Silly commuting racing

prhymeate

anonymousblackfg wrote:

Have a good hack through the Orient Express thread on LFGSS.

Thanks, I've just been browsing it. No sign of anyone buying from that ebay seller though.

mtb-idle

Aren't light bicycle the go to Chinese carbon rims (not that I have any)?

sgt.pepper

Unpleasant headwind and rain this morning, combined with a poor sleep wasn't fun. Did have a little bit of fun racing a gravel bike between the lights though.

Sorting out wife's ebike battery this weekend. She's pretty open to commuting the whole way if it gives her a good range. Do I lose my commuter racing cred if I start getting a tow off her every day?

mattsaw

Prhymeate wrote:

Anyone here commute daily on Chinese carbon wheels? I'm so tempted to get some for my single speed as I like the all black rims... I just don't want to die. There is a 20% code for ebay and a seller in the UK offering them for £220 after discount. Too good to be true?

Yep, I do in the summer. I refuse to bring my Zipps into town, they're solely for weekends and hiding from the wife.

I've had mine for 5 years and done a lot of miles, cope with some pretty hard pothole incidents. It's only recently where they seem to be going out of true slightly and some hub or spoke noise every so often which I can't quite get to the bottom of.

I would go with one of the 'known' Chinese sellers, ones like Carbonzone and Hongfu seem to have a fairly well established history.

smokey_bacon

Mattsaw wrote:

I would go with one of the 'known' Chinese sellers, ones like Carbonzone and Hongfu seem to have a fairly well established history.

This, go for rep even if its a few quid more. I think for rolling around town/commuting you'll be fine. Bombing down an Alpe on the other hand is a different matter.

Not had any SCR for a while then two come along at once. Last night was a gent on a volt ebike. We'd been together all don the walworth road and at the lights at the foot of Denmark Hill it seemed like it was on! I got a decent start though he managed to get half way up my side before the hill really kicks in. Knowing the hill makes all the difference so I upped the effort and put a couple of lengths into him. Came back together because of traffic and had abit of a chat. Nice chap. His rear wheel was missing a few spokes and all over the shop but im still going to take a win over an e-bike.

This morning was short and sweet. Guy appears on my wheel on Lower Thames Street. Gave it the old look over the shoulder and go at the foot of the col du jzed. Again got a few lengths but he was game and honours were even. At the temp lights by All Bar One we both had a knowing look and smile as we caught our breath. Honours even! A few pots and medals on strava means it was a good ride in spite of the headwind.

hopkinb

wind-assisted smash last night, quickest non-garbage time this year between balham and bec, then again on a segment on Kingston Road. Harder on the way in this morning due to the slight headwind, but still put in a good effort to-ing and fro-ing with a guy in dhb shorts. Motorised and pedal-powered traffic seemed light this morning, which is always a good thing.

mr_ribble

hopkinb wrote:

wind-assisted smash last night, quickest non-garbage time this year between balham and bec, then again on a segment on Kingston Road. Harder on the way in this morning due to the slight headwind, but still put in a good effort to-ing and fro-ing with a guy in dhb shorts. Motorised and pedal-powered traffic seemed light this morning, which is always a good thing.

Apart from Mr Shouty.... Apologies for confusing you with Mr Shouty.
97% correlation on strava - you took the wrong route round E&C

njee20

I've got FarSports carbon rims on the 'nice' bike and cheap random Chinese ones on the 'winter' bike, the latter being disc I didn't mind taking a punt on an unknown seller. I'd be a lot more reticent with rim brakes. More likely to get pulsing brakes from uneven brake tracks and what not.

The rear FarSports rim has developed a weird blemish in the braking surface which I'm keeping an eye on, but they've been ploughed into various potholes with no issues. Wet weather braking is alright rather than stellar, I'm not sure I'd actively choose them for something I was only/primarily commuting on.

Brakes tend to screech a bit unless pads are toed in, then they wear and you need to repeat.

wolfsbane2k

Lovely bit of SCR with a neighbour into town today; both running late, so pressure was on to get in fast.

After a 1 mile straight drag and just about keeping the elastic attached, I got caught behind a car behind at approaching a roundabout, I didn't want to try and filter past the 4x4 "driving" dinlow on their phone who wasn't paying attention to the road, but was creeping forward in a queue through a pinch point close to a roundabout; This resulted in me being few seconds delay in release, and then watching as they flew through the next lights as the lights turned amber. Took a detour which avoids a short hill but loses priority at the next roundabout, and I watched them disappear off into the distance as I waited for an opportunity to join the roundabout.

gained 2 PB's on shorter sections, but 15 seconds off the end to end route PB time - not too shabby for a 5km section.

hopkinb

Mr_Ribble wrote:

hopkinb wrote:

wind-assisted smash last night, quickest non-garbage time this year between balham and bec, then again on a segment on Kingston Road. Harder on the way in this morning due to the slight headwind, but still put in a good effort to-ing and fro-ing with a guy in dhb shorts. Motorised and pedal-powered traffic seemed light this morning, which is always a good thing.

