OP – IS will make a differnce when hand-held shooting and will make a bit of differnce when you want to use a slower shutter speed in low-light. I wouldn’t want a lens without it unless it was always going to be used on a tripod all the time.

Well said Mr Nutt! A lot of folk buying this gear have lost their higher range of hearing too or are listening to MP3’s through their gear…ridiculous! I know someone who spent thousands on a Linn system and after it had been professionally installed said to me “I’m fairly happy with it but I expected it to do more”, WTF! I think they must’ve been listening to the salesman too much!

I was going to say buy from an online only retailer rather than Jessops or the like…the above does seem quite cheap but bear in mind that the lens has no image stabilisation. IMHO you’d be better off with the IS lens instead.

EDIT: If you plan on doing any video you’d be better off with the Nikon over the Canon.
Both the D3100 and 1100D can be had for less than £300 from Portus Digital, if you don’t mind buying an import that is (you get a warranty from them instead). The D3200 is £70-£80 more.

highclimber – Member

Do it online now. it’s much easier than visiting the Post office!
I pretty sure you can only do that in the month that the tax is going to run out. Once you’ve gone over that you need to take all your documentation to the post office.

😀 What is it you’re trying to do/buy/find out? If you say what that is, someone might be able to help you more.

You also need to take the type of headset into account…some will have inset, external cup or a mix of those.

Kirry is always fine in the wet too.

Are the Hope making a big difference ?

I don’t think you’ll notice any mechanical difference whatsoever, that’s probably not why folk will be buying them. Buy them to be tarty, no other reason…I’d buy them but where’s Chris King when you need him! 😀

You might want to have a read of the last few posts here on MTBR.

RealMan – Member

Anyone got any experience of Mexico..?
If you’re thinking of Mexico, look into ‘Copper Canyon’. That’s where the best mountain biking is anyway.

I’m not sure if posting from Canada is the same as the US? The last frame I got from the US cost $235 or $265, I can’t remember which. That was with the USPS and was the cheapest option. You would still have to pay tax too, no tax on gifts is only upto $50 I think. Like I say this is from the US, Canada may be different.

Interesting comment that 32mm fork cant cope with 205mm rotor.

The only folk that use/need 205mm rotors are downhillers or fat barstewards! 😛

‘Wera’ make some of the best. Something like these would be good.

Cheers for this! It’s given me a great idea for something I have planned. 😀

I’ll need an external drive of some description maybe not an SSD, something with more capacity probably.
I agree on the desktop over a laptop though…but I need a laptop anyway and it will be handy for editing photos or sorting out video clips when I’m away from home.
“I don’t want to sound mean but don’t just spend cash for the sake of it” – I’m not too worried about that as all I want in the foreseeable future is a decent laptop and a Tokina 11-16 camera lens. I’m a mature student with no debt apart from what I’ll owe for my student loan. Luckily my house and everything I have is paid for, if it wasn’t I wouldn’t be studying for the degree I’m doing.

rOcKeTdOg – Member

Radio active glow in the dark soup, i reckon thats an untapped market!
I could supply you with some veg from around Sellafield if you like? 😀

I’ve decided on 2.6GHz Retina with 512GB SSD and 16GB RAM…I can get one for about £2075. I may have to dip into my student loan a little bit and have to live off value pasta for a while! I’ll buy an external SSD at Easter and look into some monitors too. Thanks for all the input. 😀

ianpinder – Member

canon 7d is my dream camera
I thought that too as I’d been lending one and really liked it. Bought a Nikon D7000 instead, mainly because it was cheaper and a mate highly recommended one. Since getting it I much prefer it over the 7D…more options/control plus more buttons so you can do more without going into the menus.

You can find any info you need to know if you look over on MTBR.

soundninjauk – Member
Which version of FCP will you be learning on?

I’m guessing the latest version of Final Cut Pro if that’s the best version? The worst thing is that they were telling us that the uni uses the most professional, up-to-date software…now it seems that this may not be the case!

Again, thanks for the replies everyone. Maybe I’m going to have to buy a mid-range model and have to do most of my editing at uni…there’s no way I can see me being able to spend 2k+, not without resorting to anything illegal anyway. The worst thing is that even though I have a 4 figure sum (barely) in my laptop fund, I’ll be getting 2.5k early in January as part of my student loan/grant…I do need this to pay bills and buy food though as I’m skinny enough as it is! 😀

codybrennan – How do Apple get the buyer to prove they are in education?

It’s easy if the ordering is done at uni through their network. You can do it over the phone though, they have a number for parents buying for their kids too (probably using your daughters student reference number).

thebunk – the Retina’s aren’t upgradable at all. I don’t think you can even upgrade the memory. You’re supposed to spec them as you want them from the off…could be a coincidence but seems clever on Apple’s part to stop folk upgrading with non-Apple parts! The normals pro’s still have two drive bays too, which is a major advantage for some. I can’t see how you think they’re poor value either…they have way more storage space (albeit slower) and a superdrive built in, for less money. What’s the point of having a low spec Retina if you can’t upgrade it after a year or two? (It would seem I now know have a good idea on what I’ll be going for!).

bokonon – Member

Save the cash, get friendly with the tech staff and book the shit out of the uni edit suites – use the money to buy more booze/bikes/holidays in spain.
Ha, I would love to follow your advice. I’d much rather have my own gear though. I was having to borrow photography gear from the uni’s media stores and having to take the stuff back on my days off! (as I’ve said above, I live 25 miles away). I soon got sick of that, sold some bike bits and bought all my own gear. I haven’t much else to sell now though, the two bikes I’ve got are needed for some videos I have planned.

