[Closed] since you have joined STW........

I don't have time for all that tedious bike riding now.

'lifestyle' actual 😥

Learnt lots about burning wood, Maseratis, when Joe Cocker died, vices, coke, hookers, and some useful stuff about headsets, laxatives and how to clean a cat.

Riding lifestyle?

Does that involve pampas grass?

I ride almost exclusively road these days!

met loads of nice folk. and it passes boring days at work.

I think that without STW I would never have heard about guided MTB holidays.

Bikes? 😳

Met with loads of nice people and still friends with them. Who rides bikes these days?

I had sexual relations via the forum

Met loads of great folk on here, and none of them have been the bell ends they seem...... 😆

ton - Member

met loads of nice folk. and it passes boring days at work.

That sums it up perfectly

I own most of the PSAs.

cloudnine - Member
and how to clean a cat

Will anyone ever forget that thread, once seen, always smiling

I can't even book a holiday unless it passes STW approval.
Used to google stuff now I just ask on here . It's so much easier.

Since joing stw I've got married and had two kids. It's played havoc with my riding lifestyle.

I had sexual relations via the forum

I used it today when servicing my forks . I'd be looking at a busted bike now otherwise.

Actually it is still busted but that's because of the leaky shimano brakes.

I haven't cut my toenails.

I had sexual relations via the forum
receiving a photo of 42's nob does not constitute relations, RD

Since I joined STW
AzFred left
TSY left
Jamie left
TJ left
SmurfMatt flounced
PhilConsequence disapeared ( shame as he was good bloke )
Kylie left
Keith 29er + Jenn both left us
My life is now incomplete , but ifyou ride bikes long enough these things happen.

Work thinks I'm dead

Bikes?

I've developed a unique odor and a manly beard 🙂
Still haven't mastered the art of thigh slapping 🙁

There is an inverted correlation between mountain biking and use of mountain bike forums.

Learnt lots about burning wood, Maseratis, when Joe Cocker died, vices, coke, hookers, and some useful stuff about headsets, laxatives and how to clean a cat.

Found a genuinely wonderful source of info on anything from bikes to beer, from Dura-Ace to depression. And yes, almost entirely stopped riding off road.

honest answer?

.Bought and sold many quality parts for great prices on the classifieds. Incl my usual ride.
.Had many route advice tips, incl lots of placs I wouldn't have known about and aren't broadcast on route sites. This place improves my riding life no end.
.Met several people from this site, every single one have been very nice indeed and shared some great rides. 🙂
.Had many technical tips about installing/fixing/replacing every aspect of the bicycle, when I have needed it. The speed in which you get a response sometimes is excellent, when you're in the thick of a procedure and you really need a help, there are many professional time-served excellent bicycle mechanics patrolling the boards willing to help.
I'm astounded all the time at the lengths people will go to help you. You'll put up a quick 2 sentence 'plz help me' and a guy will take 10 mins out of his day and write up a whole page of advice for you. Brilliant.

Lunge +1

Bought stuff:
Stove
Stove top fan
Banshee Spitfire
Moto g 4G (1st gen)
XT 11 speed
Pikes

No German cars, shitty little dogs or plastic over-priced gnarrpoons from the US, though (looking at you,Santa Cruz.

Nothing for riding - still a tow path mincer.

However, it is an...um....[i]enriching[/i] place?*

I've seen so many lovely, kind things actually done on here - not just said. No more than I'm sure happens in daily life, but being able to see it on a screen and take the time to read it and appreciate it, is nice.

Give you hope 'n' all that.

You'll put up a quick 2 sentence 'plz help me' and a guy will take 10 mins out of his day and write up a whole page of advice for you.

Is equally true. I'm always appreciative of time taken by people take to write a post to help with a question - love it when someone posts a completely random question about the viscosity of a can of 1987 vintage Dulux magnolia, and a complete lurker who works in paint-viscosity testing, pops up with the answer. 😀

EDIT: Oh and have met some truly cracking people, maccruiskeen being by far the most handsome 🙂

I now have a psychotic desire to kill certain people.

I never had mourned the loss of a post attempting to sell a Parallax hub before I joined STW.

Made me buy a cannondale trigger damn psa posts.

STW made me realise that my bike basically has square wheels, given that it's 26inch, no dropper, 3x, conti tubes,...

STW also made me buy the same bike, since the frame brand, wheels brand, tyres brand, and seatpost brand, etc. were all the rage when I ordered it.

edit: oh and I haven't ridden since last July, so that's totally inline with STW too.

