Silly commuting racing

Roastie

JonGinge wrote:

Oh yeah. Has anyone ever seen a Dynamo that isn't an idiot?

Erm, yeah. Two of my mates are Dynamos, and they are both pretty good guys.

Roastie

I had another mad race to make my train this morning to to battling to get out of bed. I was unlucky with the lights, ped crossings mostly, though I did still manage to ride much of the green wave.

Made the train with about 5s to spare, it was seriously rewarding.

jonginge

Roastie wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

Oh yeah. Has anyone ever seen a Dynamo that isn't an idiot?

Erm, yeah. Two of my mates are Dynamos, and they are both pretty good guys.

Sorry Roastie, I know there must be some good guys but last night's performance was just stunning (but fairly typical of other Dynamos I've seen on the commute). I've also seen a lot of KW riders on the commute and they are a different breed.

il_principe

Roastie wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

Oh yeah. Has anyone ever seen a Dynamo that isn't an idiot?

Erm, yeah. Two of my mates are Dynamos, and they are both pretty good guys.

Tell 'em to have a word then. Dynamo's on Embankment have been giving themselves a bad name for a longish time.

Aidy

Is it just me that's tempted to equip a scooter with tri-bars, and ride it in lycra?

cjcp

Bassjunkieuk

Just found an abomination of a bike down by Canary Wharf DLR. It was a drop bar roadie with tri-bars, which isn't to bad. But when you add in the gaffer taped saddle, wing mirror on the drops, bell and horn it really was a sight to behold.

@Aidy - MTFU, put the money you would spend on a scooter towards a nice TT bike and you'll be much faster and not sound like an swarm of asthmatic wasps.....

blu3cat

Oh yeah. Has anyone ever seen a Dynamo that isn't an idiot? Are they born like that or is it something in the club lycra?

Had a go with a Dynamo this morning on a Speicalized SS, he was very nippy on the flat, but he span out on downhills allowing me to get the edge and get ahead. He did not RLJ at all, and behaved in a gentlemenly fashion for the times our routes crossed.

Ian.B

JonGinge wrote:

Was supposed to be a pootle this morning. Still got pig flu* so there's no power in the engine room just now. As is often the way the pootling ended on reaching embankment: I went to semi-pootle, which seemed to be enough.

Bumped into a fellow SCR summer-drinker but burdened as I am with a propensity for remembering faces rather than names I can't tell you who it was :oops: Nice Rapha country jersey BTW. I was going to pootle and chat but there were scalps heading up the road and my sporting blood was up

It was me - good to see you! But now I'm depressed that you scalped me so efficiently even whilst suffering from flu!

Anyhow, my spirits are not too much dampened, as I took an extraordinary 9 minutes off my inward PB this morning - largely aided by not having a single red light all the way from central Richmond through to Battersea Bridge. I don't suppose that will happen again!

Ian

Aidy

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

@Aidy - MTFU, put the money you would spend on a scooter towards a nice TT bike and you'll be much faster and not sound like an swarm of asthmatic wasps.....

Missing the point I feel

We need FCNs for catching on

cjcp

Lovely morning for a ride. Didn't go into the red at any point. Less roadies around so I could pootle a bit more. :oops:

Bassjunkieuk

cjcp wrote:

Lovely morning for a ride. Didn't go into the red at any point. Less roadies around so I could pootle a bit more. :oops:

Indeed this morning was a lovely day, even set a PB for this route averaging 17.2mph :-) The weird thing is I don't "feel" as if I was trying to a fast ride it just happened. Of course this could have been helped along by my near perfect run down the hill near the start were I scalped a Jeep before swinging back in to undertake the Morris Minor that was turning off - hit 37mph down there

No bike scalps but can't complain as it was a good ride! Looking forward to this evening and have an easy day tomorrow to end the week as I'm on my local route :-)

Clever Pun

I was wrecked on the way home last, truely embarrasing, still got away with it.

this morning my legs were still heavy and hurting and almost straight off the bat, I'm past 2 competitive hybrids pushing me harder than I want to go, we get to a hill and I practically stop one takes me so I hunker down and get to the top, I pass him back freewheeling down the hill while he's pedaling and lose him completely on the flat... I fear that doesn't make up for it

not much on the road in terms of scalpage, which is good as I'll have probably just embarrased myself... took one roadie... in toe clips but no bag

lost_in_thought

Cruising along at 22mph this morning, minding my own business, contemplating life, and a bloke on a bl**dy hybrid passes me! Aaaaaagh! And he had hub gears!

