Silly commuting racing

hopkinb

anonymousblackfg wrote:

Due to the lights I needed keep overtaking the same guy in jogging bottoms with his hairy ars* crack hanging out. Stopping for 5 minutes and letting him go would have made for a much more pleasant commute from Tooting onwards.

I know the very guy you mean.

mr_ribble

hopkinb wrote:

I reckon she was in a hurry to go and score some crack, so I left the scene rapidly before she nicked my bike and my wallet... :shock:

Well CS7 is the place to go to get some crack.... hairy ars* crack that it

rower63

Had to get some blood tests done at hospital this morning, so didn't start my commute in until around 1100. Very different rhythm to the traffic from normal commuting time, and a 5-10 minutes faster journey-time without the stimulus of any extra competition.

dekant

rower63 wrote:

Had to get some blood tests done at hospital this morning, so didn't start my commute in until around 1100. Very different rhythm to the traffic from normal commuting time, and a 5-10 minutes faster journey-time without the stimulus of any extra competition.

I can see how that would be so with the embankment but CS7 is much worse in my opinion. The "super" highway fills up with parked cars meaning you have to constantly duck in and out of traffic and hit more bottlenecks.

wolfsbane2k

Fantastic piece of SCR last night - nobody knew about it.
Spotted someone on the cycle path far ahead, who was just about to be overtaken by another cyclist on the road.
Applied ommf to catch up, and the cyclist on the road caught and passed the cyclist on the path, who decided they were having none of that, and upped the pace to recatch the road rider.
They continued this toing and froing over 200, as I caught them unawares and blasted past them both at about 26mph in the seat ( having been standing just prior to overtaking them) to cries of "oh bugger" and "damn"
All caught up at the next lights 1km away and had a good chat, all blowing hot!

Good laugh.

kingstongraham

Sgt.Pepper wrote:

I made my colleague who also bikes snort the other day when I explained how letting someone else take a turn on the front is a sign of weakness.

Them insisting on going in front is a sign of their mental weakness. They will be defeated.

hopkinb

dekant wrote:

rower63 wrote:

Had to get some blood tests done at hospital this morning, so didn't start my commute in until around 1100. Very different rhythm to the traffic from normal commuting time, and a 5-10 minutes faster journey-time without the stimulus of any extra competition.

I can see how that would be so with the embankment but CS7 is much worse in my opinion. The "super" highway fills up with parked cars meaning you have to constantly duck in and out of traffic and hit more bottlenecks.

Yep, CS7 outside of traffic restriction hours is a mess. FWIW, if I come in late, I avoid it entirely, and come in via Earlsfield, up Earlsfield Rd, onto Spencer Park, drop down and up Battersea Rise, turn left down Cedars Rd into Battersea and come over Chelsea Bridge, turn right, and do the embankment thing.

Gallywomack

First day back on the bike after a cold so took it easy on Q1. Loads of cyclists out. Some amusing behaviour on Willow Walk where there was a temporary traffic light and a longish stretch of roadworks. At least a dozen cyclists just went through although it was red, in full-on lemming mode. Then when I stopped, everyone behind me also stopped. Inevitably, the queue of cars coming the other way got a green and set off meaning half the lemmings had seek refuge in the coned area in a very undignified manner. Think for yourselves, sheeple! And yes, temporary lights do count...

hopkinb

Cooked my legs into that southerly last night.

Therefore a painful but decent ride in this morning, keeping up with a young guy who I think lives near me, and may be a Kingston Wheeler (I think I've seen him in the kit before). Creaky Ridley (I kept thinking it was my bike creaking). V good trackstand.

kingstonian

Yeah, the headwind last night was more than I was expecting, legs felt tired by the time I got home.

anonymousblackfg

I felt I made good progress into that wind last night, but having lost my wallet from changing rooms to bike (finally found it handed in via a restaurant under my office?!?), then got cut up by a tw4t in a lexus who then dropped the anchors for a ped meaning my right hand hit him, then a puncture (piece of flint large enough to hear with each wheel rotation) may be I was distracted from the wind.

