Why don't people properly review Cheap Mountain Bikes Properly

What is it that the only reviews that I seem to be able to find for mountain bikes under £500 are always...light on detail, or worse only available on the retailers website.

Am I wrong here, £500 is a lot for some families to spend on a bicycle and surely they deserve the same support and attention as those who are spending more.

After all someone who is buying their first mountain bike is probably the guy who will easily be dropping £2k on their second one.

So if anyone can find a review of the following mountain bikes I would be slightly less grumpy than normal.

Calibre Crag
Calibre Dune
Carerra Kraken
Vitus Nucleus

Also please let me know which other cheap mountain bikes I should add to this list.

Why do I live in such a muddy country

Just a short one today....who in heaven invented mud.

I like dirt, and gravel as much as the next man but what use is mud to man or beast.

Look what it did to my bike;

Now I have to go and buy some Mountain bike mudguards.

So Mud - you are going in the book

Boxing Day and January Sales

This isn't going to be a long post I just want to vent a little frustration at the fact that I have just found out what is going to be on sale from Amazon during the boxing day sales. (A perk of the fact that I work in media).  Not when you find out that 50% of the Christmas gifts you just bought are now almost half of the cost that they were when I bought them.

Seriously why do we fall for it every year and scramble to the shops looking for the latest toys and games.

So next year you can all wait until after Christmas for your presents or I am buying you vouchers.  Not because I am lazy (which I am) or that I am not thinking of you (which I am probably not) but because I am sick and tired of being ripped off.

So who is with me, if we all did it together I bet those buggers would stop doing it and start charging normal prices.

If you don't agree with me then why don't you look at how much that nice shiny new expensive games console you bought little Johnny cost you two weeks ago and then look at how much it is being sold for on Boxing Day and then tell me how you feel.

Comparison Sites are....

So I spend the best part of my weekend looking at alternative energy suppliers.  Wasn't life just easier when it was just good old British Gas.

It took me 2 hours to find all the information I needed to switch and I then sat down at the site (they shall remain unnamed) and put it all in.  Feeling flush with my £123 saving a year I duly accepted all of the Terms and Conditions and proceeded with my application.

I felt good this morning, a man who had saved money and outwitted the corporate giants who were bleeding him dry.  I had struck a blow for the common man and had sent tales of my endeavours to all of my friends.  Then one of them sent this link back;

http://www.mirror.co.uk/money/personal-finance/energy-comparison-sites-hiding-best-4467540

I feel like such a div...

I hate First Great Western and the fact that I have to use them.

I am sick to the back teeth of paying so much of hard earned cash into the pockets of First Great Western (known hence forth as #failgreatwestern).  This is the most common site on my daily commute to London.

So I am going to make it my mission to try and help as many people as possible limit the amount of cash they have to pay them.

I need to get a train to London every day but if you don't then try these sites for your cheap public travel needs.

• National express for the most extensive network of inter city busses
• Megabus for the cheapest public transport deals in the UK
• ZipCar if you can drive but don't own a car

And finally if you really must book a train journey then read this article from the Mirror and make sure that your train travel is as cheap as possible How to get cheap train tickets.

Leave my Star Wars Alone

Mr Abrams please take heed of this message.  Star Wars is part of my heritage, I can't remember a Christmas between 1980 and 1990 where I did not avidly await to see it on TV.

Disney take heed or I shall personally picket your offices all over the world and throw EWOK shaped bundles of poo at your employee's.

Rage!

When free does not actually mean free? - Apple Newsstand

This is not an Apple hate or love piece, I love my iPad and my Nexus 7 with equal measure and I think they both bring great joy to my life and I also spend real (paper) money on the odd (paper) magazine namely Ride Magazine and Fast Bikes Mag (gotta plug the pulp every now and again).

So I have been doing a lot of research recently for my full time gig on what the best pricing structures are on the Apple newsstand and I have noticed a curious issue that is annoying a lot of users in relation to NewsStand.

It appears that a lot of users are becoming enraged at theprospect of downloading a free app container app only to realise that they then have to pay to get access to the actual content.

Here is a sample of the complaints below which were taken from a great article about this phenomenon here on slackstory.

I don't think this this is a great conspiracy but if the Tin says free then it should be free.

For example on the newsstand today the image below shows 4 free magazines but only one of them is actually Free.

Surely the answer is simple keep the Free stuff and the paid stuff separate, you will then have a lot less complaints from your users and more people will trust and use the Apple Newsstand...Which I still think is an amazing product.

Come on Apple, you know it makes sense.