Early Risers.

[iL Dottore]

9 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

1) Zundapp only made motorcycles. Good answer. The other answer I was looking for was both BMW and Zundapp made motor bikes for the German Armed Forces in WWII. Volkswagen did not

2) Fabrica Italiano Automobiles Turin, Bayerische Motoren Werke, don't know, don't know, Svenska Aeroplane AB. Correct (3/5 - pass). The other two are: Industria Argentina de Vehículos de Avanzada (IAVA) and Kerala Automobiles Limited KAL (respectively Argentinian and Indian)

3) Royal Enfield was a British company but when it couldn't compete with the likes of Honda they sold the company lock, stock and barrel to an Indian company who continued making them at first for home consumption under the name of Indian Enfield. It was only some time after they started exporting the motorbikes that they reverted to the name of Royal Enfield. Correct.

4) Car designers/stylists. Correct

5) Bentley Mulsanne. Incorrect (see above) - all cars have the same legal top speed - which could be as low as 25mph - depending upon where you are in the UK

Phil did a great job and gets today's (virtual) LDC award.

 

iD

[laurenceb]

5 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Flavio caught me out with that last 'trick' question but I think that I have got the acronyms right even if I've got the spelling wrong and I wasn't going to cheat by Googling them. Mentioning Royal Enfield made me think of another question. Both Royal Enfield and another bicycle/motorcycle manufacturer were set up initially to make what? And who was the other motorbike maker? The clue is in the name but if I gave you the name of the other maker it would give the answer away.

Things that go bang

[jamie92208]

12 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Flavio caught me out with that last 'trick' question but I think that I have got the acronyms right even if I've got the spelling wrong and I wasn't going to cheat by Googling them. Mentioning Royal Enfield made me think of another question. Both Royal Enfield and another bicycle/motorcycle manufacturer were set up initially to make what? And who was the other motorbike maker? The clue is in the name but if I gave you the name of the other maker it would give the answer away.

As Laurence has mentioned, things that got bang. Royal Enfield famous for the Lee Enfield rifle, and BSA, aka Birmingham Small Arms.

 

Jamie

[PhilJ W]

Just a thought, @iL Dottore's first question, could the answer be BMW? Their main business was aircraft engines and they only started making cars in the 1920's. The other two never made aircraft engines but VW engines were used in some light aircraft. Another question re. BMW. What is the connection between BMW and the long gone American car maker Bantam.

[New Haven Neil]

19 minutes ago, laurenceb said:

Things that go bang

 

So do some older Enfield motorcycles.  

 

My contribution to the discussion is that for quite a few years the Indian made bikes were Enfields only, not Royal.  In more recent times they got the rights to the full name, and very recently have re-invented themselves having bought Harris in the UK (racing bike manufacturers) and poached some Triumph engineers.  Their new products are in a different world to the re-hashed Bullet 350/500's.  Mine is on order.....

[southern42]

' morning all from red dragon land.

 Another summer's day.   RAF training aircraft buzzing around first thing. 

I could hear them out and about, loud and clear, yesterday, but blowed if I could see them and not a cloud in the sky!   

 

 I was thinking, having mentioned TripTitch, yesterday, that I ought to sneak the Log Swing into the Ffestiniog landscape. I have a young fella just itching to get on it!  The photos and the process of drawing have also opened my eyes to what to look out for when we try and recapture our surroundings in miniature. Things like salt air and coastal winds, never mind plant disease, barely crossed my mind on Camel Quay, so no dead patches of heather or gorse, and no trees leaning over, for instance, though I did consciously rule out dead branches on the trees. Well, Cornwall does have to look pretty, doesn't it?  

 

Oh! It is so much more amusing, engaging, inventive to find ways of negotiating the no-r*****y rule.  I could, of course, be boring and mention all my grumps and gripes, rantings and ravings, moans and groans, instead.  End of  

 

 Fitt  and  Elfie getting ready for any fisticuffs.  

 

Take care all, play safe, and hope not to have offended anybody with my drivel.

 

Hat...

Coat...well, maybe not today - too hot.

Pad & pencils...

Sharpener...

Eraser...