Ha, Redwing are fancy work boots, not smart shoes.
OP, I know some will disagree with me here and say these are for chavs, certain Rockport shoes would fit your needs. Years ago they had a team who ran marathons in their shoes to show how comfy/capable they were.

Arghhhh! I wish I’d never asked! So many options! Thanks for all the replies. 😀

Alexxx – I agree with what you’re saying, the thing about FCP is that it’s what I’ll be getting shown how to use and will have support for if needed though. The degree I’m studying for is to do with outdoor media, the video editing is only a part of it and as such, isn’t something I can see myself doing professionally. I’m much more interested in being outdoors, either filming or taking photos, rather than being sat in front of a computer screen. Not for more time than I’d be outside for at least.

After looking at the Mac options again, I’d been considering the 2.3Ghz Retina package (same price as 2.6Ghz non-Retina) and paying an extra £215 for the 2.6GHz upgrade and 16GB RAM. Then later on buy an external SSD, the only problem with doing that is if the 256GB disk would be enough in the meantime? I’d only be editing video at home/uni, so could leave the extra disk at home and make use of the increased portability for photography stuff/trips. I would need to sell my body for a few months to do all of this mind! 😯

I could end up in a bit of a mess. I went to buy some beer but there was none I fancied…spied an offer on some Jack Daniels Honey even though I don’t normally drink shorts. Just drank my first glass, it went down a bit too well too. 😀

I hadn’t seen the latest replies when I posted last!

Countzero – sorry, that isn’t worded well…I haven’t got a laptop of any kind at the moment…so need one whether it’s a Mac or not. My aging desktop can’t edit HD video either.

Alexxx – I would have really liked to stick with PC based setup…all the editing suites at uni are running final cut though, this is why I’ve been told I’d more or less end up getting a Mac whether I wanted one or not. I can get away without one in my 1st year but it will really help in my 2nd and 3rd years. I also live 25 miles from my uni so don’t want to be travelling back and forth (I’m only at that site 1 day a week). If I lived closer, I would just use the computers there.

Thanks for all of the above!
It looks like I’ll be able to get 15″ 2.6Ghz model for about £1500. Does anyon think it’s worthwhile chosing the 7200rpm hard-drive? I’d always been led to believe the 5200rpm drive isn’t good…but the 7200rpm drive is really noisy? Ah, decisions, decisions, although it’s nice to have them I suppose! 🙂

Just opened a Adnams ‘Spindrift’…tasty stuff, I might not go to bed and schlurp it all night! Merry Christmas! 😀

I feel for you OP as I would love a Tallboy too…although that’s not what I need and it’s a shame that none of the parcels here look remotely like a Macbook! 🙁

jules182 – Seems we are condemned to daily mail standards of journalism

To be honest it gets more and more like the Daily Mail on here everyday. 🙁

They work well for what you want them for. They’re fine on for XC riding but I wouldn’t want them on technical stuff…you can accidently change gears while braking.
Here’s my bikepacking bar set-up:

Rings were quite expensive to replace

I couldn’t disagree more! I use various Race Face chainsets on all my bikes not only because I like them, but because the rings are a fraction of the price of a lot of other brands. The abililty to fit 9 or 10 speed rings to the same cranks is also nice.
I’ve some Deus Ex crank arms (old Turbines) that have been on about four different bikes, apart from a CK headset, I haven’t anything else as old that I still use.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that the BB’s don’t last…either sell it or keep it as a spare.

You don’t need to change the image host, just copy the URL of the image and paste it between: ! You keep missing the forward slash out of the closing tag.

I might have been one of those zombies, Binners. Workington and Whitehaven both get pretty mental on Mad Friday.

Aye, us West-Cumbrians know how to do it properly!

The Mayans didn’t count leap-years, the day they mention would have been 80 days ago! (For anyone that even pays notice to BS like this?!?).

Could you afford another £100? I needed a DSLR for outdoor photography and the only two I even considered were the Nikon D7000 and Canon 7D. This is because they both have a metal chassis and are sealed from the elements (both being the cheapest in their range too). I managed to get the Nikon for £619 with lens, I think the same place is selling them without the lens for £560. The 7D was going to cost over a £1000! (Yes, I know this isn’t a lot of money in camera terms).

Before you get your hopes up, a lot of companies won’t post frames to the UK.
Also, unless it’s greatly reduced or something you can’t buy over here, I wouldn’t bother. The charges often haven’t been worth it. I’ve bought quite a bit from the US, the last few bits only being things that I couldn’t get over here.

scruff – Member

d45yth – Member
Plenty here too: LTJ Bukem on Mixcloud

Can these be saved as MP3 or whatever ?
I don’t know what browser you use but it would be easy for me using Firefox and the DownloadHelper add-on. I think they’re ogg-vorbis files so you may need a different media player, although most should play them now.