Silly commuting racing

biondino

So get up earlier, deal with more traffic, and eat vegetables? You're proposing this as a good thing?

Nah, I'm not going anywhere. And when I do have tales to tell, I do get all excited! This morning, playing traffic light tag with a load of sour-faced MTBers. No fun, no challenge, no scalps. Meh.

Bassjunkieuk

Snooks - I'm all up for meeting up for the Freewheel event. If there is enough interest I think we'll have to arrange a meeting point that is fairly easy for all parties to get to! I think this will need to be sorted closer to the event tho, but it's only about 3 1/2 weeks away!

LiT - I can hand on heart say it will be a rather cold day in hell before I start using the wifes razor, or any other for that matter, on my legs. I like mine hairy and they are staying like it! It that means I have to pick the occasional scab out of the forest then so be it! Besides it keeps em warm when I have the shorts on :-)

Greg T

biondino wrote:

. I don't know why I hang around on this thread, I barely play the game

There's always the "How many lights do you have on your bike?" thread..... It is more factual but has fewer references to German weapons manufacturers, Norse Gods, cutting edge technology and dancing girls.

You pays your money and you takes your choice.

Littigator

Greg T wrote:

biondino wrote:

. I don't know why I hang around on this thread, I barely play the game

There's always the "How many lights do you have on your bike?" thread..... It is more factual but has fewer references to German weapons manufacturers, Norse Gods, cutting edge technology and dancing girls.

You pays your money and you takes your choice.

WHAT??? We have to pay for this drivel!!!

Bassjunkieuk

Littigator wrote:

Greg T wrote:

biondino wrote:

. I don't know why I hang around on this thread, I barely play the game

There's always the "How many lights do you have on your bike?" thread..... It is more factual but has fewer references to German weapons manufacturers, Norse Gods, cutting edge technology and dancing girls.

You pays your money and you takes your choice.

WHAT??? We have to pay for this drivel!!!

In blood and sweat.......

Citizen Smith

Been on holiday for the past ten days so waded through the plethora of pages I missed whilst on active recovery.

For the record, my real name is Simon and I also play the game.

Not going to comment on my breakfast routine, curries, Deutschland, piste preferences or hair removal but I continue to marvel at the richness of this thread and of course the accounts of legendary scalping. Chapeaux to you all!

Couple of observations:

1. Unfortunately I was unable to attend the inaugural TGFBs but I did cycle past The Morpeth Arms circa 5.45pm....I think I set a PB along the Embankment to the pub so conscious was I about fellow gamers in the vicinity.

2. For the first half of my holiday, I had the (wallet reducing) pleasure of staying in Stockholm. They have a great cycle network over there though I reckon The Game is possibly restricted on dedicated cycle paths versus the road due to less overtaking space.

I also spotted what I believe to be a record FCN. This young lady was on a shopper with basket (14), plus flats (+1) - actually six inch heels (say +2), non-cycling attire (knee length skirt) (+2) and a rather large handbag (+1) which by my reckoning makes her a stealth assassin on 20. Also, the way she manoeuvred safely through the throng of pedestrians onto the cycle path demonstrated she was no novice either.

3. I currently SB (sans bike) as I had a puncture on my last day before my holiday. Massive 2 inch nail went clean through...arg. Though shouldn't complain too much as my last puncture was two years ago. I am rather restless without my daily dose of the game. Hopefully will be back in the saddle tomorrow.

lost_in_thought

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Littigator wrote:

Greg T wrote:

biondino wrote:

. I don't know why I hang around on this thread, I barely play the game

There's always the "How many lights do you have on your bike?" thread..... It is more factual but has fewer references to German weapons manufacturers, Norse Gods, cutting edge technology and dancing girls.

You pays your money and you takes your choice.

WHAT??? We have to pay for this drivel!!!

In blood and sweat.......

And tears...

tear duct breathing = maybe the way forward... skin breathing by osmosis = not working out for me.

dafruk

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Littigator wrote:

Greg T wrote:

biondino wrote:

. I don't know why I hang around on this thread, I barely play the game

There's always the "How many lights do you have on your bike?" thread..... It is more factual but has fewer references to German weapons manufacturers, Norse Gods, cutting edge technology and dancing girls.

