Where are they now?

cjcp

*wild applause*

EKE_38BPM

Howdy folks.
As I said in the "Some thing never change" thread, I'm now married, I've got a kid, starting a new career soon and moving out of London to Letchworth Garden City.

I'm still a cycling instructor, but I'm now qualified as an instructor trainer (I can train other instructors) and I do quite a lot of work with drivers of large vehicles (LGVs, buses, coaches etc) making them aware of cyclists and explaining why cyclists do what they do.
Part of the job involves taking the drivers out on bikes for a few hours so they get a taste of riding on urban roads. Working in schools with kids can be fun, but working with the drivers is work.

msmancunia

Saw my name pop up earlier on in the thread so thought I would say hello

Yes, have been shamefully AWOL for the best part of a year :oops: Started with a trip down a flight of stairs in a pair of stilettos that badly tore a ligament so I was off the bike for the best part of four months. Got back on, went cycling in Cuba in April last year, came back, and the brown stuff hit the fan at work big time. For those that know where I work you'll understand that it wasn't a fun place to work, (and still isn't, to be honest) and definitely not a good idea to be posting on here, unlike a certain person in Pro Race. Didn't really want to be put on the spot so took a bit of a sabbatical. Also had a big out of hours job, transcribing the audio interviews for Joey Barton's autobiog, which was interesting, but took up a lot of spare time.

As a result, I lost the love for riding a bit, so I booked a trekking trip to Everest base camp for Xmas 16. Given that I had done very little exercise over the previous six months, and absolutely none of it impact stuff, I spent the next six months walking, yes, that's walking, the six miles to work, and climbing Wainwrights in the Lakes at weekends.

Had an absolute ball, our head Sherpa has summited Everest six times, and the local group were just lovely - sherpas are mad keen MTBers when they aren't climbing mountains! Views were amazing, it gave me time and space to think, and I realised I needed to get back on my bike when I got back. Only a few commutes so far due to icy roads which I don't do, but a close shave last night made me think I should really get back on here for a rant! So here I am. What've I missed?

veronese68

Hey MSM, good to hear from you.
Very disappointed the beer festival moved so no excuse to come and visit. Can imagine it's been a bit of a strain there.

roubaixmb

Yay MSM is alive and well. Did wonder if you'd been able to stick things out.

rick_chasey

msmancunia wrote:

For those that know where I work you'll understand that it wasn't a fun place to work, (and still isn't, to be honest) and definitely not a good idea to be posting on here, unlike a certain person in Pro Race.

itboffin

welcome back, what did you miss? well nothing much EKE is out of prison now, that's about it really

cjcp

Rick Chasey wrote:

msmancunia wrote:

For those that know where I work you'll understand that it wasn't a fun place to work, (and still isn't, to be honest) and definitely not a good idea to be posting on here, unlike a certain person in Pro Race.

Isn't Pro Race the shouty, scary place?

rick_chasey

In bits.

There's some chat about pro racing and races in between the shouting.

msmancunia

RoubaixMB wrote:

Yay MSM is alive and well. Did wonder if you'd been able to stick things out.

Hanging on for dear life. It's pretty crazy at the moment - another announcement made this morning :roll:

whyamihere

Just saw this thread, and saw my name, so thought I'd confirm that I am also still alive.

I finished the degree and got a proper job (in IT rather than physics as the money's better ) which massively reduced my time for messing around on the Interwebs. The job's a bit far to commute to by bike, but I am about to move house to one which hopefully brings it within range to to a part bike/part train commute. Maybe even all bike will be a possibility on nicer evenings. I've mostly been playing with mountain bikes for the last few years. I should also mention that prawny's a thoroughly nice guy too, we had a few good evening rides around Cannock Chase.

prawny

Good to see your still about Chris, let me know if you fancy meeting up again one of the evenings, preferably when it's warmer and lighter though. We can compare Bossnuts

