Silly commuting racing

lost_in_thought

Greg66 wrote:

So is there a Morpeth tonight, and if so what time? I need a deadline to help me do that thing, ummm, errrr, oh yes. W-o-r-k, I think it's called.

Big Chapeau to those who shake hands with Greg T tonight...

I'll morpeth, can make it over there any time after 5 really. Real Estate is not exactly booming right now... :shock:

lost_in_thought

Greg T wrote:

Ah now if we are on the Daily mash then this is genius:

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/envi ... 070912397/

il_principe

lost_in_thought wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

So is there a Morpeth tonight, and if so what time? I need a deadline to help me do that thing, ummm, errrr, oh yes. W-o-r-k, I think it's called.

Big Chapeau to those who shake hands with Greg T tonight...

I'll morpeth, can make it over there any time after 5 really. Real Estate is not exactly booming right now... :shock:

Me too, I have to be in Kentish Town for 8:30 so can have a couple!

greg66_tri_v2.0

jashburnham wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

So is there a Morpeth tonight, and if so what time? I need a deadline to help me do that thing, ummm, errrr, oh yes. W-o-r-k, I think it's called.

Big Chapeau to those who shake hands with Greg T tonight...

I'll morpeth, can make it over there any time after 5 really. Real Estate is not exactly booming right now... :shock:

Me too, I have to be in Kentish Town for 8:30 so can have a couple!

Should be there around 6. Might go easy on the beers tonight.

lost_in_thought

Greg66 wrote:

jashburnham wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

So is there a Morpeth tonight, and if so what time? I need a deadline to help me do that thing, ummm, errrr, oh yes. W-o-r-k, I think it's called.

Big Chapeau to those who shake hands with Greg T tonight...

I'll morpeth, can make it over there any time after 5 really. Real Estate is not exactly booming right now... :shock:

Me too, I have to be in Kentish Town for 8:30 so can have a couple!

Should be there around 6. Might go easy on the beers tonight.

6 is good. Hair of the dog, greg. MTFU.

il_principe

6 here too.

cjcp

God, I could do with a beer.

Will have to skip beers tonight though: I have to drive this evening. Got to pick up my tri bars from a mate. If anyone wants an early Sunday morning laugh, this asthmatic warthog will be running and biking around Hyde Park. I haven't run for a month, so I'm feeling less than athletic.

Jen J

cjcp wrote:

God, I could do with a beer.

Will have to skip beers tonight though: I have to drive this evening. Got to pick up my tri bars from a mate. If anyone wants an early Sunday morning laugh, this asthmatic warthog will be running and biking around Hyde Park. I haven't run for a month, so I'm feeling less than athletic.

My friend's doing that, but he's currently looking for any excuse not to go...

Good luck and have fun

cjcp

Jen J wrote:

cjcp wrote:

God, I could do with a beer.

Will have to skip beers tonight though: I have to drive this evening. Got to pick up my tri bars from a mate. If anyone wants an early Sunday morning laugh, this asthmatic warthog will be running and biking around Hyde Park. I haven't run for a month, so I'm feeling less than athletic.

My friend's doing that, but he's currently looking for any excuse not to go...

Good luck and have fun

If he finds it, can he PM me the reason. I am a knackered wreck.

Thanks.

Wrath Rob

My week started off great but has ended crap. I've got some family issues that I need to attend to instead of beer and I could really do with one after the last 3 days

Jen J

Wrath Rob wrote:

My week started off great but has ended crap. I've got some family issues that I need to attend to instead of beer and I could really do with one after the last 3 days

I would love to come along for a beer, but
a. I don't drink
b. I need to be fresh for the weekend
c. I have to get some stuff done tonight.

Other than that...it's tempting...

il_principe

DDD you always seem to find an excuse not to beer... I think you're scared of the SS/FG crew scalping you on the way home. :twisted:

Jay dubbleU

Thanks for the advice guys, - saddle position seems OK and I checked the height when I took delivery - it was a bit high but they dropped it for me - I think it may have something to do with the fact that I haven't ridden a bike for 10 years and its a brand new saddle - I'll give it a chance to bed in

lost_in_thought

jashburnham wrote:

DDD you always seem to find an excuse not to beer... I think you're scared of the SS/FG crew scalping you on the way home. :twisted:

Yeah, he does doesn't he... interesting....

DonDaddyD

lost_in_thought wrote:

jashburnham wrote:

DDD you always seem to find an excuse not to beer... I think you're scared of the SS/FG crew scalping you on the way home. :twisted:

Yeah, he does doesn't he... interesting....

Black guy, red specialized helmet, blue lycra top, lidl tights with shorts over the top and smelly gloves...

Try my best to get there, will be after 6pm.

Wrath Rob

WTF? This was on page 2! Get posting people!

Had an interesting run in with a very fast slicked MTB tonight. He lead off from the lights at Battersea bridge, made short work of the normal flotsam and the 2 of us were pegging along at around 26. My respect for him doubled when I noticed he was on flats! Unfortunately the traffic intervened, we both took to the cycle path but for some reason (was he knackered?) he did about 10 mph while I bounced along at 17 so I didn't see him again.

