u/misanthrope__

I was looking for a hardtail for long expeditions that I can take on bikepacking adventures on rough trails and gravel paths. My budget was 3K, and I wanted to prioritise good steel and titanium frames, so the choice got quite limited, as it seems most hardtail frames are XC racing and either they are aluminium or carbon. After researching a lot I have been able to shortlist these which are available through Cycle to Work:
- Sonder Broken Road TI XT: It is made out of titanium, is light so can be good for unloaded easy trails too.

- Cotic Solaris: XC bikes which might work as a decent bike for bikepacking too, but this one is getting very expensive if I go for XT level components, and I want to keep it under 3K.

While Sonder seems to fit the idea of what I want, the only thing that worries me is the parent(Alpkit) went under administration recently and although they got new funding, they shut down their only London store. Bike is using standard components except the sliding dropouts, so I guess I can stock up on those, but it still makes it a bit uneasy.

Is this something I should worry about or should it be fine since other parts are quite standard? The only other issue might be that I will not have any local store which will be true for any brand unless I buy mass market ones like Trek, Specialized etc

Are there other fully built bikes which are available in UK that can easily work with Green Commute Initiative that are similar to Sonder Broken Road?

or should I just get an aluminium XC racing bike like Marin Team 2, Specialized Chisel Comp etc and make use of mounts like Tailfin/OMM if I want to bikepack. How are these aluminium frames for long multi-day rides? Do they feel supple enough to make for comfortable rides?

I was looking for a hardtail for long expeditions that I can take on bikepacking adventures on rough trails and gravel paths. I wanted to prioritise good steel and titanium frames, so the choice got quite limited, as it seems most hardtail frames are XC racing and either they are aluminium or carbon. After researching a lot I have been able to shortlist these which are available through Cycle to Work(a UK thing):
- Sonder Broken Road TI XT: It is made out of titanium, is light so can be good for unloaded easy trails too.

- Cotic Solaris: XC bikes which might work as a decent bike for bikepacking too, but this one is getting very expensive if I go for XT level components.

While Sonder seems to fit the idea of what I want, the only thing that worries me is they went under administration recently and although they got new funding, they shut down their only London store. Bike is using standard components except the sliding dropouts, so I guess I can stock up on those, but it still makes it a bit uneasy.

Is this something I should worry about or should it be fine since other parts are quite standard? The only other issue might be that I will not have any local store which will be true for any brand unless I buy mass market ones like Trek, Specialized etc

Are there other fully built bikes which are available in UK that are similar to Sonder Broken Road?

or should I just get an aluminium XC racing bike like Marin Team 2, Specialized Chisel Comp etc and make use of mounts like Tailfin/OMM if I want to bikepack. How are these aluminium frames for long multi-day rides? Do they feel supple enough to make for comfortable rides?

I am planning to get a C/P line 12 speed and I want to look at some bike touring options for it. There are two officially supported positions:
- Front: Borough 28l Bag
- Back: Rack bag 10l

I do understand that there are bags that are bigger for rear rack, but it seems like Brompton marks 10kg as the safe limit for rear rack.

So I started looking at the saddle/seatpack options, but it seems like bags like Ortlieb QR will not work with the saddles that Brompton ships with or some other saddles as well. One alternative would be to get bags that strap on to the saddle, but they will take some time to unpack after every day. So I wanted to know what sort of seatpacks are you guys using?

If it helps, I am tall so I will use the extended seatpost so there is plenty of space in the back for bags.

Hi, I am a staff engineer at one of the famous tech companies and have comp of more than 2 crores. While I do like the work, I have been doing the same thing for about a decade so I am interested in doing something totally different for a change. Not for financial upside, as tech did help hit those goals, so now it is not a concern. It is purely from the viewpoint of something fresh. If I don't like it, I can go back to tech anyway.

Will I be too old for paths like consulting, banking or things like VC/PE and will I hate the grind coming from tech which has a better WLB?

My profile is tech heavy and there aren't any great extra curriculars to speak of, as I picked up most hobbies after college. A 9/9/7 profile from a Tier 1 college, and I had given GMAT five years back, and scored 760 in it, so I am confident I will do well in that.

Not interested in living abroad, but can go there to study.

Hi, I am a man in my early 30s looking for a life partner through dating apps and one of the matrimony app. I have been looking since the last 1.5 years and nothing has materialised yet. I do get a lot of interests on the apps, but most of them don't match what I am looking for. The ones that do match the initial set of filters lack other things like wit, humility etc which makes you lose interest in them eventually. So even after the initial filter match, sometimes I end up saying no, and sometimes the woman ends up saying no. This has been draining me, and even after taking multiple breaks I am feeling very checked out.

I am fit, tall, from a Top 10 college, earn in the top income bracket of the matrimony app. Because I am good with house chores like maintaining the house, cooking etc; I also don't have any expectations from my prospects that they will need to do it. I want someone similar to me in looks, fitness, education and just have to be passionate about their work, they don't really need to earn as much. It also seems there are very few profiles that match what I am looking for, so even that realisation has been really exhausting.

I have been advised by friends to try relaxing the criteria on things like education or fitness, to increase the pool and I can see how it makes sense from a statistical sense, but I am just not attracted to people outside the filters. A woman who looks really good but didn't work as hard on the education front, just won't be someone I get attracted by, and they will end up being compared to the people I have looked up to or dated in the past.

I am trying to resign myself to the fact that I might have to stay single, but even that is not really helping. I am not sure what to do