[Closed] STW Changed My Life

I found a load of lovely folks to ride with!

I found a load of lovely folks to ride with!

Needs a like button

I found a load of lovely folks to ride [s]with[/s]!

😉

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10% of members ride bikes
104% of members are middle management IT
Power Kites are not acceptable presents
30% of users now own old fashioned razors
We have some wood gods amongst us
We have a lot woofers
Everyone likes coffee
I'm not as addicted to Zwift as weeksy

Personally I've met a few members, learnt some useless tosh that passed the time enjoyably and bought and sold a lot of bike related gumpf.

Middle aged blokes really like arguing about Brexit/Driving standards/Crown races.
I am a lot closer to the middle of the spectrum than I realised.
It's much more amusing looking from the outside in.

Never, ever, go out with Louise.

It's the recommendations when you're about to buy something that have helped me the most.

Recent purchases for me going on STW recommendations:

BT Headphones
Portable charging pack
Debit card for use abroad
Accounting software
Present for son at Christmas
Snowboard mittens (waves at howsyourdad1 if he's reading)

All have been from good recommendations from here - rather than online reviews.

EDIT: Oh and I've had a few jobs from here in the last few years, so STW has helped pay my mortgage as well. 😀

EDIT: Oh and I've had a few jobs from here in the last few years, so STW has helped pay my mortgage as well.

Wow, beat that if you can!

I have had some very good technical info on a wide range of subjects.

I have bought some great value second hand parts

I have had my views challenged robustly and have changed some of those views as a result.

I really value the latter. FB is an echo chamber and friendship groups tend to be as well. STW is not and being exposed to a range of views is very healthy IMO

How to clean a cat covered in sudocreme.
Do not argue with stupid.
Do not start discussion on Brexit or Driving.
Do not lease a car from Ling
Do not buy from Superstar Compenents
Don't post a pic up asking for some photoshoppage

[quote=tjagain said]
I have had my views challenged robustly and have changed some of those views as a result.
I really value the latter. FB is an echo chamber and friendship groups tend to be as well. STW is not and being exposed to a range of views is very healthy IMO

Have you unblocked THM then ? 😛

Do not lease a car from Ling

?? I thought the consensus was its ok to buy a car from Ling? Or are you trying to sumon her back to the forum?

Ling
Ling
Ling

I've got refunds from BT and Scottish Power because of STW.
Someone stopped me totally ****ing up my wood floor.
I've even been told how to change the defrost duration on my chocolate cabinet.
All stuff that you can't find by simply googling.

Helped me through Prostate Cancer - found some other members who had been through same, now they are very good friends and we have, with STW and sanny, raised awareness of the disease in younger fitter men than the usual demographic and raised a chunk of charity money to boot.

Oh and lots of great bike and non bike advice 🙂

chocolate cabinet.

What the hell is one of those??

I have got some good friends. from here.

Helped me through Prostate Cancer - found some other members who had been through same, now they are very good friends and we have, with STW and sanny, raised awareness of the disease in younger fitter men than the usual demographic and raised a chunk of charity money to boot.

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Imagine all the time you'd have & how few bikes you'd had if you'd never been here

[i] chocolate cabinet.

What the hell is one of those?? [/i]

You had to be there, man.

I've learnt that I definitely won't be ordering a car then backing out and posting about it online.

I'm also 20000% less productive than I used to be.

For me, the best one was getting some advice on how to fix an electric garage door – what I expected to be a £2k+ job to replace the whole system as it was completely dead turned out to be the cost of about 89p for a fuse (I had no idea the base units had internal fuses inside them).

STW advice effectively picked where I live and where we went on honeymoon.

...and thousands of other bits of useful advice/opinion/nonsense over the couple of decades(!) I've been a member.

(Very rarely about bikes though!)

I got a 9999 year ban.

During that that time I lived many lifetimes. Now I'm back.

Mainly, it's something to do during the day. Not much else keeps me occupied doing my boring job. Bloke next to me browses news sites all day. I like to "interact"* 🙂
Also -
Discovered new music through the you-know-what thread.
Ridden with great people. Keep planning to do that again, but life gets in the way.
I have only used STW to help with one purchasing decision - Tripster. Everything else I choose myself, without asking which <[i]insert item here[/i]> to buy! 😉

*annoy

The varied advice and information share is second to none, theres pretty much no question that you can't ask and receive some form of help and assistance.
Don't argue with Big Hitters.
Always speak your mind on any thread, it's your opinion/contribution that is important.
That the forum goes through phases, some folk go some stay some are new and some have been here since water was invented. Its the colossal make up of the place thats fascinating.
Don't get wound up on a thread, be clear about your thoughts and opinions, those that antagonise/troll are only 11 inches tall and still going through puberty.

I've learned that most people, when it comes down to it, genuinely want the best for their fellow humans. They just *love* to argue about what that is until it comes to the crunch when they all pull together and show what a good community this is.

As with DezB - it passes the time quite effectively.

