Silly commuting racing

greg66_tri_v2.0

Greg T wrote:

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT

This is why the singlies are so high in the food chain....

Yes. Feisty little things, aren't they?

2wheelzgood wrote:

correct. if you need gears you're not strong enough.

And there was me thinking that you need to ride 42x16 because you're not strong enough to ride 53x16 ...

Doesn't riding at 40+ kmh on a fixed break the Rules? Because, well, you must be spinning at, oh, 120 rpm or more. Not exactly looking like you're not trying. More like looking like you're about to explode.

Greg T

Singlies deserve their place in my view as they just HAVE to keep spinning - me I can drop a couple, have a reflective moment, steal myself and off I go again. Singlies are locked on the pain travelator and have to keep on turning.

Anyone can fall onto a raod bike but no-one has ever thought "I'm going to have a bash cycling to work - I KNOW - a single speed fixed wheel jobbie with only one brake - that's for me". They know what's what.

That's why it's so good to drop them.

snooks

Greg T wrote:

Has anyone noticed that our very own MTB riding bagger of kids on trikes is asking for road bike advice on this very forum....

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12576804

Ahem - cough - cough....

Snooks explain your sudden conversion......

The ride to work scheme comes but twice a year, and I quite enjoy riding on the roads (but don't tell anyone), less people to slow down for, no roots, trees or brambles to get in the way or my face. I also like the idea of speed, and maybe doing some longer distances at the weekends.

Never had a road bike, the closest I've come is my slicked and upgraded 94 Marin, and it's paid for itself, well it paid for itself after 30 odd commutes. Including that one I have 3 mtbs, and the shed doesn't have enough room for another flat barred machine!!!

OK I might be turning into a roadie [shudder] I see them all over the place, and it looks like the right bike for the right environment...Just though I need to know more about the mystic art of roadieism

2wheelzgood

I'm cheating I have a freehub, worst of both sides?

my 42 16 is the best I can do on a mtb crankset and is way less "bring-it-on-if-yer-ard-enuf" than the purpose built 52 18s you see.. same result though.

Also I have not wimped out and chose to live in a flat place! but yeah, I chose not to go round a roadie t'other day at over 25mph as you're spot on with the rpm calculations (G66, you really are a machine.. or did you use the Sheldon calculator too?).

However roadies get cheap speed even with skinny legs as the gearing makes up for it. This bloke found a hill and was toast.

all gears do is give you a false sense of security :P

PS Greg almightly, you're welcome to join me and mates at our first velo session in a fortnight.. not sure what number of teeth they give, but I reckon I'll be up there scalping the ones who ride road bikes in the week.

Sea_Green_Incorruptible

snooks wrote:

t...Just though I need to know more about the mystic art of roadieism

Eurocyclist Rules old boy. Eurocyclist rules...
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2258201150

Greg T

Has anyone noticed that the edinburghbicycle.com banner at the top of the page has a roadie being dropped by a kid on a MTB.....

Or is that just mine?

snooks

Sea_Green_Incorruptible wrote:

snooks wrote:

t...Just though I need to know more about the mystic art of roadieism

Eurocyclist Rules old boy. Eurocyclist rules...
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2258201150

See! It's true what I've heard about roadies!...white socks, shaved legs, ridiculous eyewear....Stop me from becoming one...pleazzze. I need help, I'm off to rub mud over my face.....



Ahh that's better, glorious mud!

Bassjunkieuk

Greg T wrote:

Has anyone noticed that the edinburghbicycle.com banner at the top of the page has a roadie being dropped by a kid on a MTB.....

Or is that just mine?

What are these banners you speak of? Get ur self firefox, and adblock plus to banish them from your screen!

Greg T

Right then brothers.

I'm taking a flyer tonight as I'm going to have a lap of Richmond Park on the way home as penance for my pish weak performance last night.....

Safe home.

GT

victor ludorum

snooks wrote:

See! It's true what I've heard about roadies!...white socks, shaved legs, ridiculous eyewear....

