Silly commuting racing

redvee

Waddlie wrote:

Stokes Croft and Rupert Street are also on my route, feel free to scalp me if you see a black MTB with slicks ridden by a fire engine red Altura jacket. My commute is too short and I was starting to think I was nuts for lengthening it to have some more fun on the way home, glad to see I'm not the only one...

Are you allowed out at 7am though? Used to leave at 7:30 then thought I can leave earlier and get some miles in before work.

cjcp

cjcp wrote:

Then my chain start to slip, and does so big time when I pull away from some lights on Embankment (fair play to the Dynamo for slowing to see if everything was all good). Will have to do some fettling this afternoon or tonight to see what's going on down/back there. :?

Problem now identified. See other thread.

MonkeyMonster

Goddam the weather looks good out there! This illness thing sucks big time.

Clever Pun

Brompton today and it's the furthest I've riden it in one go it felt good... so numbers

Sclaps:
24-26 Mountain bike/hybrid... I'll say 24 as I wouldn't want to be greedy
1 light blue brompton on tower bridge
1 cross bike with a woman with the fattest arse I've seen on a saddle
1 roadie also on tower bridge
a lady fully kitted out on a boardman, I did her twice as she rlj'd.. heh
and one more roadie who after I binned drafted me I mean seriously there's the shame of a folder doing you easily and then the shame of grabbing the wheel.. poor show

I think that's got to go down as the most scalps in one ride? 28-29 depending if the rlj'er counts twice

I'm doing it again tomorrow

MonkeyMonster

Nice work! That roadie needs to take a good look at himself.

northerntrumpeter

The weather in Manchester has been great for the past 5 weeks. Excellent cycling weather, which brings out more prey. This is good, as I see very few cyclists on my route home from east Manchester to Salford.

So, two days ago, I whizz out of the car park on my way home and immediately run into a colleague who has just relocated to our site for a couple of weeks. I didn't realise he cycled, and we had a chat while we went along and it turned out we shared almost half a route home...but this meant I could not go full pelt. In fact we were going less than half my usual pace, but what was worse was that feeling...I had to keep looking over my shoulder. What would I do if someone overtook? How bad is that? It came time to go our separate ways at some lights. They were on red...he was turning right...when the lights changed I burned away, leaving him standing...I can't believe how childish I felt...but it felt good!

Then yesterday was possibly the worst day...ever. I don't get worked up easily, but I had 10 minutes of road rage during yesterday's commute home. I pulled out of the work's car park onto Alan Turing Way and cycled towards Manchester City Football Ground and then I saw him...a roadie. He looked fast and was 200m ahead. I stomped down more than usual and to my delight I started to gain. He got through the lights at Ashton New Road, but was still a distance ahead, so when the lights changed to red I wasn’t too annoyed as I reached them about half way through the sequence so I didn’t have to wait long for the green light and the chase was on again. This was the chance to test my new 1.35 Schwalbe Kojak slicks and rigid forks. My 15 year old composite Trek mountain bike is now a full on commuting machine!

So anyway, I race away from the lights and we’re on a very slight ascent. We both make it through the lights at the entrance to Asda, and I’m only trailing about 50 meters by now. We crest the hill and descend towards the main entrance of the City ground’s car park. It’s match day, with 90 minutes until kick off…but the lights at the entrance to the ground have been changed for the extra traffic and we hit them on red, which is unusual for this junction. The roadie slows. He’s wearing leggings and a lycra top. They’re team colours of some description. His wavy blonde hair flows from underneath his lid. The guy looks like a poser. His steed is a very nice looking machine. He looks behind him as I land on his back wheel. We’re half way down a hill and we’re at the head of all the traffic waiting to go through the lights. I perceive a slight smirk as he turns his head to face forward again…and he lets off his brake to drift through the junction against the red light!! I sit there feeling slightly miffed, and that feeling starts to well up inside me. I WILL NOT go through on red, but I see him cruise down the hill, before reaching the bridge at the bottom and the 100m ascent towards the gas tower. I’m still on red and starting to fume. How many changes can there be…there were no cars coming through…so unfair. He crests the top of the next hill and disappears round the bend. “He’ll probably turn off” I think to myself.

