Silly commuting racing

cjcp

Summer's on the way. Here come the headwinds...

jonginge

...and the rain. Always a delightful combination.

Bassjunkieuk

Twas a *bit* blowy, not the best combination with a heavy rucksack........made the few right turns I had to make accross traffic a bit hair raising :-D

Clever Pun

the weather was grim.. I decided to cycle home in it, cycle back to vauxhall play netball, then cycle home again, about 30 miles of grim...

on the way back I practically took off a couple of times due to the insane wind... on the way back it was like climbing mount everest in the pi$$ing rain. A couple of times I was nearly thrown in the gutter the wind was so strong

redvee

Had hail as I was walking home from a mates place tonight, jeans and fleece were soaked but my goretex hiking boots kept my feet dry.

Christophe3967

I'm sure Elton John once phoned reception to say something like "Will someone do something about this fcuking wind?". Well, quite. If I'd not had a bit of ballast I'd have ended up in the Thames tonight.

cjcp

I've got a week off SCR, so I ca have a good ol' chuckle at this.

snooks

Greg T wrote:

snooks wrote:

I have 4 bikes already so we've decide to buy a yacht instead!

I dislike Snooks with a powerful and guttural intensity.

I'm considering my next major outlay - a bag of fish and chips on Friday.

Go for haddock, more fillet for your finance

Having spent a lot of time in East London recently (well the last 3 months at least) I see a lot of SS around....like lots and lots of SS, lime green wheels seen the norm...and every time one goes by I wonder whether 5 bikes (and a yacht) would be obscene

The GF assures me that she's being kind letting me keep (or will let me keep) my 4 bikes in the house and another bike is out of the question.....

So it mean I'll have to sell one to get a SS

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm......................

DiggingDeeper

Mr Snooks,

Welcome to the East, as you have already realised Epping is the Andes to the Himalyas, however there is enough to keep one occupied till you wish to venture further.

You also have Hog Hill (although the locals seem to be a bit funny about the name - they prefer Redbridge Cycling Centre! apparantly) do the hill there a few times and Hog Hill is more fitting.

You are slightly off my radar commute wise but you never know.......................

Anyway what's this b&llocks about having it easy in the East. Geography not a strong point for you cycling herbets! If it blows from the west, where does it it go?

I can tell you..........................EAST <<<

---

wind

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WEST

Right, done the dishes, had a laugh at the lst 2 pages, going to bed. Hope the drumming rain I can hear on my kitchen roof stops before the gun goes off tomorrow ( or later today for the "pendants" amongst us. Sorry DDD but you gotta love em!

gb155

cjcp wrote:

Summer's on the way. Here come the headwinds...

Mate your telingl me !!!!!

The ride home was into a b1t** of a headwind and vertical rain, Strange then that I didnt see any other bikes out wasnt it ?

Gaz

snooks

It will be a head wind in the morning when I'm full of poridge power, and a tail wind in the evening, and if it was as stong as some of the head winds I've had going west, then I'll be sitting up straight, feet off the pedals, yelling Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! all the way home!!!

roger_merriman

i saw a bloke last night who was sail powered, has one of those plastic capes on his y shaped BSO.....

Christophe3967

It's OK, Elton's sorted it

iain_j

I had the gusty headwind last night, a proper stop-you-in-your-tracks job, and rain and hail to go with it. I could say I'm lucky I was numb to it because of a stressful day at work, but I'd rather have had the struggle of the wind :roll:

Citizen Smith

Where's George Clooney when you need him?!

It was like the perfect storm last....properly squaltastic along the Embankment.

Forgotten what it's like to ride in such gusty winds.

I had some beers in Holborn and departed about 10pm. Per G66, Millbank Wind Tunnel was certainly a challenge. The coup de grâce came when I reached VB lights and thought to myself, do I turn left and head down the likely more sheltered route via Stockwell or plough on....of course MTFU'd and ploughed straight on....

Well I tried, it was at this point ye gods decided to up the ante on the gale front. It took some serious wattage to get any kind of acceleration.

3 observations from last night's ride:

1. The A40/Marylebone Road despite being clogged in rush hour, one can move pretty swifly by bike with judicious/safe filtering
2. I prefer headwinds to cross winds (at least headwinds are consistent)
3. Spinny gearing helps in a squall

il_principe

Yep, last night was a bit hairy at times!

Now, I am feeling very pleased with myself this morning. Rode Alpe D'Huez this am, all 8.4 miles of it (8.2% av gradient) on the Turbo Trainer. Time was 1 hour 8 mins which isn't bad for 7am on a Wednesday in March. I plan to do it 1 a month and see how far I can get the times down. Hoping to get to JonGinge time and ideally head out and tackle it for real in late summer.

Sorry, I know this has nothing to do with SCR but I'm chuffed with myself.

lost_in_thought

Wowsers.

I went out in Mayfair last night with some friends, left the bar when it closed at about midnight. Realised it was raining, threw on the jacket, tucked the dress inside it (bibshorts underneath) and off I went. Surrounded by tall buildings on berkeley square and davies street, it's all ok, no problem, until I turned onto oxford street....

Holy cr@p! Ow! OW!

That was serious rain! All my makeup ran into my eyes, rendering me temporarily blind, which was exciting, then it proceeded to come down in massive droplets and attack me all the way to Ealing! OW BL**DY OW!

The poor little montane velo did a sterling job, but couldn't quite hold it off. My suede boots are saturated.

Much nicer today though! And I have a baseball cap with me in case of further foul weather.

jonginge

jashburnham wrote:

Yep, last night was a bit hairy at times!

Now, I am feeling very pleased with myself this morning. Rode Alpe D'Huez this am, all 8.4 miles of it (8.2% av gradient) on the Turbo Trainer. Time was 1 hour 8 mins which isn't bad for 7am on a Wednesday in March. I plan to do it 1 a month and see how far I can get the times down. Hoping to get to JonGinge time and ideally head out and tackle it for real in late summer.

Sorry, I know this has nothing to do with SCR but I'm chuffed with myself.

Good stuff. Fairly certain I couldn't do that time just now.

Feltup

jashburnham wrote:

Yep, last night was a bit hairy at times!

Now, I am feeling very pleased with myself this morning. Rode Alpe D'Huez this am, all 8.4 miles of it (8.2% av gradient) on the Turbo Trainer. Time was 1 hour 8 mins which isn't bad for 7am on a Wednesday in March. I plan to do it 1 a month and see how far I can get the times down. Hoping to get to JonGinge time and ideally head out and tackle it for real in late summer.

Sorry, I know this has nothing to do with SCR but I'm chuffed with myself.

That sounds damn quick, well done!

iain_j

How the heck do you climb Alpe d'Huez (or any other mountain for that matter) on a turbo? Do you put a few bricks under the front of it to get the gradient?

Feltup

lost_in_thought wrote:

Wowsers.

I went out in Mayfair last night with some friends, left the bar when it closed at about midnight. Realised it was raining, threw on the jacket, tucked the dress inside it (bibshorts underneath) and off I went. Surrounded by tall buildings on berkeley square and davies street, it's all ok, no problem, until I turned onto oxford street....

I can just imagine the surprise on a blokes face if he ever pulled a lass dressed like you. Bib shorts - the modern girls chastity belt

DonDaddyD

1. To all you pendants, pedants and pedantic types it was a typo! I have my screen as small as the eye can see because I have my Manager looking over my shoulder as I type, that also means I have to fire off my posts pretty quickly and have no time to double check them. SHEESH. DD this means you! :roll:

2. Where are my posts going? I made a post to welcome Snooks and a post to Greg about hating the game not the playa and they have not materialised.

Oh well...

Welcome back Snooks and Greg T don't hate the playa (i.e. Snooks for moving in with his mighty fine classy bird and buying a yacht - at a time where the baked beans is becoming expensive - hate the game.

3. The wind was scary yesterday. I was heading down at speed - slightly to the side head wind batters me far too close to the curb for my liking. Then I had this carright behind me, full on 'head wind of Armaggedon' and my rear tyre is nearly having coitus with the cars bumper... :shock:

Also something furry flew into my mouth... not in the good way either.

greg66_tri_v2.0

I'm sort of relieved to hear that I wasn't the only one getting blown around last night. I kept getting chucked around by gusts of crosswind, either towards the kerb :shock: or towards the traffic :shock: :shock: . Bit anxious that the big side area of Bike 1, esp behind the headtube was to blame.

But by the sound of it, I did a whole lot better than you bunch of pansies! :twisted:

Wind, schmind...

DonDaddyD

By comparision to yesterday, todays commute was heaven!

Not only because of the weather but because I have finally bonded with my Ultegra triple crank. I love it, I truly do. It's so smooth, full of torque and enjoys being pounded. It's wonderful and yet though I like a steady rhythm when the need demands it loves being spun hard.

When I started commuting this year it took me 45mins to get to work. with real effort 35 mins was my best time. Today 29mins. I was amazed, I set the gear higher than I used to and the bike just devoured the road.

I didn't get scalped once and sure there were other cyclists, I can hardly remember them thoughI just overtook and though they tried to keep up (well one roadie did on a yellow Carrera) by the next traffic lights he was but a spek in the distance, a few turns on the crank more and he was erased from my existence....

Sewinman

Hungover, got overtaken by a brompton.

greg66_tri_v2.0

DonDaddyD wrote:

I have finally bonded with my Ultegra triple crank. I love it, I truly do. It's so smooth, full of torque and enjoys being pounded. It's wonderful and yet though I like a steady rhythm when the need demands it loves being spun hard.

Any one else picking up the Barry White vibe?

DonDaddyD

Oi Sewinman!

Get in the other thread and tell us how you got on!

greg66_tri_v2.0

Sewinman wrote:

Hungover, got overtaken by a brompton.

And ...?

biondino

Greg66 wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

I have finally bonded with my Ultegra triple crank. I love it, I truly do. It's so smooth, full of torque and enjoys being pounded. It's wonderful and yet though I like a steady rhythm when the need demands it loves being spun hard.

Any one else picking up the Barry White vibe?

What, in every post DDD's ever made?* Has it taken you so long to notice?

*Apparently Mr White also hates pedants

il_principe

iain_j wrote:

How the heck do you climb Alpe d'Huez (or any other mountain for that matter) on a turbo? Do you put a few bricks under the front of it to get the gradient?

With the wonder that is the Tacx Fortius trainer and Real Life Video! Turbo links to the PC, you climb to a film of the ascent - there are loads of DVD's to choose from with plenty of famous climbs, and the motor on the resistance unit adjusts according to gradient. It's fab but hard work. Even calculates power output as well. The data is at home but IU think I averaged 230 watts with a max of 580.

http://www.tacxvr.com/en/products/real-life-video

Love it.