Which was probably a good thing as the bars were loose tonight and kept slipping forwards trying to suck me over the front wheel every time I hit a bump or braked. By the time I got to Wandsworth I gave up, dug out the multi-tool and tightened things up again.

R34PER

whats a tractor worth, i scalped one today. they are big farm vehicles for all you city folk:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/littlered ... gsaw.shtml


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yXipN3Dv1qE

Bassjunkieuk

R34per, tractors aint' worth nought, find some proper vehicles to race............honestly :-)
Having said that of course if you are racing tractors I suspect other competition will be rather thin on the ground!

Due to a last minute (actually 15 minutes AFTER i left work...........had to turn back to collect tools and hand card pass in!!!!) change of plans it looks like I can bike commute on Monday :-)
Get the nice short run up to Vauxhall and as I'm off for 3 days after that I can go balls out, metaphorically speaking, as I don't really need much energy for the next day :twisted:

BRING IT ON!!!!!

DonDaddyD

I went to the Mopeth Arms on Friday.

It was good to meet even more SCR faces; LiT, Jash and Greg66 were all very friendly and very cool people. What I found surprising was as soon as I got there I instantly knew who they were.

Nice pub: ordered beer wanted cashback, needed to spend £5, bar woman wouldn't charge me £5 for the beer - to make life easy - so I bought some random stranger two drinks to which he gave me £5 :shock:

Anywho, the journey home

I feel unashamed in admitting that Greg66 is awesome with awesome sauce sprinkled on top.

I had a vague idea of how to get home - I'm of the thought that you cannot get lost in London, too many signs, landmarks, train stations and bus stops to centre yourself - but given that Greg and I were heading in a mostly same direction I intended to tag along with him. A lesson in life have I been taught.

We started out at what I suppose was normal speed for Greg. Me? My balls weren't out, they had fallen from my body and were rolling on the ground! It wasn't the speed, I could in brief spurts go faster but it was sustaining that level of speed I had the most trouble with. I spun so hard the little oil I had had flung itself from my cassette and chain.

Greg was kind enough to tell me to get a few feet from his back wheel. That way I could better enjoy the sweet supple clean air that was his draft. Man, I was trying long before he even signaled me to do so. What I don't think he realised was how expensive the cost of enjoying that air was. I'm not sure I could fully describe what it took for me to even get my bike that close! I did for about 30 seconds it was all I could afford. What was even more funny about this was it took Greg several times to tell me, one of those times we were going too fast for my ears and brain to transfer the sound from his voice into words I could understand! :shock:

At the lights he told me to come on we're missing all the greens :shock: I've never been more thankful of traffic lights in my life.

Armageddon
In some religions, the Armageddon is the site (Mount of Megiddo) of the final battle between God and Satan. It can also refer to an apocalyptic catastrophe.

Cheekily I asked was that (the performance he had produced so far) Armageddon? The war cry had been sung, I remember thinking "oh god" because with all the majestic grace of a mythological Norse god of Thunder Greg got up off the seat and with a perfect pedal rhythm delivered Mount of Megiddo to me.

I tried to keep up but soon I was wiping the dribble from my mouth, blinking away the tears from my eyes and I found I was laughing to myself out loud while lost within the delirium of speed as everything had gone psychedelic. The sick twisted thing, it looked - before I lost sight of the messianic turning of his cranks - like he had far more to give. I'm now of the thought that if Greg ever released the full fury of Armageddon his only feasible adversaries would be the concept of time and speed.

The conclusion I came to was that when I chased the SS/FG from London Bridge to Clapham it was fast, I still wonder how I managed to keep up. The soul destroying difference between that and riding with Greg was that the SS/FG was spinning out he may have had more to give but his bike couldn't except with a Herculean amount of spinning. Greg, on the other hand was visibly slowing down to my maximum, maybe I could have gone faster but it was fear that if I ever dared he'd only up the tempo and then my heart would explode.

As he headed towards Wandsworth and I Balham and my senses came back into focus, I checked the cycle computer. Judge as you will - the computer doesn't get affected when my Cateye is on flash mode - it read 37.4mph - this even I doubt is accurate.

But credit too the man he didn't leave me, made sure I got back to Clapham and even had kindness enough to tell me to keep my cadence up as we hit a steep hill.

DiggingDeeper

Just got back from buying my daughter a new bike (very low down the chain I'm afraid..the missus wouldn't go for the full on carbon for a 6 year old, shame, ......next time..?) Just thought I'd have a peek at the site before doing some work (need to finish off something before going off to the scalping grounds that is Centre Parcs - it's sort of commuting, biking to the swimming pool etc) and read the above story from last night by DDD.

The best scaping story ever by the victim!!

I bet you are glad now they got you to go the pub now.........next time you will have to aim for the 40mph barrier.

Ok better work, then get off training............ the opposition out there sounds pretty stiff.

Regards DD

Jay dubbleU

DDD you are a sportsman sir, and I salute you 8) 8)

greg66_tri_v2.0

DDD did good, and no mistake.

