Double 0 Soul

..another thing i noticed recently.. i always get stuck in the Post Office behind lines of Chinese students.. they're usually pulling those wheeled shopping baskets, each one of them has 20-30 small parcels to send, i asked the PO staff what was going on? Apparently.. when you buy from eBay, Amazon, Tik Tok ..ect .. the seller is based in Shenzen or something.. yet it says 3-4 days postage.. turns out, family members based in China are loading up their offsprings student flats with ebay tat avoiding VAT, customs and a 2 week shipping delay.. it offsets the cost of their education.

Most of them have closed down MJ.. I'd estimate that 80% of all new businesses in the city are Chinese owned to service the ever growing population of Chinese students.. they've been established by dependents on dependant visas, they can avoid import duty on the goods they sell by manipulating the £135 rule. It's still quite buoyant in the S10 / S11 bubble but that's certainly not representative of the larger city region.

I'm totally out of the loop with the brand so don't quote me on any of this.. i got my first pair before the hype kicked in just by emailing the store (Fortyniners) .. i got my second pair from Yahoo a few months later (they were a pair from the same run) for not very much ¥. 6 months later, CSF started an Insta account.. this was the chosen method for most folks to acquire their jeans but then the hype kicked in, Konaka-san was a one man production line, demand far outstripped supply and the jeans started to pop up on Yahoo for 100,000¥ and above.. CSF bacame a bit defensive of the brand and while trying to limit the reseller market, the jeans became even more difficult to obtain. You're 9yrs too late to advantage of forum members moving on their sizing mistakes but like all hype brands (intentional or otherwise) after the peak usually comes the crash so just keep an eye on the auctions.. i've got no idea how one goes about buying new CSF in 2025

So I don’t have to go to London every time I need to speak to my accountant? Huf! .. now you tell me!!

It was a pawl'ing! Good god.. i can't do any better

They depreciate like cars.. Folks who know their shit buy the £7k bike from ebay.. 2yrs old for £1500. It is ridiculous but I'm a bit torn with it.. yesterday i stopped for a banana and a drink before the slog of Mam Tor.. a group of, post midlife, probably retiree old boys riding £7k+ carbon-fibre road bikes.. turned around in front of me .. all fully lycra'd up in team colours.. the guys at the front looked damn good for their age.. the stragglers looked like f'kin humpty-dumpty.. they got to the base of Mam Tor.. turned around and headed back.. Mam Tor ain't for the faint hearted so i didn't expect any of them to grind up the gradient.. On one hand, why buy a bike built for peak athletes when a £300 ebay special would suffice.. but on the other hand.. why not if riding a fantastic machine gets you out riding with your mates? .. you're only spending the grandkids inheritance after all..

I don't think our pov's are worlds apart 🤝

Isn' this^ what i said in the first place

Not disagreeing with any of that..

Again.. media was just an example.. (i can go back and replace the word media with the word arts if you like? ) My point was .. most companies who pay a decent salary are london-centric, In London you can work for the BBC.. (for example) up here you can earn minimum wage working at (for example) the Sports Direct distribution warehouse, the Amazon distribution warehouse, the e-buyer distribution warehouse or the Next distribution warehouse.. the world is your oyster. It's why SoaS, Clutch.. et'al exist in London.. you open SoaS in the north and it would close down within a month because folks don't have that type of disposible.

Don't listen to him @Broark .. i was out yesterday from 11.30am till 5.15pm in 30° heat wearing Supreme work shorts.. would lycra have been more comfortable? .. Yes, definitely! Do i regret not wearing lycra? Absolutely not

Me neither.. who's that on the front, it looks like Brian Harvey

..but if you're a media type of midlife crisis age.. you would have earned those good salaries 20-30yrs ago, would you not? Working at Morrisons 20-30yrs ago paid like shit and it still does.

A BBC radio show host can earn £300-£400k salary, UK average is £38k Similar position at Radio Sheffield earns you not much more than minimum wage.. but it was just an example, salaries are much higher in London but like maynerd says mortgage / cost of living is also higher.. but if you're due a mid-life crisis, you're also due to pay off your mortgage in the not too distant future.

The BBC is based in London..

