Silly commuting racing

DonDaddyD

I got smoked on my Kharma along my beloved drag strip today. The shame, the horror.

I feel I let everyone down.

Can't remember what bike he was on but he had a clickty hub. The lights at tooting went green and he was spinning in the smaller cog. I held back because in the periphery was a van in the right lane turning left and into me.

Once established that it was safe to move on I started to catch him up. We got to the halfway point - lights by Argos and stopped a little. Lights went green and he was off spinning again, I was catching him up but never really caught him and eventually ran out of the drag strip.

Poohbags!

Cafewanda

WTF??? :shock: :shock: :shock:

You were out on the lash last night? Is that why this embarrassment, total shame, disgrace, horror, took place? :shock: :shock:


Searches for dictionary to find more words use

Found some!! dreadful, extremely unpleasant, distasteful................................

benno68

Within a minute of leaving the house, down Llandough Hill hitting 35mph (freewheeling) had an argument with a wasp and I stupidly stuck my head on him. Unbeknown to me he was stuck inside my helmet and a short way along Penarth Road the little blighter stung me!

A quick stop to let him out and I was back on my way, maintaining a steady 23mph helped along by a tail wind. Passed a guy on a mountain bike, he must have been a talented cyclist to keep his balance at the speed he was going :roll: !

On Virgil Street doing 25mph a guy in a Peug 106 pulled out from my right and just trundled along, I went to overtake and he indicated right as he was turning, I managed to go on his inside and turn around to give him the evil eye. Then a 4 x 4 pulled out on me from a parked position but I managed to overtake.

To cap it all - going along a narrow road with one car infront, the driver suddenly stops WTF, oh yes I should have realised that she wanted to reverse up a side street and turn around, obviously too much effort to just drive around the block.

Why are all the Sunday drivers out today?

My head is now on fire, but I'm sure it'll be better for my cycle home.

Spawn of Cabbie

Shoulder of Lamb wrote:

The yellow jerseys are out in force - I scalped 3 this morning. Why wear it if you can't carry it off?

I have a yellow jersey which was bought for me by my work colleagues so I have to wear it every now and then - even if it does make me a target.

Clever Pun

took a couple of roadies and SS'ers on the jamaica way last night even though I was shattered but I saw the little gaggle of them and the animal part of my brain kicked in. As I was getting near home I over took a bunch of kids on bmxs two started standing up and challenging me I smiled at them without any discernible effort I knocked my speed up to mid 20's and gave them a wave as I went off in the distance.

I can barely walk today (from the squats, bunny hops and jump lunges yesterday)... still took a couple of ss'ers again this morning including 2 white genesis fliers in quick succession

Bassjunkieuk

I can report that the first "proper" commute went by fairly un-eventfully on the SCR front this morning. Got a bit knarked by the stupid cow in the Audi who felt the need to toot me as I held primary through a traffic island flanked by parked cars. I rather un-gentlemanly gave her a two finger salute as I glanced back.....

I didn't see anything on 2 wheels with drop bars until I rolled up at the lights by Clapham Common when I spotted a chap on a white roadie nip out of the road to the right. I was still stuck on red but knew that his lead would make the scalp even more fun :-) As it turned out he got held up at the next set of reds and then proceeded to weave around the peds on the next crossing and carried on through the red :-( Oddly my initial attempts to catch him where hindered by the motorbike just to my right and I didn't want to startle him by coming past on the left. I arrived at Stockwell before the chap on the white roadie and took the outside line around the corer to avoid all the hybrids and FWC clinging to the bus lane. In doing so I also spotted his white roadie was a rather nice Willier :-)

Did a couple of cars on up Vauxhall Bridge Road and ending up having to use the paper hand towels at work to dry myself before heading into the office :oops:

Roastie

cjcp wrote:

Chapeau to the chap on the green Roberts + pannier last night (and possibly shaven legs too?). Plenty of gas as we rode together from Embankment to Queen's Ride.

Met up with the famous green Roberts dude tonight, he certainly is properly quick. Very friendly too.

ps. Happy Birthday CJ!

benno68

Roastie wrote:

ps. Happy Birthday CJ!

+1 Enjoy your birthday weekend CJ.

