I’d never seen one of those before – interesting. I never thought that anything without a torque tube would provide accurate numbers. How does it account for heart rate effected by what you’ve eaten, how hot it is etc? Heart rate is such a lagging factor I can’t see how the short term numbers can be accurate?

Double post whammy.

What about a 2nd hand powertap? You could probably pick one of the wired ones up for 150 notes. I’ve got one I want to offload, but I’m not in the country.

Re: 564 for 3 mins, I’d of thought any half decent roadie would get somewhere near those numbers on a good day, probably put you at about cat 2 if you are 80kg. If you are under 70kg you’d be riding near elite level, well were I live anyway.

DP bonanza

I use strava just to track how much riding I’ve done and if I’m making an effort or not, you can’t really kid yourself so easily if it’s up there in front of you, it’s way easier and more fun than a training log, I’d imagine anyway. I guess there are other ones like training peaks etc, but I like the social aspect, I plan rides with mates and what not on it as I’m not a facebooker and it’s easier than texting everyone.

Plus I get to beat this guy with OCD called Carl who lives down the road, that’s always fun, I swear he’s stalking me.

I can’t see that the merchandizing thing with strava is going to take off thou, that’s taking it way too far – strava socks ffs!

But I only did a couple of test tubes, that must be a 10th of a pint tops? I presume that it did make a difference, as I was training on my limit, but I’m still surprised it had the effect it did.

That’s what I thought. Wine is thinner than blood I noticed, so will go for a 100:1 ratio of loss to replacement, youknow to be on the safe side.

Italian threads sometimes need it on the drive side. I’m my experience.

I frothed at the mouth, but that was the wine rather than execsise induce. It was cheap wine,

+1 for bristolbikers advice. But you never know if you might get a monkey on the job once you’ve left. Threads may not look damaged, but as material (metal) is removed (hence the rouge finish) the threads will be weakened if they take a direct blast. Washer and a bolt, don’t take the risk.

I shot blast a lot of frames, i know how wrong it can go! :oops:

Lots of nice mtbing around the east of the Island – the usual routes start from Yarmouth and go up arund Brighstone forest

Your map is upside down – that’s west wight.

Or one **** himself silly in a giant red holdall. :lol:

Get some cheap bolts and big washers, that’s what i did. I also kept bolts in the bottle holes and canti bosses. If they use too course a glass, or let the nozzle linger too long it’ll damage the thread, it’ll also blow through thin tubes, if they are really clumsy, should be ok with a gas pipe Mtb thou with any luck.

Pimped out like some cheap ho :oops:

Not good.

I think I should block them maybe, no reason for them to have my mediocre rides on their dashboard every time they log on.

Tim – Member

this is better

Thanks Tim, that was the best thing I have seen in years, fantastic! :D

NZ? LOL! I doubt the Maori will welcome you with open arms (check youtube Link).

On the whole i’ve found them to be just like everyone else trying to get along in life, unless you include the militant loonies, but then I don’t think that all of the indigenous UK folk are members of the national front either.

I’ve lived in NZ for 5 years now. I don’t think that i’d return to the UK. NZ isn’t perfect by any means, but I prefer it, but i’m sure that many don’t for what ever reason.

What it is better for in NZ (in my experience) Schools, weather, work/life balance, food and wine, so pretty much most of my needs covered. Health care is very good and TV reminds me of the 80’s.

Gong :D

Love the stones, get her satanic majesties request!

Or let it bleed of course.

The major reason for emigrating was to rid my life of the agony of standing on a UK 3 pin plug ever again.

lego x 6. :cry:

Some manufacturers trade prices are better than others, and some by quite some margin. But none that I know of are approaching what you seem to be paying

Which ones do you know of? How many years ‘in the industry’ have you under your belt?

This is also true. margins vary between 42% (very rare, on low end cheaper brands when they have too much stock etc) and as low as 23% on high end frame sets. These are the two ends of the spectrum, the usual for big distributors will be as stated earlier in the thread between 32% and 37% depending on quantities ordered etc.

That’s not really disclosing any industry secrets regarding pricing structure, just an overview, which others have outlined earlier.

