Silly commuting racing

Rich158

Good to see you back in the game IP, how's the shoulder holding up?

il_principe

Rich158 wrote:

Good to see you back in the game IP, how's the shoulder holding up?

Sore, but it's fine to take weight in most directions and is finally healing well thanks. Think it just needs some physio really. Damn but I'm pleased to be off public transport!

lost_in_thought

Thanks Ladies, Aidy.



And IP, be CAREFUL.

greg66_tri_v2.0

Advice from yer Mum wrote:

And IP, be CAREFUL.

OTOH: IP, be FAST!

il_principe

I can be both can't I?

lost_in_thought

Il Principe wrote:

I can be both can't I?

YES.

cjcp

@IP - good stuff.

Aidy

lost_in_thought wrote:

Thanks Ladies, Aidy.

Aww.. I was singled out, I feel all special

Bassjunkieuk

@IP - Glad to see your on the mend, welcome back!
@DDD - Sounds like you had some fun! The stretch along Kennington Road is great for a spot of racing, I managed to claim one along there last night on my ride across town, although he really should have tried harder - repeatedly RLJing and I already had ridden 14 miles :-) Also with the route I did last night, which went right past the bottom of your road and on up to E&C, I've never realized how "lumpy" it is between Colliers Wood and Balham - had a few little rises to keep me on my toes!

That does bring me nicely to my ride last night - my original plan being to race my workmate from Thames Ditton to London Bridge with him having to rely on public transport.
Unfortunately it didn't quite go as I hoped, I was all ready to leave at 5 but couldn't see him around :-( He'd also done his usual trick of leaving both his phones at the desk and buggering off elsewhere. Not wanting to wait around I went and got the bike and made a note of the time I got on: 17:03. I set off following my usual route home, only deviating to go down Grand Drive in Raynes Park to join the road that would eventually get me to E&C :-)

Twas all going swimmingly until I got to near Colliers Wood and I had to watch 2 prize scalps ride off as I was stuck at a red light. Still I managed to claim back some glory as I took a clean scalp past Clapham Common then a brilliant repeated scalping of a chap along Kennington Road that I mentioned earlier. Got to the pub by London Bridge at 18:10 with a rolling average of 17mph and a door-to-door average of the high 15's (estimated)
Funnily of all the site based guys I was about the 3rd there, only beaten by 2 who where working at Chancery Lane! My colleague I was racing turned up about 40 minutes later - just checked my phone as he rang when he arrived as he couldn't find the pub!

On the way back from the meeting I also did a good deed for the day, advised a rather nice young lady that her rear light battery was almost flat :-) It's one of those things you don't realize (as she said) and I'd hope if mine was that weak someone would point it out for me!

lost_in_thought

Great stuff BJUK!

Bikes are generally the fastest way to get from A to B in that London. Especially during rush hour. I've raced people in taxis on several occasions, only ever lost when it's been late at night. And even then, not by much.

Due to one of my finance guys at the hedge fund living basically next-door to me, I raced the tube a fair bit too, but HSK was an arse of a place to get to on the tube.

New job will be interesting - I live approx. 6 minutes' walk from South Ealing, and the office is approx 5 minutes from Green Park. Piccadilly line all the way, should take about 25 minutes, I guess, so 36 minutes all told (at best).

8.5 miles by bike, various route choices, one of which is the A4, all of which mean a good stretch of either piccadilly or oxford street, and either Hyde Park Corner or Marble Arch roundabouts. Or, curzon gate off Park Lane, but that almost always involves waiting for ages and running the gauntlet of oncoming cars.

Whaddaya reckon? Will bike beat tube?

Aidy

lost_in_thought wrote:

Whaddaya reckon? Will bike beat tube?

Are we taking into account how often they appear to be broken/delayed/on strike?

