Pyga?

I got a quote for some wheels from AW Cycles. They were quite competitive for a full wheel build, but a bit pricy for a wheel transplant to a rim. The bloke sounded pleasant enough though.

At least you won’t have to:
– deal with a chain
– get gazumped
– have the seller mysteriously pull out
– be left with no resort if something in the house goes pop/is dodgy

New build all the way for me! A house is just a place to live and store the bikes in for me to be honest.

Book an Alpine holiday? Then you’ll have to ride.

It’s included in your luggage allowance with BA. Up to 20kg if you’re flying normal, 30kg if you’re flying business.

I’ve flown to Spain with just the carry on and the bike bag for a week’s riding with no problems.

Thought you’d have to be insured.

Way I look at it is you have an experienced driver there to supervise. If you’re a rubbish learner they may have to take over and get you home. If that happens then they need to be insured to drive your car legally!

So at the sharp end of racing travel is less important?

I lose sleep about all the unemptied used degreaser in my garage 🙁

Green clashes horribly with my bike. Cheers all, ordered from XCRacer!

Cheers, how does that XCRacer type on fit to the handlebars? Sorry for the dumb question.

How do you get rid of the used degreaser?

I did.

It works because I found better paid work close by too.

It’s awesome.

I thought the reason for the high cost was because of the risk to other people from you driving, not the value of the car?

Seeing as saving money is the main aim it seems a bit perverse to spunk £650-£1000 insuring a car that I’ll only drive about 20 times a year. Could just carry on using the Polo and spend the money I save on a bike holiday instead.

Seems cars (like bikes) do something strange to the rational part of my brain!

You do with these folk, but you have to stay with them to get the NCD. It’s not transferable to another insurer. Hopefully will translate into a saving because of having multiple cars at that point.

Yeah, no point railing about it I guess.

Looking more and more like the answer is to stay on the existing car’s policy as named driver and wait for a year before buying a hunk of junk.

Ah well, it was fun while it lasted. Thanks for the responses everybody. Some useful insight anyway.

I like the sound of a Toyota for some reason.

How about something like this? What would be the pitfalls apart from the insane insurance quote of £974 annually?

We already have a 3 door 2008 Polo I’m a named driver on. It will cost £650 to get insured on it fully comp. Perhaps I will have to scale down my ambitions if that’s the cost to insure myself on a 1.2L car! It does run very nicely, but it would be nice to have a 4 door vehicle and to be able to put the bike in the boot when it’s just me in there.

I don’t live in a large city, I’m not a teenager, use is SDP and commuting only, and it’ll be parked off-street. Hoping I’ll be low cost for insurance because of that!

I currently take the train to work during Winter/Autumn. Means I can put the £500 I spend on it towards the car if I drive to work instead.

I think Froome is cool too!

If the bit about Wiggins withholding his bonus is true then I like him more than Wiggins.

I’m sure Bradley is having sleepless nights in his mansion thinking about the last bit.

I’d happily have paid the £30 to fit it. The problem was getting the bike to him to fit the kit! Unless you’re local, or are very cash rich and time poor it doesn’t make sense.

If you do it indoors then you can probably do it in a few hours. Took me about 4 hours over 3 nights in a cold garage. I was lucky to have a heat gun loaned to me by a neighbour too!

I used Transferwise. Saved a fair amount on the bank’s fees and got a fee free transfer because some kind soul on here supplied me with a link. I think it’s 0.5% if not. Way better than the 3% my bank wanted to charge me.

And that was using bank transfer btw.

I did it myself, but bought the kit from Invisiframe. It was fairly simple to do, but you need patience and a warm garage!

Also, if you go down the DIY route, make sure you read the instructions, and remove any rubber guards on the frame before you try and fit the kit 🙂

2nd hand Osprey Momentum? Will take a laptop (specific compartment) and gym kit plus a lunch box. I’ve been using one for the past 2-3 years.

I see a few folk ride round with stuff like that. It makes me thing they’re using a very expensive airbag!

To pay off the mortgage early.

Happiness will then follow shortly. Right?

Watch out with that. It may not apply if you pay the loan off early.

Anyone had the cinch cord snap on these? Contacted Howies to see if they could sort it out for me but they’ve passed the buck to Wiggle.

Why does nobody notice THE GIANT HOLE in the seat tube?