You say it like it's a bad thing.

snooks

victor ludorum wrote:

snooks wrote:

See! It's true what I've heard about roadies!...white socks, shaved legs, ridiculous eyewear....

You say it like it's a bad thing.

It would be for me to wear white socks in public
.

el_presidente

Was riding home on the fixie last night in the downpour when I spied a titanium roadie ahead of me at Holborn lights. I put the hammer down and was passing him on the blind side down a oneway street, I looked over my shoulder to confirm the victory (no more than my right over a lower FCN but one has to check), next thing I know directly ahead of me is a pothole filled to the brim with rainwater looking like a volcanic crater lake.

I'm not quite sure what happened next but it involved me trying to bunny hop the crater, stopping pedalling to do so, remembering I can't really do that on the fixie, smash into the crater, and eventually end up sliding along the road underneath my bike

The titanium dude then completed my mortification by riding over to check I was alright (to his credit, he seemed more concerned about my bike).

Anyway no damage to the bike or indeed me (wet roads don't give much road rash), apart from my dented ego. I'm not even sure why I'm telling you this....

stay safe out there people



(PS This morning, managed to stay with a 3-man (1 shaved, 2 hairy) roadie peloton round Regents Park.... the mojo is still strong... ish )

greg66_tri_v2.0

Tonight was amusing.

First up, at the pelican crossing just before passing under Hungerford Bridge. I spotted the lights had gone to amber and came off the power to roll to them. Not so exhibit 1: tight lycra on a narrow hipped spanish waiter look-a-like, riding a mtb with slicks who had overrun me to get a bike length during our coast to the line. Ahh, my Iberian friend, you have shown your hand and your ambition far too soon.

Lights change, he pedals like a hamster on coke and maxes out at 30kmh. I sit back trying as hard as I can not to laugh, then sweep past once he has maxed out. :twisted:

Second, a couple of hairy roadies on the stretch from Parliament to Lambeth Bridge. Plainly asleep, as there's no way to go that slowly whilst awake. :roll:

I approach Vauxhall Bridge lights and the traffic is heavy and in the bus lane. There's a gaggle of what looks like crap at the lights. Then the lights go green and I have to fight through the bus lane and the left turners to make the green light.

Roll past the detritus and spastics on Bromptons at the back of the strung out pack and then past a couple of Mtbs or hybrids as the road narrows for the waterworks. We have a slow moving white van in front of us. I have an idea. I tuck behind the van and move to the offside, then ease off. This makes a nice big gap alongside me and behind the van for the detritus to filter into. We clear the roadworks, the van accelerates, and I go with it, leaving the mtbers and hybrid detritus stranded in the right hand lane with an impatient car behind it. Ha ha. :twisted:

This has allowed the front half of the detritus to get some distance though, and I set about them. One is on a hybrid with narrow tyres and aerobars - triathlete wannabe. The stem is almost vertical, though, and as I approach he is getting onto his aerobars, but they are so hgh he looks like he is standing up! :shock: Hard not to lose it completely and laugh out loud.

Then roll straight past the hairy roadie who has broken free of this pile o' crap as if he is stood still ... and then in the distance, I espy a worthy adversary: a road bike, smooth legs ... yes, at last someone worth chasing down.

But why am I gaining so quickly? Is my adversary playing possum? I come in for the kill ... and I see that those smooth legs belong to ... a female. Sshe is behind me in the blink of an eye, but I am left wondering ... why is a female trying to look like a true road biker?

chewa

I think I met another game player tonight. A guy (hairy legged) on a Lemond road bike. Even though he had right of way, he let me out and I suspect it was so I didn't pass him as i just pulled away from him.

Sneaky eh?

will3

Coupla questions about rules:
1) The other night after I was stung by a wasp I was nearly bagged by an MTB (no chance my friend you'll have to try harder). However he was religiously getting off and praying to the god of "cyclists dismount" - litterally getting of and straight back on again. Is this playing by the rules or can we consider that he must have put the damn things up?