Oh, and I have every faith that you'll continue to beat the tube, regardless!

kelsen

lost_in_thought wrote:

New job will be interesting - I live approx. 6 minutes' walk from South Ealing, and the office is approx 5 minutes from Green Park. Piccadilly line all the way, should take about 25 minutes, I guess, so 36 minutes all told (at best).

You also need to take into account queuing to get onto the platform, packed trains, signal failures, passengers taking ill, queuing to get out of the station.

Grrrr! My blood is boiling just thinking about it! :x

You'll win, no contest!

lost_in_thought

I have to say, Piccadilly line is usually pretty good, and both South Ealing and Green Park stations are good - they start a lot of trains at Northfield so you're often getting onto an empty train, and delays are rare because it's heathrow branch.

Of course, I'm going to be cycling, I'm just interested because I think it'll be a lot more of a close-run thing than any of my previous commutes!

Bassjunkieuk

Anyone missing a rocket?

I may be able to help if so 'cause I think it was lodged up my ar$e on my commute home this evening :-)

It started pretty much like any commute as I rode round the car park to get to the exit barrier. As I round the corner a car is reversing out of a bay so I let them complete the turn and follow them out. As we pull onto the main road I realize it's my mate - the same one I was racing on PT across London yesterday!

I know I'll be cycling past the end of his road on my way home so I think to myself that I'll have a quick check at the time on my bike computer that I pass and text him when I get in :-)

Nothing really of note on the way home, although I thought I was going to be in trouble at one point with an older gent on the same model SCR3.0 as DDD rides. He had strapping great legs but he seemed to hesitate once we got out of the underpass that runs under the A3. Didn't seem him after that..... I think I then got called "cocky" by some chav on an MTB as I causally blew past him on the run up to the level crossing a bit further on.

As I got closer to home the traffic got really bad and I was having a blast doing some rather mad filtering at some silly speeds, all the while loving the fact that I'm whipping past dozens of cars. I hit the road that runs alongside Mitcham Common and get on the drops telling myself "You don't come off these unless you hit a red or get to Lombard Roundabout!"

As I'm happily powering along I get a toot from a silver car. Before I can stick a finger up I see the driver wave and then I realize who it is, my mate :-) Those familiar with that area of Croydon will know that the run along from Mitcham Common to Lombard Roundabout is pan flat (but rather rutted!) and allows you to carry speed very well. The traffic down the road means I have a small advantage but I'm not going to be able to let up for the next 2 miles otherwise he'll beat me! He passed me once more on that stretch but I got passed him again and even waited at the end of his road for him :twisted: I think he got there about a minute later - it certainly made for a fast and exciting end to the commute! Once I got in this was confirmed as I got a rolling average of 17.9mph :-D

Aidy

lost_in_thought wrote:

I have to say, Piccadilly line is usually pretty good, and both South Ealing and Green Park stations are good - they start a lot of trains at Northfield so you're often getting onto an empty train, and delays are rare because it's heathrow branch.

Of course, I'm going to be cycling, I'm just interested because I think it'll be a lot more of a close-run thing than any of my previous commutes!

You'll just have to try harder

cjcp

WTH was up with the traffic today????

This morning, it was a shambles after Parlt Square; this evening, it was pants from BB toa fair way along the the LRR.

itboffin

cjcp wrote:

WTH was up with the traffic today????

This morning, it was a shambles after Parlt Square; this evening, it was pants from BB toa fair way along the the LRR.

+1

My fellow BMW driver pulled a classic manoeuvre, indicate don't look, feeble wave of apology when I pointed out how close he'd come to taking me out.

Why am I so calm about these things? in the old days he'd be in casualty now having parts of his car removed from his arsehole.

DonDaddyD

Saw Greg66 yesterday along Chancery Lane looking his absolute Tory best.

Who was your colleague?

Neither of us were cycling.

kelsen

DonDaddyD wrote:

Saw Greg66 yesterday along Chancery Lane looking his absolute Tory best.

Who was your colleague?

Why would you ask? It was a burd, was it?