Kids drop off day for me so the misery of PT.

mtthwprctr

Gallywomack wrote:

First day back on the bike after a cold so took it easy on Q1. Loads of cyclists out. Some amusing behaviour on Willow Walk where there was a temporary traffic light and a longish stretch of roadworks. At least a dozen cyclists just went through although it was red, in full-on lemming mode. Then when I stopped, everyone behind me also stopped. Inevitably, the queue of cars coming the other way got a green and set off meaning half the lemmings had seek refuge in the coned area in a very undignified manner. Think for yourselves, sheeple! And yes, temporary lights do count...

It's been happening a lot since those traffic lights have been put up. Had a driver who couldn't be bothered for the lights to change this morning drive straight through too!

magictrumpet

kingdav wrote:

MagicTrumpet wrote:

(Perhaps I don't mean PSI, but a different unit that goes up the recommended 120 pressure units?!)

I'm running about 60psi, but on 32mm tyres.
What width are your tyres? - 115 PSI suggests maybe 23 or 25 at the most.

Bingo - running 23's at near the recommended 120. (the tube has only blown up once while pumping - but boy, it was loud!)

Don't you guys end up riding more slowly on fatter low pressure tyres? Why would you do that - jeopardising all your SCR action?!

I'm not happy unless my tyres are like Concrete and have only 1 rubber molecule in contact with the floor at any given momentl

tgotb

MagicTrumpet wrote:

I'm not happy unless my tyres are like Concrete and have only 1 rubber molecule in contact with the floor at any given momentl

Which means that, at any instant, the front of your bike is going to be a fixed height above the molecule of road that your tyre molecule is in contact with. Ditto the back. If you run over a piece of gravel, your entire bike is going to have to lift up and over that piece of gravel. The energy required to lift it will be extracted from your kinetic energy, and you won't get much of it back on the other side.

If your tyres are a bit softer they can deform as you travel over the bit of gravel, and the rest of the bike will continue in a straight line. This is also one of the reasons that many vehicles, including racing cars, have suspension.

There is an optimum tyre pressure to achieve minimal rolling resistance, which will depend on the tyre and also the surface it's rolling on. On a very smooth wooden velodrome the optimum may be 150psi or more. With 33mm CX tyres on a rough surface, the optimum is probably below 40psi; get the pressure right and you feel like you're gliding over the surface. For everything else, the optimum pressure to minimise rolling resistance is somewhere between the two.

The above ignores grip. In some circumstances you might want to run a lower pressure to achieve more grip, but (unless you're rolling the sidewalls) you're never going to want to go higher.

Edit: The 120psi on your tyres isn't a recommendation; it's a maximum. Exceed this (by a significant amount) and you risk blowing the tyre off the rim.

hopkinb

MagicTrumpet wrote:

Don't you guys end up riding more slowly on fatter low pressure tyres? Why would you do that - jeopardising all your SCR action?!

Nah, I'll even race myself if there's no competition. 31mm knobbly cx tyres on at the moment, they were 65 psi last Friday - so I expect they've lost a bit of pressure since then, Strava says max speed this morning was a whisker over 50kph.

kingstonian

I guarantee that if you were to switch to 25s or 28s at lower pressures, over London commuting roads, you'd a) notice that the comfort improved considerably, and b) that you were faster. There's a reason why most pros are riding 25s now, the old myths about "thinner the better" has been proven to be wrong.

Of course, I ride 28s at about 80psi and I'm epic.........!!!!!

anonymousblackfg

hopkinb wrote:

MagicTrumpet wrote:

Don't you guys end up riding more slowly on fatter low pressure tyres? Why would you do that - jeopardising all your SCR action?!

Nah, I'll even race myself if there's no competition. 31mm knobbly cx tyres on at the moment, they were 65 psi last Friday - so I expect they've lost a bit of pressure since then, Strava says max speed this morning was a whisker over 50kph.

Don't bet on it, running 32's at 60psi I rarely lose much pressure, my 23/25s on road bikes always need a top us at around 90/100 psi.

tgotb

anonymousblackfg wrote:

hopkinb wrote:

Nah, I'll even race myself if there's no competition. 31mm knobbly cx tyres on at the moment, they were 65 psi last Friday - so I expect they've lost a bit of pressure since then, Strava says max speed this morning was a whisker over 50kph.

Don't bet on it, running 32's at 60psi I rarely lose much pressure, my 23/25s on road bikes always need a top us at around 90/100 psi.