_________

Best wishes

Polly

[Pacific231G]

47 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

As Laurence has mentioned, things that got bang. Royal Enfield famous for the Lee Enfield rifle, and BSA, aka Birmingham Small Arms.

 

Jamie

Nope!! The Lee-Enfield rifle was designed by the Royal Small Arms Factory which was in Enfield (but with works in Sparkbrook, Birmingham as well) The Eadie Manufacturing Company Limited  seems to have adopted he Royal Enfield brand when it got contracts to make components for the RSAF but had made parts for bicycles far earlier. So, unlike BSA. it wasn't originally an arms manufacturer though it certainly got into that business.  

The relationship berween Eadie and BSA was intertwined, if not completely tangled, to say the least with the latter taking over parts of the former and with Raleigh (bicycles) also involved.

The interesting aspect of all this is that BSA was set up by a group of Birmingham gunsmiths encouraged by the government, through the RSAF, to make guns using machine tools with standardised and interchangeable components. It was those techniqies that then made the large scale mass-production of bicycles and later motor bikes, cars and consumer products (as well as enough tanks and planes to overwhelm the German military during WW2) possible. 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2021 by Pacific231G
punctuation

[laurenceb]

45 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Just a thought, @iL Dottore's first question, could the answer be BMW? Their main business was aircraft engines and they only started making cars in the 1920's. The other two never made aircraft engines but VW engines were used in some light aircraft. Another question re. BMW. What is the connection between BMW and the long gone American car maker Bantam.

7. And Nissan

[petethemole]

52 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Another question re. BMW. What is the connection between BMW and the long gone American car maker Bantam.

Both BMW and Bantam built Austin Sevens under licence.  The BMW version was used by the Reichswehr as a dummy tank for armoured warfare training when thy weren't allowed tanks by treaty.  https://www.austinsevenfriends.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?tid=1031

Edited September 8, 2021 by petethemole
added link

[JohnDMJ]

Rifling through the above led me to ponder the connection between a semi-automatic machine gun and a manufacturer of miniature things that run on parallel pieces of steel or similar material.

 

Any thoughts?

[laurenceb]

BSA

[polybear]

1 hour ago, tigerburnie said:

 

Just about over the aftermath of the funeral wake, some serious thinking required about some of the revelations revealed, families who'd have 'em..well technically all of us.

 

Been there, done that......

There's nothing quite like a Funeral to rake up murkiness; when you throw a Will into the pot the fur really can fly....

Bear used to enjoy reading the discussion boards on a website called "The Motley Fool" - sadly those boards were closed back in 2016.  The best board was one called (IIRC) "Wills and Probate" and was inhabited by at least one professional Solicitor (anonymously); the posts, stories etc. on there were often something else - sometimes standard questions, sometimes nightmare problems, sometimes (= often) family in-fighting.....

What was apparent that a certain gender in particular (I'll say no more) were particularly "keen" to ensure they didn't "miss out".....

 

30 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

My contribution to the discussion is that for quite a few years the Indian made bikes were Enfields only, not Royal.  In more recent times they got the rights to the full name, and very recently have re-invented themselves having bought Harris in the UK (racing bike manufacturers) and poached some Triumph engineers.  Their new products are in a different world to the re-hashed Bullet 350/500's.  Mine is on order.....

 

Bear could be quite partial to a modern RE; sadly the issue of reasonable winter storage keeps raising it's head.....

 

Chemist done.  Tick; a new prescription was collected - the side-effects of which sound positively fatal.  No worries there, then.....

Co-op done.  Tick; their five quid "meal deal" (=pizza, garlic baguettes, potato wedges, cadburys ice cream and chicken nuggets) was still available .  The nuggets were off-loaded to a neighbour 3 doors away whilst walking home - have you seen the cr@p they put in those things? .

 

And finally:

Today is Wednesday.  That means it's......Pizza Day!!   Bear *may* also have obtained some Sweet Potato Fries during today's expedition - purchased purely as a Scientific Experiment, you understand......

[PhilJ W]

8 minutes ago, laurenceb said:

7. And Nissan

Not absolutely correct as Datsun as it was then merely copied the Austin 7. Herbert Austin was all for taking them to court but was persuaded not to as any gains outweighed the cost. 

