To go back to the question we all seem so hung up on, and with no relevant expertise in the subject (but this is, after all, STW) it strikes me that the problem here is in the ambiguous nature of the word aspect in this context. Had the question used, say, component then the OP’s answer would be correct. Had the question used outcome or goal then patient care would (arguably) be more correct.

Access is definitely an issue over here. With nothing like the rights of way network in the UK. Having said that, if you pick where you live then there can be great riding, with access to hundreds of miles of trails.

Also where access is restricted then a little bit of judicious poaching is usually possible without causing too much trouble, unless you are in a national park.

I’d recommend TorFX.com – they were able to help us move a (smallish) amount of cash to the US with low fees and a good rate.

I’m enjoying my time in the East Bay of San Francisco.

The weather is pretty good and I have decent riding 5 minutes from home.

Not sure I could live here permanently but that is not an area thing, more of a whole US thing.

You don’t need showers, special clothing or anything fancy to cycle to work in the average city.

I lived in Copenhagen for 6 months, and while there were plenty of lycra clad riders enjoying the roads at the weekend, there were far more ordinary people just riding to work (or from the station to work, or to the station from home) in their normal day-to-day clothes.

The biggest difference (OK, so it is flat too) is that that cycling somewhere is *normal* and not just the preserve of the weird.

I can only advise a move to Northern California.

I’ve washed my bike once since last June, and then only because of the stream crossings and dust combining to make a mud powdercoat.

I know a couple of people here who have recently shipped pets form the UK, I don’t think they had any quarantine period.

Upsides

Survived our first Californian ‘winter’ – actually colder than you’d think in a single pained, mainly glass, non-insulated house.

Been skiing twice and going again this weekend.

Still finding more local singletrack and have a bunch of riders who ride 3 x a week, even if it is at ungodly hours of the morning.

Downsides

6000 miles from old friends

Had to wash my bike (first time in 10 months).

$300 heating bill for the month (see above).

People speak funny.

Guilt from reading the posts of those who have not had such a great start – I hope it improves for you.

Carbon is actually one of the more repairable frame materials, there was an interesting article in DirtRag, I think, or one of the US magazines.

There were at least 4 or 5 shops doing top quality frame repairs.

I’m not saying that the frame is repairable, just that the knee jerk reaction of ‘kill it with fire’ might not be based on facts.

It’s got a modest bouldering wall there, probably enough to keep you amused for an evening.

Should have brought your bike there are (were when I lived there) loads of night ride groups in the area, or at least fairly near by.

We moved to the SF Bay area about 10 months ago, with 8 and 10 year old.

So far it’s going really well, we came for the experience, rather than to escape anything or for riches. Our mantra at any setbacks or unexpected hiccups is “not wrong, just different”.

It might turn out to be a disaster – who knows how these things will go?

What I do know is I’d rather do it and regret it than not do it and wonder what might have been.

For me I’m after a magazine to inspire me to try new stuff, and keep my enjoyment of cycling fresh.

It might be a piece by Jedi on how to get my brain to not bottle a 2ft drop, or a bit on sleeping in a ditch or what kind of training it takes to race the TransAlp (or Rockies or whatever). I’d like to know more about trail access in other parts of the world (it’s certainly much different where I’m currently living than the UK).

I want a magazine to show me stuff I’m not doing, not stuff that I am. That has been the standout quality of STW over the years.

Hmm,

I’ve just loaded the ctc forum home page in 3s – and I’m in California.

Looking a the page there isn’t a lot that I can see that is going to slow things down.

If you get really bored you can record your session with a tool like HTTPWatch and have a look what it does.

I seem to remember something about a camper van.

I do think Romney is a plank, and if I were allowed to vote I’d go Obama.

But I think in the context of his speech Romney was talking about his election planning, rather than his government – i.e. that there was no point attempting to appeal or targeting the 47%.

What the real scandal appears to be – to my admittedly ignorant and ill-informed point of view, is the campaign of voter suppression that the GOP has been indulging in over the past few years to make it hard for that 47% to vote. Can’t win the majority of the cast votes? Simple, fix it so that the other side can’t vote as easily.

Some things about the US are great, some suck balls.

It’s not too bad. I’ve just passed my CA driving test.

A few things to do.

Turning right on a red (unless there is a sign saying don’t or a red arrow). Stop before the white line, then edge forward before turning if it’s clear. Watch out for pedestrians crossing as they will have green man and right of way.

4-Way stop – first car at the junction goes first, or the one on the right if you both arrive at the same time.

Freeway – easy – but don’t expect much information on the junctions – know the name or the number of the road you want – you don’t always get junction numbers, or signs to towns that you might be expecting, just a road name “Blah Blah Avenue”.

Satnav – we bought the USA map for our UK one, and updated it. You can pick up a cheap garmin for about $70.