Been on here a long time and have asked and answered many questions, some daft, some sensible. Have met quite a few people and not had any bad experiences. Have also sold quite a few things.

When I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2014 some fellow forumites who had been through it got in touch and helped me enormously, they know who they are.

Some good folk have gone too, I didn't know about Keith29er until reading this thread 😥

In summary, great fun forum, serious when it needs to be, and a source of answers to the most bizarre questions !

I have been kept from going bat shit crazy by this forum.

When I crashed some years back and broke my collar bone, followed only a couple of months later by a double prolapse in my lower spine that sent me to hospital for almost two weeks, then (partly as a consequence) got extra fat, it was participating on STW that made me think there might be hope for me yet.

Then, when I was losing, then lost, my dad, the expressions of sympathy were amazing. I even shared some of them with my family.

Since then, I have gotten back in shape and ride every day - principally commuting and road, but mountain for weekend fun - and always feel encouraged by this place.

So all in all, it has had a very good effect on my riding and lifestyle indeed. 8)

I've been on the forum since about 2005 and I've gradually watched the forum 'lifestyle' get older.
In the earlier days the forum was a big influence on me and my riding as everyone seemed to be generally likeminded mountain-bikers. As the forum members average age has increased and the discussion moves more to road bikes, fat bikes and bike-packing it has become much less relevant to me*.
*44 years old, just bought my first DH bike and riding harder and faster than I was in 2005.

The main thing this place has given me is a fear of being handed a sachet of picolax. If it ever happens I will shit myself 🙂

I have been kept from going bat shit crazy by this forum.

Can't say that happened for me, but when I did have my bat shit crazy phase (post-break-up-drinking-too-much), I had a place to post my garbage for irreversible prosperity.

Measure twice, [s]cut[/s] post once 🙂

I realised that even though I earn an average wage y'all seem to be making megabucks.

I have an image of everyone on STW working in IT, driving a T5 and a VAG car with a detached large suburban house that has a garage with 5+ niche/top end brand bikes in it.

Almost makes me feel I'm under achieving.

Its been great for route advice here and in the Alps. Have ridden some spectacular trails after recommendations on here which I probably would not have found otherwise. Been very useful for general advice too on components etc. Been here about 4.5 years now.

I have an image of everyone on STW working in IT, driving a T5 and a VAG car with a detached large suburban house that has a garage with 5+ niche/top end brand bikes in it.

Replace 'IT' with 'a whole bunch of jobs', 'T5 and a VAG car' with 'an old Peugeot Boxer and an equally old Peugeot estate', 'detached large suburban house that has a garage' with 'end-of-terrace and street parking', and '5+ niche/top end brand bikes in it' with 4 second-hand middle brand bikes' and you have pretty much described me.

And yes, you probably are underachieving.

I take the mick out of this place but it's done loads for my riding and subsequently general wellbeing tbh. Probably the biggest thing, I made my first leap into #enduro racing through here frinstance and that's been one of the biggest goads to get me riding different stuff, it's made all the difference...

And riding, I've met a bunch of people and done a load of rides that I wouldn't have otherwise. Cheers!

Also, I'm one of those folks that doesn't just ride bikes, for me the whole trying bikes, building and tweaking bikes, learning how they work are either a big part of the hobby, or their own hobby in their own right and this place's fed that massively.

Oh and yeah fatbike, that's Coastkid's fault.

Outside of biking there's so much chat good and bad- I don't trust any of my opinions til I've had a fight with someone about them- and advice, support. A few years back, I went through a pretty rough patch, and though I didn't so much get advice here it's a place you can comfortably talk about stuff. I've vented about things that I wouldn't elsewhere. Same with current issues with my folks' health. Oh not to mention keeping the zombie mondeo alive day to day 🙂 THough, that's mostly MC and CraigXXL.

It's not the best forum I've ever been on- that was SV650.org, that place really is fantastic- but it's in the top 2.

It's "my happy place" make of that what you will, more subjectively it given me a better view of the 30 to 40 something generation (younger than me older than my kids) and how remarkably different you are from us 50+ generation (probably for the better)

I don't think it's helped my riding but I've met some great people (real life and only on the forum).

Like others said, it passes the boring bits of the week and people tend to be very good sharing their expertise and knowledge to help others out. It's restored my faith in humanity a few times.

I posted here when diagnosed as being bi-polar before telling anyone I actually knew. Someone I'd sold something to previously still had my number so called me out of the blue and was an enormous help. They told me I could call them at any time day or night. I did once, at 3am, and they very literally saved my life.

