Silly commuting racing

2wheelzgood

Sounds like LIT is trying to pick you up there Victor!.. I thought this was only a "game" :shock:

Littigator

victor ludorum wrote:

Once again, fate vomits on my eiderdown.

Ooooh my cat does that too

victor ludorum

ride_whenever wrote:

Aaah but how better to grind your oppenent psychologically than coasting noisily...

Quite right. I have Campagnolo throughout, and the hub/cassette is noisy as hell when you free-wheel, but I rather like it. It is so precise and almost perfectly tuned...

Besides, the noise is great for psychological warfare. I particularly like doing it to RLJers and people who insist on pulling round and stopping in front of you in ASLs, especially while going uphill. You let them get away from you, then approach silently while spinning up to overtaking speed while they struggle and then freewheel past them, every tick of the hub transformed to the sound of mocking laughter as as you slide by, perhaps checking your nails as they poke out of your fingerless track mitts...

Littigator

victor ludorum wrote:

The first time I ever realised I was playing The Game was against a girl. Although that was in the bad old days of, now banned, unlicensed back street speed filtering in traffic matches. Happy days!

I don't care what anyone says, the frantic dash/squeeze/filtering through traffic against other riders is hilarious.

You can ban it, I'll still play, push my dodging underground why don't you, beat me into submission with my swerving but YOU WILL NEVER STOP ME WEAVING!!! puff pant gasp...

Sorry I think I may have got a bit carried away there. I've been almost a week off the bike and the stress levels are beginning to show.

I had to get a (shudder) bus today :x

victor ludorum

lost_in_thought wrote:

Excellent! I'll keep an eye out for you. Sadly, however, as you're heading to cambridge and I'm only heading to kensington, our time of day may not match... I don't usually leave home until 8am...

I'm Ealing Broadway (join it just before a406 junction) -> uxbridge road -> shebu roundabout -> hang a right to holland road-> high street ken.

And I'm on a grey fixed, 2 panniers, no fancy gear! Very long hair, usually in a ponytail. Not the girl on the surly...

8am... that's a little earlier than I set out most days, so we might meet yet. I don't tend to go out too early, it is one of the few perks to the academic lifestyle...

Bassjunkieuk

Couldn't believe my eyes last night when I spied a singlie waiting at one of the crossroad junctions I use on my route home. Unfortunately the lights held him up so I took pursuit of the scumbag RLJ who decided to cut across me as I tried to filter through the turning traffic.
Had him quite easily, but it was an empty victory. Much like my lone scalp this morning.

As targets are becoming quite rarified on my commute I'm starting to use a "shock and awe" tactic where I spot the victim ahead and try to fly past as fast as possible. This morning it was on my favourite stretch for this that usually brings me at least 1 a day. I saw him up ahead so popped it on the big cog and started spinning up, changed down at the back so I was pedalling comfortably (no visible signs of exertion!) at about 25 and just passed them leaving them for dead. Them being on knobbly MTB meant this was a completely worthless scalp and probably more akin to bullying.....

Also out of curiousity I have come across an adbomination of a bike a couple of times, always in the opposite direction mind you. It's a trike with an electric motor!!!! She's normally only doing about 10mph but I just wondered how far down the FCN she'd be, I mean this is like the bast4rd love child of a wicker basket shopper and a Prius!

biondino

Greg T wrote:

At the last lights before Tower Hill I ease by a shaven headed guy on a hybrid and build up some crank speed.

Hubris is a muddy funster.

I discount the hybrid as I'm going to cane the hill, down on the drops, stood up and leveraging hard.

I think you know where I'm going here

The mistake I make is not really getting my crank spinning before I hit the hill so as a consequence I'm out of my top notes band and whilst I wouldn't say I'm struggling I've gone up there faster. I'm working a biggish gear hard however - no - excuses.

So did the Hybrid.

Who did me, sat down - just as I crested the hill and took the immediate left into the bus lane and was gone.

So who was it?

Biodino's a baldy was it you?

Dear Greg,

This is my bike:



This is a hybrid:



But more to the point, there is absolutely no way I wouldn't be vomiting about 300 yards behind you rather than overtaking on a hill. You can breathe easy.[/url]

Greg T

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

. It's a trike with an electric motor!!!! She's normally only doing about 10mph but I just wondered how far down the FCN she'd be, I mean this is like the bast4rd love child of a wicker basket shopper and a Prius!

I think that the egg heads at the Game labs hypothesised that this bike might exist in the early 60's - a large tank, buried in the Mojave desert and filled with dry cleaning solution and spanners was constructed to capture one empirically but to no effect.

Looks like the beast has been spotted....

or have you been inhaling your dry lube again?

There again we seem to have collected a previously presumed extinct animal - a burd on a fixie.

I believe that Mis Pennyfarther Hathaway was the last woman to ride a single speed bike on the road when she went out for her morning constitutional in October 1862. LIT however has busted that myth wide open.

Miss PH was a demon for the game apparently, the British Museum have her scrap book, in it is a cut out from the Times personal section dated 15th Aug, 1860.

It may be of interest to the Gentleman in the Boater and Oxford shoes, astride a Bicycle of Mr Holdsworth's, who was good enough to doff his hat to myself as I bicycled by him on my way to the Opera Thursday last, to know this. I wasn't exerting myself at all and believe that his hams are as weak as Miss "Fatty" Arbuthnott's famously slack corset stays.

il_principe

Clever Pun wrote:

Greg T wrote:

2wheelzgood wrote:

Re meeting other Players- spoke cards anyone?