Jay dubbleU

Nearly got wiped by a Merc on the way home - I was approaching a junction and he came round on the wrong side of the road - never seen colour drain from some one's face so fast I actually stopped and asked if he was OK - don't think he'll do that again :roll:

miggy_magic

Shoulder of Lamb wrote:

The yellow jerseys are out in force - I scalped 3 this morning. Why wear it if you can't carry it off?

I bought a couple of vintage ones off ebay and I swear they've added 2mph to my average speed (according to my bike computer - although the same device also told me I did 76mph through the streets of Edinburgh) :shock:

pangolin

Well, after a fun week of commuting and a few scalps, not such a fun ride home today.

Got cut up by a bus just before the lights at Vauxhall bridge on Embankment, and so missed the lights. Bit annoying, but never mind. Pull up at the lights and wait. So do a few other cyclists.
Then some bloke on a mountain bike pootles through all of us and out into the junction. Usually I am annoyed by RLJers, but never enough to say anything. This guy for some reason really wound me up, maybe because it's a massive junction and there were so many people waiting. So before I thought about it I said quite loudly 'It's red.'

The guy stops, looks a bit confused, and said 'huh?' (also the second cyclist who was starting to edge forward stopped in a rather satisfying way).
I nod at the light and repeated 'It's red...'
At this point he looks a mixture of annoyed and confused and replies 'Yeah, I know... What's the problem?'

I was very tempted to launch into a lot of shouting at this point, but kept it to a sarcastic 'Oh, nothing, as long as you know.'

He looks even more annoyed and decides to cycle on his way. I was quite sad as he went a different way to me, stealing the chance to destroy him when it went green.

Do any of you ever say anything to people who RLJ? Or maybe just give them that look as you whiz past them a few seconds after the lights change?


Then at the end of embankment a taxi nosed it's way most of the way onto the road with nowhere to go, forcing me to swerve round him. I gestured my disapproval (though not rudely) and he looked like he wanted to murder me!

Not a fun cycle. Still , working on Sunday which is always nice as there's far less traffic.

Bassjunkieuk

@Pagolin - As I also ride into London I think if I started having words with every RLJer I'd arrive at work feeling rather horse! As far as I'm concerned it's their choice to RLJ and I'm not going to be able to change their behaviour but when they RLJ and have the swerve round peds on a crossing I'll usually say/shout something. as I don't think it's fair on the peds to scare or possibly hurt them just because your an impatient arrogant little tw4t.

Anyhow rant over..........good ride home after the pub yesterday :-) CItizen Smith proved a very capable riding buddy and kept me on my toes down the Balham Drag Strip :-) I think between the two of us we did just about every cyclist in front of us, the only "proper" competition being a chap on a road bike who RLJ (narrowly lights changed just as he got 2m past the ASL) near Stockwell, we has chased down and spat out the back of the Scalp Train :-D

One last thing of note that did make us both smile, as we came back along past the Morpeth I spotted an X5 come past with a rather nice numberplate - B055 KGB :-D I don't think I'd be making rude gestures to that driver ;-)

cjcp

pangolin wrote:

Do any of you ever say anything to people who RLJ? Or maybe just give them that look as you whiz past them a few seconds after the lights change?

You're not alone. I've done both.

itboffin

I'm off to Boston for the week and just found out that my office is walking distance from Harris Cyclery woo hoo!!!

I feel a shopping spree coming on.

cjcp

Benno68 wrote:

Roastie wrote:

ps. Happy Birthday CJ!

+1 Enjoy your birthday weekend CJ.

Thanks, fella.

!

cjcp

Roastie wrote:

cjcp wrote:

Chapeau to the chap on the green Roberts + pannier last night (and possibly shaven legs too?). Plenty of gas as we rode together from Embankment to Queen's Ride.

Met up with the famous green Roberts dude tonight, he certainly is properly quick. Very friendly too.

ps. Happy Birthday CJ!

Thanks, Roastie.

Yep, I should've added that he's a friendly chap. Didn't actually mind him being on my wheel. I might be mellowing with age! :P

Tarmac Terrorist

this looks like a fun game! i regulary roast fellow cyclist on my way to work - a short hop rom dulwich to elephant and castle. I extended my journey to take in the old kent road to make the journey longer and look for new scalps. I was mullered by this guy one morning and it pushed me to train harder and push myself a bit harder....but i was wondering how much of a difference (it might sound silly i know) your bike makes in these situations?

tardington

miggy_magic wrote:

I bought a couple of vintage ones off ebay and I swear they've added 2mph to my average speed (according to my bike computer - although the same device also told me I did 76mph through the streets of Edinburgh) :shock:

And why not? The frustration from the tram-works can cause wonders.

