Yes, you should get a discount and/or some other freebees thrown in. You’ll get the biggest discount on a bike in stock particularly last years model but do check the spec. You should find you get a lot more bike for your money than building one up from components.

What I would say it don’t try and chisel the LBS down to an on-line price, the LBS should reward your custom with quality of service.

Bad idea.

Certain footpaths should be re-designated but it should be reviewed on a case by case basis and not be across the board.

Assuming you are spending £1000+ on the susser upgrade/motorbike it would seem to me you are getting more value out of the motorbike. The Motorbike is an outright addition (so adds more value to your “life”)not just an upgrade (hardtail to susser). Of course with the motorbike you have all the expenses, fuel, insurance, road tax etc.

By the way what do you think of the Ragley ? What sort of riding do you do ? I’m interested in one

Never seen a pissed skier ? I am certain you have and just didn’t realise it.

I generally have one or two “big” late lunches for trip, these days I make sure I plan a venue so I can take the lift down or the bus home.

A guy died a few years ago skiing home form the Crazy Kangeroo in St Anton, he hit a building.

Try some Jaffa cakes, aside from slowish release energy (spong and jelly) they taste great, when my kids swam competitively the GB level coach always recommended them between races on a long day of competition. I’m a big fan of malt loaf, lots of butter although I have to say I think the benefit is mostly motivational. I’ve never tried the Gel type stuff and am in no rush to do so.

bellys – so what was the boat for ? 8O

weeksy – I much prefer driving, much more flexible. If you want a bit of an away from it all outing try lunch at Mont Caly, stunning view and great restaurant with local food in a tiny Hamlet. Return to Les Gets via blue/red/black route.

mrmo
I think part of the problem is the damage that 4x4s and MXers can do, if the ground is in the slightest bit soft it gets ripped apart to the point it becomes unusable by everyone

That’s exactly what the walkers say about us mountain bikers. A lot of the green lanes around Surrey are close to unrideable in the winter, I have to say increasingly I am seeing them closed off to motorised traffic over the winter via by-laws

It’s about picking your routes, being considerate and playing by the rules.

By all means create your own map for your own use – depending on what phone you’ve got you can do this with Endomondo. There should be software with or available for your GPS to upload tracks onto maps inc Google (subscription required).

Distributing un-official trail maps is generally frowned upon, if the people who built the trails didn’t do that then neither should you. Yes there area copyright issues and the land on which the trails are built will belong to someone and have likely access and “terms of use”

On a related point this forum is pretty archaic in terms of presentation and hosting software. As forums go (non cycling) this isn’t particularly busy but it’s hard to navigate around and find stuff

As someone who’s been going to the London and Southampton Boat shows for 20 years I don’t get how the bike bit really fits, fact is Earls Court was way better for boat show and in this economy they don’t have enough exhibitors to take all the space with boats. If that means the bike part benefitted then that’s a good thing.

Jedi – by the way the Guiness stand is known by the yachties as “The Irish Embassy” and is always popular as its brought in from Ireland and isn’t the usual English brewed imposter

I’m interested in a Ragley Pig, mmmBop or Piglet – from the research I’ve done and response from Ragley it’s all about the riding you want to do. The Piglet is optimised for around 120m forks and the Pig/mmmBop for around 140, there is cross over around 130 between the two bikes from what I see.

Personally as I want a bike for trails with drops etc the Pig/mmmBop with 140 or 150 with a lockout are current favourites.

All the owners of the various models who’ve replied say they’ve loved their bikes and they are a lot of fun which after all is the whole point.

A stunning day, cold and frosty to make the sandy bridleways rideable, blue skies and sunshine. 30k loop to/from Surrey Hills with a few trails thrown in for good measure. Bacon roll and chips for lunch at Newlands Corner. A prefect morning.

Tallgavin is spot on – you need a sports specialist and I am a believer in getting as many opinions as you can. Also as a “layman” I’d say take it easy and build up the mileage / difficulty only increasing when you’re pain free

Surrey Hills or Quantocks – latter better if you have to drive to Exeter after riding

fivetens fore me, other thread here

Freddie Flintofs piece on depression in sport

The resort website has plenty of options via various agency links. Tough part with Verbier is lack of hotels (certainly inexpensive ones) and most apartments want a full week’s rental. If you need accommodation for shorter periods you need to stay down in the valley and drive up. There is a decent sized car park near the sports centre so that shouldn’t be a problem.

