Do you want something to ride to work on, or just something for fun?

If you want something to ride to work on, you probably want something that takes mudguards, and maybe has rack mounts. Which will probably mean not a fancy carbon bike.

Joe

One tip, if you're bivvying in the woods round there, and it isn't a windy day, you will get eaten alive. I spent a couple of nights up in the woods in a hammock, the first night was fine, the second I was getting so eaten that I ended up moving to be on top of a hill instead.

Joe

It might be a bit of a dull place to live, but what about Buxton? Trains to Manchester so it's about the same time to work for you. If she drives, it's dead easy to get to Bakewell & Matlock from there, and Chesterfield is a bit of hassle, but in Sheffield she'd have a worse drive than that 3 days a week to Buxton, then Bakewell is a hassle too, and Matlock is no easier?

It is a bit of an old people place I think, but there's gotta be a load of good riding near it?

Joe

I have always asked them what amount they're thinking of. Once they've said a number, you can always say if you're not happy with that, relate it to your current salary, the hassle of a move, more responsibility etc. Last time I got £5K more than I was expecting which was nice.

Otherwise you end up having to go high but not too high, and you might underestimate how much they're willing to pay you. Obviously they might go low to start with, but it at least gives you a rough idea of what they're thinking.

Joe

Thing is, does anyone know just how many businesses benefit from mountain bikers in this way?

Yes. People who run mountain bike centres like Coed y Brenin know. They do research on the effects of it, and estimate the amount spent. I believe they found that Coed y Brenin for example is a very efficient way of getting tourist money in – the amount they spend on the trails is tiny compared to the amount the area gains from large numbers of people travelling to ride the trails.

Most B&B's surely arent run by locals and they are run on a shoestring/bare minimum outspend such is that industry.

What a weird thing to say, B&Bs not run by locals? It isn't like people who run B&Bs don't live in the area, they live in the house itself? If ever there was an industry run by locals, it is the B&B?

Pubs? Again, are mountain bikers known for knocking back 10 pints each after a long day in the saddle and another the next day?

Erm, yes. Every time I've been to a trail centre, it's been with a group of people, between 10 and 20 of us, and we've probably all had quite a few pints, meals, and stayed in some local accommodation for a couple of nights.

Mind you…..All these places probably rely on Walkers for the main with mountain bikers being the 'savers' to their businesses.

Whilst that might be true of places like Cannock (although there are often *masses* of bikes there, even there it is probably a similar number to walkers), I wonder quite how many people come to places like Coed y Brenin, Penmachno to walk – they're off the beaten track, not at all walker country, without bikers there would be hardly anyone there. I've walked all round the UK, and I know I'd never have bothered going to any of the places where I've been to trail centres.

Again, I may be wrong but with surely it is still fairly seasonal- come the winter cold months and numbers would drop markedly.

Obviously tourist money is seasonal, same as for walking, although I'd be surprised if biking is anywhere near as seasonal as walking, having seen how crowded Coed y Brenin car park gets in October / November. Especially as people like to go to these places for some dryish riding when their local trails are a mud-fest.

I'm probably talking utter crap and generalising a fair bit mind. I just think (in general not this private venture) investing in a community- big tax breaks for manufacturers etc would benefit the communities more..

Well it's lucky that you're not in charge of policy on this kind of thing then, and instead it is run by someone who does research into it, does the cost/benefit analysis, tourism research etc. and generally has more than a completely uninformed load of guesses about how it works financially.

Joe

I reckon my local woods are a bit cleaner because people cycle them – I don't think anyone else would take the broken glass off (it's a kids getting drunk place too).

Joe

But being a regular visitor to the States, I think I would have a better standard of living out there (nicer house with land, etc) as well as easier access to things I enjoy doing (riding, swimming, shooting (clays, not animals!), fishing, outdoors in general).

That's kind of understandable, although travelling much further to ride, and not having a big network of trails to ride would put me off. Nice to visit, where you don't get bored of riding the same trails over and over again but not so nice to live there. Also jobs tend to have way less holiday (for the 75% of people who get paid holiday in the US, it is typically 10 + 8 bank holiday type things, compared to 28 days over here as a statutory minimum), which is a hassle if you aren't self employed.

You can get a lot of the outdoors stuff, bigger houses with land, shootin, fishing etc. just by moving Up North or to Scotland.

