Hi Andy,

I’m not sure if this is your remit or not, but are you familiar with Winchester City Council’s plans to expand the P&R car park at Bar End for coach parking?

Their intention is to bulldoze a significant amount of mature woodland including the infamous Bar End trails which have been a popular spot for riders globally since their inception in 1997.

I have meet with WCC and HCC and they are looking at other sites that we have suggested. However, this remains their preferred option. They have not yet applied for planning.

Questions are therefore:

1. Were you aware of this?

2. As a rider / ecologist / rights of way advocate, is this something you would also oppose?

3. Do you have any power/leverage with(in) these organisations?

Ripple @ 1:38

Rode it Monday. Added fun sliding 90 on the steep rocky downslope/berm things just after Energy, covered in ice.

You’ll be grand

There was a 13 year old kid, quite small for his age, on one of these at the trails the other day and he was absolutely shredding:

https://www.sourcebmx.com/Mobile/en/Fit-Eighteen-18-BMX-Bike-2018/m-m-34278.aspx?PartnerID=1237&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIv82GhOfZ1wIVTrvtCh33_AktEAQYASABEgJHZfD_BwE&utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=UnitedKingdom

Sorry for long link. Posting from phone.

Pricey but very decent

Just cost me £400 for one sycamore tree felling, burnable logs cut to length & stacked and remainder chipping and taking away.

Most expensive quote I got was £450.

#harrogatetax

Haha – try Winchester, Hants. The cheapest quotes we have for the same were both a grand. And both were mates rates! Highest was £1.8k.

The sycamore lives on

Woah, Building The Underground- that was peak BMX!

Have to dig it out and find the Darin Reed section now

Don’t find yourself at 45 with three kids, a crippling mortgage and a dog with no choice but to soldier on doing a job you hate for the rest of your life in order to service your hefty obligations.

That happens a lot round here.
Haha – that’s me exactly, less the job!

My wife asked for a divorce this morning and the council are planning on bulldozing our trails. Today has been rad.

I wish you luck!

Could everyone who writes that they have since found a job they love – please, please, please do go on to state what that job actually is? Many thanks.

Caspian – if that was even a half-serious offer I’d love to take you up on that!

It is! How tall are you? All my bikes are XL, I’m 6’2″.
Could do any day next week.

If only there were more folks like you, we would have an actual buy-to-let biking market.

£33 for two hours is a better rate than my temp job yields at the minute. I’d far rather lend you a bike (Whyte T-130 C RS*) and show you the South Downs from Winchester for that hourly rate. I’ll throw in the guiding for free, plus find you secure parking, food, etc.

*I had a well paid job when I bought that.

70, I think. Only £350,631.94 to go. Good job I’m a single earner on a zero hours contract doing labouring and only have four other mouths to feed.

Not my favourite topic, this.

I’m 37 and 6’2″. I’d highly recommend a 22″ wheel BMX, something like the Fit Brian Foster:

https://www.winstanleysbmx.com/product/82858/Fit_BF22_22_Inch_2017_BMX_Bike_Gloss_Clear_Wheel_22?gclid=CjwKCAjwo4jOBRBmEiwABWNaMf2kglNL7Y5-LauBpQhRRHDew-m3j-VsZyF2g-NT6H0Gg_O9oM32AxoC1d8QAvD_BwE

Has anyone come back from a long term injury and managed to get fitter than before?

Yes, much fitter and more flexible at 37 than when I slipped two discs and ruptured a third aged 31. Like you, I had an MRI scan. I then spoke to the surgeon (£200 for 20 minutes) and he quoted £8k for the op. Didn’t go for it and spent 10 months in pain, no riding at all, waiting for the NHS options.

Then NHS cortisone injection up the spine, which created a gap between the ruptured disc and the sciatic nerve (this is about £1,300 private). I was a new man by the time I finished walking home from the hospital. So good!

Reading about “lordosis”, a 2nd hand Varier Thatsit chair and 40 press-ups a day later, no problems at all.

Good luck with it!

encrypted bitcoin accounts, kidnapping rich peoples’ dogs

Jeez, sorry about that. Must be time to sober up.

what you did in O&G ?

I do all the boring shite that no-one else wants to do, namely:

Supply chain, logistics, inventory management, warehouse, procurement, international freight forwarding, expediting, customs clearance, contract drafting, contract execution & management.

My fluency in Russian and in-depth knowledge of the Kazakh commodity exchange should come in handy behind the counter in Millets

I’ve three small kids, a wife with no degree/skills/job, no redundancy pay and a £352,000 mortgage @ £1,400/month.

If I begin to talk about encrypted bitcoin accounts, kidnapping rich peoples’ dogs, etc. Please ignore as it’s the gin talking.

As said above, these situations have a way of sorting themselves out.

But any more talk of “yah I totally cleared the mortgage” then keep Fido inside!

That’s £36,000 a year. Neither I or Mrs PP have ever earned that much, and we’re only just up the M3 from you.

That’s encouraging. In which town do you live? How many kids do you have? Perhaps most significantly – in which year did you buy your first house (assuming you’re not renting)?

Oil & Gas here also, but contracting, hence no redundancy. Currently down to just one day per week which is not covering the mortgage or the kids’ food.

I’m taking the NATS ATC exam this Friday having passed the online tests. Seems like a good, secure, PAYE job which is very appealing after contracting in a dying industry.

If that fails, no idea where to go next. We already downsized last year. It was horrible moving the kids, and with it being the south was £47k in costs. Not doing that again.

