Silly commuting racing

rower63

A Head's Up:

I rode in with a mate this morning who said that this last Monday evening, a colleague (perhaps he said client, I can't quite remember) was exiting Richmond Park at Ham Gate on his bike and was forced to stop by a group on scooters, threatened with a taser and relieved of his expensive watch.

cjcp

Has he reported it? Can I share this on my club's forum?

rower63

cjcp wrote:

Has he reported it? Can I share this on my club's forum?

I don't know whether he reported it, I would think so, but it doesn't seem to have made any news. I trust the source and it's only once removed from him personally. By all means share, can't do any harm.

kingstonian

That exit is pretty dark late at night, if something happens there you are very much on your own. Not good to hear about this sort of incident.

cjcp

Cheers, Rower.

It's only a mile from my incident with two oiks on a scooter last year.

cruff

Roehampton. Absolute sh1thole

norks74

DrHaggis wrote:

A bit OT: what sort of lube are folks here on? Especially for the winter. I'm fed up with MucOff

I've found the Weldtite TF2 all weather lube to be pretty good, and they've a few variations on the theme too.

https://www.weldtite.co.uk/tf2/

anonymousblackfg

Key learning from the weekend is that riding in Berkshire is a load of mince, mainish roads dividing private estates, crown land and golf courses. So much nicer to drop south down into Hampshire/Surrey for my return leg yesterday afternoon.

asprilla

anonymousblackfg wrote:

Key learning from the weekend is that riding in Berkshire is a load of mince, mainish roads dividing private estates, crown land and golf courses. So much nicer to drop south down into Hampshire/Surrey for my return leg yesterday afternoon.

I quite like it. We have a nice club run from Walton / Shepperton that goes up through Windsor and Slough, and then circumnavigates Maidenhead via Cookham, Marlow, Henley and Twyford before heading back through Windsor.

On a sunny day it's a great run out through some nice towns.

hopkinb

On Sunday I went up from Wimbledon via Windsor & Twyford to Henley, then back via Maidenhead & Windsor again. No worse than anywhere else I thought, quite fast & flat. Only got right hooked once - in Shepperton.

philbar72

yep, Shepperton, Sunbury and Walton are a bit dodgepot. I've had folks complain to me that they've nearly been turfed off the road (including the Teddington Cippolini). its very rare though. Not as bad as some of the driving around Staines way.

Some of the roads out to Henley are great, some less so, its when you get to the Chilterns and the quieter roads, that it gets better. I do club rides that take in some of the nastier hills out that way ( Britwell hill is a favourite). generally though they are very fast roads.

mattsaw

Also, a Henley run is always a good opportunity to stop in at Velolife on the way back

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserR ... gland.html

asprilla

Mattsaw wrote:

Also, a Henley run is always a good opportunity to stop in at Velolife on the way back

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserR ... gland.html

Indeed. That place surprised me on my first ride out there. I wasn't expecting to find such a great place in the middle of nowhere.

philbar72

good place, but not great. far cheaper than the choc café...

itboffin

@cjcp is that you on the White horse CX email flyer?

cjcp

Fame at last

-Dash

What's the situation in RP at the moment? Is a full lap possible with tarmac throughout and without traffic lights?

tgotb

-Dash wrote:

What's the situation in RP at the moment? Is a full lap possible with tarmac throughout and without traffic lights?

Depends what you mean by "at the moment". The temporary traffic lights at Sheen Rbt that were there this morning had been removed by the evening, so any up-to-date information is likely to be valid for a limited time.

mamil314

I, for one, am outraged with this interference with my Mamil training in overtaking straight bar people and road-skiers. What's next, restricted access to the H̶o̶l̶y̶ Box Hill?!

sgt.pepper

Horrible back pain after a four hour ride on Sunday on the Raleigh Competition. Trying to get accustomed to angling my seat aggressively forward a la 'the pros,' which has just resulted in excruciating pain around my shoulder blades. Still recovering, so my new commuter racing game is 'overtaking within threshold,' which is way harder than you'd think.

mamil314

Err, I am pretty sure most pros have seat at neutral angle, i.e. flat. So you kept sliding forward and pushed back with your arms? Good job to persist for 4 hours

-Dash

TGOTB wrote:

-Dash wrote:

What's the situation in RP at the moment? Is a full lap possible with tarmac throughout and without traffic lights?