You pays your money and you takes your choice.

WHAT??? We have to pay for this drivel!!!

In blood and sweat.......

Yes but you can redeem your scalps at the local council, it counts as pest control keeping the weak off the roads!

cjcp

SiHughes wrote:

Been on holiday for the past ten days so waded through the plethora of pages I missed whilst on active recovery.

For the record, my real name is Simon and I also play the game.

Not going to comment on my breakfast routine, curries, Deutschland, piste preferences or hair removal but I continue to marvel at the richness of this thread and of course the accounts of legendary scalping. Chapeaux to you all!

This is true. I have learned more from VL in two months than I did in 18-odd years of education.

victor ludorum

cjcp wrote:

SiHughes wrote:

Been on holiday for the past ten days so waded through the plethora of pages I missed whilst on active recovery.

For the record, my real name is Simon and I also play the game.

Not going to comment on my breakfast routine, curries, Deutschland, piste preferences or hair removal but I continue to marvel at the richness of this thread and of course the accounts of legendary scalping. Chapeaux to you all!

This is true. I have learned more from VL in two months than I did in 18-odd years of education.

Now I feel bad for making it all up...

Greg T

lost_in_thought wrote:

skin breathing by osmosis = not working out for me.

By osmosis?

Unless you are a fish I think you might be doing it wrong.....

Unless you hold yourself against someone and leach the oxygen out of them skin to skin?

lost_in_thought

Greg T wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

skin breathing by osmosis = not working out for me.

By osmosis?

Unless you are a fish I think you might be doing it wrong.....

Unless you hold yourself against someone and leach the oxygen out of them skin to skin?

HIgher concentration of oxygen outside my skin than inside my skin... mostly due to the fact that I've been trying not to breathe! My semi-permeable membrane is clearly not playing




Disclaimer: I understand that the principle of osmosis does not apply here.

Greg T

lost_in_thought wrote:

I understand that the principle of osmosis .

I don't......

I just "liked" the idea of you grabbing hold of the guy who pulls up next to you and draining his life force before cycling off leaving him a wasted and desicated husk

Bassjunkieuk

Greg T wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

skin breathing by osmosis = not working out for me.

By osmosis?

Unless you are a fish I think you might be doing it wrong.....

Unless you hold yourself against someone and leach the oxygen out of them skin to skin?

Now that would be worse then drafting, not only are you hitching a lift your also pinching their fuel! Definately against game rules I'd say!

Plus it would make it obvious you are trying........

biondino

Greg T wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

skin breathing by osmosis = not working out for me.

By osmosis?

Unless you are a fish I think you might be doing it wrong.....

Unless you hold yourself against someone and leach the oxygen out of them skin to skin?

Oooh you big flirt! Does that line work with the ladies?

cjcp

victor ludorum wrote:

cjcp wrote:

SiHughes wrote:

Been on holiday for the past ten days so waded through the plethora of pages I missed whilst on active recovery.

For the record, my real name is Simon and I also play the game.

Not going to comment on my breakfast routine, curries, Deutschland, piste preferences or hair removal but I continue to marvel at the richness of this thread and of course the accounts of legendary scalping. Chapeaux to you all!

This is true. I have learned more from VL in two months than I did in 18-odd years of education.

Now I feel bad for making it all up...

That's still more than I knew before.

victor ludorum

Greg T wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

I understand that the principle of osmosis .

I don't......

I just "liked" the idea of you grabbing hold of the guy who pulls up next to you and draining his life force before cycling off leaving him a wasted and desicated husk

I bet those therapist bills really add up, huh?

Greg T

biondino wrote:

Oooh you big flirt! Does that line work with the ladies?

It's not the line it's the delivery...

Actually it's neither, it's the liberal application of alcohol that forms the basis of my technique (sorry darling - used to be the basis of my technique)

lost_in_thought

Greg T wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

I understand that the principle of osmosis .

I don't......