@jambalaya

I lived and worked in London. Yes, the culture is amazing. The other two I’d not consider valid reasons to live there. Perhaps it’s me being cynical, but everytime I visit it feels increasingly like a slick money extracting operation from end to end.

You can travel to the West End for a show, likewise you can go to Heathrow to get on a plane, you could even make a special trip to go out for a meal at that hot new restaurant.

Things like seeing a show on the spur of the moment, or jetting off on holiday to the tropics is something only a select few can afford several times a year. Maybe even “millionaires” in London.

Listen to what I mean, not what I say!

@Kryton57

Serious question, apart from the family connections is there anything else that keeps you in London? In another thread you mention you made a living in a consultancy type role. If you had the money, why would you not consider relocating to somewhere outside the M25 and working as you choose to and not because you had to?

A millionaire is not what it once was. My mate’s dad is a millionaire if you consider his house in Surrey is worth £1.2 million. I know another person who has a few million in the bank. The former’s biggest extravagance is a boat. The latter has an apartment on the continent and a large house complete with library up North. He rents both out.

Apart from not having to work and owning multiple properties the only difference between him and I is the volume of riding we do 🙂

Perhaps what Kryton57 means is it’s not exactly a “my name is Hector Riva, welcome to my world!” scenario you’d fall into. Personally, having to work because I want to sounds pretty damned good to me!

Time is the most precious thing we have in this world.

£1 million would mean not having to worry about paying the mortgage and a tidy sum left over. I’d be able to work selectively, my partner could do the same and we’d have all the time we’d like to be able to spend with our family.

So yes, it is a life changing amount if you choose it to be!

As for university, the current generation are fighting for an ever dwindling size of the pie. Who knows if university is even the right choice for them to help them achieve lasting happiness/success?

P.S: I am a not-far-from-London dweller

I’ve been a perm at a consultancy hired out as a contractor. It’s great if you’re working for a good consultancy. You get some excellent clients on your CV, get to work on some interesting projects and can signal when you want out. It’s a short to medium term strategy unless you want to move up through the consultancy’s management, because you’ll never be financially well off as those whose jobs you’re doing.

I got out to work as a perm closer to home. Salary, work-life balance are much better. Some of my friends got out to go consult/contract and they earn a lot more. The successful ones say the trick is to not ramp up your lifestyle in line with the pay so you’re not reliant on working all year. Decent contracts in our industry last from a few months to a few years.

Part of me wishes I’d taken that route but it wasn’t an option financially. If you have it then take it. If you’re good at what you do and your industry is booming you can always go back to being perm with someone else. With contracts, a lot of times it’s not about hiring the best, but hiring the best available at the time. You have the option of being a contractor and feeling out the market while being well compensated. Can your current job offer you a similar opportunity to feel out your progress in the organisation?

I would also be a bit worried about your current workplace if they’re considering making someone as young as you redundant. What’s that all about?

Couple of spacers in there. Front end feels higher than a 26″ 160mm bike.

Only 1/4 success rate according to the mag. Someone be smart and organise a rival sportive for the same date!

@matther01

31.6mm I believe.

http://www.yt-industries.com/en/products/bikes/enduro/232/capra-cf-pro-race?c=92

Click on the seatpost section to expand.

9/11 psi on 2.35″ Hans Dampfs on Flow EX rims.

Probably go 15/17 if it’s properly rocky.

About 70kg fully loaded.

Anyone know if the trade-in deal is going at Evans?

@zilog6128

Only bread substitute I’ve tried so far that was ok was a pita bread. All the others taste quite powdery. Also, the rice flour used in the alternatives remind me of bland Indian cooking.

It would be a cinch in India/sub-continent though!

Been gluten free for the past 26 days and this article has helped with it tremendously:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ailbhemalone/15-mouthwatering-no-bread-sandwiches#.vugyOkMjv

Ones I have tried are:

I’ve not noticed a physical benefit to going gluten free. However, what I eat is much more varied due to it.

Another tip is to use large lettuce leaves in place of wraps. It works quite well if you don’t mind getting messy on fajita nights!

As a learner it does feel like the standards are dropping. I’m probably contributing to it too!

Started taking lessons for the first time 6 years ago. People seemed to be more courteous then. These days I’ve had people overtake me on the pavement when crossing on a roundabout in a residential area in 2nd gear. Not sure what they’re hoping to achieve really.