Buying bikes direct from the importer makes a big difference of course. The guys who win when it comes to prices are the guys who work for the big companies, and get their bikes at what they actually cost the importer to buy (not the retailer). These very few, and very lucky guys, are the ones that will end up with bikes for less than 50% of the RRP cost, but for the guys working in your LBS they’re not saving an enormous margin buying their own bikes than you could get if you shopped around/online most probably.

That’s true! I have had a few frames at this level, and the difference is quite staggering. This is also how Pauls etc manage to discount so heavily. In my opinion it is damaging for brands to do this thou as it becomes their one of the only outlets. Look whats happened to RM and Tomac, I don’t think any LBS’s would be likely to take them on, reducing the desire for a consumer to own one, as warranty issues and servicing etc is problematic when there are few dealers.

I think that you’ll find that on the whole, provided that stock levels remain constant then you are holding the money for the tax office, not the other way around, provided that you are actually paying your VAT, not reclaiming VAT each month/quarter. The only time i did that was before I opened and was stocking up.

Carbon fiber is pretty cheap by the kilo, as is epoxy. Much less than the 2000 pounds per kilo of cervelo’s RRP!

:wink:

Corporaton tax?.. aren’t we all lead to believe there no money to be made in running a bike shop.. in which case the corporation tax liability is zero.

Well i’m not sure if the UK tax laws have changed, but when i had a bike shop we paid ours. If you are not a Ltd Company thou you wouldn’t have this. If you are not paying this tax then you are not going to be able to live much of a life on your pay alone, income is derived from dividend payouts. They might of closed that loophole thou?

A shop will be doing well to make between 25% net on all sales repair and service over the year. So say a shop takes 200k a year (prob about average for a small well positioned shop). It has 50k to split between all the staff and other costs. No there is not much money in the bike trade.

Jewelery and high end watches, now that’s a different fish of kettles.

stuarty – Member

Me i bought a 500 quid giant talon
Whether it cost 300 I doent care
I liked the man that sold it to me deal done
What’s it worth ? Who cares it makes me feel like a kid when I’m out on it .the cost priceless

Good point. The truth is (depending on the level that the shop is on with Giant) the bike would of cost him say between 290 and 325. So let’s say for arguments sake it was 300. He has to give the tax man 83 of that. So the profit is down to 117. He has to pay someone to build it up, say 5? if he/she is quick. He might of had to pay shipping, if he bought in less than freight free, 10ish? He has to pay to dispose of the box, plastic etc. The list go’s on. He might make 90 pounds? That’s before he’s paid the rent, electric, business rates – then given the tax man another wedge of corporation tax. If he give you 10% discount you are down to peanuts.

The long and short of it is that there is not a great amount to be made. If you are a small LBS with limited buying power and discount a high end brand by 15% off RRP you will not make a very much at all, that’s how tight the margins are.

You pay your money and you make your choice, if there is a specific value proposition in purchasing from a LBS at a price that suits both you and the shop (that’s the market) then do it, if not shop else where, but whining and moaning about LBS’s ripping you off is not very likely to be true, how much do you spend on food every year? How much could you buy it for if you shopped around, yet are you on consumer forums demanding to know how much Tesco’s pay for a loaf of bread?

I know that no one likes to pay more than they have to for anything, but as has been said previously, it’s nor just about what you are walking out the shop with, it’s about the service, the advice and the after sales care. If you don’t give a hoot about that then shop online, but there really is no conspiracy.

Thanks clubbed, sound advice. My misses has some evening primrose oil, I’ll nick some and see if it works :wink:

I’ve managed to get a few KOMS but not good ones, just ones that no one else has bothered with ‘yet’

I am pretty sure that the usual suspects target all the local routes to get as many as they can, as I would too if I had the youth and the legs.

I think that I’ll change my strategy and just try and better my own times, sound advice.

Hmmmm yer I suppose that I should set a segment on a loop I do. I know what a good time on that is already, so maybe it won’t help. Can I waste some of my wife’s money on gadgets to inspire me? What’s the one that shows yourself (via your best times) up the road on a little screen?

I’m just finding it hard to motivate myself to get out riding and wonder if this will help,

I think that if some gits locally were not so damn quick I’d have more motivation, you don’t like to see up there in lights how much slower you are, stupid strava.