Oh the humanity.

Fortunately it seemed that he was just carrying speed off a hill, I MTFU'd and zipped past him at 25, didn't see him again.

Bit of a shock though.

Clever Pun

lost_in_thought wrote:

Cruising along at 22mph this morning, minding my own business, contemplating life, and a bloke on a bl**dy hybrid passes me! Aaaaaagh! And he had hub gears!

Oh the humanity.

Fortunately it seemed that he was just carrying speed off a hill, I MTFU'd and zipped past him at 25, didn't see him again.

Bit of a shock though.

Same thing happened to me... have we been done? I was going slower though so was an easier target

shoulder_of_orion

I was on the ragged edge this morning. Rotten headwind, stinking hangover, less than 5 hrs sleep after getting in at 130, sore hip from falling off the other day... I thought to myself that I'd pootle in for the first time.

Then I saw a target ahead, not a scalp, just a fast moving MTB on slicks near the start of my commute. I swept past him but he didn't like it, the pesky bugger decided to engage in a series of tit-for-tat passing manoeuvres, he would get past me by RLJing or attempting a semi-suicidal filtering in between bus and LGV while not looking behind.

At one point he crashed into the back of a bus, looking quite the twerp, he had been trying a track-stand but the thing about track stands is you have to be stopped rather than moving. On the open sections of road I would pass and build up a big gap. I finally shook him off after a couple of miles of this nonsense.

I decided at this point now I was warmed up to just go at a steady pace - not to race, just go at a nice even rate. But then I kept on stopping at lights and seeing other roadies who might just be able to humble me given a quick appraisal of their kit and bike. God. I just had to burn it up for a while and set a good example and if any of them got past me then Chapeau - I wasn't going to race, just not disgrace myself.

I got onto embankment and had the hideous hot breath of fear on my neck. I kept on turning round expecting to be scalped but it always turned out to be just another motorbike. The headwind really was fierce by this point, I was going at least 5 mph slower than usual. Had to keep up a quick cadence to prevent disgrace. I kept looking round see a speck in the distance and push on.

I finally made it to the office.

Checked the clock - a new PB - into the headwind. Broke 38mins for the first time on my inwards 11 miler.

Kieran_Burns

lost_in_thought wrote:

Cruising along at 22mph this morning, minding my own business, contemplating life, and a bloke on a bl**dy hybrid passes me! Aaaaaagh! And he had hub gears!

Oh the humanity.

Fortunately it seemed that he was just carrying speed off a hill, I MTFU'd and zipped past him at 25, didn't see him again.

Bit of a shock though.

You set fire to him? Bit extreme don't you think? I dunno some of you lot take this all way too seriously

roger_merriman

lost_in_thought wrote:

Cruising along at 22mph this morning, minding my own business, contemplating life, and a bloke on a bl**dy hybrid passes me! Aaaaaagh! And he had hub gears!

Oh the humanity.

Fortunately it seemed that he was just carrying speed off a hill, I MTFU'd and zipped past him at 25, didn't see him again.

Bit of a shock though.

I sometimes am that bike the big green hybrid carries a lot of weight so once rolling at speed takes a while to slow, amusing as you freewheeling past. But hardly sporting! Fun though....

Bassjunkieuk

Forgot to mention that I found one of the simple pleasures of bike commuting this morning (asides from riding the bike and SCRing) that I would have otherwise missed had a been in the car (well I *might* have seen it but slim chance) or on the train/choob.