4 minutes ago, petethemole said:

Both BMW and Bantam built Austin Sevens under licence.  The BMW version was used by the Reichswehr as a dummy tank for armoured warfare training when thy weren't allowed tanks by treaty.  https://www.austinsevenfriends.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?tid=1031

The Bantam car company was created from the American Austin company when Herbert Austin sold the company off. The engines of both the Bantams and the BMW Dixie were mirror images of the British engines with the manifolds on the right hand side. This was because there was not enough room on the left for a steering column.

[PupCam]

Clear Prop, Contact!

 

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I note that our “permanently piqued punk pharmacist” Robert @Erichill16 had his birthday yesterday.

I don’t speak punk very well, but I’ll give it a go…

 

Happy f*****g belated f*****g birthday you t****. I hope you had a bleeding good time with a s***load of pressies - you f*****g lucky w****r (expectorates [gobs] for emphasis)^

 

iD

^ at least that what Google Translate gives me….

 

I don't speak it at all (or listen  to it but each to their own and all that) but if I did that's probably what I would have said so thanks Flavio

 

2 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Off now to complete multitude of tasks, wot Mrs NHN has decreed must be done before I play out on motorbikes.  I need to take some photos to accompany an article i wrote ages ago for Real Classic.

 

Give us the nod when it's going to appear.  I'd better renew my subscription then! 

 

Should I do something on the tale of the little old Beeza and it's stupidly high compression piston I wonder?  

"POs" - what a pain in the botty they can be (until of course you become one when you flog your bike)

 

43 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

3) Royal Enfield was a British company but when it couldn't compete with the likes of Honda they sold the company lock, stock and barrel to an Indian company who continued making them at first for home consumption under the name of Indian Enfield. It was only some time after they started exporting the motorbikes that they reverted to the name of Royal Enfield.

 

The tie up with India has been going on for 70 years, it's nothing new.    RE have recently opened a new Technology / Development Centre in the  UK.  I have to say whilst still employed I used to walk past a modern RE in the bike park.    Looked very nice, turned up every day (so presumably reliable) and, shock horror, on oil patch underneath it!

 

https://www.royalenfield.com/uk/en/our-world/since-1901/

 

26 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Flavio caught me out with that last 'trick' question but I think that I have got the acronyms right even if I've got the spelling wrong and I wasn't going to cheat by Googling them. Mentioning Royal Enfield made me think of another question. Both Royal Enfield and another bicycle/motorcycle manufacturer were set up initially to make what? And who was the other motorbike maker? The clue is in the name but if I gave you the name of the other maker it would give the answer away.

 

 

Arms .....

 

The BSA logo is 3 crossed riffles.

 

8 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Just a thought, @iL Dottore's first question, could the answer be BMW? Their main business was aircraft engines and they only started making cars in the 1920's. The other two never made aircraft engines but VW engines were used in some light aircraft.

 

And the BMW logo/emblem is a stylised image of a rotating propeller

 

In other news:

 

Got up and out earlish this morning to Crecote another fence panel before it got too hot.    5 down 6 to go.   Then there are the remaining 10 trellis panels on top to do.     

 

Later on I have another medical telephone appointment, this time with the specialist Cardio nurse so we'll see what happens with that.  I wonder if she will be able to shed any light on the delayed (apparently "unimportant")  CT Angiogram scan ...

 

[Rant mode = ON]

I volunteered to print the necessary three copies plus a spare of "Form D8" application for divorce (no, no, not for me!) for someone I know who does not have internet access.   When I found said form it appears that it is formatted to be printed single sided (Page number on right-hand side on every sheet was the clue.  Of course, it could just be a poorly designed form) so, as it is rather important and there are huge delays in the system "made worse by Covid" I thought I would check to see if double-sided printing was acceptable - saves trees, saves postage between me and recipient and further postage when posted off to other parties and all that stuff. So I thought I'd phone up the Court service just to check .....

 

Why is it acceptable FOR ALL organisations (NHS, HMG, Utility Companies etc etc) to perpetually pedal the pathetic message that there's a Pandemic on, you can got all you need from our website @ www.we're going to waste your time for hours on the telephone if you hang on and constantly bombard you with stupid, pointless information so you can't actually concentrate on anything else while we waste your time.co.uk,  webchat , email blah blah blxxdy blah!

