Silly commuting racing

rjsterry

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

I'll be back for possibly my only commute London bound for the next few weeks tomorrow (due to impending arrival of the last mini-BJUK I need to be close to home!) so I'll be tearing up DSC and Millbank tomorrow morning :twisted: Might be a little late for some on here as I'm not due to start work 'til 9:30 so reckon I'll hit DSC from CB around 9:10 ish...

Return leg won't be until just after 18:00, look out for the short guy with tat's and a skull :-) Might even extend it out to WBR to make the most of it while I can!

In other news SCR action has been fairly thin on the ground for me, but I did do a rather roaring overtake of a gent on a hybrid on the way home today after a small detour to drop a blackberry off for a user (never one to shy away from an excuse to extend my ride home!). I was probably doing around twice his speed as I came sailing past in the middle of the lane!

It's a date. I'll be wearing a red carnation :twisted:

richred_uk

OK - tonight everyone else was hit with the rubbish stick OR I was blessed with the power of awsome.

Going up the A1000 North of Tally Ho, there's a Finchley club rider absolutely pootling like a pillock in his club kit and super expensive looking Cervelo T3 (I think) - primary, secondary, primary secondary pedal coast pedal coast, wander all over the road. So I pass him as he pootles.

Then there's the pootler on an ikkle mopeddy scooter drifting up the road at about 15 - 20 mph - passed.

And I beat the magic hour to get home - 56 mins - very satisfying.

FrankM

richred_uk wrote:

OK - tonight everyone else was hit with the rubbish stick OR I was blessed with the power of awsome.

Going up the A1000 North of Tally Ho

There was a tailwind. I took advantage of it too.

Wrath Rob

Reminder of how crap LU is today. 20 minute delay into work and then a 50 minute delay home. I could almost ride to work and back twice in the time it took the stupid tube to get me in and out.

What do I get for scalping a tube train?

cjcp

Got the train tonight. Took the bike on it, having had a beer and a curry, and didn't want to take the train tomorrow morning. That was a good idea - God, the train is depressing.

WesternWay

FrankM wrote:

richred_uk wrote:

OK - tonight everyone else was hit with the rubbish stick OR I was blessed with the power of awsome.

Going up the A1000 North of Tally Ho

There was a tailwind. I took advantage of it too.

There is never a tailwind.

By coincidence though, this morning there was a mighty headwind on the A1000 North of Tally Ho.

dondare

WesternWay wrote:

FrankM wrote:

richred_uk wrote:

OK - tonight everyone else was hit with the rubbish stick OR I was blessed with the power of awsome.

Going up the A1000 North of Tally Ho

There was a tailwind. I took advantage of it too.

There is never a tailwind.

By coincidence though, this morning there was a mighty headwind on the A1000 North of Tally Ho.

You start off very early. At least, compared to me. I can't imagine that we'll ever encounter eachother on the Great North Road if you're posting from work before I'm out of bed.

WesternWay

dondare wrote:

You start off very early. At least, compared to me. I can't imagine that we'll ever encounter eachother on the Great North Road if you're posting from work before I'm out of bed.

Well we all have our own ways of not getting pased :-)

I generally have to be at work from 7am, so an early start is a bit of an unwelcome necessity. I sometimes though manage to do a bit more of a normal start on Mondays and Fridays :-)

The nice thing about the early starts is that I am generally on my way back by 5pm so home by 6.

George

lost_in_thought

WesternWay wrote:

I generally have to be at work from 7am, so an early start is a bit of an unwelcome necessity. I sometimes though manage to do a bit more of a normal start on Mondays and Fridays :-)

The nice thing about the early starts is that I am generally on my way back by 5pm so home by 6.

George

What? 7 until 5 is not a nice short day... 7 until 3, surely?!

dhope

lost_in_thought wrote:

WesternWay wrote:

I generally have to be at work from 7am, so an early start is a bit of an unwelcome necessity. I sometimes though manage to do a bit more of a normal start on Mondays and Fridays :-)

The nice thing about the early starts is that I am generally on my way back by 5pm so home by 6.

George

What? 7 until 5 is not a nice short day... 7 until 3, surely?!

+1
Those that start at 7am make a point of leaving at 3pm on the dot, those that start at 9 often get stuck around long after 5. Thought that was was a benefit of starting early.

