God he's fast...

[L.E.D.]

Busy commute you have there , lots of fellow bikers

lots of cars

and are those roads smooth ?

 

[clarion]

[QUOTE 1144612"]
I do Kingston, Tooting Broadway, then all the way to Kennington, The Cut, Farringdon.

http://www.photoboxg...ndor_id=3022259 (I'm the bloke)

I ride a shiny silver-blueish fixed cooper.

I'll keep a look out and say hi.
[/quote]

d'Oh!

I saw you yesterday. I was admiring your Cooper, and was thinking of asking you how you were getting on with it.

Nice bike.

 

[clarion]

That's me.

Next time, we may both overcome our inhibition and actually say summat...

btw, who are you on yacf? I'm Clarion pretty much everywhere.

 

[clarion]

Hey, CoG, I think I saw you again last night!

Well, I said hi to someone. I hope it was you. I didn't have time to talk, because I needed to get home asap, but it was nice to see you (and your bike) again.

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

Get a room, you two!!

 

[JoysOfSight]

Whenever I feel like I can go reasonably quick, I only have to pop on the 'tube and watch some London vids to remind myself that it is quite different being a big fish in a small pond.

I once TT'd 10 miles in just under 25 minutes, on my commute fixie with mudguards. I thought that was an epic win, but now I see half of London can ride in heavy traffic at 5mph faster than that, just on the way to work.

It's enough to make a man sick.

 

[MrGrumpy]

cool videos but if i`m honest it looks rather dangerous

 

[fimm]

I like this guy in blue on the vid (Blue Trek) - always rides hard and pushes himself into the red:

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=1gY2A69JSLk

A bit off topic, but there's an interesting thing going on about 1:46 in that video. There's a car wanting to turn left, he's slowing and has got his left indicator on, but how on earth is he going to turn left with a steady stream of cyclists coming through on his left?

 

[Origamist]

A bit off topic, but there's an interesting thing going on about 1:46 in that video. There's a car wanting to turn left, he's slowing and has got his left indicator on, but how on earth is he going to turn left with a steady stream of cyclists coming through on his left?

He has to wait until the road is clear. In Germany, the Netherlands etc nearly all drivers wait until the road is clear - even if this means being stationary for 30secs+. In this country a significant proportion of drivers try to edge there way over and a few just turn without checking.

This is a disadvantage of riding in a bus lane with dozens and dozens of side roads and impatient drivers - I've seen lots of left hooks and right hooks.

 

[dellzeqq]

indeed - and, to be fair, the sheer number of cyclists on this route has instilled a different attitude in the majority of drivers. By and large they do the right thing. In my experience left and right hooks are now less frequent than they were.

 

[Tynan]

perhaps on what appears to be very cycle heavy sarf London arteries

I promise the merely lots of bikes east london veins still ahve a depressing ignorance to the idea of things on the inside of people wanting sudden turnings

 

[Roadrunner78]

Origamist, a Charge Plug single speed going at that speed! I have to ask, is that standard gearing or higher? 42/16 i think most web sites say is standard. Or is it just high cadence?

 

[Origamist]

Origamist, a Charge Plug single speed going at that speed! I have to ask, is that standard gearing or higher? 42/16 i think most web sites say is standard. Or is it just high cadence?

In that vid: 44/15, but I gear down for autumn/winter: 44/16.

 

[fimm]

He has to wait until the road is clear. ...

Oh, OK. I'm not much of a driver and I was trying to work out what I'd do, and also what I'd do if I was cycling and came up behind a car stuck in the middle indicating like that. Of course the stream of cyclists isn't quite contiunous, I suppose, as you [should] get gaps caused by traffic lights changing.

Thank you for the answer.

 

[Origamist]

Oh, OK. I'm not much of a driver and I was trying to work out what I'd do, and also what I'd do if I was cycling and came up behind a car stuck in the middle indicating like that. Of course the stream of cyclists isn't quite contiunous, I suppose, as you [should] get gaps caused by traffic lights changing.

Thank you for the answer.

If you were cycling in that situation you should be covering the brakes (and depending on the circumstances, slowing), and keeping an eye on the front left wheel of the car. I was going too fast to stop in that situation, but if I can, I sometimes slow/stop and let cars turn across me in that situation or I pull out and overtake the vehicle.