Haha. I gave my second MTB a very similar home paintjob back in about 1992, only mine faded to gold at the front too.

Wonder if he'll be wearing a polystyrene helmet and electric blue-striped bibs too?

I agree with Derek. It seems a clever attempt to buy some prestige/publicity by making the most expensive off-the-peg MTB.

Merida don't really have the poor reputation that Skoda did before VW took them over - they're more like Daewoo or Hyundai I'd say. Offering a decent product, but lacking brand cachet.

In fact, their bikes seem closer in performance/quality to the market leaders than the Korean car firms do.

Surely sponsoring a high-profile series of enduro races that attract both beginners and experienced riders - and having their super bling featured in the mags and on the websites - will only help raise their profile.

I'll come and report back later - they're only an inch or so high at the moment.

Peppers, chillies and toms all did OK last year despite the dreadful weather - lots of fruit but not very ripe - so I'm semi-optimistic. 

I planted some sweetcorn, a couple of cabbages and a couple of courgettes out at the weekend.

I know it's a bit early, but I couldn't stop myself with all that sunshine.

Also just transplanted parsnips, leeks and sown more carrots, rocket and spuds.

Already getting pods on my broad beans with this weather and the garlic and onions look like they're close to maturity.

I'm trying aubergines and melons in the greenhouse this year - hope we have a hotter summer than last year when the toms and peppers didn't ripen.

It's got to be good news when somebody launches a new magazine covering mountain biking (partly).  Good luck with it!

With regards to the price, I don't think it's too high if it has considerably more editorial content than more frequent rivals such as WMB or Singletrack.

My personal observations seem to support that there are a growing number of riders crossing into road cycling as well as MTBing (and presumably vice versa) - so it'll be interesting to see if that market is large enough to support it's own publication.

I presume the magazine will have a specialist slant rather than beiong a general cycling mag in a more beginnery manner?

Have you considered putting a couple of sample features (perhaps one MTB, one road) online in PDF format as a taster for us?