WesternWay

dhope wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

WesternWay wrote:

What? 7 until 5 is not a nice short day... 7 until 3, surely?!

+1
Those that start at 7am make a point of leaving at 3pm on the dot, those that start at 9 often get stuck around long after 5. Thought that was was a benefit of starting early.

Standard day here is pretty much 8-6, so it is just shifted by an hour... I can slope out as soon as the markets close at 4:30 if the day has been smooth (mind you the people who are meant to be here til 6 slope off early too on days like that)

Still, the roads are quiet early, it is nice getting up early. I like it (repeats to self until he believes it)

rjsterry

rjsterry wrote:

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

I'll be back for possibly my only commute London bound for the next few weeks tomorrow (due to impending arrival of the last mini-BJUK I need to be close to home!) so I'll be tearing up DSC and Millbank tomorrow morning :twisted: Might be a little late for some on here as I'm not due to start work 'til 9:30 so reckon I'll hit DSC from CB around 9:10 ish...

Return leg won't be until just after 18:00, look out for the short guy with tat's and a skull :-) Might even extend it out to WBR to make the most of it while I can!

In other news SCR action has been fairly thin on the ground for me, but I did do a rather roaring overtake of a gent on a hybrid on the way home today after a small detour to drop a blackberry off for a user (never one to shy away from an excuse to extend my ride home!). I was probably doing around twice his speed as I came sailing past in the middle of the lane!

Flippin' typical. I'm ususally running late, but I manage to be ten minutes earlier today, so turned on to the Embankment at CB just before 9, so I will have missed you. Might catch you on the return leg if i get out early.

Zipped up DSC and Millbank quite nicely, but no top drawer scalps. Got passed by a proper roadie lady with what can only be described as ripped legs, as I coasted up to P Square, but we then got separated by the lights. I think the traffic probably neutralised any scalping, but I'm not sure I would have stood much chance on the open road.


It's a date. I'll be wearing a red carnation :twisted:

lost_in_thought

WesternWay wrote:

dhope wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

What? 7 until 5 is not a nice short day... 7 until 3, surely?!

+1
Those that start at 7am make a point of leaving at 3pm on the dot, those that start at 9 often get stuck around long after 5. Thought that was was a benefit of starting early.

Standard day here is pretty much 8-6, so it is just shifted by an hour... I can slope out as soon as the markets close at 4:30 if the day has been smooth (mind you the people who are meant to be here til 6 slope off early too on days like that)

Still, the roads are quiet early, it is nice getting up early. I like it (repeats to self until he believes it)

Ohhhh you're one of those. Fair enough then.

dhope

WesternWay wrote:

dhope wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

WesternWay wrote:

What? 7 until 5 is not a nice short day... 7 until 3, surely?!

+1
Those that start at 7am make a point of leaving at 3pm on the dot, those that start at 9 often get stuck around long after 5. Thought that was was a benefit of starting early.

Standard day here is pretty much 8-6, so it is just shifted by an hour... I can slope out as soon as the markets close at 4:30 if the day has been smooth (mind you the people who are meant to be here til 6 slope off early too on days like that)

Still, the roads are quiet early, it is nice getting up early. I like it (repeats to self until he believes it)

Ah, I was tempted to prefix my earlier reply with "those in back-office"

Bassjunkieuk

@rjsterry - You must have been a minute or 2 ahead of me! I was a bit generous with the estimate yesterday and checked the time as I turned off CB (perfectly timing it so hit a gap in traffic coming from the north side!) and it was pretty much 9am :-)

Bit of a crap ride in today due to a couple of c0ckwomble RLJer's. I despise them at the best of times but when I have to make adjustments to my speed or course to avoid them I really do want to kick them off their bikes! First was in Streatham as I turned onto the A23 from Green Lane - hit it at the sweet spot as the light was green and I came out lovely to line myself up with the bus lane, except I have to start braking as some prat has decided to ignore the lights and is merrily riding on through them......

Second was just after Clapham South choob. I was in lane 1 ready to turn up beside the Common when a chap aboard an old skool Pinarello roadbike just scoots straight past the queuing cars on the side road and without so much as a shoulder check appears on the road ahead of me. More braking and yelling but he only looked back when I suggested he should try looking what he's doing.....damn shame I was heading up that way otherwise I'd have enjoyed scalping him, I'd have done him so hard his grandchildren would be feeling it!

