Silly commuting racing

vimfuego

anonymousblackfg wrote:

Cracking tail wind though Strava doesn't seem that impressed. @vimfuego, indicating on CS7 was officially phased out in about 2015, apparently no one could remember when it was seen on that stretch of road anyway.

ha ha - so it went at about the same time as remembering what red lights and box junctions are too - figures.

Same Strava result for me - felt great, seemed to be going quickly but dammit if I didn't make any impact on any PRs .... I'm consoling myself by claiming that it's because I'm nearing 1000 attempts on most of the segments, so I've probably had a younger, leaner, more Strava hungry version of myself encounter a massive tailwind up CS7 before now.

That and I'm clearly getting too old for this sh1t.

Gallywomack

Strava Segments ending the wrong side of lights are a curse alright. I have wavered many times in the past on the verge of creating my own more sensible version of some of the key segments on my commute but usually err on the side of deciding I'm being too pathetic and not bothering.

I do find it hard these days to form a mental map of Strava segments on my routes, due to the utter proliferation of odd little 'sprint' sections, almost none of which make any sense, certainly compared with the good old days of 2011 when I joined and segments were relatively few and far between. I reckon there should be a segment amnesty/reorganisation to make things a bit more sensible. I volunteer myself as segmentmaster-general for the SE quadrant, I'll create all new segments to match my preferred pattern of efforts, then once arranged to my liking, no further public segments to be created unless approved by me. Seems fair.

There used to be a specific Strava thread on here, didn't there - presumably now slightly redundant due to the complete saturation of Strava usage.

kingdav

Good bit of SCR for me today trading places between Brixton and Bank with a guy on a trek with I think an orange bontrager jacket with matching bar tape, very natty!

Only two strava achievements and not even PRs despite tailwind didn't make up for the glass puncture I had to repair early in the ride.

veronese68

No competition over the last few days, had a phone call yesterday saying the wife's trains were all cancelled and I had to get back in time for the Sainsbury's delivery at 5.30. Managed under 17 minutes door to door and miraculously made it in time to see the driver walking through the gate at 5.31, thankfully not the back of the van driving away. Checked Strava and not a single pot in spite of a high average. I've definitely ridden that route way too often.

tgotb

Veronese68 wrote:

No competition over the last few days, had a phone call yesterday saying the wife's trains were all cancelled and I had to get back in time for the Sainsbury's delivery at 5.30.

This is one reason I still go to Sainsbury's myself. Other reasons:
- No-one in my family seems to know whether they'll be home for dinner more than about a day in advance, so planning a week's meals without the flexibility to postpone half of them to the following week is futile
- I'm convinced that my deliveries will have at least one missing or inappropriately-substituted item for every planned meal; for instance, if I'm planning Toad in the Hole and they're out of sausages I'll switch to a completely different meal rather than persevering with the remaining ingredients but substituting burgers. This concern is probably unfounded, but I still have it.
- Junior's milk consumption is like the UK's electricity consumption - a substantial base load with a hugely unpredictable variable load on top, depending on weather,sports fixtures, TV schedules etc

mr_ribble

Man dressed as tiger on CS7 today. He did that .. get off and walk around the lights t'ing, and then by E+C just rode the pavement.

What a tailwind.. in the words of Alan, lovely stuff. Tiger man... let me hear you roar... ahhh kiss my face

veronese68

But all of the above pale into insignificance compared to the pain of actually going to Sainsbury's for anything bigger than a top-up. When the lad pops home from uni food consumed can go through the roof depending on the proportion of time spent at our house, his girlfriend's or the pub.

smokey_bacon

Quiet out this morning. What competition there was I dropped on Bolan Bridge and not seen again. I see the Priory Lane is closing for gasworks for 6 weeks from the 25 March. Cannot wait for the fun thats going to bring!

tgotb

Smokey Bacon wrote:

Quiet out this morning. What competition there was I dropped on Bolan Bridge and not seen again. I see the Priory Lane is closing for gasworks for 6 weeks from the 25 March. Cannot wait for the fun thats going to bring!

Presumably they'll keep the pavement open, so the Chelsea tractors will still be able to get through...

hopkinb

Topped out at a frankly ridiculous 63.7 kph when sprinting for the green lights at Clapham Common with MTB_Idle's mate who rides a chipped e-bike. Cross tailwinds turn my wheels into sails it would appear. Beat the light, and beat the e-bikeist - goals.

