Mini race anyone ???

[HJ]

People seem to think I am racing because i shoot away from the lights, but the only thing I am racing most of the time is my computer. Nothing like trying to get the average speed up...

 

[Jacomus-rides-Gen]

I agree, I trackstand at lights and shoot away as fasts as I can - good training as far as I see it.

Riding in London last year it was very very rare that someone would legitimately overtake me, as soon as they ran a red light all bets were off - thats cheating.

There was this one guy who I fairly regularly saw along Embankment from Parliament Sq to Blackfriars. We always used to have very heated races, drafting each other, vans and trucks in an effort to "win". My HR was pegged around 95% max for that whole stretch every time I saw him.

I was even known on the odd occasion to take to my aerobars in order to drop him (if they were fitted). I also did my first bit of skitching whilst racing him. It terrified the life out of me, and has remained an art I have never tried to master again.

 

[longers]

I also did my first bit of skitching whilst racing him. It terrified the life out of me, and has remained an art I have never tried to master again.

What's skitching?

 

[Jacomus-rides-Gen]

Its holding onto a vehicle to get a tow, I held onto the trailer of an artic flatbed for a couple of hundred meters until I decided that it was just WAY too dangerous.

 

[Tynan]

i love it, in my head im doing the tour and screaming up mount ventoux trying to real in Armstrong .....in reality im wheezing away trying to catch a 60yr old in his jeans and workboots riding his 2 for £99 mountainbike.

But what the heck, its my head and ill fill it with as much crap as i like!

Excellent!

and skitching? ffs fella!

 

[BentMikey]

Well impressed JRG!!! I've never dared to try it on my bikes. It comes from skate hitching, normally done on skates. I've shocked my mates once or twice, skitching across Hyde Park Corner!! (It's not that unusual for skaters, but I'm supposed to be a bit of a goody two shoes)

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

Used to regularly do that at Uni, holding on to the panniers of my mates motorbike. Only really becomes a problem when you let go and realise that your legs can't go fast enough to actually have any effect, feels rather strange!

Aaah, the joys of youth.

 

[Jacomus-rides-Gen]

Argh! Another dissapearing post!

 

[Tynan]

after watching the courier videos I have eyed the odd truck as I've been cruising right behind it

it really is dangerous though isn't it? Like really? Not just a bit naughty?

 

[Jacomus-rides-Gen]

Well, I dunno. For me it was pretty ferkin' dangerous, but my bike is very quick steering and so the appalling London roads threw me around a bit before I bottled it and let go. Maybe a more stable bike would fare better.

Also having seen a couple of pro riders wipe out when hanging onto team/doctors cars, just inexplicably the bike dissapears from underneath them, I just can't be dealing with doing that!

 

[Tynan]

yep, it's the wrong sort of force acting at the wrong sort of angle for a very light steering bike built to respond to very subtle forces in pre determined angles I reckons

I doubt it makes a very good impression on other road users either

I did wobble while filtering very slowly last week and put my gloved fingers on someone's bonnet momentarily, and felt the thrill of that HYC courier running his hand along the length of that coach as he tore past it

yuk yuk

 

[Jacomus-rides-Gen]

wow, yes, that video is amazing. Makes me very envoius of their immense skill.

 

[Twenty Inch]

I always used to race, and wheel-suck, to my shame.

Then one day, going down Commercial Road, a roadie passed me. I jumped forward and made a go of it, until I noticed that he only had one good leg. The other looked like he had suffered polio as a kid, and he was that sort of age too. Just as I saw this, he noticed me, and simply took off. It was pretty amazing....

 

[biking_fox]

Sometimes.

If I see someone all tricked out in the gear, then I will. Particularly if they are slow but the red lights mean most will catch up again . RLJ are just annoying. I'll play tag all the way along the A6.

Skitching. Sounds bad. It is scary enough drafting a lorry from 3' back as you can't see what you are about to cycle across / into.

 

[Tynan]

saw a bike well ahead of me this am, proper courier type with a soft hat and thought right, I was going really well through Finsbury Park, caught all the lights on green and went like the Tour, panniers and all, lost sight of him in all the bends but came out onto the straight before Holloway Road with a confident expectation of seeing him not far ahead, sod was even further ahead, and presumably noodling along

nice to have a little perspective now and then I suppose