Ethanol

[PeterH]

Not a car, but I've just had to change the fuel pipes and primer bulb on my garden strimmer. All leaking ! The local garden machinery dealer says ethanol is the cause and its bringing them a lot of extra business.

[Colin Lindsay]

Go the other extreme: I have an Army jerry can which I fill with 99 RON for the Triumphs, but keep stealing it for the lawnmower or strimmers. I also regularly siphon the fuel from the cars in the garage when I forget to buy more. The lawnmower has already had a ticket for speeding.

[PeterH]

1 hour ago, Colin Lindsay said:

Go the other extreme: I have an Army jerry can which I fill with 99 RON for the Triumphs, but keep stealing it for the lawnmower or strimmers. I also regularly siphon the fuel from the cars in the garage when I forget to buy more. The lawnmower has already had a ticket for speeding.

I regularly do the opposite - pinch petrol intended for the strimmer for use in the car, as long as its not had the 2-stoke oil added.🤣

[Sue Franklin]

We have a very old fashioned garage near us - he still serves you!  He has not and will not sell E10 as he has so many customers with garden machinery.  E10 is death to mowers / strimmers etc.

[Pete Lewis]

bit like the millennium clock  ....nothing happened

in 20 years of triumphing i have never experienced stale fuel ,or dissolving carbs, 

but have found crap hoses on many to be the only culprit  as we have seen for some years on this forum .

just to add the pump hoses on my 2000 are as far as i can see are original and perfectly sound

built to a specification designed by triumph .

  most of the fleabay and local factors hose is a chinese fake rubbish . 

 the club shop do sell gates barricade as do many others   use that 

never the unbranded Ooo it got R9 printed on it ...its just going to give you the dreaded rubber slivers 

Pete

 

[johny]

I do think somethings has happened to rubber in general and I dont know if its for cost, environmental or health reasons. Or maybe just everything was better in the old days😁

[Pete Lewis]

i am beginning to think everything was better in the Old Days 

in the 60/70s i dont remember any pot holes , you could go for tootle on a sunday 

not bang and crash round the roads 

after 65 its all down hill ...but how far  ???

before i was 78 i could put me socks on without swearing 

Pete

[JohnD]

You must remember the '60s then, Pete.  And the '70s.

The explanation?

'64-'70  Labour

'74-'79 Labour

With laughing-boy Heath and the Three-day Week in between, so that only five years out of twenty were the Tories.

You know it makes sense!

John

[Ian Faulds]

It doesn't matter which party gets in, they all mess everything up. I honestly  think if you go and do politics at uni it's cause your to thick to do anything else.

[PeteH]

Politics, One of lifes imponderables, Largely dosen`t matter which colour. Nothing changes because by the time the incumbents get round to doing "something" after all the "huffing and puffing" of debate, playing ping pong with the H.O.L. Said imcumbents are trying to set themselves up to be re-elected back to their cushy life styles. IMV. 3 things need to happen, 1) the "lords" want booting out, and replacing with an elected chamber (by P-R voting perhaps?) at the mid term, rather that First past the post?, And 2) extend the life of a Parliament beyond 5 years to allow some consistancy. Short of giving Me the job of Dictator, (NO Thanks) something needs to be done to shake the status quo. 3) The civil service, especially the top tiers, need to be far more acountable and open to scrutiny. and vastly reduced in size.

Won`t happen any of it. Far too many vested interests.

Pete

 

[Colin Lindsay]

2 hours ago, johny said:

I do think somethings has happened to rubber in general 😁

The population explosion would seem to support that.

[Wagger]

Sorry that this is long and drifting, but I have been away for a week.

My son used Ethanol fuel for ten years in Oregon in new and classic cars. JLR and old british stuff. No problems with the fuel or the hoses. They knew the spec of everything out there. Here, we are less fortunate.

Just returned from the Isle of Wight visiting a friend with a 98 year old mother before the inevitable happens. No pot holes over there but I stuck to their main roads avoiding Newport whenever possible because we were in the Motorhome. However, some roads have fallen into the sea.

I booked a special offer back in the New Year, so the price all in for four nights was £220 for ferry and Caravan club site. The trip was a 'Practice' at using Ferries to Ireland in case I decide to go. However, I have no passport, so that will present a problem I fear even going to Belfast.