I found a new IT supplier for our business

Who did you pick in the end? (chances are, I/my employer supply them...)

I profited grossly from selling a lifestyle device.
Introduced me to Jedi, which in turn had a hand in me to meeting the future MrsTomhoward.
Road bikes
Gravel bikes
Posh calculators
Provided entertainment during hospital stays...
Sharpened my arguing technique...

I bought 2 bikes from people on here and both of them went above and beyond to help me out with my various questions. It restored my faith in buying second hand parts from strangers so thanks Wwaswas and Teamslug, both bikes are running like a dream and are still too good for my abilities.

Advice received about stuff
Sold stuff
Talked about stuff
Argued about stuff
Learnt that footflaps shares the same taste in music**waves**
Learnt that Binners is a cool dude who likes Roller Skates (which is jolly splendid) 😀

*blushes* thanks blader1611 🙂 Glad to hear it's still going strong!

Oh, and some artisanal trousers

Learnt the following

to not let any of you use my shower 🙂

Mumsnet.

The north.

Fatbikes

raised a chunk of charity money to boot.

+1

I milked my X-factor worthy sob story to raise several grand in aid of [url= https://www.anthonynolan.org/ ]Anthony Nolan[/url]; blood cancer charity.

Thank you. 😀

The varied advice and information share is second to none, theres pretty much no question that you can't ask and receive some form of help and assistance.

agree and the possibility of relentless ridicule 🙂

Everyone likes coffee

Big Bike Bash has been a great thing that came out of STW

alexxx - Member
Power Kites are not acceptable presents

We only have the word of others, the concept hasn't been thoroughly tested.

E-mail in profile.

This year, amongst other things, I got to find out what a thoroughly decent chap Ambrose is and really enjoyed meeting up with everyone at Hit the North.

Yours
Kiteless but happy,
Pete.

Calmed me down a bit.

Met a few off here. Geetee, ton, beef hat, fred (!)

Group ride Swinley before the built trail stuff (can't remember the names).

Calmed me down a bit.

Er...

gofasterstripes - Member
I found a load of lovely folks to ride with!

And then he moved across the sea to avoid doing so 😉

Hate to lower the tone with a serious post, but raising £8.5k for a cancer charity to honour my best friend (god rest his soul). Absolutely amazing support from STW which genuinely I will look back on with immense gratitude for the rest of my life.

How to clean a cat covered in sudocreme.

😆 😆 😆 😆 😆

I learned that if you’re going to Centre Parks then best be prepared to break some doors down.

I just found a bunch of great people to pass the time with.
Have had some great advice and support on personal matters.
Bought and sold bikes and bits.
Found out that Chinky is not an acceptable word for a Chinese takeaway even if you’re Chinese.
People will be offended by pretty much anything.
Disputes with neighbours are a lot more common than I thought.
Joe Cocker has died four times this year.
The Gnusmas and wiggle threads and how they proved that we are a pretty good bunch at the end of the day.

redstripe -
>>Everyone likes coffee

Must be the exception I hate the stuff
Big Bike Bash has been a great thing that came out of STW

+1 on both of those!

Well, STW literally does pay my mortgage, so thank you everyone for that.
In a suitably circular connection, I got my mortgage advisor from a request on the forum.
I don't get to spend enough time on the forum as I'd like, due to having to write about bikes, but when I do get a spare minute, I love the depth of its rabbit hole - er, so to speak.
And in between the occasional bickering, there have been moments of brilliance (Picolax...), joy (when riders have had stolen bikes replaced by the good will of people here) and genuine heartbreaking empathy (see the many threads about suicide, depression and home life destruction).
We (in the office) have always maintained that it's not our forum, it's yours. We just keep the lights on for you.

That a plane on a conveyor belt doesn't take off. Or was it could take off. I can't remember. Not sure I learnt anything there then...

Cats do not like cucumbers. This is a real game changer.

If it hadn't been for STW I'd have never found mlehworld.

It has helped me escape my bubble, I like it. I've also appreciated some of the more skilled arguing on here - some folks really know their stuff

Hello again Rusty 🙂 I found out people on here I already knew which was great.

I bought a Kona Ute which has been one of my all-time great bikes I've owned because of how it got my kids to Nursery and school without having to be a two car family.

MNPR and Hit the North

Useless odds and sods of knowledge

I know what Picolax is, which isn't something I've been asked to take but I'm forewarned 🙂

The thread where a full sized balance bike was built for a lad who really bloody appreciated it.

If it hadn't been for STW I'd have never found mlehworld.

remembers not to click on any links

I know the difference between your and you're, working on where and were.

Peaks Pootles

Keeper of the Peak

Meeting some awesome riding buddies. And hora.

STW provided much needed reassurance when something (appeared to) go badly wrong with my daughter's late hamster's arsehole.

I am not the only person to experience Picolax
Cats, children and sudocream do not mix.
Louise should be avoided at all costs.
Will Kryton find a car he truly likes?
A very helpful thread about Fox 36’s
The degree of pious righteousness some forumites exhibit would get them a job in my Secret Police.