Joe

For commuting, unless you ride on unlit roads, cateye cheap ones do the job.

If you ride on unlit roads, have lots of money & want the ultimate commuting light, that you'll just never have to mess with, then build up a dynamo hub front wheel (with the Shimano DH-3N80 hub, which is the most efficient and lightest one currently available), and fit the light linked below, in the "Senso Plus" model:
http://www.dotbike.com/ProductsP6841.aspx?utm_source=google&utm_medium=base&utm_campaign=FGL
and a red dynamo back light. It gives you tons of light, that is always there when you need it, no need to charge batteries, no noticeable drag, and even turns on automatically when it gets dark (or when you go through a tunnel or whatever)

Joe

It'll probably be one of the standard torch sizes if you want a glass one, I'd just measure the diameter roughly and take a guess, they are quite cheap so it isn't like you're risking tons of money.

http://www.dealextreme.com/search.dx/search.glass%20lens#917

although a lexan one would presumably be less likely to break if you make a habit of breaking them.

Joe

Dealextreme sell loads of different lenses – check the size / thickness and have a search on there, you might be lucky.

Joe

It's a Magnum picture:

http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox_VPage&VBID=2K1HZOMWZ2VDH&IT=ZoomImage01_VForm&IID=2S5RYDZCKY50&PN=38&CT=Search

I'd phone em up and ask how much a print would be. I expect it'd be in the hundreds of pounds range at least though, for such an iconic image*, getting a print from the original agency. It might be on a poster somewhere for less, but I dunno how you'd find it.

Joe

* although I've had prints made from some similar reporting agency places and they weren't incredibly expensive

A typical health insurance plan will be written with 5% profit

And in the USA, typically significantly more of it is taken by the massive legal / administrative burden if you break it down (something like 25-40% or something ridiculous).

Joe

I'm too p1ssed off to care about averages. I'll refer you back to my earlier post: it would be hard to recieve worse healthcare than that.

Yeah, things get screwed up in the NHS, and that is rubbish.

But if it wasn't for the NHS, unless you were pretty rich, you quite likely could not afford multiple cancer treatments, so it'd go untreated, particularly likely if you were old and retired.

Joe

Given the litigious nature of Americans, their doctors try to minimise the risk of a lawsuit by making sure they've covered every base.

And who takes a massive proportion of the stupid lawsuits in the USA – oh yes, health insurance companies, suing other people's insurance companies / suing hospitals / suing doctors in order to avoid paying for treatments when someone has an accident or when something goes wrong.

How can you have a right to something when you contribute absolutely nothing?

Blimey – do you really believe that we shouldn't look after poor / elderly / terminally ill people? That we should live in a world a bit like Logan's Run, where once people have retired or get ill, we'd just let them die?

My feeling is the NHS is a wonderful idea, but it doesn't work in practice. Too bloated, not enough communication. Its a simplistic and selfish view i know but personally i would rather have a reduced tax burden and choose a private healthcare provider.

But if you could choose a private healthcare provider, you'd spend way more money, receive on average worse healthcare and be more likely to die early. That's just really obviously supported by the statistics if you look at the countries with private systems. Even rich people in the USA don't have as good outcomes as similar people in the UK.

Joe

He's holding the seat handle, which is between his legs – it has the brake lever underneath it.

Joe

that all looks a little lame compared to this guy

That's cos Steve was just riding where they wanted to film him riding , at The Lecht, where they it turns out they have a rubbish 'bike downhill course', not on proper trails. He was off riding Laggan Black the next day, which was apparently more his kind of thing.

He's quite a good rider, probably one of the best/stupidest in the world – last year he rode 1000km in the Himalayas[/url] via Everest base camp.

Joe

What you're saying is 'not races' are better value than races.

Which is obvious really, you have to pay to hire land for courses to race on, you don't have to pay to run an event on bridleways. You have to pay for proper timing, and intensive marshalling for races, you don't for rides.

Joe

No, it must be impossible.

I do work on stuff that interests me, to do with performance, art and computers. It means I don't spend much time programming in my spare time, cos I get to do computer stuff in the day time. I have other hobbies to play with in my spare time like biking / unicycling / walking / hanging around at home / playing the piano etc.

