Should this forum have its name changed?

Greg T

It's like the Sharks and the Jets from West Side Story.

The Sharks are slick London professionals, all hip and glamour, oozing cosmopolitan polish, have I said they were good looking AND clever?

The Jets are solid Earthy regional types with longer vowels then gene sequences, chewing corn and mining Tuna or whatever they do. They have rough, working hands and take no nonsense. They refer to the radio as a wireless and the TV as the "magic sparky lighty box make BIG magic".

They eye each other over the expanse of cyber space - knives drawn.

What we need is star crossed lovers to bridge the divide - a Street Smart Juliet to match the stalwart country Romeo. Only then will the fighting stop.

We offer up Lost in Thought to whatever yokel can catch her as a sacrifice to appease the moon worshippers.

Take her and keep her safe.

sc999cs

I do like the off topic strangeness of some of the posts. More than once the forum has brought a smile to my face, it not out right laughter. This is one of the most entertaining and friendly forums I've ever visited.

I just wish there were less posts of the nature "I'll be there at seven", "Bring a spare lock", "Thanks for bringing the lock". Surely these are more appropriate for private messaging or even saying in person at the time? The comment about non-Londoners post count - does it really matter how much you post? Surely one profound post is far better than fifty "Me too" posts?

Saying that I'm willing to put up with the clique nature of some of the posts as long as they don't spread out of SCR and the forum stays as great as it is. I'll just have to make sure that I don't watch SCR any more.

always_tyred

If we asked the London folk to leave, it would be like Roger Waters disbanding Pink Floyd, you know? They'd just re-form somewhere else.

Just bear in mind, as you squint through your monacle trying to descern the outside world, that even London is a moderately small city in an insignificant, flat, overcrowded island perched on the edge of Europe. Its not particularly wet, dry, hot or cold and there's no interesting wildlife.

snooks

sc999cs wrote:

I just wish there were less posts of the nature "I'll be there at seven", "Bring a spare lock", "Thanks for bringing the lock". Surely these are more appropriate for private messaging or even saying in person at the time?

A couple of itty bitty points, if I may? ....if someone didn't say to "everyone" what time we were all meeting up..then the community who may be turning up won't know what time to turn up. agreed?

Having not met any of the SCRers there, who would I PM to request to bring a lock ? ?:D

And finally to be fair "the thanks for the lock" was tagged onto the end of another post, as I forgot to thank LiT at the time

Sorry you're not in London to enjoy the beers, you might well be glad you don't have to commute through London traffic, but just cos you can't join us, don't hold it against us

sc999cs

snooks wrote:

sc999cs wrote:

I just wish there were less posts of the nature "I'll be there at seven", "Bring a spare lock", "Thanks for bringing the lock". Surely these are more appropriate for private messaging or even saying in person at the time?

A couple of itty bitty points, if I may? ....if someone didn't say to "everyone" what time we were all meeting up..then the community who may be turning up won't know what time to turn up. agreed?

Having not met any of the SCRers there, who would I PM to request to bring a lock ? ?:D

And finally to be fair "the thanks for the lock" was tagged onto the end of another post, as I forgot to thank LiT at the time

Sorry you're not in London to enjoy the beers, you might well be glad you don't have to commute through London traffic, but just cos you can't join us, don't hold it against us

I hold nothing against London cyclists - I think that you're very brave! I also totally support your HGV poster. I'm commenting more on forum etiquette than any thing else. Bit concerned about you cycling through London, during the hours of darkness whilst intoxicated though...

Moderator - this thread isn't going anywhere. I don't think anyone wants a separate London forum or for this one to change its character, so can you lock it and let it die a death?

always_tyred

Don't go telling tales to the moderator. 8)

snooks

sc999cs wrote:

Moderator - this thread isn't going anywhere. I don't think anyone wants a separate London forum or for this one to change its character, so can you lock it and let it die a death?

If we got rid of every thread which wasn't going anywhere the SCR thread would have died after page 1!!! As it is we have over 250 pages of nonsense not going anywhere and long may it remain!!!