Apart from Mr Shouty.... Apologies for confusing you with Mr Shouty.
97% correlation on strava - you took the wrong route round E&C

Hello Mr Ribble!

I have no idea what Mr Shouty's problem was, other than being undergeared, and having an overdeveloped sense of personal space. We both got that big shout of "whooaaaahh" while giving him about a metre and a half of room. I don't think he appreciated my doing the same to him.

I nearly always take the bottler's route to avoid elephant, force of habit.

mamil314

Sgt.Pepper wrote:

Unpleasant headwind and rain this morning, combined with a poor sleep wasn't fun. Did have a little bit of fun racing a gravel bike between the lights though.

Sorting out wife's ebike battery this weekend. She's pretty open to commuting the whole way if it gives her a good range. Do I lose my commuter racing cred if I start getting a tow off her every day?

It's worth it if it gets people outside

smokey_bacon

hopkinb wrote:

Mr_Ribble wrote:

hopkinb wrote:

wind-assisted smash last night, quickest non-garbage time this year between balham and bec, then again on a segment on Kingston Road. Harder on the way in this morning due to the slight headwind, but still put in a good effort to-ing and fro-ing with a guy in dhb shorts. Motorised and pedal-powered traffic seemed light this morning, which is always a good thing.

Apart from Mr Shouty.... Apologies for confusing you with Mr Shouty.
97% correlation on strava - you took the wrong route round E&C

Hello Mr Ribble!

I have no idea what Mr Shouty's problem was, other than being undergeared, and having an overdeveloped sense of personal space. We both got that big shout of "whooaaaahh" while giving him about a metre and a half of room. I don't think he appreciated my doing the same to him.

I nearly always take the bottler's route to avoid elephant, force of habit.

Perhaps he's on alot of drugs and thinks his bike is a horse????

hopkinb

Smokey Bacon wrote:

Perhaps he's on alot of drugs and thinks his bike is a horse????

I want this to be true, but I think he was just a d!ck, or had got out of bed very much on the wrong side.

When we stopped at some lights after his shouting, he sarcastically asked Mr Ribble and me if we "did racing". He then tried to race away from the lights.

anonymousblackfg

I tried my Wimbledon route in which just seemed draggy but once on CS7 I managed to nail any competition (I don't think there was much competition).

Any other CS7ers keep seeing a ginger chap on a silver Canyon, he wears kit which looks more like pajamas (fast pajama man)? He seems to just get away from me without looking like he's needing make much effort. Very annoying.

elbowloh

Sgt.Pepper wrote:

Unpleasant headwind and rain this morning, combined with a poor sleep wasn't fun. Did have a little bit of fun racing a gravel bike between the lights though.

Sorting out wife's ebike battery this weekend. She's pretty open to commuting the whole way if it gives her a good range. Do I lose my commuter racing cred if I start getting a tow off her every day?

Pretend it's a derny bike and you're racing in the keirin.

jspash

MTB-Idle wrote:

Aren't light bicycle the go to Chinese carbon rims (not that I have any)?

I bought some cheapie 45mm Light Bicycle rims for the commuter and ran them through the recent winter. I think I paid about £350 for the pair. Light. Quick(?). And really solid. That is until two of the 4 rear bearings decided to fail at the same time. I suppose one went which caused stress on the other. They were not even 6 months old at the time. So was it me riding the rain 4 days a week or just cheap chinese hardware? Probably a bit of both. Cost me £10 for some standard replacement bearings and they run good as new again.

hopkinb

anonymousblackfg wrote:

I tried my Wimbledon route in which just seemed draggy but once on CS7 I managed to nail any competition (I don't think there was much competition).

Any other CS7ers keep seeing a ginger chap on a silver Canyon, he wears kit which looks more like pajamas (fast pajama man)? He seems to just get away from me without looking like he's needing make much effort. Very annoying.

I've tried that route up Burntwood Lane. It's a bit slower, but less busy.

Nope, not seen fast pajama man! I'll look out for him though.

elbowloh

hopkinb wrote:

anonymousblackfg wrote:

I tried my Wimbledon route in which just seemed draggy but once on CS7 I managed to nail any competition (I don't think there was much competition).

Any other CS7ers keep seeing a ginger chap on a silver Canyon, he wears kit which looks more like pajamas (fast pajama man)? He seems to just get away from me without looking like he's needing make much effort. Very annoying.

I've tried that route up Burntwood Lane. It's a bit slower, but less busy.

Nope, not seen fast pajama man! I'll look out for him though.

No, not seen fast pyjama man either. What time of day are we talking?

tgotb

jspash wrote:

Cost me £10 for some standard replacement bearings and they run good as new again.