It seems to work well for me. I do something fun at work, and have different fun at home. Some people I work with do computer stuff at home too, it seems to work for them. I think everyone is different.

Joe

Pedal bikes are outdated, it'd all be much easier on a motorbike. Plus you'd get to wear leather and look like a member of the village people. Bonus.

Very unlikely imo, how can they prove that you have driven the car most of the time.

They don't have to prove it, you do. If you live in the same house, and your parent is the owner of the car, it is probably harder, I reckon most people they catch are off living somewhere else (if you have a crash in your university town, in a named driver car, when your parents aren't there, it is hard to argue that you weren't the main driver), or buy the car themselves and get the parent to insure it (again it is hard to argue that you bought a car just for your mum to drive around, without giving the car to her).

Joe

We drove up to Ft Bill and stayed in a nice campsite in Glen Nevis but I was pretty disappointed with the trails/paths in the area. You can walk up the Ben and back the same way, that's about it.

Blimey. Direct from that Campsite, you can go up Ben Nevis, you can go across and round the back and up Ben Nevis (either up to the tourist route, or round the ridge, although the ridge is hard if you're not used to mountains), up the West Highland Way to Sgorr Chalum which is a fantastic viewpoint, and on through to lovely lochs and high moors, you can go through the forest to Cow Hill (another nice viewpoint).

If you drive down 5km to the car parks at the end of the valley, there are beautiful walks up the Mamores, waterfalls, mountains etc.

If you drive round to Nevis Range, you can get the Gondola up, and there are nice walks on the top of Aonach Mor, which you don't even need to be fit to see.

And that's just the walks that are obvious and marked on the map – there are tons more in the area if you ask in tourist information for walks, or buy a book of them, or just ask people where is nice.

Joe

My Brother (20) got his mum to take out the policy, with him as a named driver. Managed to get fully comp on brand new corsa xsi for about £700 I think. He was just passed his test so 0 years experience.

That is fraud mind, and if you are in a crash, you could easily get found out, have your insurance invalidated and be a bit buggered.

You're also risking them checking it out, particularly if someone's mum is getting insurance on a sporty little boy racer car that their 17 year old kid just happens to be a named driver on – again = you end up being done, and also losing your insurance.

Joe

but was a bit shit with relational databases.

Databases are odd because they seem to be really badly taught at universities, on really very boring courses (I fell asleep in a couple of my database lectures). But then when you work with them, you end up doing actually quite fun stuff, making SQL do what you want it to do, whilst not hosing the database by being inefficient is a bit like a crossword puzzle or something*.

The important thing about a degree isn't to teach you specific things that you'll use in your job, it should teach you to learn, which is the most important thing about doing any hard job. At least that's true in Computer Science – in software jobs you need to be able to learn stuff on the job, with the help of google / books etc., being able to pass a Computer Science is an okay indicator of this ability.

Joe

*or maybe I'm just a bit sick and twisted

shocking level of third-world driving standards in London?

I always felt London was much safer than the rest of the UK for cycling – there are loads more cyclists on the road so people are expecting them, traffic is almost always going slowly, so you're going the same speed or faster than it, and generally drivers are much less likely just to be completely asleep, because there's enough going on to keep them awake. And I used to commute on the A3, go across Hammersmith Roundabout, Vauxhall, Elephant & Castle etc. which are some of the busiest junctions in London.

If you ride carefully and watch out for what other people are up to, there's no need to be on the pavement in London.

Joe (Commuted in London for 5 years, outside London in Surrey & Nottinghamshire for about 5 years too.)

If you only have one copy of old stuff, where is the backup? i.e. what happens if your Drobo thing gets nicked / house burns down?

For archiving stuff that you really really need to keep safe (work stuff etc.), two big disks always in two different places as a minimum. There are internet services that backup stuff remotely, but I think they are quite expensive once you want any decent amount of storage.

Joe

If it's only for fun, just put slicks on your mountain bike, unless it's some fancy event that stipulates particular kit.

Joe

Wasn't there some negative views on here re the DX bike specific light, not the P7, when sombody took it apart to examine?

No, in that thread the light expert guy said "I would buy one if I was in the market for a budget light." and "I aint gonna sell many of my hi quality state of the art led kick ass lights now ."

