competitive commuting

[Oxo]

I've got to the stage when waking up in the morning is a result. Boy/girl racers screaming past are just a fact of life, I just smile to myself and carry on to the next bun stop.

 

[barongreenback]

racing buses is more fun
[media]
]View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLQdM9xTCi8[/media]

I love racing buses up the A38 in Birmingham. I can usually keep pace on a good day from Edgbaston through Selly Oak up the hill but then lose it on the big hill up to Northfield. Must get better at hills!

 

[Hip Priest]

Commuter racing is impossible to resist. I become particularly competitive when someone with a better bike pulls in front of me at lights. I simply have to pass them. All good fun, and good for getting a workout.

 

[The_East_Stand_View]

I ride a hybrid with panniers, it's fast v similar bikes but against road bikes I shout morning as they pass! My mate might build me a road bike for weekends!!

 

[SportMonkey]

Tonight I thoroughly flew past a RLJ'er who'd past me by jumping 5 sets of lights.

 

[BrumJim]

I love racing buses up the A38 in Birmingham. I can usually keep pace on a good day from Edgbaston through Selly Oak up the hill but then lose it on the big hill up to Northfield. Must get better at hills!

Same here, but I'm usually racing them up from Northfield to Selly Oak.

Best bus racing is when they are running a little ahead of timetable, so they are going quite slowly. You can get a good draft for a while, and then pull out and overtake. And wave at all the passengers!

 

[Jezston]

Bus racing can be fun, but bus relay - where you are constantly having to overtake each other due to the lower speed of the bike and the regular stopping of the bus - is no fun for either party!

 

[jagman.2003]

Some years ago I used to race one chap regularly. We both worked at the same place & started & finished about the same time. It was good fun. Added some spice to the day. We never spoke apart from a basic nod. Now I pick my races. Gives me some targets to achieve on what sometimes could be a mundane bumble home.

 

[SquareDaff]

You've got to race someone on a better bike - it's an unwritten commandment of cycling!

Had a roadie sweep past me the other day on my commute home. Came past me on his lighweight machine all superior and pulled away. Then he hit a hill. Went past him all superior on my panniered hybrid. I knew the hill was there and had been saving my legs! The advantage of route knowledge!!

 

[tweedsteed]

Amazing! I thought it was just me being a prick who did this...

It's by far the best way to cheer up my London commute down through Victoria Park onto Bethnal Green Road. There's just too many damn traffic lights after that unless you want to do drag racing. Or crashing.

Is it wrong to draft other commuters? Just wondering...

 

[SportMonkey]

Amazing! I thought it was just me being a prick who did this...

It's by far the best way to cheer up my London commute down through Victoria Park onto Bethnal Green Road. There's just too many damn traffic lights after that unless you want to do drag racing. Or crashing.

Is it wrong to draft other commuters? Just wondering...

Part of the art of racing, draft, recover, destroy.

 

[Becs]

A guy this morning demonstrated how not to do it.

Reletively big chap on a mountain bike in his beige linen trousers (!) and shirt. Overtook him down Haverstock Hill (so much more fun now the kids aren't at school!) but got stuck at the next lights, so he puffs past me and parks himself in front of me. Despite being overtaken three times over the next few lights he still insisted on parking in front of me at every light, even though I was at the stop line . .. . . . . . soooooooooo annoying! (especially as safe overtakes are not always that easy down Chalk farm rd in rush hour).

If I know someone is faster than me I wait behind them at lights - it's only polite!

 

[Beebo]

If I know someone is faster than me I wait behind them at lights - it's only polite!

+1 Nothing worse than seeing someone slower than you push to the front of the lights then wobble off in the wrong gear putting everyone behind at risk as they have to overtake them again.

 

[GrasB]

Would love to know how long it takes you to do the full length of the recently tarmac'd guided bus track. Swavesey station to science park station. I love a challenge !

With the Giro I've not gone truly flat out yet, but I've done a flat 20 miles with a 24mph average, which is 21-22min.

Aaaaah, well erm that is some challenge - I'll start with the lower one first! I have not seen anyone going that fast on the commute, or at the weekend come to think if it.

& the results in from an early morning blast (not quite the full length but fairly close) 8.31 miles in 19min 7s or 26.08mph. My feeling is that the Giro is a little faster than my TT bike.

 

[BentMikey]

I would have said something to someone that kept on doing that!!