Embarrassed by the postman

sparky24

I often ride the cycle route that goes through compton dando , woollard and pensford. On my way to cheddar but on a couple of occasions have been passed by the postman on his Royal Mail bike. This has happened on a couple of rides and he over takes me uphill :shock: he also has a couple of parcels on the back, very embarrassing and I thought I was riding well. Has anyone else been embarrassed like this.

Colinthecop

Nope, it's just you....

robbo2011

Don't worry, you're not the only one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN54oOMVrXQ

LegendLust

Could be Matt Botrill - he's a postman!

simona75

LegendLust wrote:

Could be Matt Botrill - he's a postman!

In a similar vein he could well be a good level amateur rider. If thats the case it probably doesnt matter what he's riding or carrying. I'd imagine being a postman is a good job (plenty of time for training etc)

seanoconn

Postmen have 3 gears and their bikes weight about the same as a small car. Shame on you!

sloppyschleckonds

Amalgamizing

apreading

There is a postman in Bristol who rides the Action 100 Bristol to London charity ride every year on his post bike - he has being doing it for years. Dont know how fast he is but over 100 miles in a day on one of those bikes is good going!

seanoconn

sparky24 wrote:

I often ride the cycle route that goes through compton dando , woollard and pensford. On my way to cheddar but on a couple of occasions have been passed by the postman on his Royal Mail bike. This has happened on a couple of rides and he over takes me uphill :shock: he also has a couple of parcels on the back, very embarrassing and I thought I was riding well. Has anyone else been embarrassed like this.

Due to the lack of gearing the postman probably has to go uphill pretty quickly or he's not going to get up it at all. Also, climbing the same hill every day is pretty good practise for the postie. As its Friday I don't want you feeling too bad

tangled_metal

My advice is change you route or ride it at another time. Or just suck it up and get some training in so he doesn't beat you!! Think of it this way, he does it every day and that makes good training. But he's riding a low geared, heavy bike with cargo up a steep hill faster than you! Unless he's a pretty good amateur it doesn't look good does it? You now have a good challenge...to be able to consistently beat him! Happy training.

Jon_1976

I was told by a Royal Mail employee, that they'd stopped using bikes ages ago. I worked at TNT briefly and even they said that the bikes were ones that had been allocated to RM but they decided not to use them.

As for the TNT bikes, they were some sort of Pashley and had 3 gears (as mentioned). Heavy doesn't it even start to describe it, and thats before you you attached the mail laden bags. :oops:

sparky24

I have found out that the postman did some cycling a few years back , and a friend said he has a cannondale hooligan converted into a time trial bike :shock: :shock:

smoggysteve

Let's see. The guy spends his entire working day riding a bike up and down hills with weight. 6 days a week possibly.

FFS of course he's gonna be good at it!

MountainMonster

Our local postie is quite quick, and does a few races. I regularly ride around with him in the village.

tim_wand

I m a postie, they took the bikes off us in our area (for health and safety reasons) buy I still walk 12 miles a day.

They binned all the bikes in our area, Over 200 Pashleys , it was a crime. As others have said riding a 20kg , 3 speed every day with a 16kg load was good training.

Jon_1976

When I worked at TNT, there weight limit was 16kg per bag. On a few occasions, I got lumbered with the 32kg max limit and it wasn't fun. Living in a hilly area and only 3 gears, my knees took a complete hammering. To the point where walking the 10-12 miles was pretty painful.

The only 'good' thing to come out of that was the bike I had at the time (Tricross) felt light as a feather and a missile (it was neither) compared to that pashley

Jon_1976

tim wand wrote:

I m a postie, they took the bikes off us in our area (for health and safety reasons) buy I still walk 12 miles a day.

They binned all the bikes in our area, Over 200 Pashleys , it was a crime. As others have said riding a 20kg , 3 speed every day with a 16kg load was good training.

They stopped using bikes round here a long time ago. Its either van or big/small trolley now, I was surprised by the OP that they still used bikes.

fatsmoker

Our local postie still uses a bike. That video made me chuckle.

robbo2011

In a similar vein, yesterday in the Alpenbrevet in Switzerland, this lady rode a shopping bike 132 km over 3 mountain passes with 3875m of climbing.

http://instagram.com/p/sDPA9Vic7r/

I hope you are all suitably humbled.

Langlais

robbo2011 wrote:

In a similar vein, yesterday in the Alpenbrevet in Switzerland, this lady rode a shopping bike 132 km over 3 mountain passes with 3875m of climbing.

http://instagram.com/p/sDPA9Vic7r/

I hope you are all suitably humbled.

I rode the medium distance (176 km) Alpenbrevet yesterday and (thankfully) overtook her on the last climb (the Sustenpass) as she was completing the 132 km route. She was quite cheery in response to my "Allez, allez!".

robbo2011

I rode the Gold too. Was a bit chilly, wasn't it?

Langlais

robbo2011 wrote:

I rode the Gold too. Was a bit chilly, wasn't it?

Yes, at the risk of hijacking the postie bike thread, clothing choice on the Alpenbrevet was difficult. I had 4 layers of various "breathabilities" and weights with me and wore between 2 and 4 at any one time (in various permutations). I liked this comment on Twitter https://twitter.com/mark_pearce/status/ ... 4493470720

robbo2011

As you know, the problem with the Alpenbrevet is that it can be at perishing cold on the Grimsel and Susten but down in Airolo and on the way up Gotthard it can be well over 20degC so it is hard to get it right. You have to be able to take stuff on and off depending on where you are.

I'll get accused of being an Assos fanboy but although it was a bit chilly on the Susten descent, I was never that cold all day. I wore a short sleeved base layer, summer Jersey, Gilet (Assos Falkenzahn), 3/4 insulated tights (Assos TK607), armwamers and gloves (Assos intermediate). I also wore warmish cotton socks and had windproof booties (Gore) over my shoes.

For the descents, I put on a DHB clear race jacket and also put on some medium weight winter gloves (DHB) over the top of the intermediate gloves. Worked very well.

I know they are stupidly expensive, but the Assos Falkenzahn Gilet and Assos TK607 3/4 tights are fantastic for the kind of changeable conditions you often get in Switzerland when riding at higher altitudes and I guess for any autunm or early winter conditions because as well as being warm, they breathe very well so you don't get overly sweaty and then cool down.

schweiz

The weather on Saturday was terrible to predict for especially since the forecast on Friday wasn't that bad. I gave away a pair of gloves on the summit of the Sustenpass to some poor girl who had no gloves/mitts with her!

robbo2011

It's remarkable how many people were in regular shorts and jersey with no apparent contingency if the weather turned which it often can do there.

I saw quite a few shivering wrecks in the finishing area as they had dressed for summer and ended up riding in winter! I would definitely not have fancied descending the Sustenpass with no gloves. But I would have thought carrying full finger gloves is a must when riding in the mountains, schoolgirl error by that particular young lady.

robbo2011

Here you go, It was pretty grim up there!