Pulled up at the lights waiting to turn onto Smithfileds/The Highway I spot a rather attracive young female astride a Kawaski motorbike. Unfortunately she wasn't kitted out in the leathers but did have on a seat of high heels and was sporting a VVPL :-) Put a smile on my face and I almost missed the lights change as I was, erm, a tad distracted ;-)
Didn't get a chance to claim her scalp as I had to contend with a black taxi potentially not seeing me as I came round the corner and she nipped up the centre of the traffic whilst I contented myself with drafing a van.

biondino

lost_in_thought wrote:

Cruising along at 22mph this morning, minding my own business, contemplating life, and a bloke on a bl**dy hybrid passes me! Aaaaaagh! And he had hub gears!

Oh the humanity.

Fortunately it seemed that he was just carrying speed off a hill, I MTFU'd and zipped past him at 25, didn't see him again.

Bit of a shock though.

I was overtaken by a girl this morning - she blasted past me on Lower Richmond Road. That made me sit up - I stuck with her all the way to her turn off on the Kings Road. I didn't overtake as she was certainly capable of keeping up with whatever speed I could maintain without bouncing off on the fixie (I didn't draft her either - I'm a gentleman). But chapeau to her (does she post here? curly hair, red spesh roadie with mudguards, lovely legs).

biondino

In other bike news, I foiled a bike theft last night. Two teenagers on bikes were lurking outside out office, where there's a big stand of bikes. My suspicions were immediately raised, and when they went to the bike rack and one of them crouched down I moved round to see what they were doing, and sure enough one is applying bolt cutters to a lock.

The other one, looking out, sees me and I shout "I think you should both f*ck off right about now", and the two of them do a runner. They shot the wrong way up a busy one way street but I wasn't going to follow them really. Just made sure they disappeared.

Thereafter, I just felt depressed. All I did, for sure, was delayed them nicking a bike by about 5 minutes.

Jay dubbleU

Excellent ride in this morning - sun shining, birds coughing in the trees but alas no SCR action apart from one bloke on a wobbly hybrid which I passed without trying - cheered myself up last night - at the end of the Cricklade Rd dragstrip I managed to get the '30 - Slow Down' sign to come on although I did have a following wind

Clever Pun

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Forgot to mention that I found one of the simple pleasures of bike commuting this morning (asides from riding the bike and SCRing) that I would have otherwise missed had a been in the car (well I *might* have seen it but slim chance) or on the train/choob.

Pulled up at the lights waiting to turn onto Smithfileds/The Highway I spot a rather attracive young female astride a Kawaski motorbike. Unfortunately she wasn't kitted out in the leathers but did have on a seat of high heels and was sporting a VVPL :-) Put a smile on my face and I almost missed the lights change as I was, erm, a tad distracted ;-)
Didn't get a chance to claim her scalp as I had to contend with a black taxi potentially not seeing me as I came round the corner and she nipped up the centre of the traffic whilst I contented myself with drafing a van.

What's a WPL?

VPL sure or is this some reference to a whaletail?

il_principe

biondino wrote:

In other bike news, I foiled a bike theft last night. Two teenagers on bikes were lurking outside out office, where there's a big stand of bikes. My suspicions were immediately raised, and when they went to the bike rack and one of them crouched down I moved round to see what they were doing, and sure enough one is applying bolt cutters to a lock.

The other one, looking out, sees me and I shout "I think you should both f*ck off right about now", and the two of them do a runner. They shot the wrong way up a busy one way street but I wasn't going to follow them really. Just made sure they disappeared.

Thereafter, I just felt depressed. All I did, for sure, was delayed them nicking a bike by about 5 minutes.

You really should invest in a cape if you're going to become a crimefighter.

A pink cape perhaps?

jonginge

biondino wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

Cruising along at 22mph this morning, minding my own business, contemplating life, and a bloke on a bl**dy hybrid passes me! Aaaaaagh! And he had hub gears!

Oh the humanity.

Fortunately it seemed that he was just carrying speed off a hill, I MTFU'd and zipped past him at 25, didn't see him again.

Bit of a shock though.

I was overtaken by a girl this morning - she blasted past me on Lower Richmond Road. That made me sit up - I stuck with her all the way to her turn off on the Kings Road. I didn't overtake as she was certainly capable of keeping up with whatever speed I could maintain without bouncing off on the fixie (I didn't draft her either - I'm a gentleman). But chapeau to her (does she post here? curly hair, red spesh roadie with mudguards, lovely legs).