^^ that is amazing! Whoever they are - they are brilliant.

@coldplay - thats a great story

I'll add to the STW love in too.

Been on some memorable rides.
Met some good mates.
Encouraged me to organise an event or two (seven actually).
Frittered away the dull times.
Discovered exotic crisps.

I'd just like to add that I bought a cheap Cannondale Trigger before they became fashionable.

I must have been here getting on for 15 years, met a couple of folk, pissed off many a folk 😉 learned that posting on internet forums when drunk usually ends badly, been banned once, maybe twice.

Can't say it's changed my life - probably wasted a good portion of it though 😉

I have a sharks head bottle opener in the shed stuck to a Halfords 3 drawer tool chest which contains a Halfords 170 piece tool set.

Brant sold me an Inbred half price (I'd mangled my Carrera chainstay set) which was the first bike I jumped. testudograeca convinced me to go IGH, which I still use.

I learnt not to use a rock to fix a chainset.... what happened to chicksands? Alex btw?

Where shall I start? At the beginning I suppose!

I joined aged 25 back in 2003, 13 years later I'm a totally different person which I actually put down to this place.

Back then I was an over confident, bordering on bolshy ****. Thought I knew everything and thought I was always right and people wanted to know that. I've become the exact opposite now.

They say you get more right wing as you get older, well I've proven that wrong. When I was 25 I was slightly on the right side of the fence, this place and understanding/reading people's views on life has helped me get over that fence firmly in to the left side.

I've met some amazing people via stw, even had a couple of relationships through here (recently single so could always have another :0) )
Been on some fab rides, made good friends and via an early splinter group 'Mleh' found an awesome bunch of folk.

Yep riding has gone down the pan, but that's due to my mental state (which I think spending so much time on line doesn't help) if I spent the time I've spent on here riding instead then I'd be unbelievably fit.

It's given me laughs, it's given me help, it's given me hope, it's given me life changing advice

Now I'm a grumpy 38year old man, who drinks beer, owns a Skoda, a Santa Cruz (ok it's 11 years old) a cx bike, a Ti HT and a bikepacking bike (that have been bike packing once on) so pretty much fit the demographic (apart from being a postie and not working in IT)

When I joined STW I would ask my LBS what bike I should buy, and would end up with some sort of deal on old stock which was a compromise in every respect, I would also take my bike in for anything more complicated than a puncture..

Through STW I've learned everything I need to know about buying and maintenance, I got the motivation to move to Dartmoor and met decent folk who I've ridden with and partied with..
The monthly photo challenges often got me out riding when I lost my mojo..

More esoterically I've learned to be more tolerant and realised that although more people than I thought are barking up completely the wrong tree of life (sometimes it's not even a tree, it's a flag pole or a street lamp or someone else's leg) some of those people firmly believe in what they're doing and we just have to smile and nod and trust that we just need to look a little deeper to find the qualities that make them beautiful

Used to google stuff now I just ask on here . It's so much easier.

I don't even do that anymore I just wait for someone else to ask it.

As others have said, met and ridden with a few people(some posting on this thread) Asked for, taken and given "advice" on various topics.
Went on my first and best biking holiday in 2005, the STW Verbier trip. Had already met Lucy at Dalbeattie the year before when Chipps, Sanny & co organised an STW opening day ride(2002/3?). That weeks holiday will never be forgotten .
Riding less recently due to family life, elderly, Ill parents, funerals etc. Have bought a "gravel bike" to help get the fitness miles up, enjoying riding the miles as opposed to the singletrack atm......

To use a mooncup. And keep a whole set of bedding inside a pillow case so no faffing about trying to find matching duvet, pillowcases, sheet etc

Oh hang on that was Mumsnet...

an image of everyone on STW working in IT, driving a T5 and a VAG car with a detached large suburban house that has a garage with 5+ niche/top end brand bikes in it.

Yes, IT and VAG. No T5 and a 3 bed Victorian townhouse in a non-fashionable part of Brum. Two bikes - admittedly one recent and pretty expensive. I justify the bikes with my 28 year MTB history! 😉

Almost makes me feel I'm under achieving.

Bollocks to that! I'm sure you're doing ok. More to life than money...

Sitting in front of my Morso woodburner (Badger, complete with humidifier and econofan), about to order an Aeropress. STW has had no influence upon my lifestyle whatsoever. I remain entirely my own person.

Silly comments aside, it looks like this is a bit of a 'group hug' thread. Can I join in please, this is such a great place.