When someone comes with a personal problem that’s causing them turmoil the degree of helpfulness and support of the forumites dissolves a bit of my cynicism of humanity.

Mrs M is now worried when I start mentioning new patio’s.

The thread where a full sized balance bike was built for a lad who really bloody appreciated it.

Aye - that was a beauty - the joy on the chaps face when he was scooting was lovely

This place isn’t, unlike what some people think, a microcosm of real life. Neither does it very often produce anything approaching good advice. Let’s face it chaps, this is the home of bitter midlife sanctimonious bellendary. 1 in 100 threads produces something entertaining or useful, the rest of it is bored middle aged men passing the time by arguing the toss over something that really doesn’t matter. On the plus side, you do tend to get pretty quick responses. 😉

Lots of things which have already been mentioned, but also found a barrister on here to help fight a planning application.

Somewhat unexpectedly though - and I may be the only person on here to have had this experience - STW has significantly changed my political views.

edit: just remembered another one - this thread significantly changed my life
http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/anyone-bought-a-unicycle-from-lidl

I’ve a very large circle of friends from here of days gone by who I must catch up with soon.

Fixed my mum's tomatoes

I’ve not heard it called that before

[quote=matt_outandabout ]Do not lease a car [s]from Ling[/s] to geordiemick

😈

I now have a new one. I started a thread that the chipps commented on 😀

Makes working from home far more tolerable than it would otherwise be.

I particularly value the depth of knowledge on bike stuff from some of the unsung heroes in the bike forum. Not the people (like myself) who post frequently but the ones who really know their onions and pop up to solve obscure problems.

You’ve helped me become a better person. You’ve helped me when I’ve been in a very bad place. You’ve become some very good friends. You’ve given me laughter. You’ve wasted so much of my time

Thank you

LOTS of people from here either..
Blag a lot,
Talk bollox, (same bracket)
Don't/can't seem to think before they type something,
Don't even own a bike (although maybe not a requisite)
Don't respect their wiser elders (me)
Love to have a dig at certain people.
Don't read OP's properly thereby wasting their own time answering 'non'questions,
Assume things.
Don't realise how nice a bloke TJ actually is, 😉
Don't realise how hard as nails Ton is, 😉
The list is endless.

A lot of people on here are also awesome/kind/caring/knowledgeable/sympathetic...that list is also endless.

I've learned that most people, when it comes down to it, genuinely want the best for their fellow humans. They just *love* to argue about what that is until it comes to the crunch when they all pull together and show what a good community this is.

That's a really good summary, well said.

My take was always, STW: you'll come for the bikes, you'll stay for the bollocks.

For me, STW is a [url= http://www.mono.org/ ]Mono[/url] replacement. Mono had the same community: one of competitive debating, humour, sarcasm and wit, and a wealth and breadth of knowledge, "is there nothing Mono can't answer?" Mono bore friendships, marriages, divorces, deaths. STW is the only 'modern' forum I've found which comes remotely close. Thanks for having me, folks.

thanks for letting us 😉

STW has significantly changed my political views.

i learnt aracer was gullible

The guy who went to Lilliput?

[quote=Junkyard ]i learnt aracer was gullible

😆 so you're telling me I was right in the first place?

Hang on, I need to go and support jamba and ninny on the EU thread...

so you're telling me I was right in the first place?

Good point, I failed to notice that glaring error in my point !

Can someone help me post a link to a Daily Mail article?

Hang on, I need to go and support jamba and ninny on the EU thread...

They'll need it. Farridge has just said that he'd entertain the idea of a second referendum 😆

Magneto Dog.
STW is my insomnia saviour.
Got me through 5 years of a dull boring job.
Advice and avoidance. I bought a lift (elavator) for my building (work) following consultation.
Holidays.
Insights on the wider world.
The only social media that I pay for.

For me?

Changed my political views quite a bit.
Alerted me to the dangers of modest house owners that own BMW's.
Gave me the Gif thread. Thank you so much!
Challenges my views.
Has made me very up for going to Centerparcs.

Amazed me that such a (relatively) small forum (and a forum at all....) could effect my life in such a mainly* good manner.

*It does drive me a little crazy at times too.

Sage advice on any subject, The amount of technical knowledge on here is fantastic and the different points of view on anything & everything is truly entertaining.
Second hand parts have saved my bank account many times.
Peoples generosity with time and money with regards to helping complete strangers is properly hart warming and for those who helped me with the Defender thing a few years back thanks very much, I would never have got any money back without Singletrack. I owe you all a drink.
My spelling and grammar has not been improved though.
Louise, well its all true in my experience, a close escape.

Things I have learned?
That big hitters are a bit sad, especially the ones who start threads that are essentially about themselves.

That an oscillating multi-tool really will change your life (as far as diy is concerned)

That the car is still king in the UK and an object of desire/status/ego extension even for those who call themselves cyclists

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