This is the thing about modern hubs. So long as they use standard cartridge bearings (most do), the bearings are easy to replace (most are, with a cheap home-made bearing press made out of threaded rod, washers and old bearings), and the seals are vaguely effective (so your bearings don't fail too often) it's not a big deal. In the old days of cup & cone bearings, if your bearings got too badly knackered there was nothing you could do; cups were built into the hub, and replacement cones were hard to find.
Things to watch out for:
Dodgy freehub seals, and pawl springs that can't be replaced
Freehub bodies made from very soft aluminium
Track hubs (for fixies). Some dedicated track hubs have almost no seals at all because they're designed to be ridden on the track.

Novatec hubs are very good for the money and widely used by Chinese wheel manufacturers. I'm sure there are plenty of others that are equally good (some look a lot like rebadged Novatecs)

anonymousblackfg

elbowloh wrote:

hopkinb wrote:

anonymousblackfg wrote:

I tried my Wimbledon route in which just seemed draggy but once on CS7 I managed to nail any competition (I don't think there was much competition).

Any other CS7ers keep seeing a ginger chap on a silver Canyon, he wears kit which looks more like pajamas (fast pajama man)? He seems to just get away from me without looking like he's needing make much effort. Very annoying.

I've tried that route up Burntwood Lane. It's a bit slower, but less busy.

Nope, not seen fast pajama man! I'll look out for him though.

No, not seen fast pyjama man either. What time of day are we talking?

Generally in the evening, I saw him the other morning but in slightly less pyjamarie kit. Burntwood is generally good but as you get to Wandsworth common the road narrows and you've only got small gaps to filter past middle aged women in gym kit not going to the gym in 4x4s.

mattsaw

TGOTB wrote:

Novatec hubs are very good for the money and widely used by Chinese wheel manufacturers. I'm sure there are plenty of others that are equally good (some look a lot like rebadged Novatecs)

Second this, plus with the added bonus of being very loud when freewheeling

kingstonian

No SCR for me today, was trainw@nkering as I took the dog into work with me !!!! Second time I’ve taken him, he was good as gold.

Back on it tomorrow.

veronese68

Kingstonian wrote:

No SCR for me today, was trainw@nkering as I took the dog into work with me !!!! Second time I’ve taken him, he was good as gold.

Back on it tomorrow.

Did I pass you on your way to the station? I saw someone walking a dog looking like they were heading to work, struck me as unusual At the time.

london-red

Bit of an Italian road show this morning - chap on a Colnago C60, a Pinarello something and me on a Bottecchia rolling in together ish...

Otherwise, it seemed fairly quiet, not a lot of bikes or cars around, which made for a pretty chilled ride in. Only event of note was a woman in a chelsea tractor pulling out on me at the Bolan Bridge RAB. Looked straight at me, about a yard from her window, with zero reaction :roll:

frogonabike

I'm sure that was supposed to be a headwind but no-one told my Friday legs! What a ride! No idea where that came from but overall ride PB by a good few minutes

No SCR really, I noticed a few people latched on but all were temporary and got dropped like a mutha flippin anvil :twisted:

j_mcd

More of gentle pootle in for me today, gave it some beans down the embankment to make sure I saw off any competition but then cruised in the rest of the way.

Already done 160+ miles of commuting this week, pretty sure that's a record for me but I'm beginning to feel it in the legs now!

cjcp

Veronese68 wrote:

Kingstonian wrote:

No SCR for me today, was trainw@nkering as I took the dog into work with me !!!! Second time I’ve taken him, he was good as gold.

Back on it tomorrow.

Did I pass you on your way to the station? I saw someone walking a dog looking like they were heading to work, struck me as unusual At the time.

Morning.

My youngest wants you to know that you were driving "SUCH A COOL CAR!"

veronese68

cjcp wrote:

Morning.
My youngest wants you to know that you were driving "SUCH A COOL CAR!"

Excellent, good to know that some youngsters have taste.
Morning to you too, guess you'd had a ridiculously early start for the swimming run.
The Mini makes even your 500 look big. Some young kids were walking past when I was fixing it once and asked me why it was so small. I said they should be asking why their Mum's car is so big.

cjcp

Veronese68 wrote:

cjcp wrote:

Morning.
My youngest wants you to know that you were driving "SUCH A COOL CAR!"

Excellent, good to know that some youngsters have taste.
Morning to you too, guess you'd had a ridiculously early start for the swimming run.
The Mini makes even your 500 look big. Some young kids were walking past when I was fixing it once and asked me why it was so small. I said they should be asking why their Mum's car is so big.

Yep, usual early start

It does. And your eldest looked like a giraffe that had been squeezed into a car

rower63

I slowed for a ped crossing near the House of Lords last night and was suddenly greeted with "sorry! sorry!" as a rider behind me didn't stop in time and rear-ended me. grrr. He had a bike and clothes to know better. Luckily he missed my RD so no re-indexing to do.

This morning, with the NE headwind, on the open bits (Embankment & Blackfriars segregate) whenever I shoulder-checked all I could see was a mass of nodding heads piled up behind me.