hoping to save money from insurance and ever rising fuel costs

And don’t forget money saved servicing/mot & VED.

I’ve spent just over £3000 over the past 12 months running my car. I’ve often thought about what I could save if I ditched the car (pretty much impossible now with 2 kids though).

I’ve been commuting to work 4 times a week since the end of Feb. It’s a 23-mile round trip – I’ve saved 1500 miles worth of petrol, which I roughly calculated is around £330 (2001 Vectra 1.8).

£330 saving in just over 4 months. Sounds great.

But in the same period the bike’s needed a new chain, cassette, lycra shorts, lube, bb, wheel, grips, gloves … which all cancels out the petrol saving 🙄

So, in reality I’d probably save nearer the equivalent of insurance, VED & servicing/mot costs – approx £1700 per year – rather than being near the £3000 total running costs

Normally though, I find Brits are generally desperately failing to be liked abroad

fixed

😈

yep, twas

I posted a WTD on the STW classifieds yesterday … only response has been from a guy in Spain … didn’t accept the offer

the rest of the world thinks the english are c@?@s ?

even I think the english are c@?@s, and I’m english …

those that say that it’s not a warranty issue

I’d let the retailer or Madison decide whether they think it’s warranty-able …

If Alpine can’t/won’t help, I’d contact Madison directly.

couldn’t give a monkeys. it’s just clothage.

I’m running a Hope M4 on the rear of my mmmBop with a 185mm rotor.

However, I had to source the specific caliper to use without an adaptor.

It seems that because the mmmBop rear disc mount is inside the rear triangle (rather than on top of the seat stay as on most frames) many adaptors won’t fit.

My LBS said they’d had loads of queries re. this …

Not sure any of this helps you though 😕

… or, rather than a scam, Mesam Art LLC could be the ‘respectful’ front of a criminal money laundering operation.

feeling like she’s sh’t

You’re both new to MTBing, there’s no such thing as being a sh’t rider, we were all in your/her position once … fitness and ability will develop with experience … be as patient and encouraging as possible, and just enjoy being out on the bike

tips on how best to build hill fitness

unfortunately, the only way to improve hill-climbing is by hill-climbing … but also, as MartinGT implies, being in the correct gear makes all the difference … i.e. are her climbing troubles due to technique or fitness?

For ‘easier’ rides to get fitter and more confident, try the trail centre at Llandegla[/url]
(maybe slightly more than an hours drive though). Not too technical, nice fast flowy trails, a few decent hills on the Black run, and a superb post-ride cafe & bike wash.

Or there’s the Peak District – I’d suggest starting with routes around Hope or Ladybower Reservoir at first … then if you want more challenging climbing aim for Edale, Jacobs Ladder, Hayfield, Mount Famine, Rushup Edge, Mam Tor …

Or for something a bit different, try Lee Quarry & Cragg Quarry (nr Bacup) … kind of like a trail centre, more compact, more technical, not so much in the way of climbing

My tuppence-worth…

I don’t think the wear is an issue, probably just the coating that’s affected.

A 2-year-old crank just shouldn’t crack (unless it’s been seriously crashed or something, but then there’d be evidence of a big impact)

Last year I snapped an 8-year-old RaceFace crank. RaceFace offer a lifetime warranty on their cranks.
I’d no receipt, but had a bank statement showing the purchase (from CRC). Returned the broken crank to CRC with a copy of the statement, CRC did the necessary leg-work, and a few weeks later a RaceFace box arrived with a new chainset 🙂

Result!

So, don’t lose hope – contact the shop you bought the cranks from, a bank statement should be sufficient proof of purchase if you’ve no receipt.

No guarantee, but worth pursuing.

Shimano warranty is 2 years for SLX kit.

Fitted some SS Supagripa’s 6 months ago. I found them pretty grippy, although the dimpled surface & embossed logo all wore off within a few months. The rubber also seemed to wear to fit the profile of my grip hold on the bars 😕

Must be due to the rubber compound. Remained grippy in the dry, not so good in the wet.

Just replaced them with SS Excel grips. These are a couple of mm fatter, and feel very grippy with or without gloves. Time will tell how well they wear…

shame they have to use such stupid packaging

it’s something to do with keeping costs down & speeding up order processing by using a few standard sized boxes that can be packed/closed/labelled on a production line thingy, rather than random assorted boxes & jiffy-bags hand-packed etc.