Nothing else doing really, other than travelling at speed for not a lot of effort.

anonymousblackfg

Good ride, a big nodder limpet who was difficult to drop, more from traffic than my legs. Brief chat with the most resplendent RDB i've ever seen, so much so I did have to tell him the lads in the Rapha shop had seen him coming. No label on his buff but given 100% on the rest of the kit one has to assume it was also Rapha (counted myself, 9 difference cycling brands on me this morning...)

smokey_bacon

TGOTB wrote:

Smokey Bacon wrote:

Quiet out this morning. What competition there was I dropped on Bolan Bridge and not seen again. I see the Priory Lane is closing for gasworks for 6 weeks from the 25 March. Cannot wait for the fun thats going to bring!

Presumably they'll keep the pavement open, so the Chelsea tractors will still be able to get through...

One hopes so for the sake of civilisation!

kingstongraham

It's also currently the toad season which closes Church Road by Ham gate. Possibly the oddest road signs - "Toad patrol"

okgo

hopkinb wrote:

Topped out at a frankly ridiculous 63.7 kph when sprinting for the green lights at Clapham Common with MTB_Idle's mate who rides a chipped e-bike. Cross tailwinds turn my wheels into sails it would appear. Beat the light, and beat the e-bikeist - goals.

Nothing else doing really, other than travelling at speed for not a lot of effort.

I averaged this the length of the Pens Ponds path with the last hurricane we had, work to do. Am waiting for someone to have a crack at that, sadly I don't live in those ends now so I can't have another go!

hopkinb

okgo wrote:

hopkinb wrote:

Topped out at a frankly ridiculous 63.7 kph when sprinting for the green lights at Clapham Common with MTB_Idle's mate who rides a chipped e-bike. Cross tailwinds turn my wheels into sails it would appear. Beat the light, and beat the e-bikeist - goals.

Nothing else doing really, other than travelling at speed for not a lot of effort.

I averaged this the length of the Pens Ponds path with the last hurricane we had, work to do. Am waiting for someone to have a crack at that, sadly I don't live in those ends now so I can't have another go!

Yeah, this was a top speed not an average! I sat up as soon as I'd got through the lights, resisted the urge to raise my arms, mainly because I would have probably fallen off.

kingdav

anonymousblackfg wrote:

9 difference cycling brands on me this morning

I lose at brand-bingo with a woeful 6

Planet x cap, socks, bib knickers, gloves
decathlon base layer
bioracer jersey
northwave shoes
sportful gilet
M&S underpants!

hopkinb

kingdav wrote:

anonymousblackfg wrote:

9 difference cycling brands on me this morning

I lose at brand-bingo with a woeful 6

Planet x cap, socks, bib knickers, gloves
decathlon base layer
bioracer jersey
northwave shoes
sportful gilet
M&S underpants!

Whut? :shock:

rower63

hopkinb wrote:

kingdav wrote:

anonymousblackfg wrote:

9 difference cycling brands on me this morning

I lose at brand-bingo with a woeful 6

Planet x cap, socks, bib knickers, gloves
decathlon base layer
bioracer jersey
northwave shoes
sportful gilet
S&M underpants

Whut? :shock:

FTFY

poweredbyidris

kingdav wrote:

anonymousblackfg wrote:

9 difference cycling brands on me this morning

I lose at brand-bingo with a woeful 6

Planet x cap, socks, bib knickers, gloves
decathlon base layer
bioracer jersey
northwave shoes
sportful gilet
M&S underpants!

kingdav

Covered in detail earlier in the thread
viewtopic.php?f=40012&t=12575770&p=20289296&hilit=underpants#p20289296

hopkinb

kingdav wrote:

Covered in detail earlier in the thread
viewtopic.php?f=40012&t=12575770&p=20289296&hilit=underpants#p20289296

Fair enough.
My old boss was the same. Boxers under his bibs.
Deviant, but each to their own. I pulled on my tights over underwear the other day by mistake. Very odd feeling, all rucked up. Still, if you're comfy, and all that bunched up sweaty cotton doesn't irritate you...

Gallywomack

Hard work into the wind. Encountered not one but two worthy adversaries, although perhaps the first one wasn't aware of any competition (the second defo was, of which more anon).

First guy came past me with a jaunty 'Morning', jolting me out of my reverie as I went past Musicland in Downham. He was on a black and green road somethingorother with a tub of Skyr yogurt in his seat-tube bottlecage (!) and setting a decent pace into the wind, so I did my best to keep him in touch, which wasn't easy tbh. Kept him in sight to Lewisham then suddenly found myself reeling him in hand over fist up Loampit Hill...game on, except he then jumped two pedestrian reds on Lewisham Way (one with a lady crossing with a pushchair - naughty) and was gone. He hadn't been jumping reds to that point so sudden awareness of competition, or just what he normally does there? I have to say it gained him an awful lot jumping those reds as I saw him making it through a green wave the rest of Lewisham Way while I hit several more reds through New Cross and on the OKR. Sigh.

