bad drivers, but do all cyclists have to drive through red lights wrong way up one way streets and generally disregard the rules of the road because there are bad drivers? Not at all. Its not an excuse to cycle badly which the majority do. As I said before, there are bad drivers, but the number of these compared to bad cyclists is probably in the ratio of 1:10. The more cyclists take responsibility for their actions on the road in the way of undercutting and generally ignoring many road laws the better received they will be by drivers and vice versa. Unfortunately there are many more cyclists to convince of this than drivers.

I used to be into cycling, when living in France I cycled from Cognac to Paris via La Rochelle for fun. But I have to say the behaviour of cyclists in France is way better than the UK. They obey the rules of the road, they stop at lights and dont use pavements as cut throughs where roads rules say you cant go. On gangzooms comments: 1. Yes some are crap some arent, but there are lots of cyclists who clearly are incapable of cycling above 5 mph and in a straight line, they should be in the cycle lane full stop 2. No havent personally been crashed into by 1.5 tonnes of metal, but if that is such a fear then it should be a massive motivating factor in not going through red lights, wrong way up one way streets and undercutting cars 3. London roads are horrible, I appreciate people ditching their cars and using bikes, I cycled to work a fair bit in London when living in Putney and all the time when living in Paris. London roads are not made for all these different forms of transport, they are really only suitable for the occasional horse and cart in all honesty but again it reiterates the importance of cyclists taking on responsibility for their behaviour, which clearly most do not I will reiterate it but most people I drive with are considerate, most cyclists aren't and almost feel like they have a point to make on the road. I remember on Lower Richmond road in Putney (designated a cycle super highway) where you can see hundreds of Sky Yellow jerseys swerving in and out of traffic all stopping at a red light, to the point I really thought something was wrong! Then I saw the coppers pulling a whole load of cyclists further up the road for jumping the light.

Speeding does bother the people it kills I would say though - most drivers will turn on other drivers who drive like dickheads and really flout the law, so why are cyclists so surprised that they suffer the same fate when they do the same.

I think the sad case of affairs are with cyclists is that if you see one stop at some lights you actually find it unusual and you do notice it. I would say in my experience in London at least 90% of cyclists go through red lights, wrong way on roads, on pavements etc. on a regular basis - yes drivers do speed in 30mph zones etc but no where near to the sheer degree and numbers that cyclists do. I think if they made more effort to be part of road traffic and follow the same rules as everyone else then they would not get the same angst from car users they currently do.

There are miles of cycle lanes in London...and its very rare to see a cyclist in them, they prefer to be on the road. In Tokyo its an offence to ride your cycle on the road...you can ride them on the pavement instead... Every weds night I drive down priory lane in roehampton stuck behind loads of wannabe Tour de France entrants who will not cycle in the expensively installed cycle lane - so frustrating that so much money is wasted on these lanes.

Some form of identity would also help with the high levels of bike theft as well. The whole emissions based taxation is bloody nonsense anyway. I am likely to do about a quarter of the yearly mileage in my VX compared to some diesel guzzling mile muncher who commutes in their car everyday. Either Tax cars flat as it was before or don't bother at all. Using emissions as a smoke screen (scuse the pun) for just a nonsensical reason to claim more tax for nothing is pathetic.

Absolutely that, they can clatter into cars and do untold damage to paintwork and there is nothing you can do about it apart from trying to recover the money privately, if they havent cycled off up the pavement somewhere before you get their details...

Can't see why the policeman isn't liable for the repairs, the guy was no threat, there was no need to punch the car, he wasn't acting aggressively simply telling him to get out the car because he is under arrest is the normal first point of action I would have thought...

I did not know that, ta. Got my Pubuntu machine in VMWare. Knowledge. When working at home I have VMWare setup, works better on my mac than my normal windows environment on my laptop

Buy a mac Ian, and elevate yourself above all these windows neanderthals

But how often do you use a drive these days, I have had my mac mini over a year and never connected it to a CD/DVD drive, I have a 32GB memory stick for moving files I have to agree with Mr Wafter here - nothing comes on DVDs or CDs anymore, you can stream anything and it far safer to have backups software stored via cloud/USBs which are very large in capacity size.

Bought my macbook pro in 2009 and I still have it and its going great guns. Have Office, Photoshop, and all the other main bits of software installed along with it storing about 50gb of photos and it still goes really well. Glad I gave it a go and really prefer the whole operating system over PC.