2) Is scalping cars in 20mph limits ethical? 8)

ps if that was you riding an unbranded blue mtb somewhere south of cambridge

yours etc
Gingerbread man

cjcp

Left work at 4.30 today. Barely a bike on the road. Very dull.

biondino

This game is clearly sweeping the nation. I had two guys two or three rungs beneath me on the game scorechart who were clearly desperate to overtake me (hairy roadie + rucksack), but although they both managed to hang onto my tail for a few hundred yards, I dealt with their threat pretty easily. This is usually a rarity but I'm noticing it more and more.

Gr.uB

Unless the Total Fitness team come along I can dispatch most that I meet on bikes.
I am having a duel at present with an electrically assisted bike.
I often come to the base of my big hill on the way home and he is 50 - 100 or so metres in front. I am having trouble catching him - well I haven't yet.

There is also a moped rider that I am desperate to overtake.

Commute racing is ace fun. I don't get enough of it on my rural roads.

greg66_tri_v2.0

This morning's bounty:

- a hairy roadie in Rapha kit. Pootling along, I tell you. Pootling.

- big cluster of motorbikes and scooters at the Vauxhall Bridge lights. The lights change, and they swarm away, but one has become separated from the pack ... my nostrils flare ... I can smell his blood ... and then, in a heartbeat, he is mine ... and I am still seated and on the hoods - HA! So Mr Blue Scooter rider in a blue Dainese leather jacket, if you would like your still beating heart back anytime today, it's in wastepaper bin in the corner of my office. Loser. :twisted:

Sea_Green_Incorruptible

Interesting one last night. Pretty girl on a drop handlebar fixie making good time. Not sure where to place her, but ended up giving her a 3 for the bike with a +1 /-1for clothes. She had a team top of some sort on but then... I kid you not... some kind of mad tweed plus fours. All in there was something 'not quite cricket' about the whole get up: I'm guessing a German(?) student. But a 3 is a 3 and I'm a 5. 2 clear points up for grabs.

Anyway, she was a bit tasty on pedals and really stretched me up the Gloucester Rd. - I was pushing it to stay in the chase - until the short sharp climb after the traffic lights by the garage when her lack of gears started to tell. Put the hammer down and bang I dropped her.

Part of me couldn't help feeling that I'd won the contest unfairly. But most of me just gave a lycra-clad warcry as I (metaphorically) hung her bloody teutonic scalp from my seatpost: no room for sentiment in this game. Take no prisoners and all that...

I think I am begining to fear for my soul...

brufo32

I've been reading this forum for a while now and The Game is by far and away the best thing to happen to it. Thanks Greg T.

I hadn't been able to take the bike into work yesterday but wanted to avoid the tube so decided to run home (Holborn Circus to Clapham South). Went past a girl on a shopper who was trundling along the pavement with some shopping bags, does this count as a scalping?
I'm hardly a whippet at 16.5 stone and so my FCN (on foot) must have been lower than hers, however I was sweating and panting quite a lot so am I excluded for trying? Or are people without vehicles excluded completely anyway?

The rain this morning did seem to keep a lot of roadies off the road - plenty of MTBs and hybrids but few top predators, apart from a fixie with yellow tyres I managed to get between Blackfriars Bridge and Ludgate Circus.

cjcp

One fixie this morning. There is no way they are higher up the FC. Honestly, it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

Bassjunkieuk

Well looks like I've been given an excuse to get back on my bike tomorrow, probably the first time since this whole thing has kicked off so I'm eager to get started! I'm not working in central London though but this does mean I get my longest commute route (about 13.5 miles) to Thames DItton from my home in Croydon. Don't usually see many other bikes until I hit the main road at Merton heading towards the A3 and then head up Grand Drive - it's mainly LCN 75 after that towards Kingston so I might pick up some people then but I fear I won't find any proper challengers, being a hairy roadie I'm a bit limited for victims on this quiet route :-(

greg66_tri_v2.0

A quick aside: who has seen the one legged black guy running along the Embankment, eastbound, in the evenings? I have seen him anywhere from St Georges Sq to Lambeth Bridge. He has one of those blade things that the SA 400m runner uses for a left foot. And he really doesn't hang around. Truly impressive.

