Swains Lane Challenge (North London)

willy b

Great detour

Also strong effort on the Brompton, I've never ridden one but based on FCN Iassume they are slow?

I bought the geared road bike to work today, so i'll hit the climb again tonight see what time I post.

Next month I'm going to try and ride up it every night, as it's only an extra 5 miles round trip for me (from West hampstead).

spasypaddy

i notice none of you are repping it...

maybe i need to do this as a 100% effort with no other distractions and no reps.


*awaits spasypaddys post tomorrow*
*all out, balls to the wire, no reps, single lap, fell over whilst being sick at the top but i did it. 3.21*

optimisticbiker

I was going to try this tonight on the way home, but:

a) weather isn't great (I know MTFU)
b) my legs are burnt out due to a ride down to Tonbridge yesterday and back this morning to the office... 2 CAT5 hills in each direction and some short (200m-odd) 20 - 28% climbs (and yes I did have to walk up the 28% one on the way in this morning, there was nothing in the tank at all)...

Friday maybe...

willy b

I'll hit it hard tonight. I will have a rucksack full of stuffmind, but depending if I can be bothered, I might do 1 timed run. then leave my rucksack and do another. Abit risky maybe...

t4tomo

willy b wrote:

Great detour

Also strong effort on the Brompton, I've never ridden one but based on FCN Iassume they are slow?.

They aren't too bad on the level - I reckon its quicker than my mountain bike on the flat , due to narrower, higher psi tyres with no nobbles. However I found out its not a climbing machine as the gearing isn't low enough to sit and spin up and out of the saddle pumping is a bit unstable on those little wheels.

I will have another go at some point, if only to embaress spasypaddy by getting a couple of seconds inside his time!

spasypaddy

just you wait until im not injured and able to train properly. :evil:

ketsbaia

BigMat wrote:

Judging from those times, it looks a bit shorter than College Road but I gather steeper. I don't think you'd get up College Road under 2 minutes (I managed a 2:43 on my best bike last year), but then I should never underestimate how far off the pace I am when the real fast guys show up!

College Road is .83 of a mile. Getting up that in less than two minutes would be mightily impressive, as you'd be averaging more than 25mph.

willy b

Name.......................Time.........Mnth....
mrc1........................1:48..........Mar...
willy b......................2:14..........Sep
willy b......................2:31..........Sep... (53:18 old SS in commuter guise)
jds_1981..................3:00.........Sep.....
spasypaddy.............3:22.........Sep....
t4tomo......................3.23.........Sep....(Brompton)

One mistake was staying in the big ring. Think I could have got a better ratio in the bottom ring. I'll try again tomorrow.

There was a few guys doing it when I was there, one who timed it... not sure what he got but was on a Red Specalized.

jds_1981

Went back & finally worked out the correct starting & finish lines.. Much better result.

Name.......................Time.........Mnth....
mrc1........................1:48..........Mar...
willy b......................2:14..........Sep
jds_1981..................2:20..........Sep...(with pannier)
willy b......................2:31..........Sep... (53:18 old SS in commuter guise)
spasypaddy.............3:22.........Sep....
t4tomo......................3.23.........Sep....(Brompton)

willy b

Good pace. How fast are people hitting this rolling start? I have to stop just before to get the phone out to time it need to get a real stop watch really...

My aim is to get sub 2:00 mins, should be doable...

jds_1981

I did the last one as a standing start, suspect it won't make more than a few seconds difference anyway. Might see if I can get my 49:16 fixie up later this week
Took the timings from my video camera.

_Brun_

Did Highgate West Hill this evening on 46:15 which is practically identical to the above. Bit of a grind, but not as bad as I was expecting.

spasypaddy

theres a strong possibility that i hate you all...

roger_merriman

if I can get off the sofa i'll put a strava trace there, though with 48-16 plus all the clobber my bike has might be um a walking trace!

willy b

Went again tonight, didn't beat my last time so no point putting it on the list, but did a 2:17

Sub 2:00 is going to be hard!

_Brun_

Had four pints after work which left me in the perfect state of mind to flip the back wheel over and get on it. Respectable enough first attempt at 2:32, fixed 71" gear (46:17). After riding for six weeks on 81" that felt super-spinny, but I'll leave it as is for the time being and hopefully get a more sober effort in over the weekend.

