Any question answered...

Swiss Stop or Kool Stop would be my choice.

A friend of mine wants to use the C2W scheme thingamyjig and, as I ride a bike (even in the RAIN! GASP) I must be some kind of crazy expert on this subject, right? Wrong...

The scheme seems to cover Evans and Cycle Surgery plus a host of others but there seems to be a lot of small print and talk of fees to be paid to use the scheme or restrictions on full price bikes only - which would seem to negate the point somewhat?

Has anyone used a shop that just allows you to pick an already reduced price bike from their site without some sort of hidden cost?

Cheers...

do seagulls get seasick?

No, they just poo more. Mostly on my car.

I use xbmc on an original xbox for watching telly box. It is old, yes. But it does what I need, quietly, and with little fuss. I'd like to replace the hard drive. And put a bigger one in. Can anyone on here do that?

my xbox running XBMC just conked out, it wont boot past the logo. I think there is a fire transfer program specifically for hd upgrades.

How can I make my brakes work better in the wet?

Ride at a speed appropriate for the conditions.

I use xbmc on an original xbox for watching telly box. It is old, yes. But it does what I need, quietly, and with little fuss. I'd like to replace the hard drive. And put a bigger one in. Can anyone on here do that?

Yes you can. I've not done this in a very long time, but if recall there's an there was an option in the bios to initialize new HD's, and it was pretty straight forward... depending on the bios you're running of course, but I'd have a look there first.

Ride at a speed appropriate for the conditions.

I do. I would just like to feel more confident that if a lunatic ped steps out into the road while in their insulated ipod bubble that I could stop in time if need be. This happened to me this morning, a pedestrian decided it was a good idea to march strait accross the road from in between two parked vans, without looking. I was in the prime position as it was wet and I was passing parked cars / vans but the dick still walked strait into my path, I had to make the split second decision do I:

a, Trust that my brakes will work in time to stop me, I was not confident of this.
b, Swerve out of the way when there is traffic behind me and to swerve I had to over a drain cover, scared the shit out of me.
c, Yell at the knob wearing white headphones and run into them.

I went with option B but as I said it was pretty scary as I thought I would slip and go under the wheels of a car. I was just wondering if there was a way of boosting my breaks so I can feel more confident of them working in the wet if such a situation were to arise again.

Apart from fitting disc brakes not a lot really.

Therefore, would this:
http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?rlz=1C1DVCA_enGB321GB321&q=1tb+internal+hard+drive&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=7589808210589687453&sa=X&ei=CAr6TdniHojQhAeRybGdAw&ved=0CGIQ8wIwAg

work?

no it has to be IDE not SATA

Ride at a speed appropriate for the conditions.

I do. I would just like to feel more confident that if a lunatic ped steps out into the road while in their insulated ipod bubble that I could stop in time if need be…do I:

a, Trust that my brakes will work in time to stop me, I was not confident of this.

I was just wondering if there was a way of boosting my breaks so I can feel more confident of them working in the wet if such a situation were to arise again.

Just to reiterate, if you were riding at a speed appropriate for the conditions, this would involve being confident that your brakes could stop you in time. If that confidence is lacking, you're riding too fast.

I crawl along in the wet, which gives the bonus of not overheating so much if I happen to be weary waterproofs of any kind.

Other tips:
-slow down

• squeegee your brake pads against the rim at regular intervals
  
• slow down
  
• start your journey earlier
  
• slow down
  

This isn't really someone else doing this though is it?

you can do epic skidz in wet weather so i just belt along faster knowing i can skid to a stop if required. lol

I prefer skip stopping.

Anything I should be wary of when hiring a car? I want to pick one up (or have one dropped off) from around Ealing for the weekend. Probably get as much insurance as I can and a gps - any companies to go for or avoid?

I'm going to try and ride some of the 24hr course in Sussex. I assume it'll be quite a few country lanes - can I just park on the side of the road somewhere with my food and stuff left in the car or will parking on the verge get me towed?

leg over the bar skids in the wet, it keeps at least one trouser leg dry

^^^^how can you be sure there's a skip to ride into near to where you want to stop?

If it's only a couple of hours: Streetcar?

No, it's more like 5hrs one day and 12hrs the next.

^^^^^ dead hookers in the boot. or if you're an american - WELLINGTON BOOT.

In my experience Enterprise are cheaper than most and don't have any nasty hidden clauses (like maximum mileage allowances and other nonsense).

Enterprise may also deliver you to the car.

steal one. and leave a letter of apology and details of where you'll leave it when yer done.