Silly commuting racing

cjcp

Good weekend, chaps. Bit of a frantic day, so not been able to particpate in the Friday fun.

Toast and marmalade for me in the morning and/or Special K and Shredded Wheat Bitesize (no added sugar, see) and blueberries.

Curry sounds good.

Safe riding.

cjcp

Truly bumbled/bimbled along on the way home yesterday. Had to let a slightly feral-looking roadie (baggy shorts, t-shorts and off road shoes) giving it everything go by and not give chase. :x There was also a shaved roadie drafting me along Millbank. I was perhaps going the slowest I've been along there in what were nice conditions, and it drove me to a "FFS! Is everyone this lazy?!". Don't know if he heard, but he overtook shortly before the start of the bus lane. He the proceeded to draft the aforementioned feral roadie.

roger_merriman

had a funny one or rather looks last night on the way to watch Big Red, where i was coming down from Richmond Park. now my bike or rather my about town bike is big heavy hybrid, unladen it's 50 lb with all my work clober it's close to 60 lb, so gravity is my friend! at least when i'm going down... going back up she hates me.

any way coming down into Kingston spotted MTB a little way off, clang as i go over the speed bumps (panniers and basket) with the weight advantage i was gaining quite rapidly, could see the lad turning at every clang and no doubt thinking "that isn't really catching me up is it?" waiting at the lights for quite a while before he turned up.

not the game as going down hill that bike has such a weight advantage, the only problem with hills is the stopping...

ChrisLS

...tailish side wind...Friday bimble home 8) ...loads and loads of mad fast drivers... :twisted: :roll:

...three scalps, for what they worth round here, on the way in...four if you count the lady pushing her bike up the hill, but she doesn't count...

biondino

A 50lb bike? What the hell is it? Fully laden that's THREE TIMES the weight of mine. My god.

roger_merriman

cheap dawes hybrid by time one's added bomb proof tires, heavier duty pannier racks plus panniers kick stand, and front basket etc, it's 50lb, out of the shop quite a few of the more laid back hybrids are a good 40lb.

the bike takes a fair effort once the miles add up, on the other hand it's robust and not really desireable ie i park it all sorts of fun places. it's also very much all weather and can take a fair bit of a beating. rain/wind and potholes are much less of a problem than on my old racer,

biondino

Wow. I take my hat off to you sir. Do you ever ride lightweight bikes?

itboffin

Littigator wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

itboffin wrote:

Is fitting a white chain to my all white SS too tarty oh well to late now where can I get white crank arms from...

Nice bikes by the way! Do they all have uses or are you just a collector?

ITB - YES! And you need a white saddle dude!

LiT - Yes ITB is most definitely just a collector not a proper rider, as proven by me when I scorched him down Millbank after le drinks (ouch!)

Chapeux

321 back in the room ...

Piffle am I just a collector! could or would a collector ride SS in Snowdonia

Nice pic BTW its a good likeness of YOU

Chapeaux

itboffin

jashburnham wrote:

Bunch of fairies. I eat scalps for breakfast, results in the odd furball but it's far more satisfying.

Washed down with a breakfast beer, yes people I said BEER :shock:

roger_merriman

biondino wrote:

Wow. I take my hat off to you sir. Do you ever ride lightweight bikes?

heh yes, i have 4 bikes, only big green is that heavy weight. the rest are lighter weight.

itboffin

LiT so sorry to hear about your loss I hope your new bike can live up to the legacy of the beast and that the dirty thief that stole it suffered trying to push your massive gear.

Is the new bike fixed and what ratio are you running now, surely no sane bike company would sell a new bike with +90s GI

Bassjunkieuk

Looks like a have a future commuter racer to train up :-) Whilst riding over to my mum's at the weekend, about 2 1/2 miles, the eldest (7) asked why so many people are out in cars and not on bikes after all "bikes don't need petrol".

If she can keep that attitude and her racing spirit I reckon she'll be a shoe in for the scalping's in 15 years time :-) Already getting her in training as she has a cheapo cycle comp on her smaller bike and enjoys seeing how high she can get the numbers up :-)

On a side note the other one also rode without stabilizers for the first time on Saturday to, much to my amazement after I removed them she just kicked her self along the drive to get going and started pedaling and didn't fall over! I was grinning ear to ear as I went in to tell the wife :-D Pendalton and Romero better watch out now :-)

cjcp

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

On a side note the other one also rode without stabilizers for the first time on Saturday to, much to my amazement after I removed them she just kicked her self along the drive to get going and started pedaling and didn't fall over! I was grinning ear to ear as I went in to tell the wife :-D Pendalton and Romero better watch out now :-)

8) Very cool. That's something I'm looking forward to.

snooks

OK I've been having a think about this, now that the Olympics are over, all the Olympians are back on the road...We have already seen Pendelton partakes in the The Game, and on Sunday Chris Hoy was riding a folder near a London bus...