I have CX tubs (latex tubes) that will drop from 25psi to 10psi in a couple of days; the tubeless Schwalbes on my training wheels will happily hold 25psi with no discernible drop for a couple of weeks.

rower63

TGOTB wrote:

...Edit: The 120psi on your tyres isn't a recommendation; it's a maximum. Exceed this (by a significant amount) and you risk blowing the tyre off the rim.

... or, after sufficient rim wear with rim brakes, blowing the rim off the rim (been there, done that)

mamil314

I heard you like rim with your rim.

dhope

MagicTrumpet wrote:

Bingo - running 23's at near the recommended 120. (the tube has only blown up once while pumping - but boy, it was loud!)

Don't you guys end up riding more slowly on fatter low pressure tyres? Why would you do that - jeopardising all your SCR action?!

I'm not happy unless my tyres are like Concrete and have only 1 rubber molecule in contact with the floor at any given momentl

23's? 19's or gtfo

(You're on the wrong side of current thinking. Wider tyres are faster these days)

tgotb

dhope wrote:

23's? 19's or gtfo

I started my time trialling career on 19mm tyres at 150psi, because I didn't know any better. Was actually fine on the silky-smooth tarmac at Hillingdon, but 25 miles on a real road left me feeling like I'd been operating a jackhammer for a week.

23's are soooooo much faster and less tiring. Can't go any wider without shelling out for new wheels and frame :-(

Gallywomack

mtthwprctr wrote:

Gallywomack wrote:

...Willow Walk...temporary traffic light...roadworks...etc

It's been happening a lot since those traffic lights have been put up. Had a driver who couldn't be bothered for the lights to change this morning drive straight through too!

Something about the positioning of the light made me quite loathe to stop for it as well, so can kind of see why it's happening. Thankfully sense won out. Good to meet a fellow Q1er on here! Not ideal territory for SCR but I like it.

veronese68

A bunch of cyclists in the pub this evening. One in a Wheelers jersey with a bald head and a beard, but not CJ.

smokey_bacon

Veeeery tailwindy this morning made for a speedy commute. Picked up a few unexpected strava pots along the way too. Not looking forward to the grind home though. SCR'd most of the way with a lady on a nice red langster. Neither of us could really drop the other so a sporting draw!

anonymousblackfg

Found it a bit more cross windy than tail windy (I would say proved by only 1 pot), FUC though (apart for getting around a bus who jumped the lights at E&C just to block the crossing.

Very quiet traffic wise until about zone 2, what have I missed?

philbar72

Veronese68 wrote:

A bunch of cyclists in the pub this evening. One in a Wheelers jersey with a bald head and a beard, but not CJ.

that'd be some one other than CJ. they are the folks that do Slow Wednesday laps regardless of the weather.

rower63

I bumped into mpdouglas this morning. I enjoyed the monster tail to claw back some of my oversleep.

And at Blackfriars I pulled up alongside a woman on a frame almost identical to my 1990 Bottecchia, also hung with vintage Campagnolo bits and pieces. I complimented her on it and mentioned I also had a more or less identical one; we both agreed they attract lots of complimentary comment. Quite gratifying to see what that bike looks like from the outside.

mtthwprctr

Gallywomack wrote:

mtthwprctr wrote:

Gallywomack wrote:

...Willow Walk...temporary traffic light...roadworks...etc

It's been happening a lot since those traffic lights have been put up. Had a driver who couldn't be bothered for the lights to change this morning drive straight through too!

Something about the positioning of the light made me quite loathe to stop for it as well, so can kind of see why it's happening. Thankfully sense won out. Good to meet a fellow Q1er on here! Not ideal territory for SCR but I like it.

Admittedly not my usual route but I have been coming through there more often since I've been on the winter bike. I'm either riding a green Vitus or a matt black Canyon.

And true, Willow Walk is a good section for a sprint -- at least before those lights got put up!

arsey

Excellent SCR this morning. Was riding along side a pretty decent guy through traffic. At a junction, he anticipated a green light so was about 20 meters in front of me, I rode past fairly quickly in the saddle and heard *click click click* of the gears changing up. Kept the power down, looked back 20 seconds later, he was gone! He caught up at some more lights later and then he was drafting along the flat just before the Col du Kew Bridge. I kept the same cadence and gear going up the bridge, and BOOM, he was gone again. Excellent morning