Rest of the ride was fairly un-eventful. No noteable scalps and I had The Embankment pretty much to myself, so much so that I was intent on tearing bits out of scooters along Millbank and was on a proper flyer until a set of ped lights brought everything back down to more normal speeds......shame as I'd just done a rather brave/dangerous filter between 2 buses whilst chasing a gaggle of scooters and was in the fast gear :-(

tgotb

Anyone know what was going on in SW London last night? Embankment almost entirely gridlocked, as was most of NKR/Putney Bridge/Putney. Couldn't really get the legs wound up until I got to the park...

FrankM

WesternWay wrote:

FrankM wrote:

richred_uk wrote:

OK - tonight everyone else was hit with the rubbish stick OR I was blessed with the power of awsome.

Going up the A1000 North of Tally Ho

There was a tailwind. I took advantage of it too.

There is never a tailwind.

By coincidence though, this morning there was a mighty headwind on the A1000 North of Tally Ho.

There most certainly was a tailwind - well there was between 18.00 and 19.00. And very little headwind on the way in yesterday too.

But agree that today was a different story!

rjsterry

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

@rjsterry - You must have been a minute or 2 ahead of me! I was a bit generous with the estimate yesterday and checked the time as I turned off CB (perfectly timing it so hit a gap in traffic coming from the north side!) and it was pretty much 9am :-)

Dammit!, and I was dawdling down QTR and over CB, 'cause I knew I was early. Should have dawdled just a little bit more.

Rest of the ride was fairly un-eventful. No noteable scalps and I had The Embankment pretty much to myself, so much so that I was intent on tearing bits out of scooters along Millbank and was on a proper flyer until a set of ped lights brought everything back down to more normal speeds......shame as I'd just done a rather brave/dangerous filter between 2 buses whilst chasing a gaggle of scooters and was in the fast gear :-(

Millbank was much the same for me: full beans past a scooter on the first stretch from the lights, then anchors for the ped crossing. Bah!

Chewy Cheeks

TGOTB wrote:

Anyone know what was going on in SW London last night? Embankment almost entirely gridlocked, as was most of NKR/Putney Bridge/Putney. Couldn't really get the legs wound up until I got to the park...

It was proper rubbish last evening I was on my longer ride home via embankment Batt Bridge West hill and parkside. A lady at work said it could have been because of the Queens Garden Party. All I know is the traffic from HOP to Batt Bridge was slow

rjsterry

FrankM wrote:

WesternWay wrote:

FrankM wrote:

richred_uk wrote:

OK - tonight everyone else was hit with the rubbish stick OR I was blessed with the power of awsome.

Going up the A1000 North of Tally Ho

There was a tailwind. I took advantage of it too.

There is never a tailwind.

By coincidence though, this morning there was a mighty headwind on the A1000 North of Tally Ho.

There most certainly was a tailwind - well there was between 18.00 and 19.00. And very little headwind on the way in yesterday too.

But agree that today was a different story!

There probably was a tailwind, as there was a definite headwind for those of us heading SW last night.

@TGOTB: It certainly was pretty chokka last night. What with that and the wind, I couldn't get any sort of rhythm going. Putney Bridge was on the travel news this morning, so i can only assume it was something to do with that.

Oh, anyone riding a shiny red Spesh last night down Millbank/DSC (7-7.15ish)? Sleeveless top a la KD, but less smooth legs, and small red and black rucksack I think.

WesternWay

rjsterry wrote:

FrankM wrote:

WesternWay wrote:

FrankM wrote:

richred_uk wrote:

OK - tonight everyone else was hit with the rubbish stick OR I was blessed with the power of awsome.

...

There was a tailwind. I took advantage of it too.

There is never a tailwind.

....

...

There probably was a tailwind, as there was a definite headwind for those of us heading SW last night.

...

Oh I know that there has been a southerly wind for the last 18 hours or so, but if richred wants it to have been awesomeness on the way home last night, then I am right with him,

Fast times are attributed to awesomeness
Slow times are attributed to headwinds.

Those /surely/ are the rules?

rjsterry

WesternWay wrote:

Oh I know that there has been a southerly wind for the last 18 hours or so, but if richred wants it to have been awesomeness on the way home last night, then I am right with him,

Fast times are attributed to awesomeness
Slow times are attributed to headwinds.

