Oz, the chain is also 30 years old? I don't know what the method was then but modern chains work like this Bicycle Tutor I'm using a laptop rather than a phone tonight so can see the picture better. The bike doesn't look to have had much use, should clean up nicely and make a very nice machine.

Colin WD40 is basically two parts petrol and one part very thin oil. It also contains PTFE/Teflon. The WD stands for "water displacement." When using WD40, which is excellent for certain jobs, the petrol cleans of dirt and grime and the rather thin oil provides the very minimum amount of lube. Then the WD bit kicks in as it leaves a film of silicon on the surface of whatever you have sprayed which as it is designed to repel water will also repel other lubricants or grease you may chose to use on the chain. The other issues is the penetrating qualities of WD40 mean it can strip grease or oil from internal bits you can't see and can only easily lubricate/grease by stripping down. There is a load of tosh talked about chain maintenance, I'm guilty of falling in to it! Best bet is simply to lean the chain with some sort of degreaser and then wipe with an oily rag or just drip a small drop on to each link and then wipe away the excess. I use a wax in summer as it tends not to attract dust and a heavier oil in winter which helps to protect against water and salt. I'm probably just being over fussy.

Aaaaaarghhhhh no, no, no Don't use WD40 on a bike chain. Get some citrus based degreaser or chuck it in a paraffin bath. Then thoroughly clean with warm soapy water (car shampoo is ok, not washing up liquid) and rinse thoroughly with clean cold water. 3 : 1 is ok if you must but you'll get a better result with a wax or cycling specific oil.

It will probably be a very nice ride if restored by someone who knows what to do. Retro is very cool at present but you won't retire on the proceeds. These things tend to be a labour of love. Personally I'm more into carbon than Reynolds tubing which is probably how the frame was built. Dawes have always been in Birmingham. The frame will be from there with other components added in the "hand built" in Preston or wherever.

O2G do you know about this http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/information/getting-here/by-bike

3 minutes away and haven't been in for years

Battery life probably isn't good enough. The Garmin will do 12 -1 5 hours and I don't know of a phone which will do that on GPS. My iPhone does about 3 hours at best. it's a mystery to me why a Garmin can run for that time yet a smart phone, with everything bar the GPS shut down, won't. I realise it's batter life but if quality batteries exist......

I don't suppose you'd like to guess where my wife hails from? Quite a coincidence.

Perhaps it would be good to turn this towards cycling. I have what I hope will be an excellent weekend coming up in June. Plan is to take the train to Edinburgh and then cycle to Melrose where the book festival will be taking place. I shall then go listen to Mark Beaumont, "The man Who Cycled the World," talk on the first evening, the next day I shall find a nice ride around in The Borders before going to listen to Bella Bathurst talk on "The Bicycle Book," a history of cycling followed by an evening with Rory Bremner. The next two days I shall spend cycling home.

I agree with this view with the one exception that when completely lost in the middle of nowhere, and I've experienced, it's a very, very unnerving experience. On a bike in remote areas, often no phone signal etc. being lost is very worrying. My interest in the Garmin, and other GPS devices, is the information they record about the journey you have made. For instance I rode to and round The Hebrides last summer and the GPS recorded everything I did, I was then able to download and record the route on maps. Added to this one gets useful stuff like average, minimum and maximum cadence and speed, elevation, total climb and descent etc. The data is interesting to have and helps understand what one has done. I wouldn't be keen on using GPS as a SatNav unless I was utterly lost, and as I say have been without a GPS, it isn't good news. I do realise if I was a better map reader it wouldn't be a problem!!

West is West is a very, very good film ...... though it may not be scary enough for some! While funny in places it doesn't seem to have the same comedy element of East is East though I suspect someone of Pakistani descent might tell it differently. This is a delightful film full of fun, love, humour, sadness and frustration taking a long look at first and second generation migrants to the UK. We see a side of their story most might not think of. One irritation, why in the final Salford scene where so many windows boarded up and grass growing in the backs. Surely the intention was to portray a community? The shot would be true today but surely not 30-40 years back?

I'm getting tired of people asking if I've felt a little alien

OK that's Saturday night organised then!