Happy birthday cjcp! - are you very old?

itboffin

He's so old there isn't a number for it yet.

cjcp

tardington wrote:

Happy birthday cjcp! - are you very old?

Thank you, sir.

I'm a mere pup. 35.

redvee

You're younger than me :oops:

Bassjunkieuk

Tarmac Terrorist wrote:

this looks like a fun game! i regulary roast fellow cyclist on my way to work - a short hop rom dulwich to elephant and castle. I extended my journey to take in the old kent road to make the journey longer and look for new scalps. I was mullered by this guy one morning and it pushed me to train harder and push myself a bit harder....but i was wondering how much of a difference (it might sound silly i know) your bike makes in these situations?

Welcome TT :-) What you riding? One of my commute routes take me through Dulwich (Village) then to E & C via Denmark Hill & Camberwell - So far I've only encountered one person on that route (a chap on a SS Genesis) who has ever given me any trouble but I can at least keep an eye out for you ;-) As far as bikes go the we have an allowance for these with the FCN (google it or look at the link in my sig for "The Game" group on Facebook) so roadies and FG sit just below scooters (included to give those uber fast people something to play with!) at the top down to full on knobbly equiped MTB's and shoppers at the bottom.

Also belated happy birthday CJ :P

lost_in_thought

Hurrah! Back on the bike!

Well, I actually popped the fixed cog on this morning, begrudging thanks to Condor for having the right lockring in stock.

Anyhow, it's good to be back fixed again. I have to admit I was enjoying freewheeling, but for some reason fixed just feels better.

I do, however, REALLY need a new chain... :oops:

jonginge

Another non-cycling weekend. Went to a friend's BBQ on sat so was on the high-protein recovery diet

Bumped into CJ on Col de Putney Bridge this morning. We both said pootling would be good. Now, there was some pootling but there was also several 30+ stretches along various bits of embankment. Opened the legs and lungs up a bit

Christophe3967

JonGinge wrote:

Another non-cycling weekend. Went to a friend's BBQ on sat so was on the high-protein recovery diet

Bumped into CJ on Col de Putney Bridge this morning. We both said pootling would be good. Now, there was some pootling but there was also several 30+ stretches along various bits of embankment. Opened the legs and lungs up a bit

Funny that, he said much the same thing to me just the other day with similar results Old age isn't slowing him down...

gmillsy

no riding for me today - did the tour of exmoor at the weekend - BRUTAL. 3600m of vertical climbing over 90 windy miles - i need a day off. anyone else do it?

have just MTFU'd up though and ordered a Garmin 705 as an early birthday present - HURRAH!

Clever Pun

My legs are still wrecked from last week, but don't feel to bad once I'm up and on my way, dropped to roadies one of which looked like he could squat a bus... and judging by the rest of him I felt sorry for the bike

Kieran_Burns

Could someone explain me to me why it is I am finding hill climbing on the bike easier yet when I clmibed some steps at Filey yesterday (sand castle building contest!) I was winded within seconds????

This cycling lark is crap

R_T_A

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Could someone explain me to me why it is I am finding hill climbing on the bike easier yet when I clmibed some steps at Filey yesterday (sand castle building contest!) I was winded within seconds????

This cycling lark is crap

I reckon it's all the CX perversion - it's your body's way of telling you to just stop it

I played Twenty20 cricket last week and after sprinting after the ball 4-5 times in an over I thought I was going to cough up a lung. I just have to remember fitness is not how fast I run, but how quick I recover*.

* still sore

cjcp

R_T_A wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Could someone explain me to me why it is I am finding hill climbing on the bike easier yet when I clmibed some steps at Filey yesterday (sand castle building contest!) I was winded within seconds????

This cycling lark is crap

I reckon it's all the CX perversion - it's your body's way of telling you to just stop it

I played Twenty20 cricket last week and after sprinting after the ball 4-5 times in an over I thought I was going to cough up a lung. I just have to remember fitness is not how fast I run, but how quick I recover*.

* still sore

Cyclists don't like walking/running and runners are breathing through their backsides at the top of climbs. A sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeping generalisation, but there we go.

Stairs knacker me out too.