I fail to see that anything is better since Brexit, but cannot see either if it would have been better to remain. (Cannot test that can we?)

Some around us had holiday properties in the EU and could spend the Winter in a warm place. They voted out and now have sold their properies at a loss because they cannot go there for very long.

 

Everything was better in the 'Old' days for me anyway. Job hopping was a doddle. Minor offences received warnings without compulsory fines. Fuel was cheap, as was beer, bread, milk etc. You were encouraged to do all of your own maintenance and it was easy to find good tradesmen via recommendation.

You knew the source of parts and could avoid rubbish. People spoke to one another and most were polite and had some form of table manners.

Wish I could go back and do it all again. I'd buy a motorhome and fit a small motorcycle on the rear and just go whenever possible.

Hindsight is wonderful but almost useless eh?

Lloyd.

 

 

 

 

[Colin Lindsay]

55 minutes ago, Wagger said:

The trip was a 'Practice' at using Ferries to Ireland in case I decide to go. However, I have no passport, so that will present a problem I fear even going to Belfast.

People spoke to one another and most were polite and had some form of table manners.

You don't need a passport for Belfast, although you might need a translator and certainly a bullsh*t meter for some of the locals especially if they recognise you as a tourist and take you on some of the 'historical' tours. 

There is a severe lack of any manners at all these days, middle-aged to elderly women in supermarkets especially. I'm tired of asking politely: "I'm sorry, am I in your way?" when they rudely push in front of me but the next one who shoves my groceries along a conveyor in order to start unloading their own trolley will drive me to murder with an own-brand baguette.

 

[Chris A]

42 minutes ago, Colin Lindsay said:

You don't need a passport for Belfast,

I do. From here in France. We might be going to 'the other' Ireland in September to meet up with sister in law who is 'popping over' from Australia. Another good thing about going to the other Ireland is they use real money not the funny stuff 😆

When Brexit kicked in the Channel Isles insisted on a passport for day trippers, that has now been dropped as the tourist trade from France, not only French tourists, virtually dried up.

[Pete Lewis]

we have Ireland just down the road between shefford and bedford   no passport but a pricey 

pub 

Pete

[Colin Lindsay]

13 hours ago, Chris A said:

I do. From here in France. We might be going to 'the other' Ireland in September to meet up with sister in law who is 'popping over' from Australia. Another good thing about going to the other Ireland is they use real money not the funny stuff 😆

When Brexit kicked in the Channel Isles insisted on a passport for day trippers, that has now been dropped as the tourist trade from France, not only French tourists, virtually dried up.

I have to fly out of Dublin airport later in the year, as although I'd rather support local airports it's the only direct flight to suit my hours. I have a British passport which should be fun. 'Er Indoors has an EU passport so she'll go on through while I'm sitting in a cell somewhere. I'll have to bring some of those Yuroos for bribes.

Most of the visitors we see from France don't have any passport at all.

[JohnD]

Take your passport!  As a student, I spent three months in Denmark.   Scandi-tax on alcohol meant that for a night out with friends, we went on the ferry to Sweden.  But unusually once, everyone had to disembark at the Swedish end - and I didn't have my passport.   Why should I?

I was arrested as an American draft dodger, escaping VietNam.  Only my Danish friends got me released.

John

[Chris A]

3 hours ago, Colin Lindsay said:

Most of the visitors we see from France don't have any passport at all.

Interesting how they managed that, they must have used the smugglers route . .

[Mjit]

21 hours ago, Wagger said:

Everything was better in the 'Old' days for me anyway. Job hopping was a doddle. Minor offences received warnings without compulsory fines. Fuel was cheap, as was beer, bread, milk etc. You were encouraged to do all of your own maintenance and it was easy to find good tradesmen via recommendation.

Of course the flip side are things like; blue asbestos was a wonder material you could just cut and sand in an enclosed space, many police were happy to make the evidence fit the suspect not the other way around, cigarette were considered good for you, etc

[Wagger]

18 hours ago, Mjit said:

Of course the flip side are things like; blue asbestos was a wonder material you could just cut and sand in an enclosed space, many police were happy to make the evidence fit the suspect not the other way around, cigarette were considered good for you, etc

Actually, in 1962 we were shown the graphs of Cancer v smokig and that put my year off it. In my reunion group this year, only 3 out of 20 ever smoked. Those after us, mid 1960's just ignored all of it and the drug culture began.

