Any question answered...

Car free route from crystal palace to IKEA Croydon, is there one?

you may find something off the shelf here

https://www.hpcgears.com/

I’m going to say no, but there might be a path along the old canal route from Penge West to Croydon (which basically follows the current railway line). I know there are some sections, it’s just a question of whether they’re joined up.

Jonny69 has it.

Yeah I think that too. I'll get the tram down.

I use ByMiles for insurance for a car where I don't do many miles. Came out a fair bit cheaper than the others.

Third party was more expensive and only a limited number of insurers did it.

I think it'd be difficult to reproduce with the accuracy and tolerances necessary to make it run properly, at least for any length of time. I have the software and equipment to model and print something which looks like that, but wouldn't be confident of it performing very well, or even at all.

For the modelling I think you'd need someone with specific knowledge of gear profile design or software which can do it automatically. For the printing you'd need a material and printing process best suited for the intended use. Both of those put it beyond the average person with a basic 3D printer (me).

You're right I was after something totally separate.

I do actually have my own domain and it with use fastmail.

But I only really use it for specific personal work type stuff as I don't want it to turn into the mess my first Hotmail email is.

I think I need to sit down and rethink an email strategy and implement it.

It’s probably made of acetal, sometimes known as Delrin. Fusion 360 cad software has a gear profile generator add-on so if you can work out what the gear tooth profile is modelling a new one is fairly simple. The tooth profile is most likely to be metric module (or MOD). If you can measure the outer diameter and tooth thickness accurately you should be able to work out what specification yours is.

But, as @Brun says, getting a 3D printed part in an appropriate material will be the hard part. You could use a 3D sintering process to make a metal part. No idea how much that might cost, mind.

Might have better luck finding a car free route to Ikea in Greenwich? Might be talking out of my arse though.

Yeah. I'll just get the tram.

Good call

Is there a trend of dog owners using very long, non-retracting leads? Like 5-8m webbing leads. If so, why not use retractable leads?

Retractable leads are shit.

They're good for recall training. We used one for our dog. I guess the benefits over a retractable lead are that the dog doesn't feel like it's on a lead so gives you a better idea of how they'd behave off lead and a retractable lead is quite hard to spot sometimes, if your dog is miles away from you, a thick, brightly coloured bit of webbing is much easier for pedestrians/cyclists etc to see than a thin black cord.

Held onto by the owner, or dragging on the ground?

So the dog can run around but you can retrieve it if it buggers off.

Has anyone on here successfully, and waterproofully, repaired a hole in an Ortlieb pannier?

I tried a few years ago. Old school puncture repair kit and I put a few stitches around for re-enforcement. Worked pretty well for quite a while.

A dinghy patch might work - you might be able to check what material your panniers are made out of here, and find a specialised solution

I need some D-cells for some lanterns and a radio to take camping. Unfortunately all my rechargeables and my charger are AA/AAA.
Are there decent D-cell rechargeables around, and if so, what are the best bang-for-buck D-cells and charger I should be looking at?

D-cells […] all my rechargeables and my charger are AA/AAA

Maybe some adapters?

Be aware that a lot of consumer rechargeable D cells (Duracell, Energizer etc) are in fact an AA in a D casing, so the capacity is the same. Ansmann seem to make the proper full capacity cells up to 10,000mAh - but I’ve not used them myself. If you already have high quality NiMh AA and AAA cells and you don’t need the extra capacity (or don’t want to buy another charger), you might consider a set of those ^ adaptors. That’s what I did when I needed some C cells and they work fine.

Thanks @DethBeard, @ltc, @grams, that all makes sense. Been a while since I’ve had a dog, but I see how they might be preferable for some dogs.

Separate question: are fake high end Campy 11s EPS groupsets a thing? Someone is offering me a 3rd hand bike with possibly a fake frame, that they say is legit but I can’t quite tell from the pics. I’ve met the seller but don’t know them enough to trust them without questioning the deal.

I've disconnected a laptop's internal battery and then plugged the mains supply in.

Should the laptop work, or does the electricity supply go through the battery?

Depends on the laptop. Some macbooks enter an unbearable throttling mode if no battery is in. Should be fine with PCs though.