Christophe3967

Good to see CJCP and ITB still flying the flag. (Waves nostalgically). Other names not mentioned: Always Tyred was good value, but I think fell out of favour, and also recall a guy at the Morpeth who worked for the Carbon Trust, whose user name was something to do with fishing? Another wiry guy with a Madonne who was quick, and had a few big offs? Rich? TBOTB. Attica. The Liverpool supporter - Clever Pun? with the fixie and the Brompton... The Bristol guys who used to come up to the London meets. Fond memories of summer Friday nights at the Morpeth and occasional Richmond Park get togethers and of course the embankment commutes. Happy Days I'm supposedly retired but actually ended up buying a boutique hotel and restaurant near Betws-y-Coed not far from the Dave Brailsford sportive routes (50 mile and 75 miles). Caernafon, past Llanberis up Pen-y-Pass, then either a loop including Beddgelert or Capel Curig and Betws-y-Coed before another large climb towards Blaenau Ffestiniog and back to Caernafon. We had a group of Dulwich Paragon riders last year who gave the longer route the OK. I'm yet to try the short route... If you are ever in Snowdonia and fancy a beer, you'd be welcome!

itboffin

well i never, good to hear from you again matey, alas the old SCR boozing days are but a distance memory now, a few of us do still do the odd ride or euro events with of course insane amounts of boozing

fond memories

greg66_tri_v2.0

<wanders in>

<waves at ITB in his usual chair>



<slowly backs towards the door, then starts running>

itboffin

did you post that or was it your clerk?

hegyestomi

Greg66 Tri v2.0 wrote:

<wanders in>

<waves at ITB in his usual chair>



<slowly backs towards the door, then starts running>

I thought you gave up running as it was too dangerous...
Welcome back all of you

itboffin

some of us never left because we have staying power or no where else to go

First.Aspect

Christophe3967 wrote:

Always Tyred was good value, but I think fell out of favour

Always Tyred had an unfortunate collision with a moderator, having failed to check for approaching hubris. After struggling for several hours, he succumbed to a fatal sense of humour failure.

redvee

Veronese68 wrote:

cjcp wrote:

Yes, where did GTV go?!

Didn't he move to Reading or something? Suspect he may have stopped commuting.

Know he moved with his job. Something to do with Nokia phones, software developer I think and moved up the M4 along with his legal eagle wife and collie dog.

Wheelspinner

redvee wrote:

Veronese68 wrote:

cjcp wrote:

Yes, where did GTV go?!

Didn't he move to Reading or something? Suspect he may have stopped commuting.

Know he moved with his job. Something to do with Nokia phones, software developer I think and moved up the M4 along with his legal eagle wife and collie dog.

I vaguely recall GTV talking about the possibility of emigrating to Oz, or was that someone else?

tgotb

Christophe3967 wrote:

Good to see CJCP and ITB still flying the flag. (Waves nostalgically). Other names not mentioned: Always Tyred was good value, but I think fell out of favour, and also recall a guy at the Morpeth who worked for the Carbon Trust, whose user name was something to do with fishing? Another wiry guy with a Madonne who was quick, and had a few big offs? Rich? TBOTB. Attica. The Liverpool supporter - Clever Pun? with the fixie and the Brompton... The Bristol guys who used to come up to the London meets.

I'm still around! I haven't been doing quite as much riding as I'd like in the past few months, I finally realised just how bad things were when cjcp beat me in an actual race :shock: Most of the issues behind the lack of riding are now sorted; will hopefully be back up to speed sooner rather than later.

Gussio - I sold him a lovely custom Cougar lo-pro, which was the first bike I went under the hour on; hope he managed to get it built-up and out on the road.

I was going to start reminiscing, but maybe we need another thread for that...

essex-commuter

TGOTB wrote:

which was the first bike I went under the hour on

Not bad for an evening 10.

tgotb

essex-commuter wrote:

Not bad for an evening 10.

redvee

LiT's Mum is doing her bit for charity and offering a flight on her Spitfire for the Vulcan Trust.

https://twitter.com/vulcantothesky/stat ... 3093787649

cjcp

Christophe3967 wrote:

Good to see CJCP and ITB still flying the flag. (Waves nostalgically). Other names not mentioned: Always Tyred was good value, but I think fell out of favour, and also recall a guy at the Morpeth who worked for the Carbon Trust, whose user name was something to do with fishing? Another wiry guy with a Madonne who was quick, and had a few big offs? Rich? TBOTB. Attica. The Liverpool supporter - Clever Pun? with the fixie and the Brompton... The Bristol guys who used to come up to the London meets. Fond memories of summer Friday nights at the Morpeth and occasional Richmond Park get togethers and of course the embankment commutes. Happy Days I'm supposedly retired but actually ended up buying a boutique hotel and restaurant near Betws-y-Coed not far from the Dave Brailsford sportive routes (50 mile and 75 miles). Caernafon, past Llanberis up Pen-y-Pass, then either a loop including Beddgelert or Capel Curig and Betws-y-Coed before another large climb towards Blaenau Ffestiniog and back to Caernafon. We had a group of Dulwich Paragon riders last year who gave the longer route the OK. I'm yet to try the short route... If you are ever in Snowdonia and fancy a beer, you'd be welcome!