2nd guy was on a Cinelli track bike, first encountered around Albany Rd I think, I got away from a red quicker than him and he quickly came back past, thus signalling that it was on. I launched my sprint on the Lidl section but a car got stuck pulling out of a side-road and blocked the way - he got through the obstruction quicker than me (cutting me up slightly I might add) and by the time I got back up to speed, all I could do was stay in touch. He set a strong pace right into the teeth of the wind along NKR but I slowly reeled him in. Must confess, was quite glad when he headed straight onto St George's Road from E&C rather than London Rd. We were both stopped at the lights there for a while and I was able to observe him quite closely, was relieved to see distinct evidence of skin breathing going on.

Anyway, ultimately a frustrating ride as lots of effort required into the wind for precious little reward and lots of reds. Hoping the wind does swing to WNW as promised for the ride home.

anonymousblackfg

I forgot to mention that this morning's winner was the chinese lady on a bike watching a film on her phone mounted to her handlebars, headphones in for good measure.

The only discernible benefit I could glean from her set up, was that when she goes under the wheels of a bus, is that there might be some safe infrastructure built in her memory.

cjcp

I think I'm finally going to buy a GoPro or something for the commute.

Tonight's journey home:

There's a Prius (I'm guessing a private taxi) that's been T-boned by a black cab on the westbound carriageway outside the Tower of London. Air bag deployed, emergency services just arriving, fire engine coming up the bike lane. The angle of the Prius suggests it may have been attempting a u-turn.

100 yards later, a car attempts to pull across the bike lane, when it's a red light for him, and a green light for bikes. He expresses his displeasure at us not letting him go first.

Up Priory Lane, a bloke does a close pass. I point this out, he hears, he slows, we have a frank exchange of views about what he just did, how we're allowed to ride on the road, how the "bike lane" he points to is actually the pavement and we're not allowed to ride on that (the pavement after the shared bike lane section). He ends up suggesting I make sure I "get home safely".

Bottom of Priory Lane, about 300 yards later: another Prius is doing a three point turn around the small roundabout because he doesn't have the slightest f*@king clue what he's doing or where he's going.

And last Friday morning, an Ocado van cuts me up on the approach to the (red) lights by the URR / Roehampton Lane junction, heading into town. I had to jam on the brakes to avoid unwanted squashiness. I offer some thoughts on the standard of his driving; he says he did nothing wrong. Bewildering.

Anyone got any thoughts on brands other than GoPro?

Careful out there, folks.

cruff

Fly12 - the camera is great and it's half the price of a gopro or virb, though the light on then is atrocious and the battery on any setting other than what amounts to 'watch backlight' strength lasts about half an hour.

cruff

hopkinb wrote:

Topped out at a frankly ridiculous 63.7 kph when sprinting for the green lights at Clapham Common with MTB_Idle's mate who rides a chipped e-bike. Cross tailwinds turn my wheels into sails it would appear. Beat the light, and beat the e-bikeist - goals.

Nothing else doing really, other than travelling at speed for not a lot of effort.

Did 68k/h at the Soens at the weekend for less than 500 watts - 40mph tailwind in the home straight. Course the back straight was a different kettle of fish - 10mph for the same watts when I stupidly ended up on the front

God I hate winter...

hopkinb

I have a fly 12. I need a new mounting screw. Pictures are fine, though last time I wanted to look at something it didn't work properly. There's a flashing light as well. I have an out front mount that takes the bike computer on top with the camera underneath.

Gallywomack

Having said drafting fairies don't bother me much, I was slightly perturbed this morning when I shoulder checked prior to exiting CS3 from Embankment (WB) onto Northumberland Ave, and saw a guy on a Brompton right on my tail. As I peeled off, he came past on my left in the 'invisible tri-bars' position - I bloomin hope he wasn't doing that while drafting me! :shock:

Slow pootle this morning (other than the elemental battle into the wind on CS3) as I was riding in on Q1 with a pal. Nice way to end the week.

kingstonian

Nothing better than a solid tailwind on a Friday morning

Only downside being the headwind tonight, of course

hopkinb

Kingstonian wrote:

Nothing better than a solid tailwind on a Friday morning

Only downside being the headwind tonight, of course

Yup - my legs are so cooked after a week of battering into the homeward headwinds, that I couldn't even be bothered to smash it with the wind behind me this morning, though hitting some green lights seems to have given me a few pots.

Though the met office suggests the windspeed will lessen a bit by this evening.