I do wonder what the future holds. Machine learning is getting freakishly clever now. Facebook, for example, seems to be getting better at serving up relevant content without having to tell it what you want to see, so maybe dedicated/specialist sites like STW will become less relevant. If I the latest Akrigg edit appears in my Facebook feed automatically, why do I need to come to STW?

It’s fascinating stuff and I don’t envy publishers right now, but at least STW are looking forward and not backward.

Mark and team seem to be working hard to define what publishing looks like in the online age and how it makes money. That may mean challenging the accepted norm from time to time and this looks just like one of those times. I suspect it will be an uphill struggle but hats off for having the balls to put this in place.

It’ll be interesting to see if the Forum will be more heavily moderated to remove such content from threads. I would assume so.

with all the seat up, there is very little space left for luggage

The Sharan/Alhambra isn’t bad in this respect. We can fit a pushchair and various coats/bags in ours, but granted it’s not going to fit 7 people on a camping holiday!

how safe would the passengers in the last row of seats be in a collision?

I’d suggest as safe as the rear passengers in a Toyota Aygo or any of those other tiny city cars. Presumably they wouldn’t even be on the market if they didn’t pass all the various safety tests.

Whilst xyeti is perhaps getting a bit too excitable for my liking 🙂 , I completely 100% get where he’s coming from and I live on the doorstep of the Peak District!

If I’m lucky enough to have 2 – 3 hours spare to ride I have a HUGE variety of amazing road riding from my doorstep. In contrast my choices for MTB are considerably more limited, especially if the weather has been wet for a while (which it has). It’s the classic thing of making the most of the limited time you have which, for many of us, is much easier on a road bike. Countless threads on here saying the same thing over the years.

I can recommend a VW Sharan (or Seat Alhambra) as an incredibly practical family wagon. It’s a proper 7-seater i.e. the rear 2 seats are proper adult seats and it’s plenty wide enough for child seats in all the seats if you want. Sliding doors too. The passenger seat folds flat for a HUGE flat load space if you need it. It’s like a van but with comfort.

Not remotely engaging to drive of course 😆

A mixed weekend of taking our boys to watch Stoke v Sunderland (which, despite the last minute equaliser, was ace), birthday BBQs and a fab ride on my road bike. Yesterday was a bit naff though. AM was housework, PM was looking out of the window forlornly at the rain with a sleepy 2 year old on my lap and the evening was spent on my laptop pulling a newsletter together. Living the dream 😆

…I’ve gone from finding it a useful source of information where people are only too willing to answer your questions, to finding it a hive of sometimes quite unpleasant people bitching at each other, to (now) the equivalent of a doctor’s waiting room “Take a Break” magazine (interpret that how you will). I suspect it’s probably always been – and always will be – all of those things combined. It has added to my riding in that I’ve learnt some new stuff and I’ve met one or two fellow MTBers on here. Good result.

Still love the mag 🙂

I fitted one of the Response wireless alarm systems for the shed (linky) and it was straightforward. You can get door/window sensors as well as PIRs. That said, I fitted it for my peace of mind rather than for insurance reasons.

[EDIT – I’m not a natural born DIYer so if I can do it, it must be easy]

I did the northern half of the recently opened South Peak loop. Nearly 50 miles of off-road, quiet lanes and old railways (e.g. Monsal Trail). Had a grand day, although I confess the Monsal Trail is a dull ride when you’ve no one to talk to #billy-no-mates.

Calton pastures panorama by stilltortoise[/url], on Flickr

Flipping awesome race! Again. Is it me or were most of them going ludicrous speeds? Just stunning.

It must be a tough track to make Minnaar look so out of shape and I remember thinking the same about Gwin in the mud last year.

And would this be sensible in early November!!!??!

Whilst I confess to not (yet) having ridden in the Cairngorms, I can’t imagine the short and potentially wintry November days being the best time to go 😕

The South Peak loop was officially opened last week. It’s 70 miles and whilst I’ve heard someone has polished it off in 8 hours, I think for most mortals it will take much longer, especially if you take a wrong turning *ahem* 😳

There’s a lot of quiet tarmac lanes and old railway so don’t expect 70 miles of full-on technical riding, but it does cover some very beautiful and hilly south Peak District countryside. You’ll be tired trying to do it in a day but it’s “adventure-lite” i.e. pretty safe and never too far from civilisation. I’m aiming to ride the other half of it this weekend so will report back with my review.