 

[Colin Lindsay]

2 hours ago, Wagger said:

Those after us, mid 1960's just ignored all of it and the drug culture began.

Cannabis is supposed to be good for you and cures all woes as well as easing all pain. It's cool, hip and trendy and if you don't understand that, you're just a spoilsport. 

Back in those days, too, criminals were actually guilty. It's only recently that enquiry after enquiry and retrial after retrial has let a lot of them off on 'technicalities' and found that a huge number were in fact innocent because, although they actually did the crime, a Policeman somewhere noted down a different time from his colleague. Of course nowadays we have trial by television show or movie. "Did you do it? "Yes I did, sorry." 50 years later: "Did he do it? "Audience: "Of course not, he was stitched up." I'm actually a great fan of old folk music and it's amazing how many of them were in fact 'stitched up by agents of the Crown' going right back to the Year Zero - the original (pun intended) broken record... 

[Wagger]

I consider myself very lucky to be born where I was and when. I did not have to serve National Service (Poor elder brothers did in the forgotten Cyprus war in 1955). My USA opposite father in law to my son served in vietnam. Poor devil returned with PTSD that lasted until he died aged 59.

Post WW2 there was a wonderful community spirit in rural places. Most of us had no gas, no hot water and some no electricity. We never had to look for something to do and grew up capable of maintaining most things.

I have survived in spite of wrapping load bank resistors in wet asbestos. Wore no gloves or masks back then. Inhaled fumes in the plating shop where the roof was dissolving in the fumes. The enormous paint shop was at one end of a huge sheet metal shop. No proper extraction or curtaining. My hearing was shot by the age of forty.

Speed cop shouted a warning at me whilst overtaking me to catch an even faster biker. We both were just verbally cautioned.

We went to Brighton for our entertainment. It was exciting then. Now, I avoid it like the plague.

Edited April 23 by Wagger

[Mjit]

1 hour ago, Colin Lindsay said:

Cannabis is supposed to be good for you and cures all woes as well as easing all pain. It's cool, hip and trendy and if you don't understand that, you're just a spoilsport.

Yep, Cannabis on its own isn't actually addictive and doesn't have any significant negative health impacts - but is illegal.  Tobacco is addictive and does have proven, serious negative health impacts - but had a stream of MPs opposed to plans to make it illegal in a phased in way that wouldn't impact current legal addicts.

1 hour ago, Colin Lindsay said:

Back in those days, too, criminals were actually guilty. It's only recently that enquiry after enquiry and retrial after retrial has let a lot of them off on 'technicalities' and found that a huge number were in fact innocent because, although they actually did the crime, a Policeman somewhere noted down a different time from his colleague. Of course nowadays we have trial by television show or movie. "Did you do it? "Yes I did, sorry." 50 years later: "Did he do it? "Audience: "Of course not, he was stitched up." I'm actually a great fan of old folk music and it's amazing how many of them were in fact 'stitched up by agents of the Crown' going right back to the Year Zero - the original (pun intended) broken record... 

So you stand by the convictions of the  Birmingham 6, the Guildford 4, Stefan Kiszko, or to bring it up to date (as the legal system really hasn't gotten much better) all those thieving sub postmasters?  By extension if criminals were actually guilty I assume all the non criminals were innocent back in the day and it's only trial by TV that's recently found them guilty?  People like  Jimmy Savile, etc?

There are no "Good Old Days" - or "Good New Days" either, just "Days".

[Chris A]

2 hours ago, Colin Lindsay said:

'm actually a great fan of old folk music

Is that folk music for old folk ?

[Chris A]

35 minutes ago, Mjit said:

Tobacco is addictive and does have proven, serious negative health impacts - but had a stream of MPs opposed to plans to make it illegal in a phased in way that wouldn't impact current legal addicts.

National news here reported on the moves to ban tobacco. Is the next move to ban booze, after all it has the same negative 'qualities'? 🥃🚬