If you look up CA DMV on youtube you can get some handy driving tips aimed at people taking their tests.

There are some truly ace old bikes in Black Mountain Cycles. That really isn’t one of them. I had no idea of the heritage when I wandered in, came out a few minutes later with a dropped jaw and a beer glass.

I could set up a league table for mine.

Got mine pinned ot the fridge, bit of healthy competition and all that.

Many people confuse lack of belief in a deity with lack of a belief system – atheists have a belief system that does not include a deity.

Many people who see no evidence for a god may have a belief system, but that may or may not have anything to do with their atheism which is simply a rejection of the existence of god. Atheism requires no faith.

Atheists lack of beliefs in a deity does not make the religious beliefs of others “fairy tales”, it just means they are different – that is it

No that is not the case at all. Atheism is a lack of belief. It’s a bit like the habit of not smoking, or the hobby of not collecting stamps. “Fairly tales” – another term for folk myths, most religions would cast the beliefs of other religions into that category. You can’t all be right.

Neither atheism or religious belief are supported by science.

You cannot possibly prove that something does not exist with science.

In fact atheists make no claims really – atheism is the rejection of the claims of others based on the lack of evidence. The onus is on those that claim the existence of an object or phenomena to provide evidence to back it up, not on those that cast doubt on it.

Why can’t we live and let live for Christ or Dawkins sake…?

Absolutely fine with me.

Just as soon as religious organizations stop interfering in the lives of people outside their faith group, encouraging barbaric practices, indoctrinating children, using the shield of cherry picked religious writings to justify their bigotry, stirring up hatred of others and generally accept that they have no moral or legal authority over anyone other than a consenting adult who has been free to make their own choices to join a particular faith group. Then I’ll have no problems with religions or the religious who prop them up.

I’m not attacking you personally. You have a complete right to believe what you want. If your right to practice your particular faith were threatened by legislation or society, I’d be there protesting with you.

Want to preach in the streets, go door to door handing out pamphlets? Be my guest.

Try to get your religious views taught as science, get legislation passed giving your beliefs special status, use your ‘faith’ to deny human rights to others? We’re going to have a bad time.

Unfortunately that is exactly how society works. The alternative is a dictatorship.

No, the alternative is a democracy with a constitution to protect minorities from the “tyranny of the masses”.

No-one has all the answers and the biggest cocks are the ones who think they have a definite answer.

That would be (most) organised religions then…

The point is that if there are a significant group of any sort they they have an influence on what is acceptable in society

As someone who believes that it is possible to have an objective morality free from dogma, I’d have to answer again – that doesn’t make them right.

You could argue (although it would be hard to prove) that a significant portion of Saudi Arabia thinks that their treatment of women is acceptable, divinely required even.

That does not make it right.

You could argue that a significant proportion of Pitcairn believed that it was OK to rape children.

That does not make it right.

We as a species are now equipped with enough knowledge, self awareness and communication capability that a common morality, unfounded on religious dogma could be stated. The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Rights of the child do go some way towards this.

When determining what’s right and wrong we don’t need to appeal to a higher power for guidance, or do it for hope of reward or the fear of punishment. We have our own critical thinking skills. It’s about time we learned to use them.

There’s the problem. If 25% of society believe in something they can reasonably request that society doesn’t ridicule them for it.

I see no reasonable argument that suggests a position/faith/opinion is less open to criticism due to the number of people who believe in it.

And where do you define the boundaries of a ‘population’? If 25% of a village believe you should sleep with your sister, does that make it OK? Village too small, what about city, or a country?

It’s getting big in ‘merica. Lots going on in the winter round here (SF).

It’s hard.

I’m an atheist (that does not exclusively define who I am, just like being a mountain biker does not define all of who I am).

Morality does not come from God(s)- morality does not derive from doing what a higher power tells you to (as the WWII Nazi trials demonstrated.)

However,

Anyone can believe in whatever God(s) what they want. I personally can’t understand why people fall for this BS, but then again some people think golf is fun.

But:-

Their beliefs are not protected form ridicule – there must be no blasphemy laws, no protection form ridicule about a particular belief system (protection from discrimination, of course).

Their beliefs do not protect them from the law. (Circumcision male or female, beating, killing your child because God told you to, refusing healthcare to employees, paying taxes, discriminating against people on grounds of race, gender, colour, sexual orientation, disability).

Religion cannot and must not define the law. I don’t think we need to look at many theocracies past or present to see that it’s generally a bad idea. Separation of church ad state should be absolute.

If all religions/religious people did that, there would be no ‘angry atheists’

But that is not how the world currently is, so some people feel a need to try and change that. I think you’ll find that many people who have striven to overturn injustice, bigotry and immorality have got a bit shouty from time to time.

Spare cleat bolt. I’ve never needed one but have handed them out twice.