Grey leggings? Was certainly a rapid lady on embankment this morning. Maintaining mid-twenties easy and burying a few roadies

Bassjunkieuk

Clever Pun wrote:

What's a WPL?

VPL sure or is this some reference to a whaletail?

The extra V was for Very ;-) Rather tight brown trousers and gawd only knows how she worked the gears and brakes with those shoes!!

cjcp

biondino wrote:

In other bike news, I foiled a bike theft last night. Two teenagers on bikes were lurking outside out office, where there's a big stand of bikes. My suspicions were immediately raised, and when they went to the bike rack and one of them crouched down I moved round to see what they were doing, and sure enough one is applying bolt cutters to a lock.

The other one, looking out, sees me and I shout "I think you should both f*ck off right about now", and the two of them do a runner. They shot the wrong way up a busy one way street but I wasn't going to follow them really. Just made sure they disappeared.

Thereafter, I just felt depressed. All I did, for sure, was delayed them nicking a bike by about 5 minutes.

Good man.

People like that shouldn't be locked up if caught. Not in a prison at least. They should be donated to science for vaccine testing so they can do something useful/give something back to society. The alternative is that they give up thieving.

DonDaddyD

Its been a while... :oops:

Worked till 9pm yesterday and had to negotiate Camberwell, Brixton, Clapham, Balham and Tooting on the Kharma with only my helmet lights. I set my gear and put the thunder down. I hate riding in the city at night with the drunk revellers rolling out of the bars and onto the roads. Still I pressed on, eager to get home to the warm lovely kiss of my girlfriend.

True to form the roads were mostly devoid of any cycling wild life until I hit Colliers Wood. He powered past me going down hill, another nomad, riding the good ride at night on a Wilier Escape something or other.

We get to a lights. They're red. It matters not where there is only one discernable truth. One absolute outcome.

Green.

I size him up, allow the cars to overtake and go with them up a slight incline and past the guy on the Wilier. I can feel him give chase.

Now I'm a noble guy, I play fair, I don't accelerate, scalp or drop someone down hill, it’s cheating and the stiffness of the Kharma makes this a truism. I wait until the road becomes flat, check my shoulder and unleash.

It was heavenly.

This morning, I’m playing my new TT game: A race against time.

I bump into one of the guys who sold me my bike, in a yellow Tour de France jersey no less. I follow him for a little bit but a bout of filtering and a sequence of lights means I loose him in the wake of traffic.

The rest of my journey is completely barren until I get to Cold Harbour where a nice chap asks why my free hub is making that noise. Oh I love my Fulcrums.

A droplet of thunder and a few minutes later at the second set of lights and he is complementing me on my speed. The lights go green and the thunder reigns supreme.

It was devilishly good.

biondino

JonGinge wrote:

biondino wrote:

I was overtaken by a girl this morning - she blasted past me on Lower Richmond Road. That made me sit up - I stuck with her all the way to her turn off on the Kings Road. I didn't overtake as she was certainly capable of keeping up with whatever speed I could maintain without bouncing off on the fixie (I didn't draft her either - I'm a gentleman). But chapeau to her (does she post here? curly hair, red spesh roadie with mudguards, lovely legs).

Grey leggings? Was certainly a rapid lady on embankment this morning. Maintaining mid-twenties easy and burying a few roadies

Nope - black (I think) shorts. This was at about 9.15 so all the rest of you will have already been in work three hours

(also, she was speedy, but speedy like I'm speedy, not like *you're* speedy)

Jash wrote:

You really should invest in a cape if you're going to become a crimefighter.

A pink cape perhaps?

I was sitting on a bike with pink bars, saddle, lights and tyres, wearing a pink jersey and pink sunglasses. Do you think that's enough?

il_principe

biondino wrote:

I was sitting on a bike with pink bars, saddle, lights and tyres, wearing a pink jersey and pink sunglasses. Do you think that's enough?

No you nee a cape. It's illegal to challenge "yooves" without a cape.