Three cheers for threads not going anywhere

hip hip....

sc999cs

But there is a point to Silly Commuting Racing...

(Well aware that I'm keeping the thread going by posting but I don't care...)

toshmund

I thought the forum was trying to rehabilitate the Londoners!? Many don't seem to have the social skills/confidence in society to get involved in conversation, in the "face to face". Being a interloper from the provinces on the tube, enter into a conversation with someone. Quite possibly be regarded/looked at, as the nutter on the bus. If we can get them talking to each other, they may even say hello to the neighbours...of 12 years :shock:

snooks

sc999cs wrote:

But there is a point to Silly Commuting Racing...

Is there?!? :shock:

You must have missed the pages of thigh measuring!!

beegee

I live in Belgium (I must've done something bad in a previous life) and even though I understand not one bit about the junctions along the embankment or anywhere metropolitan in England (I am English though - Surrey, don't you know) I still feel an empathy with the situations described as part of the commute wherever they occur because I am a cyclist too. Cyclists rule ! And so I like reading about them and - incidentally - wishing that I had their speed - I think I'm going fast when I hit 16 mph !

And also (because of the high standard of the posts' humour) I don't mind reading about people arranging their social lives. It's part of the banter of this 200+ page thread. It has made me smile many, many times in the last 2 months. All you posters should feel proud to be part of this forum. It gives me real pleasure to read. But that's just my opinion. Incidentally I notice that Greg T's comment about roadies meeting in the wine bar rather than the pub wasn't so far off the mark as they've set up a separate thread about wines.

always_tyred

What's wrong with Belgium? I know its reputedly not a proper country.......

It appears to have contributed a lot to pro cycling - are drivers more sympathetic over there?

beegee

Don't get me started about cycling here. I know that a strange environment takes time to get used to and it's easy to knock it but I've been here 5 years and I hate hate hate cycling here because of their fondness for cycle paths. Cycle paths that are 3 feet wide and go past a front door for example. Imagine doing 20 mph on the pavement past a front door. Well you don't. You slow to about 8 mph with hands on the brakes waiting for someone to come out of that front door. It's like that all the time. People park and do u turms and and and. Cycle paths are often the pavement but with pink bricks. I wouldn't care but for the fact that it's compulsory to use a cycle path (no matter which side of the road it is) which is enforced by motorists tooting their horns and even other cyclists ...I think (goes upstairs to check the highway code) that if there's less than 15 cyclists in a group it is forbidden to ride on the road if there is an available cyclepath.

Maybe the drivers are more sympathetic but that's not what I think you mean. Are they more considerate of cyclists ? If anything they're worse buit it isn't really their fault. Imagine if they changed all of the pavements in England to be cycle paths with right of way across junctions, shop exits, etc. It's hard to describe - I'd just say that when I am on a cycle path I do not do any dreaming, which is sort of one of the pleasures for me about cycling compared with driving. And so I've chosen my route to work to be longer in order to avoid cycle paths (and, now that I come to think of it, a 17% hill).

and relax ...

The beer is wonderful (not better or worse than English beer - just different) and because it's shipped in bottles you don't need to wait for your local to get in a barrel or go to a beer festival.

I don't know how professionals manage to train here. I have been passed (no surprise) by big goups of cyclists so it's popular here. I leave for work at 6.10 in the mornng and never see another cyclist and I would've thought if you're a serious cyclist that would be a good time to train. But I don't know, I'm just a commuter.

always_tyred

Okay. Salient lesson in why to resist similar bike lane proposals in the UK.

(Crosses Belgium off list of greener pastures)

sc999cs

beegee wrote:

Don't get me started about cycling here. I know that a strange environment takes time to get used to and it's easy to knock it but I've been here 5 years and I hate hate hate cycling here because of their fondness for cycle paths. Cycle paths that are 3 feet wide and go past a front door for example. Imagine doing 20 mph on the pavement past a front door. Well you don't. You slow to about 8 mph with hands on the brakes waiting for someone to come out of that front door. It's like that all the time. People park and do u turms and and and. Cycle paths are often the pavement but with pink bricks. I wouldn't care but for the fact that it's compulsory to use a cycle path (no matter which side of the road it is) which is enforced by motorists tooting their horns and even other cyclists ...I think (goes upstairs to check the highway code) that if there's less than 15 cyclists in a group it is forbidden to ride on the road if there is an available cyclepath.