It was created by a horse riding group but obviously bikes can ride it all too.

Road is almost exclusively people I met through the local club plus one or two family.

MTB is a real mix:

– roadie mates
– people I’ve met via STW
– people I’ve met via Peak District MTB
– old school friends
– people I’ve met through playing hockey
– imaginary friends

Whilst I’m sure a full suss will definitely help with managing the symptoms of your back problems, I personally would be investing new bike money in some professional help to identify and fix the cause of those back problems. Also, I think nailing technique to be a smoother rider will be more effective than buying a new bike. That said, if ever there was a good excuse to buy a full susser, back pain is up there with the best. It will certainly take the sting out 🙂

My understanding is that there is nothing wrong with offshore investments. Typically these funds – e.g. hedge funds – are setup because the offshore location has more relaxed regulations that allow the fund to be set up more easily. Chances are that some – possibly many – of us have some of our pensions invested in offshore funds. Pay your tax on any return you make on those investments and everyone’s happy.

The morally-wrong avoidance of corporation tax by managing tax affairs offshore doesn’t mean that everything with “offshore” in the title is immoral, “bad” or illegal.

It all just reeks of lazy journalism to me. Have I missed some of this story?

The only thing they seem to be talking about pushing through is more anti-tax avoidance legislation, which is probably a good thing

Indeed. I wish I could suppress my cynicism and believe that is true, since it all seems to be about Cameron’s perfectly legitimate tax paid on a modest investment rather than the billions in tax that corporations are avoiding. We need to get back on track with where the core problem is here.

We are not mature enough as a society to know what to do with such information and until we are it should be kept private.

Well put

Even the media are guilty of misrepresenting the facts and sharpening pitch forks where pitch forks should not be needed. It’s all a big smokescreen to distract us whilst something genuinely and hugely concerning is being passed through parliament.

“STW are having a field day with this tax story. Let’s push something objectionable through parliament whilst they’re not paying attention.” 😕

Tax avoidance is the use of legal methods to modify an individual’s financial situation in order to lower the amount of income tax owed. This is generally accomplished by claiming the permissible deductions and credits. This practice differs from tax evasion, which is illegal.

This is the first result from searching for “tax avoidance” on Google. However, from Gov.uk:

But there is a big difference between using tax reliefs and allowances in the way in which they are intended to be used, and trying to bend the rules to avoid tax…If you use a scheme which relies on concealment, pretence, non-disclosure or misrepresentation of the true facts, you are breaking the law by evading tax.

It only takes one piece of bad tax advice to slip from “using tax reliefs and allowances” to “tax avoidance” and then to “tax evasion”. One is using the system as designed, the next is morally wrong and the latter is illegal.

My point is that too many of us are guilty of trying to make this a black and white issue and it simply isn’t.

All income over £1K a year not earned through PAYE or regulated channels like bank interest etc. to be reported via a simplified Self Assessment process

I file a tax return every year due to having a rental property. The process of filling in a SA return online is already pretty easy, but knowing what numbers need to be filled in where and how to be more efficient with my tax affairs is a case of research and experience. As long as we have an ever-changing set of rules determining what qualifies for tax relief and what doesn’t, self assessment will always be difficult for most. A simplified self assessment process is – in other words – playing by simpler rules. Not necessarily fair.

Come on BBC, here’s some ready made sports rights with British interest that you can surely afford??

Whilst the racing coverage is getting better and better, some of the spark and humour of the commentary from the Freecaster days has been lost since moving to Red Bull. I can only see that being worse if it was on the Beeb which would be a great shame. I’d love to see DH get the exposure it deserves though.

it wasn’t all about straight line speed

I remember being in a passenger in my colleague’s souped up GT-R when he floored it (sub 3s 0-60). It was impressive for a second or two but then…well, it’s a bit m’eh since once at speed it no longer feels fast in a straight line on big roads. However I would LOVE to be a passenger when he takes it on the track (and by all accounts he’s pretty handy).

a drivers car is not about power, its about how it drives.