Food for a family of 4, or maybe more accurately a weekly supermarket shop (inc cleaning stuff, bog roll, whatever) probably about £100 a week.

Morgin – I think a family shop of £100 a week is pretty tough to keep to, you have to be canny to keep it that low. Also at 40k your income net of taxes is greater than 28k I think.

randonjeremy
I don’t have kids but this seems really unfair to me; a family with two parents earning £42k each qualify for benefit, but a family with one parent earning £43k don’t qualify (even if the other parent doesn’t earn anything) – are you suddenly rich if you earn £43k a year?

A good question if I may say so. Firstly, it’s hard to say that child benefit should not be means tested – in my view it clearly should be.

However there are a few trailers. All the money saved by not paying child benefit to the higher rate tax payers should be allocated to those on lower incomes. Then we have the example above of one parent on £43k s a couple who earn £84k between them, that is a much broader flaw in the tax system. it’s deliberately like that to raise the most amount of money.

Also to all the posters who refer to the “fact” that the median income is around £25k – that just demonstrates the issue with over simple statistics because that calculation includes all the low paid and effectively part-time jobs which people like students do and of course it doesn;t take into account the “jobs for cash” economy. The average (or median or any other measure) household income for a family is much higher than £25k, in fact in a lot of places in the UK it’s more than double that not least as often both parents are working.

PS I’m loving the cutlery :-)

At 30 with a family you certainly need some plan.

What you do depends entirely on your personal circumstances and your long term goals. Property has historically been the best bet overall, it’s most tax efficient to buy the biggest house you can afford (rental property attracts capital gains tax on sale) – you might like to consider how much extra mortgage you could afford vs putting money into your pension. The more tax you pay (higher rate etc) the more attractive a pension is.

It sounds a bit morbid but you may inherit form your parents/relatives – than can provide a chunk of future retirement savings.

crispo – same applies to you, hard to say other than 6% from your employer isn’t very generous. If you can afford more now do it but probably better to focus on house/mortgage.

mastiles – are you a taxpayer ? If so then putting some of your windfall into your pension would make sense. I think paying down your mortgage is the most sensible option for some or all of the windfall (you can always re-borrow in the future). Keep a little back in reserve in case your situation gets worse before it gets better.

Makes a huge difference if the house is empty all day (ie heating off) and also the insulation/build quality. I’d agree with above, £75-150 is the range

The Southern Wales centres based along the M4 will be very easy for you to get to and in my view will inspire you to ride more. I strongly recommend you make a weekend of it, maybe ride two of Brechfa, Afan and Cwmcarn. It’s very possible to take a day trip out to Afan or Cwmcarn.

Lots of info on the web inc trail maps. If you ride at Swinley you can ride any of the reds and take the blacks with a little care. I rode the red and black trails at Afan 6 months after taking up mountain biking and I’m hardly a natural !

EDIT: I’d say your biggest challenge could be fitness, you’ve 300m-500m climbs for each trail and the desire for more down encourages you to take on more climbing. This makes staying over a better idea as you don’t drive home knackered and you can have a few beers.

Another vote for Icebreaker, worth the premium price

Golf or a derivative, ie Audi A3 Sportback or Seat

Very good, a few observations. Firstly the cars should be Avants, ideally quattros and add in a Cayenne for good measure. Secondly, they have German plates whereas you’d really see personalised English plates.

After the referendum Scotland isn’t going to be in the UK, right ?

Brighton isn’t even the best place to live in Sussex.

This list reminds us why we don’t read MBR

Pedal and Spoke do not sell 1/3 of all UK bought Santa Cruz

Audi make very fine cars

I lived there for two years – what is your budget ? Do you really need a pool ?

Sentosa is OK for a resort type hotel if you don’t want to ever leave the premises which in my opinion would be a total waste of your time there. In my opinion the Marina Bay Sands is a dump and an expensive one at that.

