YT Capra. Probably next year at this rate.

Canyon Ultimate CF. Probably the same.

Rented one for an uplift day. The bike hire guys said they went through BBs at a rate. I thought it rode quite well.

Might just be the demands of British weather and hire bikes being generally abused. Wouldn’t put me off buying one. If the CRC buying experience is as good with bikes as it is with general kit then you can’t go wrong I guess.

Having said that there are so many great deals on all the 2nd hand 26″ bikes that people are flogging to upgrade. I’d probably look for one of those.

Where are you riding that is so steep?

fixed that for you

You might think so, I couldn’t possibly comment.

Step 1 – Keep trying to jump or boost lips of things.
Step 2 – Eventually get tired of constantly trying to jump.
Step 3 – Once you’re sufficiently tired your dominant hand will pull the bars one way while your bike’s rear points the other way. If you’re lucky you won’t crash.
Step 4 – Pretend you just did a whip.

As someone who crunched his front shifter in a stack a week ago, I look forward excitedly to my first 1x X bike!

Will be simpler to clean too.

I DID IT!

Required a set of dentist’s picks off eBay (£4.99), detaching the lower rubber stoppy thing and having a go.

Shifter’s crunched though. Hopefully SO will sell me his. Damned thing is not staying in gear.

Do you pay a fee if your item doesn’t sell? Apart from for insertion.

I thought they were all pretty good. Season 3 felt a little rushed towards the end. I think it’s because HBO were thinking about canning it and the writers wanted to tie everything up before it was over.

It’s the best cop show I’ve ever seen, though I’ve not seen The Shield yet.

Best TV Series I’ve ever seen has to be House Of Cards. Hands down.

Maybe they want to see where they can improve? The easiest way to see where you’re going wrong (if you know how to do it right) is to film, or get someone to film you isn’t it?

When asked if he’s going bowling…

“

Very useful when “mystery” packages arrive, or you get caught sneaking out in your riding clothes!

Do you mean “bell-end”?

Wife’s brakes are due a bleed. I’d probably check my life insurance if I was her. For now, she remains blissfully oblivious.

Those things are great in their natural habitat (Continental Europe). The missus and I had huge fun haring about in Bruge on them. Riding down steps, trying to “send” the 3 inch kerb and so on. Would rather have a rigid SS with slicks for the UK though. I don’t know why.

All the Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl ones. Tintin, Asterix for stuff with pictures. Read a lot of sci-fi when I was a kid. Mostly Arthur C Clarke and Asimov. I found them quite confusing though.

And those ones where they have you turn to a page based on your choice. I loved those! What are they called? Choose your own adventure or something?

VOTE PEDRO!

I’ve got a T25 tool. I’ve ordered some dentist’s picks as well. Let’s see how I get on. Wonder if a vacuum cleaner will loan or enough to make it fall out.

@theflatboy

Sorry, meant “his brother in law”! I was 2 minutes too late for a stealth edit!

What possible bearing does knowing your fork travel have on how well you ride?

I think some people conflate being a bike geek with the ability to ride a bike well.

but wouldn’t you rather ride a nice tyre every day and fix the odd puncture

In the summer, yeah. Winter, never!

Is the difference that noticeable? People keep saying it, but I have a hard time accepting it.

Mate invited his sister’s brother for a trip to Wales with us. He asks casually “what kind of place are we going to”. I look at the Orange 5 on the roof and say “oh it’s trail centre stuff and it’s got plenty of line choices if the harder lines are too much for you”.

Turns out he used to be Sam Hill’s roommate on the junior DH worlds circuit.

Nothing more embarrassing than seeing him wheelie through the gap between the gates.

And climb uphill casually wheelie-ing by.

Or smoke everyone on the way down on the trail they were having that week’s Enduro seeding run down.