Those /surely/ are the rules?

Tailwind/Awesomeness = tomayto/tomahto

Bassjunkieuk

rjsterry wrote:

Millbank was much the same for me: full beans past a scooter on the first stretch from the lights, then anchors for the ped crossing. Bah!

Now this has me thinking we may have been rather close together because this was the first time I've ever had to stop for those lights and TBH I hadn't even realized they existed until this morning! I don't remember many riders being at the lights at VB and I was waiting in the ASL of L2......

Still have this evening tho, should hit LBR/Millbank around 18:10ish assuming I get changed pronto!

rjsterry

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

rjsterry wrote:

Millbank was much the same for me: full beans past a scooter on the first stretch from the lights, then anchors for the ped crossing. Bah!

Now this has me thinking we may have been rather close together because this was the first time I've ever had to stop for those lights and TBH I hadn't even realized they existed until this morning! I don't remember many riders being at the lights at VB and I was waiting in the ASL of L2......

Still have this evening tho, should hit LBR/Millbank around 18:10ish assuming I get changed pronto!

Think I must have been one light cycle ahead as there were lots of cyclists at VB lights. I was stuck at the back of quite a queue, so had to wait for a couple of vans to pull away before I could swing round and apply the beans. Might be in with a shout of catching you on the return trip this evening. I'll keep a look out.

Brixtonbiker

Alot of people do not know that drafting a rider also reduces the aerodynamic drag of the front rider as well. The following rider smooths the air flow from behind the lead rider hence reducing there drag.

Two riders drafting each other will be faster than two lone riders.

kelsen

Brixtonbiker wrote:

Alot of people do not know that drafting a rider also reduces the aerodynamic drag of the front rider as well. The following rider smooths the air flow from behind the lead rider hence reducing there drag.

Two riders drafting each other will be faster than two lone riders.

...also, there are nine million bicycles in Beijing. That's a fact.

London_Nick

dhope wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

WesternWay wrote:

I generally have to be at work from 7am, so an early start is a bit of an unwelcome necessity. I sometimes though manage to do a bit more of a normal start on Mondays and Fridays :-)

The nice thing about the early starts is that I am generally on my way back by 5pm so home by 6.

George

What? 7 until 5 is not a nice short day... 7 until 3, surely?!

+1
Those that start at 7am make a point of leaving at 3pm on the dot, those that start at 9 often get stuck around long after 5. Thought that was was a benefit of starting early.

Not me, pretty much a 7 to 5 every day (give or take 15 mins)

W1

Chewy Cheeks wrote:

TGOTB wrote:

Anyone know what was going on in SW London last night? Embankment almost entirely gridlocked, as was most of NKR/Putney Bridge/Putney. Couldn't really get the legs wound up until I got to the park...

It was proper rubbish last evening I was on my longer ride home via embankment Batt Bridge West hill and parkside. A lady at work said it could have been because of the Queens Garden Party. All I know is the traffic from HOP to Batt Bridge was slow

Was clear when I blasted through at about 11pm (all you moaning 9-5 ers!) They have just started the second phase of the main work gas repairs on the Upper Richmond Road which will cause chaos around that area for a while - scheduled to finish late October. I think the Lower Richmond Road/Putney Bridge will be very slow until the traffic sorts itself out.

asprilla

London_Nick wrote:

dhope wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

WesternWay wrote:

I generally have to be at work from 7am, so an early start is a bit of an unwelcome necessity. I sometimes though manage to do a bit more of a normal start on Mondays and Fridays :-)

The nice thing about the early starts is that I am generally on my way back by 5pm so home by 6.

George

What? 7 until 5 is not a nice short day... 7 until 3, surely?!

+1
Those that start at 7am make a point of leaving at 3pm on the dot, those that start at 9 often get stuck around long after 5. Thought that was was a benefit of starting early.

Not me, pretty much a 7 to 5 every day (give or take 15 mins)

I work 9 to 5, what a way to make a living; barely getting by, it's all taking and no giving. They just use your mind and never give you credit, it's enough to drive you crazy if you let it........

King Donut

rjsterry wrote:

a la KD, but less smooth legs

Oit you'll have people thinking I shave or something.

It's the chafing of my skinny leather trousers that keeps the leg hair to a minimum. Don't be jealous.