At last the green light. I shoot off. Standing over the bike despite going down hill. I desperately hope I can get this guy in my sights again. I round the bend at the top of the hill…and there he is under the railway bridge junction. He had to stop at this one or he’d have got squashed. He pulls away on green and I make it through just before the change…JOY!! He’s got 75m on me though. It’s uphill again and I’m gaining. Another poxy T-Junction and guess what…I hit it on red. I can see him pulling away into the distance as I sit at the crest of the hill and he levels out towards Oldham Road. Green and I’m away again. I’m absolutely flying. I must close him before Oldham Road. If he hits it on red I have a chance. I’ll be with him and no one I’ve met can beat me off the lights from a standing start. I take great chunks out of his lead and see the lights on green. He’s approaching the junction. The lights have been on green for an age…surely they must change to red now. No…he cruises through. I gnash my teeth and can feel my drive train groaning under the load. I MUST make it through the junction. 25m to go…RED!!!! I am a very laid back guy. I get criticism for this from bosses at work…but I am now cursing and I actually start thumping my handle bars. This is a very busy junction. I couldn’t jump the red light, even if I wanted to. He disappears again and I sit there seething, cursing under my breath. I don’t notice the driver next to me until just before the change…but I don’t care what he thinks. I’m after the poser.

Green and I storm away. Under the railway bridge onto Queen’s Road. I round the bend and cannot even see the guy over the 400m stretch ahead. I push on regardless. Hope springs eternal. My worry is that he will turn off at Rochdale Road and that will be the end. I round the last bend and there he is! 50m ahead, at the top of the hill. He’s pulling away from the lights and I just make it through before the red light. Then it’s downhill. Lots of traffic and we are picking off the cars. He still has about 40m but as we approach another junction he takes a more favourable line and actually looks like he will turn right. My heart sinks, but to my delight he goes ahead. I get stuck behind a badly positioned car but just make it through the junction on green. This is it. 800m of open road before we reach the next junction at Cheetham Hill Road. Only a pelican crossing can possibly stop me catching him at the junction. I am motoring now, through the crossing and towards the junction. I am nearly on his back wheel again…red. He slows. He filters right. He’s going to turn off. He looks at me as I pull alongside in the left lane. I say hi, trying to look calm, despite my heart sinking into my stomach. He doesn’t even make a noise, just turns and looks ahead. The lights are about to change for us and he does another thing that I absolutely despise…he clips in and drifts into the junction while we are still on red. We go to green and I defiantly stomp down, but he is already turning away from me so doesn’t get the benefit of my display of power.

I storm home in what must have been my fastest time. The stress from work has gone, but that bitter taste is left from the road…if I see his golden locks again he’ll see the rubber of my rear wheel, not the other way round…

Roastie

Greg T wrote:

Counterattacking shows great character when done effortlessly and effectively, making a great effort and blowing up is ridiculous.

I dunno, trying to come back when you are hurting and don't know if you can make it stick arguably take bigger balls than coming back when you already know you have a good shot at holding it.

There is this kid who I came aross at Hog Hill who attacks all the time, relentlessly. Each time he gets pulled back but as soon as he recovers he goes again. Thing is, one day he'll get into a good break with enough strong riders and it will stick.

No glory without risk.

UndercoverElephant

Sod of a headwind this morning, but all the better to attack the weak with. Going through Port Seton this morning I spy a roadie about 400 yards ahead, he's struggling like I am with the wind, so I put in the effort to close the gap.

He gets held up by a red light in the next village along, I get close. I attack on the way out of the village, first dispatching a hapless hybrid, "Morning Jim", then going for the main prey.

I draft him for about 100 meters before overtaking. I know the guy, he lives in the same village, and is one of the more competitive types I come across on my run. "Oh, morning", I say nonchalantly as I pass and pull ahead. He takes the bait and my wheel.

I pull him through the headwind for the next mile, then he pulls alongside and we have a brief chat. He takes his turn at the front, but I'm fair itching to leave him for dead. I know I have more in my legs than he does, so I take the lead again and I really put the effort in. He stays with me through Musselburgh, we swap places at some lights, and at the next lights I out filter him and gun it. He couldn't take my wheel this time, so I pull ahead. Half a mile later, another red light, he pulls up to the ASL ten seconds after I do. This is where we part ways.

"Funny how much faster it is when there's two of us isn't it?", I ask. True as well, we were both struggling to manage 16 mph solo into the wind. A bit of SCR, and we're both doing 22 easily.

dav1

Heres a quick question. How much adjustjment do i get for having a 1 M high box conating my suspension forks poking out of my bag and above my head?

Just had them back from repair today but had to deliver them to work as noone home to collect them

biondino

Wasn't sure where to put this, so I've just come to the mother thread:



This is Puma's foldable (?) fashion (?) bike. Snapped it in the window of the Puma shop on Carnaby Street. It has an Alfine hub gear, but beyond that I didn't notice the spec. £880. It's a monstrosity, I think? Thoughts?

