Any question answered...

What are the other reasons?

Poor axial stiffness, poor aerodynamics, ugly as sin

is the suntour superbe group any good,and what other brand name groups is it comparable with?

It was good in it's time, made to compete with DuraAce and Record. Of course, that means it's shit next to modern 3rd tier groupsets.

Cranks and hubs still look the business though.

cheers fellas

ugly as sin

Pfft, says you.

am I right in thinking you need at least one permanently switched on, non-flashing light at each end to legally ride a bicycle at night, and any extra lights could be flashing if you want, as long as you have the solid lights?

^ive never heard that before. And I can't see why you'd ever need a permanent light over a flashing one.

has anyone got any experience with the halfords bike stand?
looks very basic but no reason why this is a bad thing?
i only do occasional tinkering, nothing heavy duty, and the £12 price appeals.
this one:
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_522919_langId_-1_categoryId_242557

cheers!

Don't have any experience. But from my experience of other better ones I'd say don't bother, as I can't really see what you can use it for - cleaning maybe, tightening chainring bolts, fixing brakes...not much else...

...basically it looks like it's designed to lift the bike a bit, so you can do any job you'd usually do easily without a stand at a comfortable height.

If you search there are some threads dealing with and recommending stands.

I see the "only £12" logic, but you could get an old workmate off ebay for that, and it would be more use. Either way it's still £12 lost, which you could put aside for something that you'll use forever.

my 2p.

am I right in thinking you need at least one permanently switched on, non-flashing light at each end to legally ride a bicycle at night, and any extra lights could be flashing if you want, as long as you have the solid lights?

No
Not since 2005
http://www.ctc.org.uk/desktopdefault.aspx?tabid=4071

ah right, thanks, thought I was imagining things

a question for native English speakers, is the text below OK or should I rephrase?

"In 2012 Company X will celebrate its 30th anniversary. We have achieved this milestone thanks to your loyalty and cooperation and we would like to thank you for this. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

Sincerely,

Management and employees of Company X"

cheers

Looks fine. Not sure about the "cheers" though.

If it's for a company you may want to consult this thread:
http://www.lfgss.com/thread27731.html

thanks hugo7! I'll check out the thread

(the 'cheers' is outside the quotation marks, so aimed at the possible responders to this question ;-))

[pickymode]put a comma after 2012 and a hyphen in co-operative, and drop the last we - ie: have a merry christmas and a prosperous new year.[/pickymode]

perfect, thanks!

and yes, I think 'milestone' is a bit meh too, but hey, if the management's happy...

Which screws exactly? None of them are very special on modern dérailleurs, they all use common metric threads.

The deraileur adjustment screws.

@ peter v - just one thing, that you probably know but, sincerely is for a person you know the name, faithfully if you don't:

Dear David Cameron,

Yours sincerely,

Dear Sirs,

Yours faithfully,

Thanks again Hugo, noted

am I right in thinking you need at least one permanently switched on, non-flashing light at each end to legally ride a bicycle at night, and any extra lights could be flashing if you want, as long as you have the solid lights?

As per the CTC article a static front light is not a legal requirement. I like to have 2 up front, one of which is static. In my opinion I find it easier to judge the distance of moving cyclist if they have a static front light over a flashing one. There may be nothing in this, but I chose to have one static and one flashing for this reason.

Does anyone recall a 'funny' video of an English speaker asking two Latvians/Lithuanians (maybe another country beginning with L or perhaps another letter entirely) to count from 11-14 (or similar) in their native language because it basically sounds like 'come on my tits' or something similarly purile?

Does anyone remember which language it was and which numbers?

estonia twelve months - YouTube

estonian, 12 months

^ahh thanks! I was wrong on both counts but glad you remembered.

Bike clip or chain guard?

roll that shit up, crusoe style

shorts...

No pants, thus no chance of them getting caught.