Depends what you mean by "at the moment". The temporary traffic lights at Sheen Rbt that were there this morning had been removed by the evening, so any up-to-date information is likely to be valid for a limited time.

Mostly just today compared to last week's lights at Kingston. I actually went through earlier but only Roe to Richmond on the Tamsin trail so didn't see the state of the road route.

cjcp

-Dash wrote:

TGOTB wrote:

-Dash wrote:

What's the situation in RP at the moment? Is a full lap possible with tarmac throughout and without traffic lights?

Depends what you mean by "at the moment". The temporary traffic lights at Sheen Rbt that were there this morning had been removed by the evening, so any up-to-date information is likely to be valid for a limited time.

Mostly just today compared to last week's lights at Kingston. I actually went through earlier but only Roe to Richmond on the Tamsin trail so didn't see the state of the road route.

There's a post from Matt a few pages back outlining what the plans are, I think.

The sign on Priory Lane this evening says that Roehampton Gate will be closed from 16-19 Sept.*

*EDIT: so I'm guessing that's the next section to be dug up. The road around Sheen roundabout should be back to normal in the next couple of days if Kingston Gate is anything to go by.

sgt.pepper

mamil314 wrote:

Err, I am pretty sure most pros have seat at neutral angle, i.e. flat. So you kept sliding forward and pushed back with your arms? Good job to persist for 4 hours

I thought it's only because the UCI sets quite conservative limits on their angles? Don't tell I'm still in pain for no good reason :?

cjcp

If your saddle is aggressively forward, that seems more of a TT set-up, which works if you are resting on TT bars, but not so much if your hands are further back (see Mamil's comments).

I don't have a TT bike, so don't know what the tube angles and stuff are, but I think the seat tube on a TT bike is a couple of degrees higher, so they're not quite as bent over.

Ignore what the pros do, otherwise we'd all be slamming our stems. (Always wanted to try that, but reckon my lower back would be in bits!)

Ben6899

For the sake of clarity, following a UCI rules relaxation, a lot of pros have their saddle further forward - than the previous accepted 'norm' - and tilted slightly downward towards the nose, with a slammed stem.

It's not my bag, but there's obviously a desire to replicate a TT setup on their standard bikes.

See Cummings' S5.

hopkinb

Thought I'd surf the tailwind & give my not fit yet legs a break. Instead got into a quick little group. Bearded guy on a blue bike with downtube shifters, guy spinning like mad on a black spesh ss with red bar tape, ginger guy on a black & white synapse with clip on aero bars. Good fun, even if the lights didn't always play ball. I will be taking it easy on the way home.

kingdav

hopkinb wrote:

I will be taking it easy on the way home.

In that case you probably won't get there by the look of the headwind

hopkinb

kingdav wrote:

hopkinb wrote:

I will be taking it easy on the way home.

In that case you probably won't get there by the look of the headwind

Cr@p.

rower63

Object lesson this morning in why not to draft close while commuting in traffic. Going fast from Chelsea bridge, I’d just passed Claverton Street in the blue lane. There was a stream of slower-moving bikes, 18-20mph, on the left hand side of that lane, and at least a couple of us doing 25mph on the right side. Steady car and van traffic going faster than us in the black lane. I was following a guy at about 1-2 clear bike-lengths: he was pushing it and I was waiting for a chance to pass him. Suddenly he shouted and slammed on his brakes, followed immediately by me doing the same. There was nowhere to go either side, nothing for it but pure straight-line emergency braking. I JUST managed to slow down maintaining grip and avoided rear-ending him. One of the slow-lane riders had simply decided to pull out from the left without looking, directly into his path. He too barely managed to avoid a collision, I don’t know how. Cue much shouting, as I went past the perp I said “shoulder-check, shoulder check”. If I’d been “properly” drafting the guy in front, I’d have smashed into him without doubt.