HUZZAH!!!!

How the devil are you?

I'll PM you.

Christophe3967

cjcp wrote:

Christophe3967 wrote:

Good to see CJCP and ITB still flying the flag. (Waves nostalgically). Other names not mentioned: Always Tyred was good value, but I think fell out of favour, and also recall a guy at the Morpeth who worked for the Carbon Trust, whose user name was something to do with fishing? Another wiry guy with a Madonne who was quick, and had a few big offs? Rich? TBOTB. Attica. The Liverpool supporter - Clever Pun? with the fixie and the Brompton... The Bristol guys who used to come up to the London meets. Fond memories of summer Friday nights at the Morpeth and occasional Richmond Park get togethers and of course the embankment commutes. Happy Days I'm supposedly retired but actually ended up buying a boutique hotel and restaurant near Betws-y-Coed not far from the Dave Brailsford sportive routes (50 mile and 75 miles). Caernafon, past Llanberis up Pen-y-Pass, then either a loop including Beddgelert or Capel Curig and Betws-y-Coed before another large climb towards Blaenau Ffestiniog and back to Caernafon. We had a group of Dulwich Paragon riders last year who gave the longer route the OK. I'm yet to try the short route... If you are ever in Snowdonia and fancy a beer, you'd be welcome!

HUZZAH!!!!

How the devil are you?

I'll PM you.

I'm good thanks. My commute now takes anything up to 5 minutes, determined by the route the dog chooses through the gardens. As I walk past my bike - unridden for months - checking the state of the log store, how much snow is on the peak of Tal y Fan and the surrounding mountains (and whether the beach might be a better bet for her walk later) if the number of empty wine and beer bottles outside the back door suggests a detour to the cellars and a possible call to the wine merchants is in order, I often ask myself: how did it come to this? Friday nights in the pub used to be the Morpeth. Now it's a stroll to the pub in the village for supper and live singing, so there's nothing much to post about on here. I do miss a good commute... I've PM ed you back btw.

cjcp

Got it . Will email you.

It sounds awful, this life outside the Big Smoke. I remember when you used to think that living "out West" was just beyond Notting Hill Gate

DonDaddyD

I had a child, moved to the country, had a second child and now my cycling - still do it - is different to the bustle of the London commute. Still rock the road bike though, and carbon is king, titanium is my mistress and Athena is still a god-damn girls gruppo.

Now then, my first Ride London - the one that required an ECG the minute I told the doctor what I was planning on doing? Yeah it took an age to complete, I hadn't ridden a bike in anger for over a year, I was overweight (17.5-18st), baby on the way, facing unemployment and depressed (couldn't admit that back then - wow). I loved every minute of that bike ride, and that's the point isn't it? At our level the speed, the scalps, our performance is only comparable to others around our own ability. None of us are ever going to be Contador and so the point is that we keep getting on our bikes and no matter how we look in lycra we're cool in our own minds. I never forgot that, I will never forget that and I will always get on my bike.

I did Ride London again last year, I think I shaved an hour off my time but it was more than that. I was able to ride back to my car when I completed it, I hadn't bonked 40 miles in, I tackled hills like a DDD of old blessed with Power Awesome and dominating Balham Hill. T'was glorious. GLORIOUS! I was ahead of my cousins and brother before their ride was diverted and effectively reduced their ride to 60 miles. I was ahead of the diversion. I didn't need to protect my heart you see and I could invite the upper levels of heart-rate - that's where the Power Awesome resides. I've missed her.

I'm going back to do it again this year as well and I don't care about the time, I just like the wind in my hair, the clunk of a gear change, the plunge as you dip into a corner and roar ferociously out the other end. I love the feeling you get when you get on top of your gears and find that effortless moment between down and up force (souplesse) as you turn the cranks - that's why I ride my bike now.

Veronese68 wrote:

WarrenG wrote:

I think the RideLondon 100 thread when he revealed himself to be a non-cyclist was the final straw for him.

I think that may be the truth. I'm not a great cyclist, but I don't pretend to be either. But for all his bluster this place was more fun with him around.

I am a great cyclist. My measure of great is different from yours and I will never stop loving it.

First.Aspect