Anybody collect these/know anything about values?


Just found my Dad's collection in the loft, and I don't know whether to just chuck 'em out, or if any of them have any value. Not a massive collection.


Interesting-looking bottles:





Scotch Whiskeys:





Packaged set:





All:

So, I've switched to a Mac from using Windows 7.


All the music I've downloaded transferred across fine, but I ripped all my old CDs before that, and they are in wma format, which the Mac can't use. I've been looking at AVS conversion software online. You can download an example to play with, which I have done, and it seems to work ok, but they 'stamp' everything with an audio voice-over, so you have to buy the activated version of the software to get the job done properly - about $59. Well, it's certainly cheaper than buying all those albums again by a long way, and the quality on the demo version seemed ok.


But does anyone have experience of these converters? Are there likely to be problems further along the line? Are there better ways of doing this? Any help and advice appreciated.

So, did the "What Did You Do With Your Fazer" bit, but for anyone who loves the place, here's some more piccies taken on my recent trip.


Stayed at this B&B at Golberdon, just north of Callington on the A388. Off the main road, you go along a couple of typical, tiny little Cornish lanes to get to it, and it's very peaceful there. They welcome bikers, the husband and son ride themselves:





Peering over the cliff edge at Rame Head:





St. Germanus church, just inland of Rame Head.


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Looe:





Love all the old cottages in these seaside towns, and the little alleyways that wind their way between the 'main' streets:


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Brace for impact!    :





Now if I had some decent photo software, i think I could do something with this pic; I like the dark sky and rocks contrasting with the light sand and sparkling waves:





Charlestown coast:


And the ships:[size=78%]




[/size][size=78%][/size]From the coast path at Land's End:[size=78%]











When you walk the coast path, you come across many relics from the tin mining industry, some quite spooky with a truly haunted feel, especially as at many of these sites there'll be no one around but you and the wind. Not quite the same atmosphere when you're next to a road, even one like the coast road near St. Just. But tried to capture something of it here:








And if you turn around to face inland from the same spot, the hill rises to this rocky tor:





Couple more taken at St. Mawes castle:








Guns, guns and more guns! :














Lizard Point tries to get in on the Land's End act:





Some of my better shots of Polperro:








A couple that I sketched way back on my coast path walk in '98:














And I'll let the coast path have the final word - it really is one of the most stunning parts of Britain in my opinion:





A great trip, brought back loads of wonderful memories. I may be heading north soon, but Cornwall will always have a place in my heart 
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I didn't take it here:









I feckin should have done, it was a beautiful day for it 

Have you ever found yourself bimbling happily through life (or so you thought), and then for whatever reason, realised you're actually not at all happy with things, and made a complete change? E.g., quit your job, jacked in a relationship, or whatever, to do something entirely different?

If so, was the realisation quick, or did it dawn on you more gradually? And what did it take to make you finally actually get off your arse and do something about it?

Might be at that point myself right now, and am asking myself a lot of searching questions lately 

Elsewhere, Luke wrote:

assuming I survive the usa trip

Y'see, he has a little, I'm sure quite irrational, fear of bears it seems 

OMG! The BEARS!!!



 

A little bed time reading for you Luke:

"All bears are agile, cunning and immensely strong, and they are always hungry. If they want to kill you and eat you, they can, and pretty much whenever they want. That doesn't happen often, but - and here's the salient point - once would be enough."

Some advice. If you come between a mother bear and her cubs:

"Nothing worries and antagonises a female bear more than to have people between her and her brood. Furious, she turned and gave chase - despite the bear's lolloping gait it can move at up to 35 miles an hour..." So best not do that 

A reiteration of some advice I gave you a while back, just in case you've forgotten:

In bear country, wear small tinkling bells, so that you alert bears to your presence without startling them.
Also carry pepper spray in case you do encounter a bear.
And it's useful to be able to tell black bears and grizzly bears apart by their droppings. Black bear shit tends to contain berries and maybe small squirrels.
Grizzly bear shit contains little tinkling bells and smells of pepper spray....
 
And another way to be able to tell them apart:
If you see a bear, climb a tree. If it climbs the tree and kills you, it's a black bear. If it knocks the tree down and kills you, it's a grizzly bear.......

So what do you do if you encounter a bear? Run?