It does appear that some people have had dead on arrival ones that have needed to be warrantied, although it seems like there is a good warranty service (and no "it's a switch failure, not covered under warranty – a new switch is £100" like you hear about some fancy lights.

Joe

some Stan's sealant and some totally stock GP4000s. They lose air a little more quickly than a tubed version, but not a problem, he thought the ride felt smoother too.

No problems with them blowing off the rim? Stan's (and the other people who sell tubeless conversion kits) seem to think that high pressure normal non-tubeless tyres will go bang if run tubeless.

Joe

I dunno, but at £70 for a pair of road tubeless tyres, I think I'd want to be very sure it wasn't going to blow off the rim and break the bead on the tyre.

Joe

Wouldn't non-spoked wheels be way less strong and heavier than spoked ones – surely that's more important for your average rider than a slight aerodynamic advantage? I'm assuming they're aiming it at average riders not racers, given the supposed built in electric engine.

And as for the wacky handlebars without brakes, fingerprint lock (because that wouldn't be at all easy to fool / prone to problems causing you to be locked out of your bike / or make people cut your fingers off to mug you for your bike), invisible drivetrain etc. it all seems a bit designer cliché.

It is weird that when concept design types design a 'bike of the future', it always has no spokes and a funny wheel connection like this. It is like there is one type of thing that concept designers do, and they churn out a roughly bike shaped version of it when they need some press (or a motorbike shaped / car shaped / house shaped). Why is it that they have such a boring 'futuristic' aesthetic anyway?

Joe

Ah, it is probably only if you install xp that problems occur, windows 7 should be okay.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529/en-us

Joe

Make sure you have your original Vista disk, as Vista usually won't boot after a re-partition without being repaired using the vista disk.

Joe

I guess the big problem with recumbents is that if they allowed them for the TT, then it'd be strange not to allow them for the race, and if they were allowed, a good rider would probably ride faster than the standard peleton, meaning it'd become more of an individual race than a tactical thing as everyone would have to have their own recumbent (can recumbents draft recumbents?).

Joe

Fully faired recumbents for the TTs then. Or do you think there should be some rules?

Why not recumbents for the time trials? I can understand wanting something draftable for the main race, but I don't see why if there is a vastly superior type of bike for the riding you're doing, they don't want to let people use it. Assuming they're not going to make everyone ride a single completely standard bike with no component choices that is.

All that happens with all the limits, is that we get fancy bike designs that are designed to be as close to the rules without breaking them, like the various hour record breaking machines. It just means that the record is a bit slower (roughly 60% of the distance) than the unlimited hour record.

Joe

I'd shoot em*. I do it to next doors dog when it sneaks in through their fence. It might take a few goes, but they learn pretty quick, and don't get hurt and you don't have to mess around leaving tiger poo in your garden.

Joe

*with a super-soaker that is

Fan like this: http://www.powertri.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=221

I would avoid any of the far out places with trains to Kings Cross. Getting onto the tube at Kings Cross in rush hour is a nightmare, and you force yourself to catch the tube that way, whereas if you live somewhere closer in, you have a bike option (always going to be the best, cheapest & most comfortable way to get round London). All you do by doing that is add an extra 20 minutes each way onto the public transport journey, and put yourself somewhere flat, far away from people you know, where the only reason people live there is because it has fast trains to get out of it. It isn't even all that cheap either. Oh and there is some riding, but a lot of people from round there make the trip all the way round to the Surrey Hills each weekend, which doesn't suggest it is the best riding around.

Joe

Because the risk of an incident is small it isnt worth legislating about, it doesnt mean it isnt a problem to those involved.

Yup, in the hypothetical situation described above, where someone cycling causes someone else to do something dangerous, which itself causes a crash, it would be a bummer. But that kind of situation is going to be incredibly rare. Even if it is common that cyclists cause cars to do emergency stops or whatever, which is itself pretty doubtful( except when a car is overtaking the cyclist dangerously), then you'd have to add to that the likelihood of it occurring right next to a third person, which makes the overall thing you're suggesting insurance against incredibly unlikely.

It is the same reason cyclists don't need insurance for directly crashing into people – it is incredibly rare for someone to cause serious damage or injury on a bike (it does happen a few times a year, but when it does, it gets into the national press, which kind of shows how rare it is).

Joe

Viewranger, it does cost money, but is totally worth it.