I just "liked" the idea of you grabbing hold of the guy who pulls up next to you and draining his life force before cycling off leaving him a wasted and desicated husk

Actually I steal their souls.

spearmint

Ok people where do i sit on the FCN? I need to know so i can start racking up the points.
Single speed mountain bike with off road gearing of 32-16.
Knobbly tyres
Jeans and t shirt
Clipped in
Beard
Do i lose points for only having a 7 minute commute or do i just keep it quiet.

I absolutely pinned it home last night full speed all the way and averaged 14.2mph. top sprint speed of about 18mph.
This terrible cruising speed must put me somewhere around shopping bike territory. It is difficult not to look like you’re trying with a cadence of about 200 though.

thanks

biondino

Oh! I have a beard at the moment! *pumps fist*

Greg T

biondino wrote:

Oh! I have a beard at the moment! *pumps fist*

Will it not look like you've got your head on upside down?

Spearmint - welcome

I think for a seven min commute you should up your gearing to "massive"......

I still do not believe that anyone rides a SS MTB

lost_in_thought

FCN variables are a pain... I really hope my pannier rack arrives today, or I won't be a 7... in fact I won't be riding home, my light brackets are in the same package...

Stupid evans. Never again. Wiggle forever. Vive la revolution!

ride_whenever

It is an interesting question, that of a ss mtb. It is certainly dirty and functional, but a base FCN of 4 would be a bit harsh...

Also up your gearing, for mtb commuting you want 36:16 at least, which will give you about 60 GI (assuming 175mm cranks and 2.1" tyres)

Bassjunkieuk

lost_in_thought wrote:

FCN variables are a pain... I really hope my pannier rack arrives today, or I won't be a 7... in fact I won't be riding home, my light brackets are in the same package...

Stupid evans. Never again. Wiggle forever. Vive la revolution!

I'll second them, I ordered a fuill set of lovely Koolstop Salmon brake blocks a while back on Thursday (pay day, you know things are bad when you have to wait for payday to order £14 of brake's!) only for them to arrive through the door on the Saturday! Not bad considering it was using the free delivery!

Also quick update, it looks like I might be able to make the 5th now!

snooks

lost_in_thought wrote:

Stupid evans. Never again. Wiggle forever. Vive la revolution!

I've had a package lost from Wiggle...but they sent it again, so full marks to Wiggle

Evans...Hmmmmmm...I was kept waiting ages, and ages, and ages, and ages, and ages, and I'm sure you got the idea, well 45mins I had to wait to be seen by one of their staff...I wouldn't have hung around if they didn't have some of the bikes I'm looking into....But they were just understaffed, and there didn't seem to be any sort of system in place to serve waiting customers....

If it wasn't for the bike to werk thing and my girlfriend being in the hairdressers, I'd have given them 5 mins tops

But once I got served, I had their full attention and they were really good...

Still don't know which bike I'm going to get, going to wait a few weeks now thanks to hols and work commitments

But I have the voucher and I'm ready to spend it

c12345

+1up

I took a moped this morning!!!!

It was a sweet sweet feeling, although it might be disallowed on a technicality *cough* draughting *cough*, but I'm still claiming it because i don't get that much action on my commute.

Anyways, I was comming into Windsor through the burbs, and I'm already about 18 miles down, so I'm flagging abit, and taking it at a steady 20mph average. theres a long 2 mile straight with speed bumps ahead, and I'm minding my own buisness when I hear the tourtured whine of a 2-stroke.

It passes and builds up speed, and initially I let it go, but I'm high up the food chain (roadie: hairy like a man) and I'm lucky if I see another bike, nevermind a genuine +1up scalp to be had. And whats this? the moped has a passenger! to my mind thats worth two scalps? (Greg et al - clarification on this), and the second scalp is young, blond and timotei fresh. That would look good above the fireplace, and so off I go.

I'm already in the big ring, so I spin up, drop gears, and slot into its wake keirin style. Soon going pretty fast, and hes being a good boy, just about sticking to the speed limit. Soon We're both humming along at about 30 mph, and I'm feeling comfortable. I wait for the speed humps to sart where I will make my move.

Diasaster though! - first hump and the moped swings left and through the lowest point near the pavement without slowing, leaving me in the full force of the morning breeze, but I recover and a few hard pusshes, I'm back on. This repeats 4 or 5 times over the next mile, but ahead I can see parked cars, and I'm sure the driver is going to preserve the dignity of his pasenger and slow down for the next hump (he is sticking to the speed limit after all), and I gather my mental strength.