No

I'm a grown up.

Jaysus.

Not just me then... spoke card are wrong... a patch on your commuting bag would be an acceptable alternative

unless of course you have some spokey dokeys?

Great Idea, seconded! Perhaps this as a patch:

il_principe

ride_whenever wrote:

Aaah but how better to grind your oppenent psychologically than coasting noisily...

'xactly - this is precisely why the best bike is Campag equipped with lovely noisy Fulcrum hubs.

fury21

hey Physicsman

Physicsman wrote:

Sorry to report that there are more bugs! It's with the FCN Starting points this time, not the adjustments. FCN 2. Roadies with shaved legs - like girls through 7. "Fast Hybrids" are out by plus one..

Yeah I know about this.. its actually the +1 pedal adjuster kicking in for starting FCNs of 2-8.

If you fill out the whole form (after all you've got to have some kind of pedals unless you're on one of these), I think the totals will be right.

2wheelzgood

Or that Jash, nice one. Like a textile patch to safety pin to your bag like some punk band thing. I'm in.
Yes I'm a kid!

snooks

2wheelzgood wrote:

Or that Jash, nice one. Like a textile patch to safety pin to your bag like some punk band thing. I'm in.
Yes I'm a kid!

Hurrmph, I still think a bit of insulation tape on the bottom of the seat post would be a lot cheaper, easier etc

And I can't sew that well!

Bassjunkieuk

Patch on the bag sounds good......will be sorta like a secret society :-)

Insulation tape would be a lot easier, but will some people be comfortable putting tape on their precious Italian machinery......

il_principe

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Patch on the bag sounds good......will be sorta like a secret society :-)

Insulation tape would be a lot easier, but will some people be comfortable putting tape on their precious Italian machinery......

Just not sure insulation tape will be that visible... perhaps a large X made from insulation tape on your hi viz tabard (*shudders) or your bag? Not sure I want to defile my bag with tape though!

Greg T

A flaming wheel?

A wheel with crosshairs instead of spokes.

Or "I'm not trying" in text.......

cjcp

Hmm. Can't sew. Insulation tape on the seatpost it is.

Has anyone thought about attaching one of those sirens/bells to their bars that make funky noises? You know, the ones you could get as a kid. Just had a 'plane fly over and wondered if they made bells which blurted out the sound of a Eurofighter doing a fly-by. You could then press the bell when you passed somebody.

robmanic1

I can't take part in this, sadly, as I live in the sparsly populated "North", where folks throw bread at cyclists thinking we're some kind of unworldy creation.

Anyhoo, been following this thread, sounds like great fun, and certainly puts my 50 mile (car) commute to shame.

How about taping your FCN to your person? That way it makes it easier for others to score themselves.

il_principe

I see a bespoke courier bag complete with FCN coming on...
*Reaches for phone.

Greg T

jashburnham wrote:

I see a bespoke courier bag complete with FCN coming on...

JB you know no shame....



Where are you having it made?

jedster

I think the psychological damage of being overtaken uphill by a girl on a fixie with pannier bags and her work clothes on would be worth my having to wash my work clothes more regularly...

Ooocchh.

There's nothing we can teach this girl - she's a natural.

J

jedster

"I'm not trying"

Surely

"I'm on a recovery ride"

Perhaps preficed with "I know I'm a ladyshaver but..."

J

cjcp

jashburnham wrote:

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Patch on the bag sounds good......will be sorta like a secret society :-)

Insulation tape would be a lot easier, but will some people be comfortable putting tape on their precious Italian machinery......

Just not sure insulation tape will be that visible... perhaps a large X made from insulation tape on your hi viz tabard (*shudders) or your bag? Not sure I want to defile my bag with tape though!

Yep, just checked the gap between the saddle bag and top of the seat tube.

How about insulation tape around the right hand seat stay, using a colour that will stand out against the frame?

il_principe

cjcp wrote:

How about insulation tape around the right hand seat stay, using a colour that will stand out against the frame?

HERETIC - Burn him, BURN HIM.

I will not defile my seatstays
I will not defile my seatstays
I will not defile my seatstays
I will not defile my seatstays
I will not defile my seatstays
I will not defile my seatstays
I will not defile my seatstays

Greg T

My other Bike's a Hybrid

In Remission

Thor says PEDAL!

Please Draft me - you wimp

but I do like

I'm not trying

the best

robmanic1

How about different coloured jerseys for each FCN? Oh no, hang on, has that been done somewhere before?

guinea

Hello Ealing folks.

I ride a distinctive white Cannondale MTB with Lefty fork. You'll know it if you've seen it. It has very screechy brakes so there's no forgetting me.

I also join the Uxbridge Rd just before the N. Circular and head towards The Bush.

Give me a wave

jedster

I will not defile my seatstays

I just had this image of Jash standing behind his Prince with a roll of duct tape...sweating

il_principe

jedster wrote:

I will not defile my seatstays

I just had this image of Jash standing behind his Prince with a roll of duct tape...sweating

:shock:

lost_in_thought

Let the Uxbridge Road game begin! And I'm not trying to pick anyone up person who said that, pick them out, yes, but not up... there's an important difference!!

Careful, I might get all feminist on your ass... in some parallel universe where I'd do that!!!