"All the books tell you that if a grizzly comes for you, on no account should you run. This is the sort of advice you get from someone who is sitting at a keyboard when he gives it. Take it from me, if you are in an open space with no weapons and a grizzly comes for you, run. You may as well. If nothing else, it will give you something to do with the last seven seconds of your life."

Play dead?

"A grizzly may chew on a limp form for a minute or two, but will generally lose interest and shuffle off."

And a black bear?

"With black bears however, playing dead is futile since they will continue to chew on you until you are considerably past caring."


Shoot it?

"...nothing unnerved the native Indians more than the grizzly (mostly predominant where you're going Luke, i.e., Yellowstone  ), and not surprisingly since you could riddle a grizzly with arrows - positively porcupine it - and it would still keep coming. Even Lewis and Clark with their big guns were astounded by the ability of the grizzly to absorb volleys of lead with barely a wobble."

How to ward off an aggressive bear?

"... Herrero (author of "Bear Attacks: Their Causes And Avoidance") suggests making a lot of noise, banging pots and pans together, throwing sticks and rocks and 'running at the bear'. (Yeah, right. You first professor.) On the other hand, he then adds judiciously, these tactics could 'merely provoke the bear'. Well, thanks. Elsewhere he suggests...should consider making noises from time to time - singing a song, say - to alert bears to your presence, since a startled bear is more likely to be an angry bear, but then a few pages later cautions that 'there may be danger in making noise', since that can attract a hungry bear that might otherwise overlook you.
The fact is, no one can tell you what to do. Bears are unpredictable, and what works in one circumstance may not work in another."

But rest assured, bear attacks are rare:

"In the 8 decades to 1980 he found just 23 confirmed black bear killings of humans (about half the number of killings by grizzlies)...adds that most of these injuries were not severe..." (what, death?!  )
" 'The typical black bear inflicted injury', he writes blandly, 'is minor and usually involves only a few scratches and light bites'.
 Pardon me, but what exactly is a light bite? Are we talking a playful wrestle and gummy nips? I think not."

But don't worry mate, I'm sure you'll be fine - happy holidays! 

Looking for a carbon can with a short-ish link pipe for my gen 1. One thing I don't like about these bikes is the drain pipe link pipe. Any recommendations? Pics? Ta.

FZS1000, is it the same as the gear lever, on splines? It's sitting way too low and I can hardly operate the thing.

Ok. At risk of being bombarded with suggestions like "what about a nice shade of hedgerow green" etc, I want to get a custom job done on the latest bike. I had thought about copying the last one, still really like that, but want to consider what else might be nice. I don't like murals, not overly keen on metallic colours, like retro-ish styles, bright colours especially when contrasted against dark. Got any pics of bikes where the style might fit the Fazer?

Don't really mind the banter bit, but would actually quite welcome some more serious responses too, if that's at all possible. Ta.

After exhaustive research at a top secret testing ground, scientists can now categorically state that yellow is NOT the fastest colour. A spokesperson for the MoSWoPM (Ministry of Spurious Waste of Public Money) said that even though speed blocks do seem to improve performance somewhat, they did find one other colour combination that was significantly faster. When asked what that combination was, however, he wouldn't be drawn and said that it was not in the public interest to release that information at this time. We gather that black engines and frames are involved...

Some people might consider this tempting fate, but sometimes they're a good place to analyse with the help of others where you may have gone wrong, how to avoid similar in future. Bit late in the year to start this really, but unfortunately, I guess we'll have a few more before the year is out. Please keep your spill numbered consecutively if you enter it here, give us some idea of the statistics we get over the coming months.
So I guess I'll start:

NUMBER 1

Lost concentration on a bend on the A483 Crossgates-Newtown road. By the time I focussed again on where I was going, the hedge was where I was going 
Nearly kept it shiny side up running along the verge, got speed right down, maybe 30 or even less by the time it actually spat me off, but somehow slipped/was dragged back on the seat causing me to open the throttle wide  and that was that; bounced off the hedge and landed flat on my back on the verge/tarmac join. Two cracked vertebrae, bruised lungs, slightly twisted knee. Bike mostly cosmetic damage, but on top of the last one, she's looking pretty sad and tatty now. 

Good weather forecast for tomorrow. Need to keep those sheep-shaggers in their place (remember Edward I!  ).

Anyone up for it?