I appreciate that.. but those living in / around the poverty line are not the same folks having mid-life crices and spending £3k on bikes.. if you compare the average 50 something yr old northerner who has cash to splurge on a crisis-toy and your average 50 something yr old Londoner with cash to splurge on a crisis toy.. i'd still assume those living in the capital.. having worked in media, finance.. ect instead of working at Morrisons would have the same % to spend but greater capital.

Before you buy anything, you need to know what size frame you need.. geometry, reach ect.. your local bike shop will offer you great advice.. they'll measure you up and wot-not.

£3k..? you sound like me when i bought 2x pints of Asahi last weekend for £18 This side of brexit / the cost of living crisis .. £7000 - £10,000 is the price bracket of choice for the slightly porky, spilling out of lycra, mid-life crisis Peak District cyclist.. and London folks have much more disposible.

Yep.. when i first started riding MTB in the early 90s.. my one bike (GT Zaskar) did absolutely everything from trails to commuting to pump track, to XC.. the only adjustments i made while riding was saddle height.. come the mid 90s DH became a thing and you needed full suspension with lots of travel meaning you couldn't ride any distance on those bikes.. so that was 2 bikes you needed.. maybe 3 if you wanted to ride serious road miles. Some of the trails around me are now so extreme that you need super slack, full sus e-bikes, the jumps are massive.. the only way you can generate enough momentum to clear the gap is electric assist. Modern gravel / adventure is a bit of a marketing fallacy.. it's basically a late 80s - early 90s MTB with drops, larger wheels, disc brakes and a carbon fork with lots of tyre clearance.. alas, trying to convert a cheap early MTB to gravel is a nightmare because all the standards have changed, again, minimal advancement have been made, it's mainly to keep us buying new shit.. this is what a lot of folks find daunting. Anywho.. if i lived in the US and i wanted a fancy gravel bike i'd buy this.. or for a first gravel bike.. you can buy something that looks like this^ with all the same attributes.. single chainring, drop/flared bars, front fork (doesn't need to be carbon) and rear stays with lots of tyre clearance for 2.2 - 2.4 tyres (your tyres will be your cushioning over the rough stuff) disc brakes and brifters so your brake lever is also your gear shifter.. you could get something fantastic for a fraction of the cost of the above (i just desperately, desperately want one) .. just go to your local bike shop and ride some.

What type of riding would you be doing @Broark MTB, road bike or split the difference with a modern gravel / adventure bike? Somthing that doesn't require lycra i hope..

It was around 30°C but the sun hardly broke through the clouds.. personally, i thought if felt hotter yesterday but it might have been psychological because it was blue skies, beaming sunshine and i was stuck in work.. (thinking fk this i'm having tomorrow off) The heat is ok in the Peaks because it's a lot cooler/ breezier at the top.. you can feel the heat hit you like a hairdryer as you descend.. i think it's just what you get used to.. i see Italians riding Colnago and Bianchi road bikes in 40° heat hardly breaking sweat when we holiday in the summer.. yet for me just being out in the sun in those temps is exhausting..

Hotest day of the year so i took the day off work.. Rode past the waterwheel.. the local heron was fishing ..a bit of drystone walling at Ringinglow village for @Dr_Heech Peak District is quiet on Fridays this is where i fell off a couple of weeks ago ..rode to the Intrepid micro brewery at Hope .. up to Mam Tor ..sheep leg ..cows ..outside Speedwell Cavern back through Hope.. and home ..pushing back against the manosphere ..used a Brewdog Elvis Juice rub and cooked some pork medallions on the bbq ..on top of noodles, garlic, spring onions, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, pak choi and waterchestnuts ..hello cat from down the road ..my purchases from Intrepid.. Porter was £5.. Bitter was £3 ..kids off to fancy dress party dressed an Indianna Jones.. wearing my Lone Wolf Mechanics ..i got him a cheap sex whip from ebay.. word to the wise, don't type whip into ebay

Doesn't advertising on the forum cost $200/mth? https://supertalk.superfuture.com/store/category/4-advertising/

Awesome, if you haven’t already.. buy it! It’s cool af!

You lose nothing by trying @Broark Folks traveled across JP to collect the first run of CSF 46s over the counter but I still managed to land a pair using the fanboy method