 

Well I've got news for them, no you can't get all you need.  That's why I'm sitting in a queue trying to speak to a human being AND not everyone has the luxury of and/or the ability to use the internet anyway (we'll not start that discussion again - there are still many tens of thousands of people who can't and will never be able to use the internet so don't assume that everyone can or should and they have every right to services too).

 

Anyway, I got through and spoke to a very nice person and asked my simple question.   It was a new one on her so she put me on hold while she sought advice.  When she came back it appeared no one knew so I suggested that they just take a look at the forms they send out and receive.   "We'll we're actually a call centre so we never actually see any of them"

 

It was suggested that I'd better play it safe and print them single sided.   As the last thing I want to do is to introduce a delay in the proceedings  as my offer to get and supply the forms is due to the fact that the original, posted "Request for Forms" letter is stuck in the service's in tray.   Apparently they are currently processing July's post .... (Well, it's busy and there's a pandemic on and everyone is getting divorced because of Brexit/Covid/Global Warming/Pollution/A shortage of Moles to Eat/Prince Philip died/all the integrated circuits are being used to build cars*)

 

* Insert your choice of excuse as to why the world is falling apart and somebody can't do something here.

 

Talking of which.   I live perhaps 10 or 12 miles south of chrisf and was surprised when he mentioned his garden waste collection service in Bedford the other day.    Here in "Central Bedfordshire" land all garden waste collection was suspended at the beginning of August (I think it was)  "due to a shortage of drivers".   You can of course re-use the list of excuses above as to why there is a shortage but me?   Well I'm cynical, as you know, and I wonder if the shortage has other reasons ......     I won't be surprised if we don't see another garden waste collection this year so I will await the council tax rebate with glee.  

 

Now, where did I put my Cynical Suit, I think it might be needed.

 

[Rant Mode = OFF] 

 

Stay safe and enjoy your day if you can.

 

Alan

 

 

 

[polybear]

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

In other news:

 

Got up and out earlish this morning to Crecote another fence panel before it got too hot.    5 down 6 to go.   Then there are the remaining 10 trellis panels on top to do.    

 

Creocote another fence PANEL??  As in singular?  Pupper's dedication knows no bounds.....

As for creosoting sorry, creocoting (= replacement cr@p designed to be more "friendly".  Hmmm.....Bear would suggest mixing old engine oil from the bikes with Parafiin as a more effective treatment, but being British Bikes it probably doesn't stay inside the cases long enough to get dirty - I did happen to note Pupper's somewhat extensive stocks of oil on my last visit.....) trellis panels - well that really is a fate worse than death.  Starred in the film, has this Bear.....

 

Bear's Impending Sh1t Storm of the Day:

It seems that Geronimo the Alpaca shows no signs of Bovine TB during initial Post-Mortem Tests.  More intensive tests to do, apparently.....

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Shopping done and stored away. The TV had been behaving itself until recently when it started going into scan mode again. Its certainly something to do with the warm weather. The new TV is still in its box for now. Zoom talk tonight on the 'new' P2 project, should be interesting. 

[simontaylor484]

Afternoon all

 

More painting done today, toilet doughnut washer I ordered delivered this morning by the postie I am going to wait for a bit cooler weather to fit the service valve is currently shut off , we do have 2 other toilets so it's no inconvenience (groanworthy pun intended).

 

During the war years my Grandads foundry made various parts for things including Stem guns. My great grandad got extra petrol rations due to the necessity of their work. My great uncle Norman volunteered for the Raf and was a pilot on Whitley Bombers and survived Malta my Grandad as I have said before tried to join the Merchant navy they couldn't take him from a reserved occupation but the Royal Navy could

 

[Gwiwer]

9 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Wetness Day seens unlikely to live up to its name. It’s 23C and rising

It lived up to something else though.

