Channelling 'ooh-eck!' into 'woo-yeah!' ?

outofbreath2

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a bit of fun and i'd much rather the 'oooh-yeah' of the thread title. In fact I descended once (I want to say 'went downhill' but I'll remember where I am) and when I checked my gadget the speed began with a 3, and it was double figures 'n' everything. I was most impressed with myself (and my hybrid ). OK, I've even done it more than once.

But when OH comes back and he's topped over 40 (both in age and speed) I just blanche and think oh good god and reflect on the following:

tyre blow out
rim gives way due to a hidden crack, or spoke failure, or the inner tube wanting to get out through the side
hitting a patch of diesel / oil carelessly discarded by one of those 'car' things
squirrel / rabbit / other vermin runs out in front of you
something else..... ?

Thanks for that snellgrove.
It won't stop us though.

Jay dubbleU

I'm 60+ - still go for the oooh-yeah approach - check the bike before you set off - brakes, tyres, spokes etc - no worries - definitely a gurl thing

suzyb

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Kill or cure I'd say.....

Bloody big hill

That's the kind of hill I wouldn't mind going down fast.

It's this kind I dislike, the ones with half lane wide pot holes (the winter only made it worse)

http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=55 ... 2,313,,0,5

redvee

AidanR wrote:

Or ride drunk*

*not necessarily recommended

That was last night going to the top of Park street but not up Park street.

Jay dubbleU

suzyb wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Kill or cure I'd say.....

Bloody big hill

That's the kind of hill I wouldn't mind going down fast.

It's this kind I dislike, the ones with half lane wide pot holes (the winter only made it worse)

http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=55 ... 2,313,,0,5

Could have a point there, Suze

Norky

sarajoy wrote:

Maybe it's connected with my bump off last month, but I'm sure I was like this before - when hurtling down a hill I can't help but think "ooh-eck, it'd hurt if I came off now.."

I had a wee off in February (nothing serious, bit of blood and road rash and my thumb is still not quite right) with a car behind me (but not too close the driver couldn't stop before running me over). It took me a month to 6 weeks to get over The Fear, and even now fast descents with cars close behind (the A29 North down Bury Hill being a particular example) take a certain degree of mental fortitude.

Relax, don't fight the fear, give yourself time to get the confidence back.

For reference I'm 32 and male. Old enough to have grown a wee bit of imagination as regards my own mortality.

Cafewanda

lost_in_thought wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

suzyb wrote:

If there is a way to suppress it I'd like to find it. I'm like that as well

Not as bad on a straight road with a good smooth surface. Unfortunately that's very few of the roads in this country.

+1!

EDIT: Oh god... it's not a girl thing, is it?

Yes.

Gurls are always too busy eating flakes when riding bicycles, or staring at the tassles on the end of their handlebars, or appearing in adverts for shampoo to enjoy fast descending*.

Sorry. That's just the way it goes. Better luck next time.

*Though I understand some gurls can go down in a hurry. Gnurk, gnurk, fnar, fnar.

*rolls up a newspaper*

THWACK

NO.

BAD Greg.

Perfick

although I suspect he enjoyed it

roger_merriman

If the sight lines are good and i can let the old girl roll then yes its great but, to be honest most of the hills in the surrey lanes aren't so.

I'm quite happy thundering down to Crick with out touching the brakes but can't think of brakes off hill in surrey to be honest.

mkirby

im 27 and male and i dont much like going down hills. There are some round here that are so steep even with the brakes clamped hard im still doing 30 around the corners. I just take the best line i can, swear under my breath and hope i make it out the other side ok.

The long straight ones i just let it go IF i can sit in the middle of the lane where im not going to be riding on any gravel etc. If there are cars and im forced to the left i tend to go slow.

I prefer the climbs so tend to amble down the other side really. Im a bit of a wuss generally though.

Canny Jock

I have this problem going down the hill in Greenwich Park, but that's mainly because I'm riding a bike I built myself from second hand parts, and I'm always worried something will fall off. I'm fairly new to this bike mechanic thing :?

Fireblade96

This one
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=whitchurch+hill&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Whitchurch+Hill,+Reading,+Berkshire,+United+Kingdom&gl=uk&ei=3X_PS_LjF5Ki0gTbtMjkDw&ved=0CAgQ8gEwAA&ll=51.497576,-1.087818&spn=0.029121,0.067377&z=14&layer=c&cbll=51.497682,-1.087626&panoid=Ygyd5bmEpPSN0-F-vpILyQ&cbp=12,213.98,,0,5
was good for 40.6mph this afternoon. I've done it faster, but the bend with the red car on it is (a) blind and (b) lined with gravel down the middle of the lane, so you have to brake for it.

Oh, and I'm 43 this week - so it's clearly a gurl problem :twisted:

(and I'm a wuss....)

EDIT: fixed link

ride_whenever

It is all psychological... Physiologically they are both just adrenaline, but one processing form results in antagonistic muscle contraction leading to a sudden loss of ability and the other increase output by around 30%.

The trick to preventing the switch is to stop thinking, whilst you're doing and think about stuff more in advance ie better preparation. If you know what you're capable of then you're unlikely to have an issue.

mudcovered

snellgrove wrote:

Mike, your MTB must have had singing tyres at 45mph!

Certainly. Anything above about 20mph and other cyclists think an off road vehicle like a land rover is bearing down on them.
Oddly I can't get the same speed on my CX bike on the same road as the road surface is just not smooth enough. :oops:

And I know where you are coming from on the what could go wrong mechanically list and it would be a lot of pain if anything went wrong at that speed but life is too short to worry about that sort of thing too much 8) . Just make sure your bike is mechanically sound before every outing mitigates those risks a lot.