Damn. Where the hell did that piece of charity come from?

Clever Pun

a bit of rough and smooth last night

Pissed past a scooter who was clearly not bringing his a game (community support officer)
too easy though but it was on open road he was going straight etc

then on the stretch A21 nice bit of road but a b!tch of a head wind and I started to flag a bit, the hairless roadie I'd done in the morning cam past followed by a tourer with a godamn pannier leeching off him and spinning his little heart out, I give chase but a mixture of traffic and lights and they were gone...arse

Bassjunkieuk

Greg66 wrote:

A quick aside: who has seen the one legged black guy running along the Embankment, eastbound, in the evenings? I have seen him anywhere from St Georges Sq to Lambeth Bridge. He has one of those blade things that the SA 400m runner uses for a left foot. And he really doesn't hang around. Truly impressive.

Damn. Where the hell did that piece of charity come from?

Not sure if it's the same guy (but then how many 1 legged black guys on bikes are there?) but I did see one once when I was in my car in Mitcham. I was absolutely shocked and had to do a double take. In all fairness it was quite easy to check he only had 1 leg as the high vis shorts he had on really stood out! I've recently got clipless pedals and have been doing some 1 legged drills to get the technique right but the thought of cycling all the time like that is amazing! This guy didn't even have a prosthetic!

Clever Pun

Greg66 wrote:

Damn. Where the hell did that piece of charity come from?

it's not competition in any form... credit where it's due etc

greg66_tri_v2.0

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

A quick aside: who has seen the one legged black guy running along the Embankment, eastbound, in the evenings? I have seen him anywhere from St Georges Sq to Lambeth Bridge. He has one of those blade things that the SA 400m runner uses for a left foot. And he really doesn't hang around. Truly impressive.

Damn. Where the hell did that piece of charity come from?

Not sure if it's the same guy (but then how many 1 legged black guys on bikes are there?) but I did see one once when I was in my car in Mitcham. I was absolutely shocked and had to do a double take. In all fairness it was quite easy to check he only had 1 leg as the high vis shorts he had on really stood out! I've recently got clipless pedals and have been doing some 1 legged drills to get the technique right but the thought of cycling all the time like that is amazing! This guy didn't even have a prosthetic!

This guy is running. He looks like the arcitypal African distance runner. But with a prosthetic left lower leg.

Bassjunkieuk

Greg66 wrote:

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

A quick aside: who has seen the one legged black guy running along the Embankment, eastbound, in the evenings? I have seen him anywhere from St Georges Sq to Lambeth Bridge. He has one of those blade things that the SA 400m runner uses for a left foot. And he really doesn't hang around. Truly impressive.

Damn. Where the hell did that piece of charity come from?

Not sure if it's the same guy (but then how many 1 legged black guys on bikes are there?) but I did see one once when I was in my car in Mitcham. I was absolutely shocked and had to do a double take. In all fairness it was quite easy to check he only had 1 leg as the high vis shorts he had on really stood out! I've recently got clipless pedals and have been doing some 1 legged drills to get the technique right but the thought of cycling all the time like that is amazing! This guy didn't even have a prosthetic!

Should have made it clear: this guy is running. He looks like the arcitypal African distance runner. But with a prosthetic left lower leg.

Just re-read ur post, and completely missed the RUNNING part in the first sentance! Guess it's time I went to specsavers.......

secretsam

I may have missed the answer to this in the maelstrom of posts against this topic, but what do we do about:

PANSY FACE MASKS ("Oo-oooh my delicate little lungy-wungies, I shall wear my stormtrooper get up in the vain hope it isn't a waste of time")

Surely anyone wearing one should be +1 for being such a tw$t?

Haven't seen one legged running guy, BTW. But he sounds cool.