So I'm thinking, where scooters used to be the holy grail, we can now have Olympians! Who should sit at an FCN of -3 for Bronze, -5 for Silver, -10 for Gold

Hoy hunting here we come

btw. Was anyone else waiting for the bus to squish our medalists?? :twisted:

Bassjunkieuk

snooks wrote:

OK I've been having a think about this, now that the Olympics are over, all the Olympians are back on the road...We have already seen Pendelton partakes in the The Game, and on Sunday Chris Hoy was riding a folder near a London bus...

So I'm thinking, where scooters used to be the holy grail, we can now have Olympians! Who should sit at an FCN of -3 for Bronze, -5 for Silver, -10 for Gold

Hoy hunting here we come

btw. Was anyone else waiting for the bus to squish our medalists?? :twisted:

I was quite surprised to see Hoy aboard the Brompton, shame he wasn't giving it some tho as I suspect the poor lil' bike might have crumbled under his power :-) I do think celebs scalps should count for a few bonus points - well at least those that don't RLJ **cough** David Cameron **cough**

lost_in_thought

itboffin wrote:

LiT so sorry to hear about your loss I hope your new bike can live up to the legacy of the beast and that the dirty thief that stole it suffered trying to push your massive gear.

Is the new bike fixed and what ratio are you running now, surely no sane bike company would sell a new bike with +90s GI

It is fixed, yes, a very shiny Giant Bowery, and I had the friendly folk at Pearson's switch out the sprocket rather than enlarging the ring to give me 88.9 inches.

Now, from another thread, someone implied (perhaps untruthfully) that the wheels you have make a difference to your gear inches... Now I can understand thiat the circumference/diameter would, but not the tyre width... Explain! I demand answers!

Also, yes to curry, somewhere with very sturdy railings or outdoor seating!

DonDaddyD

Today was the greatest day of my commuting life so far!

I dream of being slim enough, fit enough and quick enough to ride for a club and be competitive over a long long distance for the sheer fun of it.

Heading towards Herne Hill Train Station around Brockwell Park (flat road surface). A guy on a hybrid, SPD SLs, looked the part, had a nice rhythm and was giving it some beans, I had him clocked at 23mph as I made my move to lock him firmly in my past. He started accelerating as we got neck to neck, I powered passed him. Then something happened, the cycling Gods must have evoked the Hoy within my spirit because I went for it, I scalped, the Game had been played and won but I felt there was more in my legs! I gunned it! I looked down 29.5mph I yelped! fist punching the air!

I always knew I could go faster than my 26/27mph (even down a hill) but never had the guts to do so (I've only ridden road for 1and1/2 months and I don't feel too secure) and on the shoddy South London roads. I'm so happy!

What worries me is that that was the highest gear on my 24speed (three in the front 8 at the back) sora/tiagra mix.. sigh.

ride_whenever

lost_in_thought wrote:

itboffin wrote:

LiT so sorry to hear about your loss I hope your new bike can live up to the legacy of the beast and that the dirty thief that stole it suffered trying to push your massive gear.

Is the new bike fixed and what ratio are you running now, surely no sane bike company would sell a new bike with +90s GI

It is fixed, yes, a very shiny Giant Bowery, and I had the friendly folk at Pearson's switch out the sprocket rather than enlarging the ring to give me 88.9 inches.

Now, from another thread, someone implied (perhaps untruthfully) that the wheels you have make a difference to your gear inches... Now I can understand thiat the circumference/diameter would, but not the tyre width... Explain! I demand answers!

Also, yes to curry, somewhere with very sturdy railings or outdoor seating!

A wider tyre on the same width rim will have a fatter profile, hence will give a bigger actual diameter.

roger_merriman

lost_in_thought wrote:

itboffin wrote:

LiT so sorry to hear about your loss I hope your new bike can live up to the legacy of the beast and that the dirty thief that stole it suffered trying to push your massive gear.

Is the new bike fixed and what ratio are you running now, surely no sane bike company would sell a new bike with +90s GI

It is fixed, yes, a very shiny Giant Bowery, and I had the friendly folk at Pearson's switch out the sprocket rather than enlarging the ring to give me 88.9 inches.

Now, from another thread, someone implied (perhaps untruthfully) that the wheels you have make a difference to your gear inches... Now I can understand thiat the circumference/diameter would, but not the tyre width... Explain! I demand answers!