Interesting comment. I recently got a 118d having been lucky enough to own an Elise and a Boxster in recent years. I find myself disappointed with the comparatively slow acceleration – even compared to other 2 litre turbo diesels I’ve driven – but there’s no denying it’s hugely enjoyable on the winding B roads.

mental focus, physical strength, razor-sharp reactions and creative line choices

With other top riders also having those strengths, is it really that hard a leap of faith (see what I did there?) for Gwin to believe that “Father God and brother Jesus” are his competitive advantage? It’s not like he hasn’t got the results to back it up 😉

in case I was unclear she didn’t drop points but language – from a woman too disgraceful.

Ah understood. I thought you were saying she’d be dropped some points because of her language! 😆

old freecaster days

I do miss them. Warner’s definitely not quite as much fun in the commentary booth since Red Bull took the reins.

Rachel A – points off

Really? Wow! I must admit I was surprised to hear that come out of her mouth, with her being the ultimate professional.

I used to dislike Gwin simply because he dominated that 2013(?) season so much that the racing wasn’t as exciting as it could have been. Ever since his winning chainless run I’ve had to admire the guy though and now I LOVE watching him race. So smooth, so fast. He makes some many of the others in the top 10 look ordinary. Still gutted to see Loic crash though. Fantastic race!

Were Claudio and Warner a bit hungover? They seemed to run out of commentating-steam on several occasions.

We had some tears and sulks along the way, but by the end of the day he was flying. Chuffed to bits 😀

Whoo hoo! Got a day skiing last week with my middle lad. Often doubt whether we’ll ever get a family ski holiday for a variety of reasons, but then realised the Sierra Nevada was only 2 hours drive away and had plenty of snow. Better than taking him indoor skiing any day 🙂

The Tiff Needell/Jodie Kidd Classic Car Show on telly last night mentioned the Porsche 968, Jag XJ6 and Maserati Quattroporte (the old wedge shaped one) as being on the up. Not sure if is was a repeat or not 🙂

Will I be ok?

Possibly. As burchill said you can still get passes for uplift on the day, but the fact that it is Good Friday tomorrow may mean it could be busy and you could be queueing for a while. I’m not afraid of climbing but I found the climb a drag and only did (some of it) once before returning to uplift.

Fab! I’ve said many times that the iPhone 6 – never mind the 6 Plus – is too big for one-handed use, so I think it’s great news that Apple are making a smaller phone. I won’t be buying one mind you 🙂

Never really had the budget to justify a dedicated winter bike, so use the same one year round. It is a bit demoralising coming into the nice weather knowing bearings and cables need replacing though 🙁

You know she actually rides bikes, also probably faster than 99% 100% of people here

FTFY. I think you were too kind. The handful of pro downhillers who are actually faster then Rachel Atherton are too busy training and riding to waste time on STW 😀

I tend to “browse” to be honest. If I’ve an hour spare in an evening and want to watch some telly, first port of call is flick through the EPG (which doesn’t take long as I’m on “Freeview Lite”) and then I might browse Netflix. If I happen across something I think I’d like to watch I save it for another day. As a result my “to watch” list is huge and I’m not sure how I’ll get through it. If I had even more choice I’d be a gibbering wreck. Trust me I’ve already had evenings where I’ve got so fed up flicking through the vast choice that I’ve just turned off and read a book instead 😆

But don’t you spend half your free time browsing for something to watch out of the vast choice, or do you already know what you want to watch and use Kodi to find it?

Scratch that, my point was really about the morality of this, but I fear I’m in sparse company on this thread 😀

This is a discussion I’d love to have face-to-face over a pint, but I know that getting involved in this debate on an online forum will only leave me in a grumpy mood.

If I see any of you in the pub after a ride let’s pick it up there, eh?

My old man watched him in Buxton last week. He was thoroughly impressed and has seen quite a few lectures/talks from adventurers. I’m kicking myself I didn’t go.

I’m sure once upon a time I would have been all over Kodi but now my moral compass steers me further and further away from stuff like this, regardless of the current legality. Moreover, how do you lot even watch a fraction of all this free content? I pay for Netflix and there’s enough on there to keep me entertained for years!

Maybe your work IT policy has changed such that you no longer have to be connected to the VPN for your Exchange mail to sync. That’s what happened at our place but it was never officially communicated to us all.

The internet made is possible to turn it into a “my high horse is higher than your soapbox contest”.

Whoo hoo! http://www.myhighhorseishigherthanyours.com is not yet taken. Get on it 😀