I now own an Aeropress, a DE razor and a s****y pair of moleskin trews.
Thanks STW 😆

I learned to hate my carbon bronson

I wandered in in 2009 asking about an event.
Got some good advice that really made a difference.
That still works (mostly)as long as you don't ask about cyclepaths,spds,flats,wheelsize,frame design,cats V dogs or riding with headphones. .
Some really interesting folk post on here and are well worth hanging around for.
I do think that I remember far too much nonsense posted on here though,so when reading some threads,I have these mini internet profiles of posters in my my mind .
I have always had a mancrush on bearnecessities since he mentioned his love of Mk3 Cortinas 😉

Since I've come on here it's totally changed into boring piss taking comments. Which gets a bit tedious when your asking or answering a question . Reminds me of a forum called filecabi.net which was just slating each other and piss taking. That got old pretty quick.......

The same usernames replying to every post, regardless of topic. You know who you are!

+1 @ beermonst3r44

STW is my own personal "google" ...I ask here more about bits n bobs than google itself... and also my personal online therapist.

..also STW is my somewhat a friend.. I dont have much friend in this stage of life now, I only have maybe 1 left.

I start far too many sentences with, "I was reading a thread on STW the other day..."

I posted here when diagnosed as being bi-polar before telling anyone I actually knew. Someone I'd sold something to previously still had my number so called me out of the blue and was an enormous help. They told me I could call them at any time day or night. I did once, at 3am, and they very literally saved my life.

Right. Enough of this stupidity now. I've had enough.

Yes, you, STW, I'm looking at you.

[b][i][u]WHERE'S THE CHUFFING "LIKE" BUTTON? [/u][/i][/b]

I posted to ask if cheapo ebay replacement wing mirrors with a heating element would suffice instead of a main dealer robbery.

I've never heard the ****ing end of it. 🙂

Please see my previous post.

Actually this site has encouraged me to ride more, during my early 20s the bikes were being ridden very sparsely due to living in the Mancunian beiruit and trying to make a living out of music (which didn't happen); so having got back on the bike to commute to work I now have riding buddies and bikes to ride due to this forum's encouragement

The magazine talked me out of upgrading my current mtb 🙂

Started off not knowing what I didn't know about buying, riding and maintaining bikes. Now know exactly what I don't know about the above. But a great bunch of people to ask as and when. Have bought many bikes and bike related paraphernalia that I wouldn't otherwise have even thought about. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. Have learnt to avoid the for sale forum at all times. There is always something that I don't really need but a bargain is a bargain. It's not the bike, it's the rider. It takes all sorts but it's a great community. Your best ride was your last ride

I used to have a cotic soul and now ride a bird aeris. Stw's opinion doesn't mean a thing to me 😀

This place keeps my computer running - without which,

... oh

...I've gone from finding it a useful source of information where people are only too willing to answer your questions, to finding it a hive of sometimes quite unpleasant people bitching at each other, to (now) the equivalent of a doctor's waiting room "Take a Break" magazine (interpret that how you will). I suspect it's probably always been - and always will be - all of those things combined. It has added to my riding in that I've learnt some new stuff and I've met one or two fellow MTBers on here. Good result.

Still love the mag 🙂

Still love the mag

There's a magazine?

I'm really rather fond of this place, it's highly amused me at times, been a good source of technical info and helped me through a couple of dark periods where i've seen how supportive members can be for complete strangers.

Spongebob squarepants was heartbreaking but showed what kind people are here (even some of the knobish bighitters have a soft side)

People owned with Bombers - 0
Shoes wee'd in - 0
Baby robin's seen - 5
Sanity maintained - 85% possibly lower

I don't have time for all that tedious bike riding now.

Pretty much sums it up. 🙁

I know the difference between there, their and they're.

I kinda prefer the established crowd on here, and there's been a lot of trolly types which I ignore totally. But the establishment have a lot to say, and in the main their comments and more importantly attitude means I return time and time again.
We've all been through a lot, whether riding or life, yet we're not really sure it's just us that goes through it all, until that is we end up here for a viewpoint, advice, solidarity or beer.

On the whole STW does add to my life, in a small way mind but it adds and not detracts.

Posted from a cafe just outside Kendal whilst on my NCN72 pilgrimage... 🙄

Hmmmm - I joined this forum after I bought my first MTB since I was a teenager. That was 3 years ago

I've since upgraded that to a new bike (Solaris!), and gone from 2 bikes to 5 bikes. Plus loads of kit to go with it

Disappointingly I'm riding my motorbike less... but still, 2 wheels are good!