DonDaddyD wrote:

Neither of us were cycling.

But did you still scalp him?

greg66_tri_v2.0

DonDaddyD wrote:

Saw Greg66 yesterday along Chancery Lane looking his absolute Tory best.

Who was your colleague?

Neither of us were cycling.

Eyes off, yer dirty b'st'rd (she's someone I work with. That's all. We were hunting for a cab to take us to a charity quiz night).

Had we been walking in the same direction, I have no doubt there would have been some Silly Pavement People in Suits Racing

iPete

Couldn't break any traffic lights today, must have been a little off sequence so no real SCR. Although 2 people did try and pace me off the lights, I toyed with them up till about 15-16mph before jumping into a high gear and grinding upto 27, all whilst remaining seated of course

DonDaddyD

Greg66 wrote:

(she's someone I work with.)

Jesus wept....

Clever Pun

felt great today and scalped myself a scooter very pleasing on fixed...

nearly 200 for the working week and I was still crushing everything on the road.

Got to say I'm pretty damned awesome this week

W1

The LAPD had once again closed a lane of the Embankment last night, again at rush hour, causing chaos from Blackfriars probably all the way to Kent. I'm sure they must have had a good reason or intelligence - otherwise it was stupidity of the highest order.

MonkeyMonster

Well... Hope the dude that got side nudged by the fat twit in his hyundai tank is okay on HSK. He picked himself back up and seemed it and there were 2 other cyclists with him to berate the driver for being such a twunt in his beast of 4v4.

Unfortunately he was not the only sh1te driver out today. Lack of indicators aplenty, kerb crawling and sudden swerves seemed to be on the list today.

Loads of bike coppers too near buck palace/parliament sq.

Lack of roadies so not as many scalps as normal.

il_principe

I had to commute on the Prince this morning. Went to get the Focus from the garage only to find that someone has stolen the front brake! F*cking unbelievable. Now 3 out of 4 bikes are out of commission, 2 thanks to theft. Gonna have to keep all the bikes in my flat now as the "secure garage" is nothing of the sort.

Really don't like commuting on that bike, it's like having a massive target painted on your back, although it is so much easier to roll up to/maintain speed than the Focus is.

Trying to have a cheap month, now I need a new Ultegra SL front brake and a new Halo Aeroage front wheel. Motherf*cking thieving c*nts.

MonkeyMonster

Mother chuffin cnuts. Hammer to the hands for thieves, lets see em nick stuff after that.

cjcp

W1 wrote:

The LAPD had once again closed a lane of the Embankment last night, again at rush hour, causing chaos from Blackfriars probably all the way to Kent. I'm sure they must have had a good reason or intelligence - otherwise it was stupidity of the highest order.

Yeah, what the hell was that for? Saw some big guys in uniform carrying even bigger guns.

Kieran_Burns

You bloody SCR lot....

Did it to me again. :roll:

When I'm on an early start I always seem to see this guy just after he climbs the incline into Ruddington. I usually just spin up it in my lower cruise gear and accelerate down the other side - passing him on the way. He's on this full sus MTB thing, struggling away and I go past, nice and quiet on the Tricross.

Only it's downhill and I'm always going to be quicker.

This morning I passed him at the bottom of the hill - looked across and gave a cheery "Good Morning!" and then promptly powered up the hill in my flat cruising gear leaving him for dust.

It's not a scalp, it never will be... but you lot are making me show off.

DonDaddyD

James, sorry to hear about the bikes. If people see you walking with the Prince, they may target you and your other bikes. Also, nice affluent area = target for theives.

I'm gonna walk around the Temple area and see if I can Greg66 and friend again....

Today's commute saaw me fly to work, I was in gears I normally spint in. I actually checked to see if my chain had stretched. Scalped many many people, but none more so than the five nodders lined up abreast at the lights on Clapham road.

When the light were green I went with a Porsche and unleashed an unholy level of awesome from my thighs.