Poor lad did look ever so slightly quesy when he said he was heading west, Jash & lit said they were heading east, and I said I was going west as well.

But we had a good roll along the Embankment, and when you're riding together, there's no scalping to be had.

And he was giving it some stick going over Battersea Bridge 8)

R34PER

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

R34per, tractors aint' worth nought, find some proper vehicles to race............honestly :-)
Having said that of course if you are racing tractors I suspect other competition will be rather thin on the ground!

i was happy, it was a pretty tough race, especially the overtake. how my legs burned. i got worried when i started spinning out. i think they are a worthy opponent for an mtb
i hav raced more tractors than other cyclists lately

lost_in_thought

Good work DDD, this is the only problem with the beers, it can descend into a race home if people are heading the same way...

And thanks for letting me try the Cervelo on for size Greg!

This game is ruining my life... my car had a hissy fit on the way back to London, I had it sent to the rural garage which fixes it, and needed to go and get it.

So I gamely set off yesterday with google maps on my blackberry as my guide, I knew the way to the town in the middle, colchester, staying off the main road, which round by'yurrrr means a road with a white line down the middle.

I got to Colchester, grabbed a gatorade, and set off, feeling pretty good, it's not actually *that* far, although hilly. After colchester (see link), the hills gave way to flat countryside, I got to the coast, took some pictures of the sea birds and set off along the coast road.

Of course, it's not the sea, it's a bloomin' estuary, so you get all the related hills. Having been about 30 miles, I was beginning to tire a little, got to the top of a long (for essex) hill and was pootling, knackered, looking around for where I thought the turning for Wix would be, when a guy on a claude butler goes past me. Aaaaaaagh!

So I drag my weary legs back into the land of the living, and manage to pull about 27mph (geared bike) out of the very empty reserves, chase him up and down a couple of hills, and do eventually catch him and stay ahead briefly...

That's when I take in my surroundings and see that I've arrived in Wrabness. That means I've missed my turn... by about 2 miles.

Blasted game. :roll:

EDIT: route on bikely. On the elevation profile, it was that up-down-up-down bit at the end where I was scalped...

attica

I remembered something the other day, not only have I been playing The Game for many years, but others were playing it 20 years ago too...

...come with me if you will on a journey back into the mists of Atticatime, to a time when I commuted to school on a BMX, hadn't learnt to shave, and had a net income of about £1.50 per week (sunday paper round)...

I had a History teacher, Mr Massey, he commuted by bike every day from Bristol on a very expensive hand built touring bike with a carradice saddle bag and a cadence to die for. I once found myself talking bikes with Mr Massey, and he made a boast, he said he'd "never been overtaken by a single pupil from the school".
Now those of you who know me will understand that this was a red rag to a bull. Mr Massey had thrown a gauntlet down with gay abandon, he misunderestimated me!

Some time later I found myself drafting Mr Massey, now I should state for the record that he'd done somewhere in the region of 12-14 miles, whereas I'd covered about a mile, nonetheless, if you're in The Game, you're in The Game. I pulled out, gave it my best BMX style zig zag sprint and got past, I actually managed to stay in front for the whole 1/4 of a mile that I had to go to get to the school. (sorry for the lack of descriptive details here, they're shrouded by the fog of memory, so I've stuck to the facts)

Mr Massey never spoke to me of this again.

So Mr A C Massey, if you're reading this - your scalp is probably still in my parents loft, I could look it out for you if you want.

Also, a big Chapeau to you for being the earliest player of The Game that I know of.

Jay dubbleU

I think we should be allowed to include tractors as scalps - after all they are in the same speed range as bike - can get up to 30+mph and sometimes we yokels don't see much else on the commute - apart from squeaky MTBs with an FCN of 15+

pigeon42

If we're counting tractors now, what about deer? and pheasants? Cos that's about all I saw on my bike ride yesterday... apart from the lycra-ed up roadie going in the opposite direction to me, down hill... very fast... with a tailwind - while I was struggling in the opposite direction!

ansbaradigeidfran

Jay dubbleU wrote:

I think we should be allowed to include tractors as scalps - after all they are in the same speed range as bike - can get up to 30+mph and sometimes we yokels don't see much else on the commute - apart from squeaky MTBs with an FCN of 15+

I second that: I'm on a squeaky bouncy MTB with a hinge in the middle, surely a tractor outranks me!

itboffin

Jay dubbleU wrote:

I think we should be allowed to include tractors as scalps - after all they are in the same speed range as bike - can get up to 30+mph and sometimes we yokels don't see much else on the commute - apart from squeaky MTBs with an FCN of 15+

I'm with you on the tractors however it's not strictly two wheeled transport, I've like me you're starved for victims the school run always has a few - Oh I feel so low

See the beast in the sig block

itboffin

pigeon42 wrote:

If we're counting tractors now, what about deer? and pheasants? Cos that's about all I saw on my bike ride yesterday... apart from the lycra-ed up roadie going in the opposite direction to me, down hill... very fast... with a tailwind - while I was struggling in the opposite direction!

Er! what colour bike/kit, time and location - it could have been me although I don't remember seeing anyone else on my travels.