Brain recalibration - a cost of living/modern life thread

course codes are fine, as long as they come with a map and/or a Strava segment.

In our district alone we have 126 coded courses… without course codes it would be difficult to distinguish the 4 variants of the 10 mile from Princethorpe, for instance. The problems arise when districts are resistant to digitisation, but this is a club and district issue, rather than a CTT issue. If clubs do nor upload their events and nobody know about them, whose fault is it? On the other hand, We have octuagenarians running club series and uploading diligently everything online.

Things have improved a lot, unfortunately the stupid cost of cycling equipment is standing in our way, if we want to appeal to younger crowds. We have races that you can sign up to on the night for a fiver on rural courses, zero entry barriers… but if a decent bike costs at least 5 grand, what can we do?

I don’t disagree, in fact most successful clubs would advertise their events differently. But you still need a way to identify the course from its variants. You also need variants to allow for the almost constant stream of roadworks.

I daresay that good clubs make successful events and when events are not successful that is almost entirely the club’s fault. There is a very specific problem in involving the younger generations into this type of racing… I always thought it was a perception problem, it is seen as an old man pursue, but then you would expect that the Dowsett, the Bingham or the Tarling that come from a CTT background would inspire youths to seek TT as a way to get to the top of the sport. But that does not happen and in my opinion this is not down to course codes but it is down to the very high entry barrier brought in by the extreme cost of competitive equipment.

If you want to win the National 10 as a Junior, as well as the legs and the technique, you probably also need 15 grand worth of cycling equipment and there are very few sponsors around.

It’s not that simple… let’s say that you ban everything but the basic setups… who is going to police that? Who is going to check that your bike is not an aero frame, that your rims are no more than 25 mm deep, that your tyres are not TT specific, that your helmet doesn’t cost more than 50 pounds?

Also, how low is too low? Are you going to put off the kids who just got a decent bike for Christmas and only allow those with the crap bikes? Is there are a reliable enough source of crap bikes to race on?

The very pursue of speed implies that someone will always find a way to challenge the rules… and that is not a problem. The real issue here is that the market has doubled the prices of equipment in the space of a few years at a time when people have less money than they had a few years ago. What used to be 3k has become 5k and then 10k and now 14k in a little more than 10 years.

The pace of innovation is also relentless, what is the best today is likely to be obsolete in 3 years time, so the appetite for investment is even less.

On top of that, in the UK you also have the merchants of speed, the Wattshop, the Aerocoach and whatnot that prompt you to invest even more in wind tunnel time, in bike fitting, in more aero equipment…

£6 for a bag of seed potatoes about 20 of them… I am not even sure I will get six quid worth of crop out of them.

yeah, we talked about it upstream… almost worth buying the top quality one, which is little more than the crap one

I can tell you. On that income in the places you’re likely to earn that you don’t feel remotely rich and you certainly will not be living a rich lifestyle, largely because you’re not rich.

I keep saying this over and over, it’s wealth that determines your lifestyle nowadays, not your income. £100k a year means you can buy a house with a mortgage, not that you can live in a big house or live without a mortgage. That’s about the luxury you can afford on £100k

Really doesn’t. Not with the kind of mortgage you probably need.

I think by "own" BB is implying no mortgage

Wealth doesn't dictate your lifestyle. Disposable income does.

You have a remarkable ability to misunderstand.

If you don't have any property costs, because you own your property outright, and you are not paying for private school fees, then £100k goes a long way. It's £260 a day net of tax.

Some people I know with a £450k mortgage and £65k debt on top consider themselves doing OK. I consider myself with a £765.00 mortgage due to end soon plus £99k in savings and a good pension just about OK I know we won't be flush but will be comfortable. We hope to not be stressed and I think that is worth a lot.

I know. 😎

Not like a king, but not the arse end either. Just not an overpriced area where people judge each other by possessions.

If you own your property outright you still have property costs.

Sell the house, live like a king. That’s 10 years worth of tax free earning of £100k.

Honestly, the cost of property, renting or otherwise, is so high and has risen so much that the bigger factor in your lifestyle is not your income, but how early you were able to buy.

There’s an older couple down the road who have a child in my daughter’s class. They earn substantially less than we do, just over half, but they inherited money in their early 20s abs used it to buy a property.

Their income after the mortgage is still more than ours, and their house is worth more as it’s bigger. And I’m hardly leveraged up to the hilt - I’m quite conservative with my money.

That’s because they were able to buy 10 years earlier. That’s it. That’s the difference.

I live worse than my mate who’s a civil servant for the same reason. He bought a house in Ely aged 24 because he inherited £60k and he bought it on buy-to-let.

Ive out earned him many times over that £60k, but there’s just no way I can keep up with how small his mortgage is.