I’m all for reducing costs as it should mean better prices for the consumer 🙂

They’re still there, you just have to zoom in to the correct level to display them…

EDIT: after selecting OS maps from the menu

Although you must be a bit of a nugget to pay £30 to ride your bike, when you could just ride your bike for free instead.

Last year I paid £15 for the ‘privilege’ of a days riding (way-marked route with food stops) around Hope/Edale in the Peaks.

These were the same trails that I ride for free the rest of the year as I’m relatively local to the area.

I didn’t mind the cost as it was a day spent riding with a bunch of mates that don’t get together very often, blazing sunshine, plus the camaraderie & banter with loads of other riders. Plus the £15 went to local causes, not somebody’s wages.

£30 for a 3.5 hour guided ride sounds a lot, but some people are happy to pay purely for the convenience of just turning up with a bike and riding… no faffing around working out where the routes are etc etc

Plus, I expect there’s insurance implications for the guide team, therefore the cost of this will be passed on to the punters.

I’m assuming the offending MX5 driver was a bloke.

He was probably massively embarassed being seen driving a girly hairdressers car.

😈

The Stig is Jesus ?

Make your own

50/50 water & fresh orange juice, plus 1/2 tsp salt per litre

(unless you believe all the hype & you’re convinced it’s really worth paying £££’s for the poncy scientifically formulated stuff designed for proper finely tuned athletes at their physical peak)

30-40% of what you paid for it

its a bit like facebook updates

What’s a facebook ?

WTF has H&S got to do with it?

Absoutely nothing.

However there have been cases where the school Headmaster has poked their nose in unnecessarily and unwantedly, dribbling on about ‘concern for their safety’ or some such tripe.

(EDIT: as per Diawl’s post above)

I fear it won’t be long before some jumped-up self-important little twazzer steps in and spoils their harmless fun …

i’m hoping that someone can highlight why i should use it, other than “ooh, ooh, look what a moderately famous person just typed into the interwebs”

if it’s all just inane gossip, I get enough of that from real people I live and work with 🙂

There are inconsiderate and selfish people everywhere. London doesn’t have the monopoly on those

Yes. Yes it does.

every time I have had the misfortune to find myself there, I have found the most fun to be had in london is LEAVING

😈

Interesting that your opinion suggests you have no idea what twitter is

possibly

what is it for then?

does it have an actual purpose or value?

Congratulations, you share the same sense of humour as David Cameron. My condolences.

What’s a David Cameron ?

Mate of mine used to abstain from alcohol for Jan & Feb every year.

No other dietary changes.

Consistently lost 2 stone.

And consistently put it all back on again throughout the rest of the year.

Am I the only one that doesn’t really get it?

No. I don’t get Twatter either.

You may as well just shout inane things into the street from your front door. Just as interesting, and just as many people give a 5h1t.

parcelmonkey

that is all

yep, mine took 6 months … came through last week 🙂

did the Raven trail once. very indifferent.

no flow. felt like a lot of climbing for little downhill reward.

in no rush to go back.

😕

£45 cashback with M&S insurance

Hooray for the Great British apathy

And would you stop going to the cinema in case it’s a 20th Century Fox production?

Thought not.

The British are world leaders in complaining about stuff but when it comes down to it never actually bothering to do anything about it!

“yeh, boo, the phone hacking is terrible! etc etc, boycott the Murdoch empire!… oh wait, that would mean missing my favourite tv series… and there’s a great documentary I’ve sky+’d that I’ve not watched yet… and then there’s the hassle of changing providers… um, oh, I can’t be bothered…”

One million pounds. Guaranteed.

There. That will confuse the tea-leafing scally’s.

Boycott the papers, cancel your sky subscription.

Sadly people will continue to pay their Sky subs, buy the Sun/NoTW/Times/whatever and keep the News Corp juggernaut rolling along.

Hooray for the Great British apathy !!

😕

“Stop the Press: Internet retailer isn’t 100% perfect”

🙄

Yawn

The funniest part of all this was listening to some of the British fans who travelled to Berlin to watch the fight.

Along the lines of “we paid lots and lots of money to come here and he didn’t even win. how dare he. waaah, waaah, waaah”

Durrrr.

Well. Boo-hoo.

We all die. He died doing something he enjoyed. It doesn’t get better than that does it?

With all due respect, a ridiculous way of looking at it.

I believe it gradually absorbs moisture from the air if not in an air-tight container, but if stored properly it should be ok

the girls certainly put a lot, if not more, effort into a match than the guys do

when they play best of 5 sets this will become true

😈