Just treat the guy with respect. If your just looking for a weekend’s solo riding and don’t want to be lugged with a Derek then just let him know. However, I’d try and make friends. Some of the best riding I’ve experienced in my life is because people better than me let me ride with them despite me being a shit rider and I’m always grateful they indulged me.

You could always ride with him for a couple of hours in the morning, drop him off at the lunch stop if he’s crap and carry on without losing too much.

I run Gatorskins. They’re supposed to be slow, but I like the added protection.

Went with this lot here over bank holiday weekend. It was amazing!

How was standover clearance on the medium?

Aren’t team building exercises thing that large corporations have stolen from start ups in the hope of replicating their success without addressing the real problems the organisation is suffering from?

A bit like cargo culting?

If you want to know how to build a successful team then try reading A Year Without Pants by Scott Berkun. It’s about his account of working as a team leader at WordPress for a year. Now they have an interesting workplace.

I know someone who did it in their 50s after being made redundant. He retrained as a draughtsman and makes a good living to this day doing drawings for construction related stuff. Do it.

theres an old school shop in acton that are pretty good but only really deal with commuting and town bike stuff

Woolsey of Acton?

Try Moose Cycles?

Kew Gardens.

OP, if you want a guide to how a guy went from beginner to Cat1 then here is a blog from Rob Sharland of Kingston Wheelers.

http://firstseasonracing.com/

I find these help really well with my body shape:

Enders Game
The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier And Clay
Open – Andre Agassi

@mtbtomo

If you do some Strava snooping you can see what the open road race average speeds are.

But salaries are not entirely like mortgages because they are linked to how skilled you are at your job and that can vary.

If I spend money on improving my house, I enjoy the benefits of the improvement and I get a share of the profits if the house’s value goes up. However, if my employer does not increase my remuneration when my skills improve then they alone benefit from it in the form of increased productivity/profits. I could also be negatively affected by improvements if my employer uses it to increase my workload. For now I will be performing more work for the same remuneration.

Perhaps salaries should be considered to be more in line with a share price?

As an employee all you want to know is that you are getting paid at what the company values you at, not the least they can get away with.

YES!

This is what I’ve been trying to get across. It feels exploitative for lack of a lesser term. I don’t struggle to make ends meet, but what I’m paid and what I should be paid is the difference between SLX and XT!

Genesis.

Isn’t Peters working with Liverpool with the wendyballers?

Define adequate…

Difficult, but I’d have a go.

Find the median and the average salaries for people with similar qualifications, years of service/experience. Try and see if you can establish a baseline using that. Trigger a review for anyone say, 10% off either way?

Happy? No. Move to somewhere that provides adequate remuneration? Yes.

if you come in on a lower base you’ll never catch up to someone who potentially has exactly the same career

Amen to that.

I’d love nothing more than to stay with the company I’m currently on. However, I’m of the opinion that in a good company you’d not have to threaten to leave, or wait for some arbitrary date to increase your pay. If wishes were unicorns right?

I still wonder what my senior is going to do with the knowledge though. I’ll see him again soon and I’m going to ask him what he gets paid. I’ve got a good idea, but I just want to see how he will respond to the question.

so it can takes years to slowly iron out pay anomalies.

By “slowly”, do you mean “never”? I have seen guys with aptitude improve at a mercurial rate. Especially in technical disciplines. Their pay never catches up unless they move jobs.

@samuri

He’s looking to see who the most likely person to sack is.

I’ve already handed my notice in!

@mikewsmith

To the OP as to why a senior person wants to know? They think your either very underpaid or very overpaid They are also very overpaid if they didn’t just think of calling HR.

I know I’m underpaid, that’s part of why I’m leaving! I started here as a very junior person (lowest of the low) and worked my way up. He wanted to know what I’m currently paid, and where I’m leaving to is paying me.

We work in an industry where you can see what market rate is by simply going on a job site. Industry standard qualifications mean you can quite easily assess your worth. He knows what qualifications I’ve got because he mentored me for a while.