Mind you mine always seem to end up welded into the shoe…

1 day of proper rain sin e June where I am. Actually miss the rain a bit.

get out on our bikes

NOW you are getting controversial….

There is the Fish Inn in Buttermere, there used to be a campsite over the road from there. Also the small campsite at Wasdale Head is right near the pub.

There is also the Castle Inn in Pengenffordd, near Crickhowell in S wales.

I was seeing poor ping times and some packet loss on my WLAN. I did the usual IT thing of a reboot and code upgrade and that fixed it.

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of dials to turn on the average home router so sometimes it’s easier to go for for the blunt instrument approach.

Don’t underestimate the driving time between things, it’s a big place.

Yosemite from SF is 3-4hrs. You’re never going to see it all, so I’d suggest maximizing your riding time by not doing too much travel. If you’re not used to the scale you can find yourself spending far oo long in the car….

I’ve tried the 8 and the 11. A friend has had both, so I’ve put in a few miles on them.

Personally I liked the 11 a lot more, but they were both pretty good. You need to get used to the changed weight distribution, but other than that I think they are a good solution.

How you ride is going to be dictated by what you eat, and how you train (if you include resting in that training bit).

It’s *simple* (as you know) eat the right foods (protein, leafy veg, fruits, sensible cabs). Do a mixture of steady state exercise (mostly) and intervals (less) chuck in some core and strength work (2 x a week). You don’t need a highly complex system to improve from where you are.

It’s not *easy*, however.

Controlling your eating in our world of easy availability of tasty, calorie dense food, is tough (well for many of us – I have a friend who finds it easy to have only two biscuits out of a packet but he’s a vegetarian so deeply suspect). Have the chicken salad or the burger?

Going to bed earlier so you get enough sleep to make that training stick? Or maybe messing around on the internet posting on forums, catching up on some crap on TV and general procrastination?

Doing that interval session, run or other less ‘fun’ training, or going out with some mates for a social ride (finishing at the pub)?

Decisions decisions….

What has worked for me in the past (And I’m currently struggling with a new ‘American’ lifestyle and the 3kg of additional body fat that seems to entail, so why the **** you should listen to me is debatable) is a really good, positive goal and accompanying mental image.

Pick yourself an event – race/ride/multi-day epic. Something that really motivates you. Now picture yourself doing it, easily because you’re 5kg lighter and you’ve trained well. It is, of course, a glorious sunny day, and you are riding really well – passing guys 20 years younger.

How does that feel?

Now remember that vivid picture and great feeling when you open the fridge. Fell the hot sun on your arms as you crest the climb when deciding whether to watch another episode of House. Remember the look on the youngsters faces when it’s raining and you are scheduled for an exercise session.

It’s that positive image of yourself doing something you love really well that will help you make the good decisions in those moments.

We stayed in the Wharf Inn[/url] last summer – it was cheap (ish), clean with free parking but a bit noisy.

If you are over and want showing round some of the East Bay riding areas, drop me a line, although I’m only just learning them myself….

Top tip: Move to California.

We have rain forecast here, for October I think.

All I need now is for my bikes to arrive. What tyres for dust?

S2L Here. Perfect for my commute – althogh I did knock the gearing down a touch as there is a long hill to my local station and I want to take it easy on the way there (suit etc).

Just boxed it up and had it sent with our furniture to San Francisco, where I can see the hills might be a challenge. Missing it already.

I’ve had two goes:-

1st time in a group (4) with a heckler FS – result FAIL – too many differieng paces at different points on the ride, plus a heavyish bike.

2nd time (month later) solo on a Boardman Alu Hardtail – result – success – went for small block 8’s and kept it light.

I’d say if you have a XC hardtail of the pretty light variety, like a spark or something use that but keepint it light and efficient is the best way.

I’m in the process of doing a company transfer to San Francisco for a 3-5 year stint. Waiting on the visa petition processing, but aiming to be there in a couple of months.

I’m not expecting life to be massively better there, or that we will hugely richer financially but I’m looking forward to exploring the differences, and I’m hoping that it will be a good experience for the kids.

Might have to buy a Marin, since we may well end up living near Mt Tam.

Well, if the IP address resolves to a UK ISP then you can supply the information to the police or report it to the abuse team at the ISP. They will know who was assigned an ISP at any given time.

If it’s comming via an anonimisaiton proxy then I’m not so sure, but if they are UK based they may have to keep records by law, at the leaset you can probably report it to them and they may be able to block the end user based on times, which sites the hate was poset on or mailed to.

You might want to look up Al-anon – this is not AA, it’s for people affected by others drinking. They might be able to help you.

http://www.al-anonuk.org.uk/

Hmm I’ve been to Sausalito, really nice but quite expensive (the property taxes seem really high too) and also the bridge looks like something of a bottleneck.

I’m not sure the yanks are ready for be bringing my Brompton to meetings….