I'm off. big push, big explosive sprint, out into clean air and doing 34/35 mph. I've gapped him. After less than a minute, the redline approaches, and the speed starts to return to mortal levels, but I've got a sporting distance, and I'm approaching a roundabout at which I have to make a genuine deviation from his destination. Thats a win in my books.

The rest of the journey is uneventful, save for streaks of salt crystalising on my safety specs, and a nagging stitch in my side that stays with me all the way to work, but it feels good.

cjcp

Greg66 wrote:

Last night:

Pull up at Big Ben and there's a gaggle of bikes. As we go past the HoP it's resolved itself into a roadie (P1), a roadie on a Giant with aerobars (P2) and me (watching).

P1 and P2 are not hanging around. We have engaged The Game.

We all hit the Lambeth Bridge roundabout together. We come off with P2 drafting P1. I'm a bike width further into the road, just behind P2. P2 keeps looking round. He's nervous. He has good reason to be.

Past MI5 and P2 wants to make his move. He's thinking he might cut me up if he pulls out. He swings out slightly and looks around. One word: "Go", from me. He takes P1. I go with him and ride straight over the top as he pulls round P1. Hahahaha. The trap has been sprung.

Now we're into the Invisible Wall Of Air In The Road. It's pain and suffering time. I look down to see I'm holding 43kmh into the Wall. P1 and P2 are dust in my wake.

It's like watching a wildlife documentary on BBC1, when David Attenborough is narrating us through the last moments of some poor wildebeat's life as a cheetah bears down on him. I almost feel sorry for the chap on the Giant.


Almost. :twisted:

biondino

Greg T wrote:

biondino wrote:

Oh! I have a beard at the moment! *pumps fist*

Will it not look like you've got your head on upside down?

You tell me - here I am clutching my bike after a 3 hour, 46-mile, 6 Surrey hills ride on the weekend:

snooks

c12345 wrote:

+1up

I took a moped this morning!!!!

Diasaster though! - first hump and the moped swings left and through the lowest point near the pavement without slowing, leaving me in the full force of the morning breeze, but I recover and a few hard pusshes, I'm back on. This repeats 4 or 5 times over the next mile, but ahead I can see parked cars, and I'm sure the driver is going to preserve the dignity of his pasenger and slow down for the next hump (he is sticking to the speed limit after all), and I gather my mental strength.

I'm off. big push, big explosive sprint, out into clean air and doing 34/35 mph. I've gapped him. After less than a minute, the redline approaches, and the speed starts to return to mortal levels, but I've got a sporting distance, and I'm approaching a roundabout at which I have to make a genuine deviation from his destination. Thats a win in my books.

[sharp intake of breath]Dunno about that one....[shakes head]...[/shakes head][/sharp intake of breath]

If we look at rule 4.....

4/ All passing on open road ONLY. Filtering in traffic is null and void (you know whether you’ve dropped someone fairly, and haven’t turned off straight afterwards)

My first thought would be whether speed bumps are open road...surely for the smelly whiny jamie oliver lookielikey and his blonde timotei trophy on the back, a speed bump is a "traffic" calming measure, therefore not strictly open road, just cos they have to slow for the the sleeping police man (is there any other sort??) gives you an unfair advantage..therefore, I'm thinking on this part you're on dodgy ground, thin ice, or should be looking as worried as Boris when all he has to do is wave a flag

THEN... we get on the to the last part of rule 4...."(you know whether you’ve dropped someone fairly, and haven’t turned off straight afterwards)"

Isn't this what you did? :shock: ....you knew you had to turn off ahead of them, yet you made your move so (you hoped) there would be no comeback...I hope you're ashamed of yourself, call yourself a player of the noble Game? While you have speed, I find your ethics slightly alarming :evil:

As repentance for your actions I feel you should cycle round (at lung tearing speed, but not riding like a c0ck of course) till you find you scooter friend, and do him and his ladee friend properly, on open road, with no speed bumps and no hiding afterwards

Or next time just lie and say you did em good and proper :twisted: