Silly commuting racing

Bassjunkieuk

Il Principe wrote:

prawny wrote:

The campy hoods don't fill me with the same amount of confidence that shimanos do. Althought the new ergos look like a big improvement. Don't know what IP is running on the Prince.

I run Campag and I'm not rising to the bait. All I'll say is try descending a mountain, with hairpins, hitting 50+mph on the straights, on a lightweight bike - on the hoods. No thank you very much. :P

In that case I should be fine as my SCR 3.0 is a good 2.5Kg heavier then the Prince, will make all the difference to stability ;-)

jedster

30% plus hairpins on ice and rain with a howling gale anyone

no thanks :shock:

get off
walk
in my socks if necessary

I came round a sharp bend at the bottom of a 1:10 in heavy rain a few weeks ago. My glasses were a bit misted up. Midway round I suddenly realised that gravel had been washed onto the road across the bend. The front wheel gave a little twitch and I decided to wave the white flag - straightened up and road straight across the road and into the verge opposite. Bloody grateful that there was no oncoming traffic.

Roastie

roger merriman wrote:

so shimano but just levers, as i have downtube shifters.

Roastie

jedster wrote:

Re security/hands slipping off - if you are on the drops you can grab the brakes without any chance of your hands slipping forward. On the hoods, if you are pulling hard on the levers it is difficult to also have a really secure grip around the shifter body.

:shock: Really? Do you have really small hands or something? I was "watching" how I ride tonight - two fingers on the brake lever, a thumb and two fingers around the lever body irrespective of how hard I'm stopping.

ps. Please don't take this as critical, I am genuinely curious why this is a problem.

Roastie

Il Principe wrote:

I run Campag and I'm not rising to the bait. All I'll say is try descending a mountain, with hairpins, hitting 50+mph on the straights, on a lightweight bike - on the hoods. No thank you very much. :P

BTDT, actually find using the hoods in this situation fairly useful - you can easily and quickly raise your upper body for the parachute effect .

Not saying hoods > drops. Just that I think it is a case of horses for courses.

Also, I can't see how, under any circumstances, the hoods can be a precarious handhold. If anything, I think the hoods are the most useful/versatile place to hold the bars.

Eau Rouge

I definitely feel more secure descending in the drops rather than the hoods. It's not anything to do with how secure I can hold the bars though, it's more about the prospect of turning, be it a corner or around a stone or pothole. At the higher speed, the higher center of gravity you get from the hoods inspires less confidence in making those turns.
Naturally, on gentler slopes where I'm only going a little faster than on the flat I'm perfectly happy on the hoods, but as the speed ramps up I think about moving to the drops.

Roastie

On the hoods/CoG point. While I do hear you - do you guys not bend your arms? I mean, hands on the hoods, with my forearms level, you can get pretty low indeed. :?:

Each to his own; like I said earlier - not that I want to prove anyone "wrong" - just I don't understand this aversion to grabbing the hoods when cornering quickly, and particularly feeling less comfortable like this at speed.

Personally I think Roger M put it best - just stay loose and let it flow. Exactly where you put your hands is secondary.

cjcp

Roastie wrote:

Personally I think Roger M put it best - just stay loose and let it flow. Exactly where you put your hands is secondary.

I'm looser with the hands on the drops whilst cornering. If I'm on the hoods, I hold on too tightly for fear of the hands bouncing up and off.

Fireblade96

I'm new to this whole drop-bar malarkey, so in the last few weeks I've found:
- hoods are comfortable
- I can lock both wheels braking with 2 fingers from the hoods
- however, I have had a couple of moments where unexpected bumps have bounced at least one hand nearly off the hood :shock:

Bear in mind that I'm coming from mountain biking where I have big fat tyres and front suspension. And disk brakes.

I've been trying the drops now, but while that's good for outright speed on the flat(ish), downhill I'm not yet confident - and braking from the drops is even more powerful, so given that my *moments* so far have mostly been due to overbraking (OK, and too much speed for the slimy-steep-downhill-country-lane), for now I'm sticking with the hoods and bending my arms.

I can see that drops gives extra security, I'm just not quite there yet :oops:

insomniboy

In the two weeks of my new employment I have retained (an admittedly hard-fought) record of not yet being scalped (until Friday, going up the hill in Greenwich park). Is there any threat to my shortlived Sidcup - Waterloo superiority lurking in the wings that I need to look out for?

itboffin

Look where I found this.... half way down page two, page TWO people

FFS get a grip

Nothing of note this morning, my legs chose their own agenda this morning and by the half way point I realised i'd be 2 mins late for the train so I backed off and added a few extra miles and caught the next one

"It's on"

You know who you are............. :evil:

jonginge

But ITB there's just no sport at the moment. Not a lot of cars and not many bikes either. It's bliss actually.

shoulder_of_orion

Yesterday it was silly commuter swimming.

I went to the Porchester Spa in Notting Hill for the sunday couples evening (which is brilliant by the way). I started off with 50 laps of the 30m pool. Obviously I went in the fast lane as anything else would have been an insult to my soul.

However, I soon realised that I needed a FCN as I was getting scalped. So:
Speedos -1
Crew Cut -1
Swimming Cap -1
Googles -1
Waistline that would fit into size 32 jeans -1, size 30 -2 etc
Shoulders that would fit a size 44 jacket -1, size 46 -2 etc
Bermuda type shorts +1
Normal Length Hair +1

So with my healthy FCN of +2, I had easily the highest FCN in the fast lane and it was scalp city. Blam - 14 yr old with swimming cap and googles - eat my wake.

There was one bloke who I fancied taking on and so I put in a monumental effort and pipped him at the wall, touching the wall and looking across like Michael Phelps does in victory, only for the guy to do one of those tumble roll things and he went off on another lap. God I was spluttering and about to pass out from the effort and he just went off on another length and another and another without stopping at a rate that I could only just beat him over one length. Chapeau.

There was also blunt northern bloke with 14 yr old son who was clearly a past county or national level swimmer, who would take pleasure in passing me even with a half length start. He was like the competitive dad from Mitchell and Webb, even taking pleasure in scalping his own son. Don't you know the rules of this game? It only counts if your FCN is higher than mine and with your crew cut, googles, speedos and tiny waist/huge shoulders combo, you ain't got a prayer matey!

This was not going so well. So I decided to take refuge in the Suana. Right, so now it was time for silly commuter sauna perseverance.

Covered in tats and enjoy talking about the world's best saunas = -1

This was better - I saw off some real men with my mentally long stay in the sauna. Quick cold plunge later and I was ready for some more suana scalpings. Got back in, flipped the timer over and I was set.

But then, SWEDISH ACCENTS!! That's got to be a -2 if ever I saw one,
"Do you mind if we put some more water on?"
(feigning nonchalance) "No of course not, a lot of people have been in and out, so it has cooled down a bit".
They were sitting on the top step (+2), to my middle (+1), but even then, I couldn't wait for the sand to go down. Had.to.get.out. Scalped!

Went to Kahn's for a curry afterwards. It says on the menu, "If you haven't eaten at Kahn's you haven't been to London". Right, so Chicken "extremely hot"Jalfreizi anyone? time for a bit of silly curry house racing, hottest wins? Indian accent -1?

Wait. Maybe I need to get this whole SCR thing into perspective....?

Kieran_Burns

Am I allowed to claim the whole Tissington Trail? I cycled the full length of it and passed every single person in front of me.

Okay, okay - I was in full lycra with no rack, pannier or mudguards (stripped down commuter) but damn it all I was the fastest thing on the whole 16 miles of the Trail! :roll:

Oh speaking of which! I saw one guy on a full on road bike (didn't get to see what model) and he was in FULL (and I mean FULL) HTC kit. I swear he even had bloody green glasses :roll: Methinks ever so slightly over dressed for the Tissington Bridleway.

I did also see another HTC clad roadie just as I got back to my village at the end of the ride yesterday... Does anyone else think that the recent high profile exploits of a certain UK rider have hit a chord?

Gazzaputt

insomniboy wrote:

In the two weeks of my new employment I have retained (an admittedly hard-fought) record of not yet being scalped (until Friday, going up the hill in Greenwich park). Is there any threat to my shortlived Sidcup - Waterloo superiority lurking in the wings that I need to look out for?

What route do you take from Greenwich Park to Sidcup?

dirk_van_gently

Never posted to SCR before, mainly cos I just don't have anyone to race, I could boast they are all in my wake, but that is full 4 * BS.

Anyway, just took a look at the itsnotarace.org website, and almost wet myself laughing, that is brilliant, hats off to the folk who put that together :-)

I think my FCN is 7, there was nothing specific for CX bikes, so I plumped for hybrid.

blu3cat

Wait. Maybe I need to get this whole SCR thing into perspective....?

hmmmmm, methinks you may be taking it a little too far.

The lack of school runs at the moment seems to be encouraging all of the boy/girl racers to go that little bit extra and drive like complete and utter c*cks rather than just c*cks.

Just one scalp (only saw one roadie), chap on a blue trek descending into Putney. To be fair I think my large weight (dis)advantage made it a lot easier on the descent.

Bassjunkieuk

Good fun on the way in this morning as I took an un-expected diversion! Chasing a bus away from the lights just before the big bus lane in central Croydon only to be greeted with a "Road Closed" sign..........oh fun! Carry on drafting said bus as we enter the underpass before doing a quick shoulder check and moving out round his RHS. Some demon filtering later and I'm through the horrendous traffic only to be greeted with even more traffic :-( Appears they have started working on the big junction above the underpass and the traffic is GRIDLOCKED.......and the worst part is I'll shortly be required to tackle it as I need to go visit another office and I can't take my bike "just in case" I have to bring back a PC with me....it sucks:-(

biondino

Roastie wrote:

On the hoods/CoG point. While I do hear you - do you guys not bend your arms? I mean, hands on the hoods, with my forearms level, you can get pretty low indeed. :?:

Each to his own; like I said earlier - not that I want to prove anyone "wrong" - just I don't understand this aversion to grabbing the hoods when cornering quickly, and particularly feeling less comfortable like this at speed.

Personally I think Roger M put it best - just stay loose and let it flow. Exactly where you put your hands is secondary.

Don't forget that with Shimano the exposed cables give you another level of security in terms of your hands slipping off the hoods.

biondino

I cycled in from Wimbledon this morning, which was fun (though pretty similar to normal once I got to Putney Bridge I decided to keep it in the big ring up Wimbledon Hill (okay, 50/24, but that's still the big ring) and it was fine - I did need a while to recover at the top but I didn't need to stand up or anything!

prawny

Il Principe wrote:

prawny wrote:

The campy hoods don't fill me with the same amount of confidence that shimanos do. Althought the new ergos look like a big improvement. Don't know what IP is running on the Prince.

I run Campag and I'm not rising to the bait. All I'll say is try descending a mountain, with hairpins, hitting 50+mph on the straights, on a lightweight bike - on the hoods. No thank you very much. :P

I wasn't baiting, just personal preference, I have very crap stumpy fingers. Anyways I'm thinking of sticking a full Athena group on the boardman over the winter I prefer the shift action of campag oh and 11speeds yes please. :twisted:

blu3cat

biondino wrote:

I cycled in from Wimbledon this morning, which was fun (though pretty similar to normal once I got to Putney Bridge I decided to keep it in the big ring up Wimbledon Hill (okay, 50/24, but that's still the big ring) and it was fine - I did need a while to recover at the top but I didn't need to stand up or anything!

I doff my hat to you, W'don hill no longer poses a problem, but still can't get up in anything better than 39/23.

I know, I know, I need to MTFU.

Backsplash

Insomniboy...I do Greenwich park daily...
It's been a bit quiet on that route for the last two weeks, some of the usual suspects on tasty road bikes have been absent....

I'm mostly riding a red Felt.....

Clever Pun

blu3cat wrote:

biondino wrote:

I cycled in from Wimbledon this morning, which was fun (though pretty similar to normal once I got to Putney Bridge I decided to keep it in the big ring up Wimbledon Hill (okay, 50/24, but that's still the big ring) and it was fine - I did need a while to recover at the top but I didn't need to stand up or anything!

I doff my hat to you, W'don hill no longer poses a problem, but still can't get up in anything better than 39/23.

I know, I know, I need to MTFU.

Really? I got up on the way to the Richmond park the other week in 50-17... I stood up but it wasn't that bad

blu3cat

Clever Pun wrote:

blu3cat wrote:

biondino wrote:

I cycled in from Wimbledon this morning, which was fun (though pretty similar to normal once I got to Putney Bridge I decided to keep it in the big ring up Wimbledon Hill (okay, 50/24, but that's still the big ring) and it was fine - I did need a while to recover at the top but I didn't need to stand up or anything!

I doff my hat to you, W'don hill no longer poses a problem, but still can't get up in anything better than 39/23.

I know, I know, I need to MTFU.

Really? I got up on the way to the Richmond park the other week in 50-17... I stood up but it wasn't that bad

Reaping the rewards of years of smoking and eating and general body abuse... :oops:

I get about half way up and my legs tell me to change up (down?). Climbing ain't my strong point!

biondino

Clever Pun wrote:

blu3cat wrote:

biondino wrote:

I cycled in from Wimbledon this morning, which was fun (though pretty similar to normal once I got to Putney Bridge I decided to keep it in the big ring up Wimbledon Hill (okay, 50/24, but that's still the big ring) and it was fine - I did need a while to recover at the top but I didn't need to stand up or anything!

I doff my hat to you, W'don hill no longer poses a problem, but still can't get up in anything better than 39/23.

I know, I know, I need to MTFU.

Really? I got up on the way to the Richmond park the other week in 50-17... I stood up but it wasn't that bad

Yeah but having tattoos immediately doubles your strength and hardness rating so actually 50/12 would have been more appropriate. Next time, eh.

Rich158

insomniboy wrote:

In the two weeks of my new employment I have retained (an admittedly hard-fought) record of not yet being scalped (until Friday, going up the hill in Greenwich park). Is there any threat to my shortlived Sidcup - Waterloo superiority lurking in the wings that I need to look out for?

Yep - me Formely on a Trek Madone, now to be found on a pinkish :oops: fixie, sporting blue tyres and bottle cages. I come through Bexley Village, Blackfen, Kidbrooke Park Road onto Blackheath and Greenwich Park. I've normally done about 20 miles by the time I hit Blackheath so I'm pretty fecked, my scalp will be yours if we meet.

By the way I'm pushing 50x16 at the moment so I'm gonna be scalped like crazy going up through the park

insomniboy

Rich158 wrote:

I come through Bexley Village, Blackfen, Kidbrooke Park Road onto Blackheath and Greenwich Park.

My mention of Greenwich was perhaps misleading, but I'm still refining my route...
I start down by Waring Park in Sidcup, then head up to the High St., along to Eltham then across to Lewisham. On to New Cross, then A2 to Elephant, and now Blackfriars and Embankment to Somerset House...
In terms of traffic and lights and flow, would it make more sense to follow up through Kidbrooke to Blackheath, then down Greenwich and follow the river/Jamaica road right in?
Where can the most scalps be found? :P

jimmypippa

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Am I allowed to claim the whole Tissington Trail? I cycled the full length of it and passed every single person in front of me.

Okay, okay - I was in full lycra with no rack, pannier or mudguards (stripped down commuter) but damn it all I was the fastest thing on the whole 16 miles of the Trail! :roll:

Oh speaking of which! I saw one guy on a full on road bike (didn't get to see what model) and he was in FULL (and I mean FULL) HTC kit. I swear he even had bloody green glasses :roll: Methinks ever so slightly over dressed for the Tissington Bridleway.

I did also see another HTC clad roadie just as I got back to my village at the end of the ride yesterday... Does anyone else think that the recent high profile exploits of a certain UK rider have hit a chord?

I've taken my daughter on parts of that (near the Buxton end)

I was running

cjcp

Dirk Van Gently wrote:

I think my FCN is 7, there was nothing specific for CX bikes, so I plumped for hybrid.

No way - you're as good as a roadie. I always take a CX bike seriously - there are two of my route, both of whom can stay on my wheel if they get it.