Any question answered...

I need to insure a car for 4-6 months is there any better way to do this apart from just taking out a 12 month policy, cancelling after 4 months or so and wait for the refund minus any admin/cancellation fees? All short term options seem to come up as a 1-28day type thing.

The call centre I'm working at has a company called BIBA working over one side, I can't vouch but overhearing them on the phone they seem like pretty helpful insurance brokers.

So bottom line is, any v brakes with good quality pads (as I always do anyway) set up correctly, you can't go wrong?

British
Insurance
Brokers
Association

BIBA

They probably won't sell @andy_k insurance

https://www.biba.org.uk/find-insurance/ ?

More searching last night and it looks like I'm just going to have to go for 12 and suck up the £50 cancellation fee. Boooo :(

you don't need a loan for this

1997 and only 53,700 miles on the chronogram- hotpiss! i should purchase that for my man-friday - think of all the swans we could get in the back

Many thanks. This is the info I was needing confirmation on... Tired brain. Have put a sram gxp on order. I have also just realised the one that needs replacing has been on the bike for approx 6000 miles so it's not that bad really.

I thought they'd have a list of brokers that could help.

I'd say so. I'd rather have cheap Vs over cheap discs. £ for £ Vs are incredible value

Is brass pipe a suitable conduit for housing audio/visual cables between my TV and amp or is it just going to create some sort of Van der Graaf Generator?

@Howard, @mdcc_tester

Thanks

My instinct says it'll be fine. The signals will be fairly low power and digital pre-amplifier so there shouldn't be anything induced in the pipe and I can't imagine there being any trouble with your signals unless you decide to put a current through the pipe (don't).
I'm no expert though.

Spoke to a guy there, he said yea for sure they'd try to help, as their job is to query it with their members and try to refer the caller to the correct insurers.

Not used them but...
http://insurance6.co.uk/6-month-car-insurance

In my experience the best v-brakes were the Shimano XTR, XT or LX models which featured parallel push brake arms. The way they kept the pads parallel to the rims made for really good stopping power while giving you better modulation. They were popular in the late 90's early noughties, so if you search the bay you should be able to find some.

Edit: Here are the sets I mentioned, I'd go for the XT ones...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Retro-Shimano-XTR-BR-M950-V-Brake-Set-Front-Rear-/162191589145?hash=item25c35f3f19:g:1jcAAOSwdIFXzGoK

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Shimano-XT-Parallel-Push-V-Brake-Set-Front-And-Rear-/122118358146?hash=item1c6ed24482:g:i0cAAOSwFdtXyZkF

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Shimano-Deore-LX-M570-V-Brakes-/152194565164?hash=item236f80c42c:g:NgAAAOSwyLlXpH1C

Thanks everyone for your input on the mini Vs. I am gonna see what I get with the build and if I want to upgrade then I'd do it later on...

Note to self: Ask them to put some black ones on if they haven't already got thay in mind...

Pics to follow, the most expensive bike I will have so far...

Anyone got a Hollowgram extraction tool I can borrow?

just use a normal crank puller, works fine.

Lies. Next?

srsly I installed mine last weekend and havent died.

yet

@dancing james has mine

Are you happy for @croft to get it from me?