Mike

rjsterry

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Kill or cure I'd say.....

Bloody big hill

<rubs thighs in a Vic Reeves style> Mmmmmmmmmm, hiiiiiiiiills.

Sometimes, London is just rubbish. <sigh>

Kieran_Burns

rjsterry wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Kill or cure I'd say.....

Bloody big hill

<rubs thighs in a Vic Reeves style> Mmmmmmmmmm, hiiiiiiiiills.

Sometimes, London is just rubbish. <sigh>

The problem being: getting there. It's a complete bitch climbing up to that hill, and could you imagine going back up???

Mind you, a friend has descended that particular hill and didn't even pedal at the top. Just pushed off. He was well north of 55 by the time he started to slow down. :shock:

He actually said if he came off he was just going to tuck and roll. Then when he stopped, count the bits still attached.

bigmat

I love a nice descent and will usually push myself to go as fast as I can, but I never take "risks" - if I don't know what is round a corner, I'll slow down so that I can deal with any eventuality, similarly if there is an obvious risk of cars pulling out, people stepping out etc then I'll make sure I'm ready to deal with that. Obviously there's always a risk of a tyre blow out, a bird / animal suddenly jumping out in front of you, or a patch of oil or whatever, but its all about calculated risk.

I'm definitely a lot more cautious since I've had people depending on me being around as well - that and growing up generally I guess. Same reason I don't drink and ride anymore!

mudcovered

Kieran_Burns wrote:

The problem being: getting there. It's a complete ***** climbing up to that hill, and could you imagine going back up???

Mind you, a friend has descended that particular hill and didn't even pedal at the top. Just pushed off. He was well north of 55 by the time he started to slow down. :shock:

He actually said if he came off he was just going to tuck and roll. Then when he stopped, count the bits still attached.

With the sound of it the descent is worth the climb. If I'm in the area sometime I might give it a go.

Mike

Kieran_Burns

Look for Slack Hill - it's famous around those parts.... Park up in Matlock and take the roads signposted to Chesterfield. Take spare underwear.

Gadge

<unweight yourself a bit so you float over road defects>

So Aidan....are you saying that the girls are too FAT to ride fast?

OMG :shock:

Mike400

is it maybe a london thing?

Yea the roads get busy in rush hour but its not manic over here, (Belfast), you usually have time to think but I would imagine london being the complete opposite?

ketsbaia

It's not the descending per se that gets me, it's the rutted roads, huge potholes and juddering around like you're riding over a permanent one-in-15 cattle-grid that really gives me the willies. That's when I tend to tiptoe down the descents.

Nice, smooth bit o' tarmac and long lines of site (er, that'll be sight - ed.) and it's brakes off galore.

E2a: that flammerouge link about descending scared me more than going down hills quickly, tbh. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm capable of remembering all that stuff you have to do just to go round a corner quickly and think it's probably for the best if I just go round slower, thanks.

sarajoy

Some of those long flat nicely tarmacced descents look lush

Anyway, glad it's not just me and Park St is allowably scary..! Ooh, eck!

CiB

MatHammond wrote:

Obviously there's always a risk of a tyre blow out, a bird / animal suddenly jumping out in front of you,

Was bowling home last week down a bit of a slope at about 30 when traffic slowed dramatically and two sheep ambled across the road, nearly into my front wheel. Good thing too - that's a once-in-a-lifetime event, so it's out of the way now. Onwards...

Eau Rouge

ketsbaia wrote:

IE2a: that flammerouge link about descending scared me more than going down hills quickly, tbh. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm capable of remembering all that stuff you have to do just to go round a corner quickly and think it's probably for the best if I just go round slower, thanks.

It's just the stuff you do when driving a car around a corner really.

ketsbaia

Eau Rouge wrote:

ketsbaia wrote:

IE2a: that flammerouge link about descending scared me more than going down hills quickly, tbh. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm capable of remembering all that stuff you have to do just to go round a corner quickly and think it's probably for the best if I just go round slower, thanks.

It's just the stuff you do when driving a car around a corner really.

Apart from moving your aris' backwards and forwards, but yes, I see your point.

plonk

I always think that my front wheel is gonna come off at 35mph, and then i have an enormously elaborate fantasy about how my family fares without me (usually they do a lot of weeping and walking across windswept moors in black cloaks).

always_tyred

Going up this one cold in the morning - hard.

Coming down past the cottage cheese road repairs and over the potholes that they didn't bother with = adrenalin. Once you get past about 60kph, it smooths out a bit because you sort of go across the potholes, rather than down into them.

Okay, I'm kidding myself.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&sourc ... 51.03,,0,5

suzyb

Our local council has gone for third time lucky on the repair to the main road. Since the start of the year they've filled in the potholes twice before but both times the repair hasn't lasted a month before the traffic has ripped it up again.

Yet once again they've simply filled in the hole in the hope it will work. 3rd time lucky...I doubt it.

Kieran_Burns

Actually I think if you want to see one hill that typifies the Woo-hoo!! moment into an Ohhhh 'eck!!! one.... it's Cromford Hill.

Take the time to go down this one on Google Maps and you'll see what I mean:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&sourc ... 73,,0,3.63

Wallace1492

Behold the Daddy of them all (well in the UK anyway):

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Hilltop+near+Slack,+Chesterfield&sll=53.325849,-1.813431&sspn=0.083867,0.249767&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Hilltop+House,+Hillside,+Ashover,+Chesterfield,+Derbyshire+S45+0BY,+United+Kingdom&layer=c&cbll=57.411619,-5.701648&panoid=xJoVPObnh2luaedIBHYr1g&cbp=12,128.83,,0,15.59&ll=57.412535,-5.700831&spn=0.005628,0.021694&t=h&z=16