Quite fancy tiling, plastering, anything physical with a bit of head scratching. But £140/day doesn’t count for shit in Winchester, Hampshire.

Contract killing?

Do it! We’re in Mallorca now. Rented a bike for today and had a great time. Flybe go from Southampton to Palma direct so I know what I’m doing next Feb-Apr time. Pollenca supposedly has multiple bike hire shops and EUR 25/day gets you a decent enough road bike.

I need to change accountants

Small.
The accounting.
£180 per month incl. VAT

Training starts March 2017

Well?

Watching with interest as have something similar in June and started proper training today (16 weeks)

Yes to ANT+ dongle and a 3mtr long USB cable, both on amazon, about £15 all in IIRC

Mashie – thanks, I gave a few quid just now.

One of my kids was delivered by an excellent and very overqualified Syrian doc and I’ve been grateful ever since that we have such folks in our NHS.

Anyone got any advice for improving my consistency on the flat? Like I said earlier, I can easy pump out 3+w/h consistently on a climb, but struggle to even hit 2-2.5 on a flatter ride.

Exactly the same problem here – thought it was just me!

Can someone recommend the best first race for me? lowest category and up to around 1 hour and if it’s worth getting on those live chat things or not? I like the idea of the cat and mouse as it looks like there maybe some guidance to how to ride in a group?

The KISS Europe race at 8pm GMT tonight would be a good race to begin with. Enter any group – doesn’t really matter – go for Group D if not sure.

I enter races via the Zwift mobile app but there are probably other ways.

The first two minutes of the race are horrible!

No Zwifting this weekend, but planning on doing a Zwift race at some point next week. What are folk thinking of entering?

I’ll try another KISS 8pm weekday race next week. First one was yesterday and I went for CAT B which was a huge mistake! Second from last!

I am another recent convert 90% thanks to this thread.

Knew a girl who could reach the bottom of the stairs from the top. Good party that was.

An ex of mine would probably clear the steps that Rocky runs up. Truly shocking

Some nice rants there. I started in procurement after a guy on our oilfield got drunk and fell of something tall. I hate it, I’m not proud of it but it pays very well. Looking at my few remaining friends (thanks in part to having worked overseas for 12yrs) my honest advice would be to work in something more fulfilling and marry someone rich. Anyone who enjoys this shite has a screw loose.

Two of my friends just got these in that colour. They are indeed awesome things. Start Fitness website has 30% off these but XL only

I’ve a large T-130s, and that doesn’t feel overly large IMHO
a 50mm Thomson, and 780 Renthals, its seems spotty dog..
Love it.

At this point it would be very, very handy to know how tall you are. Otherwise this information is completely useless.

The artist formerly kn..

Too soon?

Thanks – donated. Good luck with the fundraising. Hope your hair ends up pink!

Very sorry to hear that you lost your daughter.

I followed the FB link but couldn’t find a way to donate. I am stupid and my attention span is short. For the benefit of people like me, could you please post a JustGiving or similar link to make donating as idiot-proof as possible?

You’ve created a good looking spot there. I hope some less busy people can attend and do the place justice. Good luck with it.

Sat 23rd is my first day home with my three kids after four weeks away for work so I can’t attend.

We built bar end trails in Winchester. Some weekends – 70 people on the roll-in. Nowadays, no-one. Nowt so queer as folk.

Are you able to ride jumps with a fused ankle?

£560k on Mortgage

Thank you, whoever that was, a few pages back. Feel better now.

35, sole income, self-employed oil & gas contractor, three little kids, £420k debt. Sleep? Hair? Time to ride? Not so much.

House going on market tomorrow.

Sleep in the office? My commute involves three flights and 4,500 miles. Not so bad when you work 45 days straight, spend some time with family afterwards and have £423,000 debt to motivate you to keep doing it!

I use TransferWise as well – it would be easy to set the holiday company up as a recipient. Should have it all done in 2-3 days.

Someone on here mentioned Revolut[/url] but which has no spread at all but being a luddite I couldn’t get it to work.

I get paid in USD and convert to GBP. I would offer to help you out but I just transferred everything to GBP so have no dollars left :(

Can you post pics of your running gear (not that i’m some weird stalker person)

FTFY

Thanks for that reply P-Jay. That’s really useful info.

And again from me.

OP – I lost my job four years ago in your exact situation (debt was very slightly less at the time, I think £110k). I tried to claim housing benefit / income support / anything but had more than £16k in assets so nothing came of it other than some £7/hr labouring work (through agency, not job centre).

Managed to find “proper” work again after three months so it worked out ok.

I now have four times that debt and only enough savings to cover five months of downtime if things go tits up so it’s good to know there is about an extra year’s grace from the lenders if the worst does happen.

To think I never had so much as an overdraft until I was 30! Funny how quickly things change after marriage/kids.

Three boys here: 5, 3, 1. Everything written above is true.

Difficulty is exponential like South Downs Way attempts (single, double, triple):

One: Hard to power of one.
Two: Hard to power of three.
Three: Hard to power of six.

Would I have a third? Have you ever tried to take the ‘f’ out of ‘way’?

That about sums it up. I just finished a skype call with my wife who has all three of them on her own for five weeks. Some woman.

If a life of benefits is so easy why don’t you give it a go?

You would need to **** away your assets first, assuming you had more than £16k of them.

Actually, that sounds like a win-win.

Aga for heating, or save money by driving a 1980s V8 petrol range rover through your wall, idling it 24/7 and frying eggs on that instead.