Any question answered...

Most of those cars probably don't have cruise control and the drivers of the cars which do probably don't know how to use it properly

Cruise control and, more to the point, speed limiters are increasingly common. In my experience, I'm the only person in London who actually uses a speed limiter set (after calibration with GPS) at the posted speed limit.

Drivers seem to be too busy with their phones to dick around with the often impenetrable UI of their car

As I drive for a living, I often use cruise control in town; I have two speeding tickets, only one in the last 35 years though.

For Brighton residents who don't read the Brighton forum:

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/301606/#comment13517327

Not an answer to your question, but I'd strongly advise against the automatic licence, as much as I love driving an auto. Get qualified on a stick shift to avoid handicapping yourself in the future. Like riding a bike, it's a skill which once learned is never forgotten, so get it now and you'll be set for life.

Ok, so thanks to the guys at Hub Velo for pondering over my hub problem as featured up thread.

What i need is a 120mm flip flop hub which can be re-spaced to 135mm OLD. As far as I can see, this cannot be achieved using a 135mm Surly axle kit in a Sulry 120mm hub as that will mean the shoulders on the axle are in the wrong place for the hub.

Please, can anyone point me in the direction of an hub and axle that is going to work in this circumstance?

many thanks...

Would love to but not confident in my ability to learn in 6 weeks. On an auto I vaguely am. I would go out in our own car for extra practise but I don't fancy having my wife and a one month old in the back :)

6 weeks?
Are you learning to drive one of these?

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Is it possible to disassemble the click box of a Sram P5 gear hub? if so, how?
There is a problem with the return spring leaving the cable slack and the hub permanently in 5th.
Sram technical pages got nothing.

not confident in my ability to learn in 6 weeks

I think I did about 15 hours total in a car before passing, although I already had a motorcycle licence. The technical aspect of manual gear changing is a very small part of the process (more now than when I did it, since modern engines with digital management are much harder to stall and much more tolerant of being in the wrong gear). For the time being in Europe, not having the option of driving a manual transmission is a serious restriction both for hires and in terms of buying options, especially second hand. It's likely to become less of an issue as robotised gear changing becomes more prevalent, but as there's no downside to being qualified on a stick, it just seems like a waste of time and money to get a restricted licence.

Is the suggestion that 6 weeks is plenty of time? In which case, good. I'm a great back seat driver. Probably the best I know. What could go wrong? ¯_(ツ)_/¯

I can drive relatively competently (if slowly) in an automatic. I've passed theory and know roads well from two decades of cycling (I think safely) on them. But yes it's the technical aspect of manual gear changes that I worry will throw me. Hence fixie skidding around London's famous London.

it's the technical aspect of manual gear changes that I worry will throw me

Look at all the people currently driving manual cars. Do you seriously think you could possibly be a bigger idiot than all of them? I've seen how a lot of them drive, and I'm startled that they've even mastered tying their own shoe laces, based on their general competence :)

Is the suggestion that 6 weeks is plenty of time?

6 weeks is plenty of time to fit in the number of hours you'll need to master a stick shift, the rest of driving is much the more difficult thing to learn and almost nobody is actually any good at that immediately after passing the basic UK driving licence test.

Yep, the hard part of driving is retaining concentration and always being aware of what your plan is and what all other road users are intending to do to thwart it.

Does anyone have a spare one of these they would sell me?

The little thread in adjuster for gear shifters..

Is that a flat bar Rapidfire shifter? If so, yes. PM me your address and I can pop it in the post for you.

I have a hole that this bolt goes into.

The first part of the threads of the hole are damaged.

I want to chase the threads using my new tap/die set.

The gauge thingy says 1.25.

I've chased the threads of the old bolt with an M8 x 1.25 die and it seems to screw into the bottom of the hole OK.

Why do I feel like I'm chewing the fuck out of the hole when using a M8 x 1.25 tap?

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Why do I feel like I'm chewing the fuck out of the hole when using a M8 x 1.25 tap?

Probably because the damaged threads in the end have caused the tap to start cutting threads off set.

Can you not start tapping from the other side of the hole?

Thanks! Yes it is, I've pm'd you :)

Cheers. That makes sense.

I'm now nervous about fucking those up too. Is there anything I can do to prevent further damage?

The thing that is a pain is that the bolt does not go all the way through to the bottom, so the first 1-2mm of threads are important as they account for maybe ¼ of the contact.

But just to check, based on the bolt thread diameter, that should be an M8, right? It's not some stupid imperial measurement is it?

It's not some stupid imperial measurement is it?

5/16" is close enough to 8mm diameter to cause confusion, but the most common thread pitches of 18TPI (UNC) and 24TPI (UNF) are plenty far enough from 1.25mm to make the difference between the three pretty obvious. There is a 5/16"×20TPI UN thread which is very close to M8×1.25, but I'd be surprised if you had it. With a general industrial fit, you could get a 5/16"×20TPI UN male quite a long way into an M8×1.25 female before you noticed the difference.

I'll second the learning manual over auto, it's not a huge part of driving and is relatively easy to pick up. Do some of your back seat driving in the passenger seat and keep an eye on what they're doing and there are transferable skills from changing gear on a bike to a certain extent.

Cheers.

So would you suggest I just give it another go with the M8 x 1.25 from the back side as dron suggested?

It should feel more or less like screwing a normal screw to start with, right?

Are there any tips for making sure that I start correctly?