*their

Sorry! too much to drink. that’s the trouble when you’ve run a bike shop and retire to the sun to the southern hemisphere and post in one’s evening. (i’m not the only one by the way)

Do it! but get some advice first maybe, from people that have done it.

I helped a few guys set up shop in the UK. All of which are still thriving. It’s not impossible.

Do you think when you pass every corner shop etc “how the *uck are they making any money, there’s a Tesco down the road”. Same thing with bike shops. Don’t think for a moment that your main income will be from STW’ers – I assure you that it won’t be.

Love Landis, great rider. anyone that watched st16 2006 would appreciate that that ride took guts beyond what the others in the peleton had and was testimony to his time spent in mtb racing – hard, all out pace then time trialing it to the finish.

Gutsy rider, talented, sully sunglasses, ugly face – what’s not to love.

(besides the intravenous transfusions that it)

Look to be fair, 90% of the money that i made from owning a LBS was not made from people who even knew what STW was as are probably most LBS’s. I started a LBS in 2002, loved ‘almost’ every moment of it, it was great. Best time of my life.

Shops are there, some of them even stay there a while, they succeed if you do it right.

1) location
2) Stock
3) Price

Get that right and you can do ok. OK, you are not going to make millions, but you’ll be doing something you love and you can muck around with bikes all day.

You can listen to a load of people on ‘STW’ or elsewhere telling you to do this that and the other: or do what the hell you you want to do with your on life. I did and I have no regrets what so ever. I made more money than I ever would have some in what I was ‘trained’ to do. and enjoyed it more than anything else that I have ever done.

I would never, never tell a mate not to follow his/her dreams. In fact I told a mate (best man at my wedding) to stop packing shelves at somerfield, get back to school and redo his a-levels. He did that, and now he’s a surgeon. So f*ck you people that don’t take a chance on what they could do.

So…… by all means, don’t do it. Live life being a social worker, admin clerk, engineer – what ever it is that what makes you comfortable. But if you don’t give it a go and give it all you’ve got then you’ll not know what I now do and be glad that you did it.

That’s from someone who got off there butt, got out there and did it.

:D

Twas the best thing I ever did, shops still there 10 years later, made enough doe to pay off my mortgage, made loads of really good friends, got to ride my bike a lot, and got lots of nice bikes out of it!

What could possibly go wrong?

:P

sweet, thanks for that! Don’t think i’ve even noticed that button before :oops:

But how do I log out on my phone I don’t see a menu option when I start it up.

Cheers

I’ve got a reasonable base fitness level and kept riding all winter (I live in Southern Hemisphere) and fitness had not dropped much over the last 2/3 years.

I noticed it when I was doing rides on my trainer too, some days i’d just loose all energy in no time at all. I’d be trying to do 2x20min intervals and some days i’d just hit the wall 10 mins in and no amount of trying would help.

My mate reckons ‘if in doubt – rest’ so I might take a few days off and do nothing? Or get some Evening Primrose Oil like mikewsmith suggests.

@crikey, all on road really as the race is road. Training 8 – 13 hours a week. I build for 3 weeks, then rest off for a week, then build back up again, aiming to ease off for the week prior to the race.

I’ve been doing some LSD rides and some speed and interval work so that I have some power/speed when I need it.

I was at the dump chucking some rubbish and a guy was just about to bin one of those retro tv/radio combo’s from the early 80’s, the one’s with the big handles. I asked him politely if he intended to chuck it, he said yes and that he’d be happy for me to have it if I thought that it would be of some use to me. It certainly wasn’t, but the 50 pounds I got for it on Ebay the next week was. The guy at the council dump had a bit of a go at me, but the way I saw it he was going to bin it, it was in his car and nothing to do with him, sour grapes!

Pretty much anything ‘retro’ gets top dollar from the crazys and hipsters.

Nope, not that both spot on 7mm. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Good point, i’ll get out the verniers.

I applied the paste (finish line) last night, yer it’s the gritty stuff. But it didn’t work, still slipped. My old saddle didn’t slip ever and I never used the paste then. It’s just not working. Gluuuuuuuuuue you say?

There are no spacers between those two, they are attached. Also it just started doing it one day, without me messing around with it prior. It’s a mystery. I’ll try a new chain I suppose once one turns up in the post, I’m out of ideas.