I live in the SH. The car parking is an issue, particularly in Peaslake village on a weekend morning, this does understandably cause friction with the locals and I can see parking restrictions being brought in there. With a little bit of research you can pick a car park within an easy ride of your chosen hill(s) in fact the car park near the top of BKB is generally deserted. Some consideration of trail usage would benefit us all, there are some which drain really well and were dry the day after the torrential rain last week. As the days get longer I suspect more people will ride in the afternoons or early evenings, it really quietens down after noon and is deserted midweek.

A bigger issue is tension with the land owners inc National Trust, we can all help by being courteous and considerate and joining the “Friends” – we send £1000’s on kit why not £25 to support the trails

Zilog

I would definitely be in favour of 95% income tax over £100k. Hell, £50k even. I mean, how much money do people really need?

As I always say to such suggestions why don’t you try that out at a Premiership football ground at half time, stand in the centre circle and tell the 50,000 fans their club will have a vauxhaul conference squad.

The other factor to consider is that as all the high paid jobs will go abroad you’ll actually collect much less tax and all the remaining people earning 50k will have to pay a very high rate of tax (60% ?) or have no social services, police etc.

I just bought an Endura Windchill at £75 only worn it once and like it a lot. I looked at the Stealth which was very nice and better quality but I couldn’t justify £160. The Windchill is a semi softshell, breathable, waterproof (resistant ?) – its a similar fit to the Stealth (ie quite fitted, it has rubberised waist to prevent it riding up and rear pockets)

TP the Pass Portes event is June 29/30 and July 1 – it’s not to everyone’s taste but I like it, a fun part of a holiday, it’s been extended to 3 days by demand, you pick a day to ride the route, tickets will sell out very soon after booking opens on the 15th. By the way if you can stretch to more than 3 days riding you won’t regret it.

Two things Ichabod, 1) great username 2) are you colour blind or did you build up the bike in the dark ? :D

AndyRT – I picked up the PP book when I was first out there but to be honest we never used it. We just studied the map, asked questions of Chalet hosts and bar owners about the best stuff. Would recommend sharing a guide for a day if your budget stretches, we did that in Les Gets and rode some stuff we’d have never found otherwise. As a nice AM detour I suggest lunch at Mont Caly, it’s a small village above Les Gets with stunning views and a great “locals” restaurant with excellent food (it was described by a regular guest at our chalet as one of his favourite places in the world and one sunny day we were there I would agree). Access via Les Get lifts (quieter sdie) and a pleasant flatish ride along the mountain side which is a antidote to all the downhill crash bang wallop). You can ride back to Les Gets lift system via an easy Black trail or Red/Blue options.

You need longer trousers / three quarter shorts so the water cannot get above the socks, you can now buy knee length medium weight seal skinz

tpbiker – most resorts lift systems aren’t fully operational till end of June, the Pass Portes sort of signals the start of the season. The bike Mecca’s like Morzine and Les Gets open sooner, early mid June might be a struggle though for mid week. You need to check specific resort websites. For example my mates wanted to ride Ultimate in Verbier in late June and found the required lifts were not open yet, the bike park was operational.

We stayed with Blue Rdige for Pass Portes event this year, they were flexible on dates and are nice people. Chalet is a short ride / walk into Les Gets or a downhill trundle to Morzine. From my recollection lift passes are a bit cheaper than £100 for three days. The company also do transfers for other operators.

Blue Ridge Les Gets

Veteran at 40, that’s harsh. I’m just under 50 and take Beroca to keep the colds away. Important to keep your flexibility and core strength with the right exercises.

steffyboy – yes a bike bag and plenty of care packing is a must. Mates used Easyjet supplied bags one year and bikes come out damaged. As a constrast I watched some guys unpacking their bikes, proper bags, bike taken apart – eg rear mech off and taped inside frame, supporting block between front fork axle, lots of pipe lagging on frame etc. They had kept the cardboard bike box and had used that for packing also.

jwab – so what’s the difference (setup and riding) between a 130 Pig vs 130 Piglet ?