Also, yes to curry, somewhere with very sturdy railings or outdoor seating!

a wide heavy tire would be more effort, but for the same circumference the inches will be the same. not sure how you'd get a road tire that didn't increase height with width ....

graeme_s-2

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

I was quite surprised to see Hoy aboard the Brompton, shame he wasn't giving it some tho as I suspect the poor lil' bike might have crumbled under his power :-) I do think celebs scalps should count for a few bonus points - well at least those that don't RLJ **cough** David Cameron **cough**

I reckon Chris Hoy had an FCN of at least 13. Still wouldn't fancy trying to beat him away from the lights!

ride_whenever

a simple way to see this would be to let the air out of your tyres, roll your bike one revolution and measure the distance.

then inflate them and do the same, the circumferances will be the same, and the same thing will happen with a wider tyre, because it is wider it stands taller on the rim.

attica

<geek>
If you had a rope lying around the equator, then (rounding pi down to 3) make it 6 metres longer.

The rope would then be able to circle the world 1 metre above the ground the whole way around.

<geek> (it's true, do the maths. c=2 x pi x r)


err, not sure quite how this relates, just wanted to share my geek

Littigator

ride_whenever wrote:

a simple way to see this would be to let the air out of your tyres, roll your bike one revolution and measure the distance.

then inflate them and do the same, the circumferances will be the same, and the same thing will happen with a wider tyre, because it is wider it stands taller on the rim.

zzzzzzzzzzzzz...hmm wassat what? Oh sorry I think I dozed off, I dreamt that the fun filled joke laden banter basket of joy that is the Silly Commuter Racing thread had been hijacked by gear inches, tyre diametres and talk of breakfast...

oh no!

Clever Pun

I'm back from my hols and the liver hurts

I'd not cycled since last friday so I went off like a shot, excited and full of unused energy... 10 miles it that dropped quite a bit. I saw a roadie ahead of me I matched him at 21 but really couldn't be doing with closing the gap and binning him. I passed him filtering then stayed ahead... I think that's good enough for my first punt back

if I was up to speed I'd have had him in my pocket


Was there a curry?
LIT what happened to the bike? why would they steal that?

attica

So anyway.....


Rode to London village on Sunday 110 miles, the team I was with were drafting me for at least 50% of the trip as they were suffering a bit. Many scalps taken, many many scalps.

The Game has played me well and I've benefited, churning the tarmac behind me into foam I rarely dipped under 20mph on the flat, it was a superb day.

This morning however, my legs felt just a little leaden, I had to apologise to the guy I passed on the tourer for not passing him quicker. I was a sitting duck, but still managed to get here with a clean sheet, gonna grovel my way home later, I'm a sitting target, if it weren't for the helmet my scalp would just blow off. Might have to employ some dodging tactics tonight just to get home unscathed.

jedster

Well. I'm back to work and the interweb after 2 weeks holiday (aka inactive recovery) and I was a little concerned that this thread might have died. Instead what do I find? Only about 50 flippin' pages of new posts.

Anyone care to summarise? All that I've gleaned so far is that
a) Greg T is still quite distressed by the conflict between his desire to be part of the fixie club and the consequent lack of top speed. This is leading to a continuing nasty undercurrent of gear inch posts
b) LiT appears to have been forced to buy a new bike but continues to use a gear that means her cranks must be like the London Eye - "is it actually moving?"
c) we've established that Government guidelines need to be revised to show that chilies substitutes for several of the 5 a day
d) you b@stards seized the window of opportunity while I was away to sneak off for a couple of drinks. I'm quite upset.

In other news I can report that I only have 2 and a half buttocks now but that my physio tells me that I need a little more time off the bike. Boo Hoo. Given the last couple of weeks has involved a) moaning b) groaning and c) cream teas I'm not convinced I'll have any kind of form when I rejoin the fray.

Cheers,

J

James1823

today I had a guy on a town bike with panniers etc riding in my slipstream in the middle of town. This is taking racing too far IMO. I like to ride quite fast, but I know the roads and where I'm going. I don't like to see someone hammering away in my wheel when I'm making a right turn in commuter traffic.

biondino

Attica, how many of the scalps were actually commuting on a Sunday...?

New drinks, you guys. Next week sometime?

Bassjunkieuk

biondino wrote:

Attica, how many of the scalps were actually commuting on a Sunday...?

New drinks, you guys. Next week sometime?

This is the problem with playing THE GAME, suddenly any bike ride turns into a scalp collecting oppurtunity!
I had to show great control over the weekend whilst riding with the kids to not go blazing off into the distance laughing maniacally and instead ride in a controlled manner alongside a SS - admittedly this was piloted by a five year old with stabilisers (at that point in the day at least!)

Drinks sound good as it was a really good night last time and getting some food in at the same time sounds like a really good idea :-)

snooks

biondino wrote:

New drinks, you guys. Next week sometime?

On holiday...Sorry