Maybe the drivers are more sympathetic but that's not what I think you mean. Are they more considerate of cyclists ? If anything they're worse buit it isn't really their fault. Imagine if they changed all of the pavements in England to be cycle paths with right of way across junctions, shop exits, etc. It's hard to describe - I'd just say that when I am on a cycle path I do not do any dreaming, which is sort of one of the pleasures for me about cycling compared with driving. And so I've chosen my route to work to be longer in order to avoid cycle paths (and, now that I come to think of it, a 17% hill).

and relax ...

The beer is wonderful (not better or worse than English beer - just different) and because it's shipped in bottles you don't need to wait for your local to get in a barrel or go to a beer festival.

I don't know how professionals manage to train here. I have been passed (no surprise) by big goups of cyclists so it's popular here. I leave for work at 6.10 in the mornng and never see another cyclist and I would've thought if you're a serious cyclist that would be a good time to train. But I don't know, I'm just a commuter.

My wife is Belgian and I can second all of this except the beer not being better. Cycling in Belgium is truly horrible.

BigLee1

By reading some of the posts here it looks like I`ve started a bit of a monster! (guvna )

attica

I reckon we could do worse than all meeting up in the Morpeth Arms one Friday in - say - December (Christmas Radar social perhaps), EVERYBODY, I for one would love to meet as many of you as possible and put faces to names like GregT, Jashburnham, Gregg66, LiT, Litts, Cleverpun, Biondino, Redvee, BentMikey - if he's still reading, AlwaysTyred, UnworthyPapaLazaru, Snooks, CJCP, Girv73, I could keep going but you get the idea.

Londoners and Yokels, Sharks and Jets, all meeting without the finger clicking and knuckle dusters for once.

Ask me nicely GregT and I'll let you have a go on my sheep.

linsen

Sounds fun. Give me enough notice and some idea where that place is (Morpeth Arms that is, not London) and even I might make the trip

snooks

Attica wrote:

I for one would love to meet as many of you as possible and put faces to names like GregT, Jashburnham, Gregg66, LiT, Litts, Cleverpun, Biondino, Redvee, BentMikey - if he's still reading, AlwaysTyred, UnworthyPapaLazaru, Snooks, CJCP, Girv73, I could keep going but you get the idea.

You say that, but you would really

They're not nice to look at, are just a load of bike bores that just talk about bikes and commuting....not much fun really...I'd stay where you were, London, it's just full of, traffic, pollution, white van men galore, grumpy taxi drivers, big red buses, no fun here at all, dunno why i bother, I think I might start taking the train, much more fun


Phew! That was close fellas, we almost had an outside in our midst Lets keep the beauty of London to ourselves eh?



hehe

attica

snooks wrote:

They're not nice to look at, are just a load of bike bores that just talk about bikes and commuting....not much fun really...I'd stay where you were,

I'd say you were on thin ice with that comment Snooks, from T-Birds and Pink Ladies alike

girv73

I'll admit I do sometimes feel like I'm just shouting into an empty room when I'm posting here, as I'm about the only Norn Iron poster that I see on this forum (I don't visit the other BikeRadar forums much). I wonder sometimes, does anyone care which side I filter on going up North Queen Street or that I nearly hit an oblivious iPed on Chichester Street or that NCN93 ends in a nasty industrial estate and heavy traffic? But then I realise that if I remove the street names, these are all cycle commute topics that we can all relate to and share in, so I post on in the belief that someone somewhere will find it remotely interesting and maybe start a discussion. That's what forums (fora?) are for, right?

For the record, I don't mind the London talk and occasional "lets meet" invasions of the SCR thread. TBH I'm jealous and would love to meet up for Friday drinks or whatever I don't feel the forum has become too London centric - maybe I'm just filtering out the street names and focusing on the cycling related points.

