My biggest increase in “disposable income” was when I married a doctor 🙂

9 GCSEs and 2 A-Levels – Worked in bike shops (96-2001) earning <£11K as a full time mechanic…. good fun but had to live with the folks….

Went to uni at 24, did a BSc and PhD in Gelogy and currently post-doc’ing at 33K… BUT the plus is I can go out on my bike whenever I like and generally do what I like when I like… (although I probably still work more hours than I should). I’ll get a real job one day.

Bikes: Pearson 531 Fixed and Indy Fab Deluxe (for Sailor74)

Gelogy – a bit like Geology but more fluid 😉

what i earn is my business. degree educated (not that it’s a necessity for what i do) but i’m not a big consumer or somebody who’s motivated by the numbers at the bottom of a bank statement. in the past i have earned 3.5k a day this month i haven’t made 1/3 of that. wouldn’t change my job/life though as pretty much do what i like most of the time without any of that management bullcrap that office people have to deal with.

this thread is proof that MTB’ing is a middle class middle management sport though, the average wage in many parts of the country is way below the figures given.

>this thread is proof that MTB’ing is a middle class middle management sport though,

I think you’d get different results if you asked the same on pinkbike 😉

It’s not proof of anything. Those that don’t earn so much might not want to post – same as those that earn a lot perhaps. Earning something somewhere in the middle is the most acceptable probably….

3.5k/day? What kind of deviant activities get that sort of cash?

ask george michael

What do you actually do though MrSmith?

this thread is proof that MTB’ing is a middle class middle management sport though, the average wage in many parts of the country is way below the figures given.

Yep, it’s the new golf. I don’t think it is particularly surprising that folk that can afford to drop a grand on a new bike are generally likely to be earning more than the national average.

MrSmith – Member

what i earn is my business.

You seem quite keen to share though…

Snigle
:o)

The respondents to this thread are all sat at computers during the day. It is likely that the numbers of merchant seamen, riggers, long distance truck drivers, soldiers on active service, miners, forestry workers, big game hunters, stunt pilots, office cleaners, shop-girls, taxi drivers, vole-exterminators, security guards etc posting on this thread is lower than the numbers of such people in the population as a whole, and the proportion who ride mountain bikes.

🙂

Christ its no wonder you all spend so much on fancy ti bikes is it?

I’ve got a degree in IT and the last time I was a salary man, which was 11 years ago when I was 29, I was on £55K-ish (including car allowance).

this thread is proof that MTB’ing is a middle class middle management sport

Yeah it’s proof alright. Proof that the type of people looking at forums like this probably work in an office and have some privacy to do so…

Have been looking for ‘proof’ for a long time now? What are you going to do now you’ve found it?

You only need to look at the price of mountainbikes to figure out the target market.

“What do you actually do though MrSmith?”
i work in the ‘creative industry’.

“Have been looking for ‘proof’ for a long time now?”

no. I can’t say it’s been a life long quest.

“What are you going to do now you’ve found it? “

nothing.

the average wage in many parts of the country is way below the figures given.

Depends where you are really.

The UK average (mean) wage for full-time employees is £31,323 (median is £25,123).

In Scotland, the full-time national mean is £28,296 (24,027 median)
In England, the mean is £32,157 (25,514 median)

In Berwick-upon-Tweed, the mean is 17,789 (17,170 median) – UK lowest.
In City of London the mean is 82,084 (50,479 median) – UK highest.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=15187

To answer your question Sailor74, a second hand Nicolai singlespeed and a Giant SCR Ltd, and though I’m a pretty active biker what with racing road and xc as well as just riding I’d struggle to justify spending more than a grand on a bike.
Though it’s a bit like inverted snobbery having a cheap bike IMO.

I also don’t associate salaries with wealth. And possesions again do not mean good incomes and wealth. I know at least one guy in a poorly paid job he hates that drives a company merc and had a great bike on credit.

No idea, in first year of running a business company and just taking the odd small dividend at the moment – no salary at all.

Quite a bit coming in, but I’ll have to wait and see how much the tax man is going to grab.

Have a BA and postgrad journalism qualification.

You only need to look at the price of mountainbikes to figure out the target market.

I’m a teacher. My brother’s a joiner. His bike’s much more expensive than mine.

I ride with engineers, teachers, call centre staff, bike shop mechanics, eBay shopkeepers, factory workers.

Assumptuions are great, aren’t they?

The UK average (mean) wage for full-time employees is £31,323 (median is £25,123).

As you say, location makes a big difference. I’m pretty much on the national mean, but I live in the North East so am much better off than I would be on the same pay elsewhere.

Pretty similar position here mike. The North East mean is only £21,290 (£25,551 for full time) so you can live like a king on the national mean here 😀

Pretty similar position here mike. The North East mean is only £21,290 so you can live like a king on the national mean here

It does show how silly a national pay is.

Referring to an earlier post that mentioned it’s no-ones business what an individual earns and it’s a taboo subject, it doesn’t bother me if ‘people’, and I use the term loosely since it’s a virtual world, on here know what I earn. I don’t know anyone on here so why on earth would it bother me if they know. I can understand that if I was friends with folks from here, but I’m not so it doesn’t matter. It’s all virtual i’nit.

Referring to an earlier post that mentioned it’s no-ones business what an individual earns and it’s a taboo subject, it doesn’t bother me if ‘people’, and I use the term loosely since it’s a virtual world, on here know what I earn. I don’t know anyone on here so why on earth would it bother me if they know. I can understand that if I was friends with folks from here, but I’m not so it doesn’t matter. It’s all virtual i’nit.

My pay is public knowledge anyway, as the pay scale is there for anyone to see and it wouldn’t be hard to guess where I was on that scale.

I can understand people who have individually negotiated pay not wanting to make it public what they earn, as others doing the same job for the same company might be on less. Similar with people like Brant now wanting it to be public knowledge, as it rather gives away how well his company is doing. I can remember from another thread what MrSmith does, so can see why he’d be a bit coy.

Yes but its virtually insensitive IMO given other peoples situations.

Another interesting statistic fact fans:

UK mean full-time wage for Men: £35,122
UK mean full-time wage for Women: £25,304

Ain’t equality great?

Bollocks. Every woman I know who’s had kids has chosen to work part-time or taken a less demanding job. That pushes down the average.

That’s a lifestyle choice, not inequality.

My wife earns 0. Is she suffering from a lack of equality or am I?

insensitive?

eh?

redundancy is not a new invention. people lost jobs before the recession too you know.

Working part-time or not having a job would not have any effect on the full-time mean.

why would choosing to work part time push down the average FULL TIME wage?

i think you’re on pretty slippery ground trying to deny the pay gap

Taking a less demanding job does. Going from a systems analyst on big money to a teacher (arguably that’s part time I suppose) for example.

How do unemployment figures reflect couples? Both might be working, one might not want to work or needs to look after kids, one, or both, might not be working but want to work.

Didn’t finish my degree, earn between 60-100k (last year 80k), 60k is fixed, 34 yrs old.

However, live with considerable job secutity all the time, not just during a recession

Yes but its virtually insensitive IMO given other peoples situations.

I have a lot of sympathy for people who have been made redundant however the thread title is pretty clear. Do you think we should put a ban on ‘new bike’ posting until this recession is over, just incase it pushes someone over the edge.

virtually insensitive mm interesting use of words – it either is or it isn’t.

Women’s hourly pay mean in 2008 was 17.1 per cent less than men’s pay.

That is hourly so you can’t claim that women are just working less hours.
So I guess they must be working 17% less hard?

And if you still don’t think that is inequality then ask yourself why an equal number of men aren’t opting to make the “lifestyle choice” of a less-demanding job so they can look after the kids while their wife works?

National Statistics – Gender Pay Gap

Referring to an earlier post that mentioned it’s no-ones business what an individual earns and it’s a taboo subject, it doesn’t bother me if ‘people’, and I use the term loosely since it’s a virtual world, on here know what I earn. I don’t know anyone on here so why on earth would it bother me if they know. I can understand that if I was friends with folks from here, but I’m not so it doesn’t matter. It’s all virtual i’nit.

even more so in the real world. i socialise with all sorts of people from different backgrounds with vastly different salaries, their paypacket has no bearing on me being mates with them, if anything it’s the ones who measure themselves in consuming and possessions that i’m less likely to want to socialise with. often it’s the ‘middle earners’ with aspirations who are the worst offenders. the lower and higher earners just want to get on and enjoy life instead of worrying what their neighbors think.

The more posts on here that I read, the more I’m convinced I did the wrong degree… Or actually bothered with a degree in the first place.

The word virtually was a play on an earlier post. This is a virtual environment.
Of course we should not ban the posting however this was started after another thread specifically talking about redundancy, IMO insensitive.
Dont think your likely to push someone over the edge who has lost their job by posting about your new bike. Bit off to then describe how you earn big bucks. If I have to explain the difference then maybe its lost.

even more so in the real world. i socialise with all sorts of people from different backgrounds with vastly different salaries, their paypacket has no bearing on me being mates with them, if anything it’s the ones who measure themselves in consuming and possessions that i’m less likely to want to socialise with. often it’s the ‘middle earners’ with aspirations who are the worst offenders. the lower and higher earners just want to get on and enjoy life instead of worrying what their neighbors think.

I agree Gary. We must go for another beer soon! 😆

Actually, joking aside, we probably should, even if it’s just to get Phil drunk again to chuckle at 24 year-old bravado!

BEng Software Eng. Age 32. earn 30K in gov. sponsored public body.

flexi-time, live in the country about 3 miles for a trail centre, 1 mile from the beach, get time off at the drop of the hat and enjoy my work.

The Welsh have computers now? 😉