 

I hadn't managed to leave the Hill of Strawberries when the day went pear-shaped.  The train I take into the House of Fun became trapped at Twickenham when a shopping trolley interrupted progress on all lines.  No-one hurt but a lot of damaged, twisted and entangled metal, some of it fused to the conductor rail and with some damage to the train in question meant there was no movement through that station until after 9am.  None.  On one of our busiest routes.  And I was obliged to take an Uber to nearby Fulwell in order to catch an up Shepperton line train and reached work over half an hour late.  

 

Then it was into the thick of it.  A very warm morning with a very large number of people indeed hoping to get to where ever they were going.  Many were unsuccessful at least in the shorter term.  But all in a day's work and things were returning to normality by the time I left.  

 

We had paramedics, managers and a supply of bottled water on the platforms at which the most heavily-delayed trains would arrive.  Some people had been stuck on board for as much as three hours.  All because of a stray shopping trolley and possibly arising from the actions of its last user.  Or should that be abuser?  

 

It's hot now.  Dr. SWMBO has decamped to the outside with her laptop on the picnic table.  There might even be a Pimms at Finish Time.  I'll be outside dreckly with some form of liquid refreshment but not in her space as that's the office for the afternoon.  

 

 

 

[tigerburnie]

I still have a BSA air rifle, it doesn't go bang...............................more of a phut..................................does the job though.

[leopardml2341]

2 hours ago, PupCam said:

Why is it acceptable FOR ALL organisations (NHS, HMG, Utility Companies etc etc) to perpetually pedal the pathetic message that there's a Pandemic on, you can got all you need from our website @ www.we're going to waste your time for hours on the telephone if you hang on and constantly bombard you with stupid, pointless information so you can't actually concentrate on anything else while we waste your time.co.uk,  webchat , email blah blah blxxdy blah!

 

........

 

Anyway, I got through and spoke to a very nice person and asked my simple question.   It was a new one on her so she put me on hold while she sought advice.  When she came back it appeared no one knew so I suggested that they just take a look at the forms they send out and receive.   "We'll we're actually a call centre so we never actually see any of them"

 

Methinks this is just a ploy to ensure that complaints etc. are never dealt with because the complainant gives up their pursuit (or the will to live - see later) before resolution.

 

A similar thing happened to me on the pathway from the depths of my mental ill health episode a few years ago. Once I had regained some of my tenacity I was so fed up with being passed from pillar to post, and sometimes even ignored, I suggested that their M.O. was at least one way to reduce case numbers and waiting lists by simply pushing their clients over the edge; another one gone!

[leopardml2341]

11 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

......  There might even be a Pimms at Finish Time.  I'll be outside dreckly with some form of liquid refreshment but not in her space as that's the office for the afternoon.  

 

 

 

Sounds like a darn fine idea - mi beer's already cooling. In this weather even the real stuff needs to be put in a fridge for a short time. Mi normal 'beer store' is the downstairs loo, small room small window north facing usually about 16C - ideal for real beer  but on days like today even that room gets too warm for the proper stuff.

[leopardml2341]

Meanwhile:

 

 

Methinks this is s scam

[leopardml2341]

Oooo look, within five minutes another one

 

[Ian Abel]

Happy belated birthday to @Erichill16 

 

HUMP day...

 

Little activity yesterday, Long Island client appears to have hired a couple of new staff accountants, so spent much time explaining and re-explaining how to set up their access to the various reports. Too bad I wrote a document a couple of years back that the IT staff have, otherwise THEY (what IT actually DO SOMETHING!!) could have completed the setup for the new staff themselves...

 

Quietly continuing to recover from the back pain, still no sympathy proffered by the Mrs  

Today woken early with a parade of JCBs and other equipment as the "gas men" continue to rampage through the neighborhood, must destruction in their path. 

 

14 and sunny first thing, high of 23 expected.

[PupCam]

25 minutes ago, leopardml2341 said:

Methinks this is just a ploy to ensure that complaints etc. are never dealt with because the complainant gives up their pursuit (or the will to live - see later) before resolution.

 

Nail whacked soundly on the head I think Andy!   The trouble is, I just won't give up

 

Such an acute sense sense of cynicism is worthy of membership of Captain Cynical's  team I would have thought (you'll have to get past his HR "people" first though) and  I can lend you my spare Cynical Suit until your own one turns up.

 

Alan