Name................Time.........Mnth
mrc1................1:48.........Mar
willy b.............2:14.........Sep
jds_1981............2:20.........Sep   with pannier
willy b.............2:31.........Sep   53:18 old SS in commuter guise
brun................2:32..s......Sep   71" fixed (after four pints)
spasypaddy..........3:22.........Sep
t4tomo..............3.23.........Sep   Brompton

Edit - Added indication that it was a standing start. Couldn't be arsed reading back to check what other people's were. Suggest an 'r' for rolling efforts, although it'd make sense to decide on one or the other.

willy b

I didn't make it over last night, however i'm going to do a number of laps tonight about 6:30ish.

Once I have done it I'll add a segment on Strava (unless there already is one...) 8)

Brun - What gear is a 71". Cog wise?

jds_1981

71" = gear (46:17) (he did say)

willy b

Hit it again tonight, getting closer to my sub 2:00 target
Name................Time.........Mnth
mrc1...............1:48.........Mar
willy b.............2:04.........Sep
willy b.............2:14.........Sep
jds_1981.........2:20.........Sep with pannier
willy b.............2:31.........Sep 53:18 old SS in commuter guise
brun................2:32..s......Sep 71" fixed (after four pints)
spasypaddy....3:22.........Sep
t4tomo..............3.23.........Sep Brompton

This app is quite good, and shows how other people also do...
http://app.strava.com/segments/620830

_Brun_

Impressive time. However, I propose a 30 second penalty for not respecting my carefully constructed leaderboard.

spasypaddy

that strava link isnt the same as what ive been doing...

willy b

Haha, sorry Brun. Here we go:

Name................Time.........Mnth
mrc1................1:48.........Mar
willy b.............2:04..r......Sep
willy b.............2:14..r......Sep
jds_1981............2:20.........Sep   with pannier
willy b.............2:31.........Sep   53:18 old SS in commuter guise
brun................2:32..s......Sep   71" fixed (after four pints)
spasypaddy..........3:22.........Sep
t4tomo..............3.23.........Sep   Brompton

Where were you going to/from Spanspaddy? The Strava link seems to be the same as what was suggested in this thread?

spasypaddy

im going from much further back (well to the same finish point.

here
http://local.google.co.uk/maps?q=51.562 ... 0&t=m&z=18

im doing about a 2500ft ride compared to 2100.

im just bitter at being a shit hill climber

willy b

After looking at the strava link again your right! When I timed it previously I based it on the bus stop, and assumed strava did also. Looks like my 2:04 might be a 2:06/2:07 as that bit is still quite flat!

_Brun_

According to google maps the distance between the bus stop and the start of the strava segment is about 350 feet. At 20 mph that's over 10 seconds.

spasypaddy

i was just doing that calculation for 3seconds you would be travelling at 80mph

_Brun_

I can do 80 mph down Swains Lane.

_Brun_

I'd be doing it now but it's raining.

jds_1981

spasypaddy wrote:

im going from much further back (well to the same finish point.

here
http://local.google.co.uk/maps?q=51.562 ... 0&t=m&z=18

im doing about a 2500ft ride compared to 2100.

im just bitter at being a shoot hill climber

I've been going from the bus stop too.

willy b

3 seconds was a guess (not a great one ) I have also been timing from the bus stop manually.

Just made a new segment: http://app.strava.com/rides/1643546#26293402

This starts just before the bus stop (you can see on aerial photograph) said I did 2:18 so based on the actual bus stop your probably looking around 2:16?

Name................Time.........Mnth
mrc1................1:48.........Mar
willy b.............2:14..r......Sep
jds_1981............2:20.........Sep   with pannier
willy b.............2:31.........Sep   53:18 old SS in commuter guise
brun................2:32..s......Sep   71" fixed (after four pints)
spasypaddy..........3:22.........Sep
t4tomo..............3.23.........Sep   Brompton

amended table...

also, i'm going to do this next week: http://www.rapha.cc/ten-x-ten-challenge ... hallenge-1