Attica wrote:

I reckon we could do worse than all meeting up in the Morpeth Arms one Friday in - say - December

+1. Me & the Mrs. have friends in London. Based on that, maybe I could get approval for a pre-Christmas trip to the big smoke.

biondino

I noticed the other day the Morpeth has an upstairs. I wonder if it could be booked out?

Clever Pun

biondino wrote:

I noticed the other day the Morpeth has an upstairs. I wonder if it could be booked out?

and leave the bikes unattended???

girv73

Clever Pun wrote:

and leave the bikes unattended???

You mean the bikes aren't invited too?!?!

Littigator

Clever Pun wrote:

biondino wrote:

I noticed the other day the Morpeth has an upstairs. I wonder if it could be booked out?

and leave the bikes unattended???

That wouldn't be a problem as long as jashburnham was coming we could leave him outside with his Prince loking after all of them...he even got nervous on Friday when he was further than 6 feet from it despite the fact it was locked to railings and in full view of all of us

To those that don't live in London surely you can take some solace in the fact that reading through the Londoner posts is a timely reminder of the horrendous traffic you are avoiding (particularly black cabs).

Secondly, it takes me at least 45 minutes to get anywhere near what you might describe as countryside, albeit still full of houses but with gardens so big they are more like fields.

Greg T

Littigator wrote:

Secondly, it takes me at least 45 minutes to get anywhere near what you might describe as countryside

You want to work on your base fitness, push on and MTFU.

Lanky waster.

Don't pander to the Earthy toned tweedy mob.

lost_in_thought

Littigator wrote:

Clever Pun wrote:

biondino wrote:

I noticed the other day the Morpeth has an upstairs. I wonder if it could be booked out?

and leave the bikes unattended???

That wouldn't be a problem as long as jashburnham was coming we could leave him outside with his Prince loking after all of them...he even got nervous on Friday when he was further than 6 feet from it despite the fact it was locked to railings and in full view of all of us

Secondly, it takes me at least 45 minutes to get anywhere near what you might describe as countryside, albeit still full of houses but with gardens so big they are more like fields.

We could bring the bikes inside if we booked the place! Well, the Prince, certainly.

And 45 minutes to countryside? Where do you live?

always_tyred

Littigator wrote:

Secondly, it takes me at least 45 minutes to get anywhere near what you might describe as countryside

Is that 45 mins by Easyjet?

Littigator

lost_in_thought wrote:

Littigator wrote:

Clever Pun wrote:

biondino wrote:

I noticed the other day the Morpeth has an upstairs. I wonder if it could be booked out?

and leave the bikes unattended???

That wouldn't be a problem as long as jashburnham was coming we could leave him outside with his Prince loking after all of them...he even got nervous on Friday when he was further than 6 feet from it despite the fact it was locked to railings and in full view of all of us

Secondly, it takes me at least 45 minutes to get anywhere near what you might describe as countryside, albeit still full of houses but with gardens so big they are more like fields.

We could bring the bikes inside if we booked the place! Well, the Prince, certainly.

And 45 minutes to countryside? Where do you live?

Errrr, Battersea. So the usual route is out to Richmnd Park (still town) (6 miles/20 minutes), down through Kingston (still town another 3 miles 10 minutes), out to Hampton Court (another couple of miles maybe 10 mins), are you getting the picture?

If anyone knows of some coutryside that's closer than 30 mins (maybe hiding in Dulwich or something like that) then please feel free to share it with me

lost_in_thought

Greg T wrote:

We offer up Lost in Thought to whatever yokel can catch her as a sacrifice to appease the moon worshippers.

Take her and keep her safe.

I just had a mental image of being chased around Ealing by a mob of yokels brandishing pitchforks and flaming torches.... yarrrrrrr....

It's ok country folk, I'm one of you. From Cornwall, now live in Essex on the weekend, 7 miles from suffolk! Yarrrrrrr cyder.... And trust me, I'd much rather be cycling there, but the banter and fun of meeting the other nutters in London is good fun!