Irvinet

This looks like a bit of fun... not that I am ever actually racing on my commute you understand. It is just coincidence that I go faster when other cyclists are around. Some sort of natural law, like gravity, as far as I can make out.

Anyway, I figure I am FCN 5 (fixie + beard + baggies) but I was wondering if someone could give me the brief reason why the hairy legged roadies are down the chain from the fixies? If I was (not)racing myself with one of me on my fixie and my clone on a geared road bike, I am pretty sure the geared me should end up ahead some miles down the road... right?

Sorry if this has been covered at length previously, there are not enough hours in a lifetime to read this entire thread.

biondino

Irvinet, they're not really. It's an archaic ruling that they haven't officially changed yet. Geared roadies count as scalp for fixies.

Stuey01

Irvinet wrote:

This looks like a bit of fun... not that I am ever actually racing on my commute you understand. It is just coincidence that I go faster when other cyclists are around. Some sort of natural law, like gravity, as far as I can make out.

Anyway, I figure I am FCN 5 (fixie + beard + baggies) but I was wondering if someone could give me the brief reason why the hairy legged roadies are down the chain from the fixies? If I was (not)racing myself with one of me on my fixie and my clone on a geared road bike, I am pretty sure the geared me should end up ahead some miles down the road... right?

Sorry if this has been covered at length previously, there are not enough hours in a lifetime to read this entire thread.

I believe it is an adjustment for being a fixie poser.
If you have the ego to ride a fix, then you should be able to back it up with your legs kind of a deal.
Does seem a bit of a let off for hairy roadies such as myself though.

Clever Pun

biondino wrote:

Irvinet, they're not really. It's an archaic ruling that they haven't officially changed yet. Geared roadies count as scalp for fixies.

yup you can scalp 2-4's

gb155

Laid the smack down on a pavment riding MTB'er this morning, Ahhhh enjoyable

LazyBoycp

SCRing makes into the big time! http://www.the-actuary.org.uk/868926 Not that it is specifically mentioned by name, but still...

The rest of the website is possibly NSFW (in the same way that some antihistamines are NSFW if you're driving or operating machinery, i.e. it will make you drowsy).

blu3cat

biondino wrote:

Wasn't sure where to put this, so I've just come to the mother thread:



This is Puma's foldable (?) fashion (?) bike. Snapped it in the window of the Puma shop on Carnaby Street. It has an Alfine hub gear, but beyond that I didn't notice the spec. £880. It's a monstrosity, I think? Thoughts?

I know, It's been around for over a year, did think about getting one when I thought I may need to get something that folded for storage reasons.

It's so fugly that I actually like it, although I would change the BMX type bars for full flat bars.

Great ride this morning. I am filtering past the usual snarl up on the A24, when a full lycra chap on a silver bike out filters me and throws down the gauntlet. I get the impression that he knows exactly what he's doing (anyone on here - 08:40 - me grey Giant roadie, bright blue jersey). Unfortunately we part our ways before we reach clear road. I want a rematch.

Continue to Shepherds Bush and as I pull away into Wood Lane, I hear what sounds like a hairdryer just ahead of me in traffic and realise I am sitting behind a scooter that is going flat out. A little extra effort, 25 mph, my best toothy grin and a slightly embaressed looking scooter rider scalp sitting in my back pocket. I even managed a repeat scalping from the lights at South Africa Road.

redvee

Bloody cold in Brizzle this morning, glad I had my armwarmers on but missed my Lidl shades as I was crying within 1/2 mile of leaving home with the cold on my unprotected eyes.

Did see the 4th emergency service assisting the 1st emergency service broke down at the roadside on my ride in.

shoulder_of_orion

Someone at my office has one of those Puma bikes but their one is all white, looks better than the one in the pic.... (still silly though)

In other news, I took a prized scalp this morning. I have decided to mount it like the moose I have in my front room along with the of 3 or so mopeds/scooters and a couple of lady shaving roadies that also adorn that place....

I was at the lights at Chelsea bridge heading West in the morning. I was stopped precisely behind the white line in the middle of the lane. He arrogantly stops just in front of me, with his wrap-ons, full Euskadi-Euskaltel winter training kit (longs) and a carbon Cannondale road bike a la Liquigas pro team.

I got to the flat bit a few hundred yards from the lights and I'm thinking "He's only doing 28.5 - game on". And so it unfolded, I serenely passed him, stifling my smile as I did. I seriously caned it down to the next set of lights. He did not attempt a counter attack. For the fourth day in a row, I ended up at the next set of lights in a sweaty mess, my lungs bleeding, but victorious!

God that stretch takes it out of me...

Fireblade96

To the young guy who set off ahead of me up St. Peter's Hill yesterday afternoon - you put on a burst of speed at the start and I got blocked by a taxi, I was worried for a while that you might beat me to the top.

I shouldn't have been concerned.

Yours in sport,
The old guy who passed you, sitting down and smiling hello, while you wove backwards and forwards wheezing.

PS change to a lower gear, by the time you get to my age you might still have kneecaps.

Jay dubbleU

Nearly ended up in the cab of a white van on my way home tonight - going straight ahead at the lights and he was turning right - don't think he even looked - saved by hydraulic disc brakes :roll:

Jay dubbleU

LazyBoycp wrote:

SCRing makes into the big time! http://www.the-actuary.org.uk/868926 Not that it is specifically mentioned by name, but still...

The rest of the website is possibly NSFW (in the same way that some antihistamines are NSFW if you're driving or operating machinery, i.e. it will make you drowsy).

He plainly doesn't understand the acceleration of the average Brompton

stuaff

Jay dubbleU wrote:

He plainly doesn't understand the acceleration of the average Brompton

+1. Eg http://vimeo.com/4948501

desweller

Would it be cheating to have a turbo trainer in the office to warm up for SCR?

jedster

Would it be cheating to have a turbo trainer in the office to warm up for SCR?

Technically it would breach the "trying too hard" clause but if noone knew you'd only have your conscience to answer to. So look into your soul - would it compromise subsequent scalps? Would you in your heart of heart know that they were not strictly kosher?

I thought so....

FCN and the rules are just helpful guides. Your gut is the final arbiter of whether you earned or lost a scalp

J

jedster

It's so fugly that I actually like it, although I would change the BMX type bars for full flat bars.

Flippin heck - that would give you a racey riding position - wouldn't you need TT bars?

TheBrogueadier

Ahah! A scalp!

Possbily scalped myself - I was dawdling along a shared path when a chap on a Bianchi in red team lycra breezed past on the road.. slightly higher lower FCN than me (team kit & no beard) so not hugely worried. Plus I'm not touching that stretch of road until I can hold 25+ for several miles, it's not a pleasant stretch.

But then my scalp!
I'm a little dubious about it; he had only just gotten going (I saw him leave his house and mount up) I was nice and warm, but with heavy legs from the previous miles. Our battle ground was a steep hill, a gathering rise that hits 10% near the top. I have to thank this hill for a marked improvement in my cycling; previously I had a terrible habit of slacking the power off just before the summit - the profile and road layout on this one has not only removed that habit, but replaced it with a habit of really stepping on the gas(or wheatabix, as that's my morning fuel) over the last few meters.

As he gets up to speed on the lower sections I catch up, realising as we begin the toil up the steeper stretch that he's a little bit slower than me already, but road layout, hill and traffic make passing here an unpleasant prospect, plus after last weeks misadventure I don't want to push to hard here and risk exploding once past.

We hit the steepest section, slower than I'd normaly do it (my poor legs moaning painfully about this fact) both stood up for the short burst over the top - I realise that the queue of traffic behind us is waiting to clear the corner before attempting to hop two cyclists, great!

A couple of heavy stamps gives me a more comfotable spin and speed, I close up from non drafting distance and hop past, sat down and laying on the power (secretly praying that my legs don't burst) I clear the top of the hill and know he can only be just behind me, time to back up the cheeky overtake with flat speed; stay up on top of the bars and accellerate - A few quick checks show a car behind me, so I've opened up a gap.

The last section flys past, and I turn off into works car park with no sign of him behind me, he eventually passes a good minute or so later.

mkchu84

Scalping hipsters/fakengers on roadies is especially fun when you're on a folder. It's even better when they RLJ because you get to do it again and again!

Stuey01

mkchu84 wrote:

Scalping hipsters/fakengers on roadies is especially fun when you're on a folder. It's even better when they RLJ because you get to do it again and again!

Hipsters/fakengers and roadies are two very different beasts. You wouldn't catch a fakenger with a geared road bike (i.e. roadie).

Roastie

While sitting in my car idling somewhere near E&C I was pondering if one can be scalped by a rider ahead by not being passed.

I'd observed a dude on a hybrid + panniers stay away from a dude on a road bike + lycra + clipless + jeans and flappy non-cycling top for a very long time indeed - in fact, the whole of Nine Elms. The length of time the roadie took to pass the hybrid (given that at the start they were only 30m apart) was embarassing to say the least. A poor effort.

So, if, with a small gap, a lower FCN manages not to be passed by a higher FCN, can that rider claim the scalp? Is the lower FCN rider *obliged* to pass the higher FCN to retain unscalped status?

I think so.