This is a place for foodies so thought I'd share this one, Celeriac gratin: Serves 6-8 one celeriac one kilo potatoes one onion 600 ml double cream two garlic cloves black pepper rock salt 125 gm grated cheddar or as cheesy as you want it!!! bunch parsely peel and cut the celeriac and potatoes in to 1cm cubes finely chop the onion very finely chop the garlic butter an oven proof dish, I like an earthenware wone with a lid chuck everything in add cream and cheese, keeping some back to sprinkle on top, season with pepper and salt mix thoroughly sprinkle remaining cheese on top cook for 40-50 minutes at gas mark 6, keeping checking from around 35-40 minutes as it can get quite dark brown at the edges, which is just a visual thing if covered remove the lid for the last ten minutes or so to turn golden brown sprinkle on finely chopped parsley (remove stalks) and serve serve with rocket and watercress salad I found this at Christmas when looking for a veggie receipe for friends who were coming at New Year. As I read it I realised I had all the ingredients in the fridge and needed using up!!!! It proved so popular most of the carnivores wolfed it down. Made it again tonight and it's excellent, one of those receipes where the proportions don't matter a lot. It works very well as a main dish but I think would go well with some rare cooked lamb chump chops or perhaps a good steak? If cooked and then reheated the cream seperates, doesn't matter but looks a bit off if serving to guests PS - unashamedly nicked off Jamie Oliver's website

Can't help but feel this undersells one of the best films I have seen in years. It's funny, sad, draws you in and tells a story on several different levels. The isolation of the monarchy from the country, a difficult childhood, the importance of friendship, the sense of duty to the country, the ifluence of the establishment and obviously the struggle to overcome a speech impediment. A fabulous film which left me with tears in my eyes and wanting to see more. />I'm not a royalist and knew nothing of the subject matter before going but I felt I wanted to learn more about George VI and his contribution to the war.

Don't know if this has been mentioned before but In Bruges is a well acted and very funny film. Watched it this morning while ironing!! You do need a very, very dark sense of humour though.

Didn't know that. Interesting. May well see you there in that case, I believe we have tickets. This will be my first Opera at the Lowry though my wife has been before. Love going to The Lowry, great building, lots of diverse stuff to see and a decent enough meal at Cafe Rouge!! Saturday for us. For anyone who missed it locally Of Gods and Men is on at The Dukes Lancaster, January 17th-19th.

Clearly not a movie but a new experience we had at the cinema last weekend. Cineworld, Bolton featured a live broadcast of the Puccini's La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the West) by the New York Met opera company. I didn't know cinemas did this sort of thing, it was both very good and very interesting, especially as during the intervals there was live broadcast of the set changes etc. which one would never usually see. We're not great opera buffs, it's something we are trying out, and have been to a few live operas recently. Watching in the cinema is a very different experience from a truly live performance but gave us a chance to see one of the world's great opera companies "live" without flying to NY.

I was thinking of Ribble Valley Inns as a group. I haven't been to the C&B for a while but have been surprised to simply walk in to the others on a Friday night and get a table without a wait of any sort.

While I know this isn't a Tesco thread I'd agree with Colin. Recently we've taken to using Booth's and have been supporting our local farm shop for many years. We now go to Tesco or similar once in 3-4 weeks to get the stuff they do really cheap, Booth's for the weekly shop where quality is far superior, the experience more pleasant and surprisingly prices about the same and the local farm shop for our meat - again quality and experience is vastly superior to Tesco et al. I hope the Oyster and ???? is a success, much will depend on perceived price and value. Ribble Valley Inns, whom I presume the Oyster people are imitating, aren't doing so well at present. We've been a few times of late and been surprised how quiet they are. I haven't been in the C&B for months as it was far too busy. The Oyster will need to strike the right balance or risk being hugely succesful before tailing off to become an also ran.

Watched this tonight as a download from BT Vision. Took me 15 minutes to work out the theme of dreaming!! I found it very difficult to hear / understand much of the dialogue but a good film all the same. Some nice twists along the way. Of Gods and Men is doing the rounds of north-west art houses and independent cinemas. Lancaster next I believe in mid january. This is a true story involving the possible murder of seven French monks during the Algerian war. Very good reviews, our film club is planning a trip to The Dukes for this one.

This morning is the third day we have had a slight thaw, not much but noticeable. A lot of snowing drip at the moment but we also have rain and wet snow falling.

Apparently this is the No.1 reason for boiler failure during the cold period. British Gas guy who visited us about two weeks ago on an unrelated matter advised pouring a kettle of boiling water over it once a day. I tried to buy some lagging but there'n none to be had anywhere in Chorley.

We went to see We Will Rock You the musical by Queen and Ben Elton last night. Great show, very predictable story line but great fun all the sa me. If you like Queen and a not too serious night at the theatre this is worth considering. Palace Theatre, Manchester tioll mid January.

Did anyone else notice how incredibly bright it was last night? About 10.30pm it was almost like day and when I got up this morning, 5ish, the light was possibly even brighter. I went out hoping to see the eclipse but we have a cloudy sky though I could see the clouds in the West had a strange pinkish hue to them. I imagine this must be related to the eclipse as it's the wrong place for sunrise.