For Those of A Certain Age...

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Smokin Joe

Legendary Member
...who began club cycling in the sixties or seventies and will remember "King Alf" (Who's he? asks the younger ones), a controversial character rarely off the pages of Cycling magazine and the only rider who could attract a crowd of spectators to an early morning time trial -


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Looks like an interesting read, I've ordered a copy.
 

midlife

Guru
Yup, I'm of a certain age, I'll stick it on my Xmas list :smile:
 
He was the man who took lightweight to undreamed of lengths. He drilled all his components so that nobody knew how they retained structural strength.
Way ahead of his times in regard to marginal gains.
 

Rocky

Hello decadence
He's a great lad....I used to do triathlons with him back in the late 1980s. We were members of the same swimming club. I met up with him a few years back in Finchley - he was looking fit. I think now he spends his time fishing.

I've still got one of his Unity CC cycling tops - it's a wee bit too tight for me though.
 
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Smokin Joe

Smokin Joe

Legendary Member
He was on his way to what would have been a competition record 48 minute twenty five sometime in the seventies when the police stopped him for speeding. He was clocked riding down a slip road onto a dual carriageway at 50mph, got fined five quid in court and a years suspension from the RTTC.
 
I remember writing incident reports to RTTC.
It very much depended on the report as to a ban being given out. If we liked the guy we could slant a report differently to if we didn't like him. Naughty, of course.

But head down riding into the back of a parked car was 6 months ban automatically.
 

Sharky

Guru
Location
Kent
But head down riding into the back of a parked car was 6 months ban automatically.
I rode an event on one of the J courses, starting about 10 minutes after a rider who did just that. The penalty he received was substantially greater than just 6 mths.
 
I rode an event on one of the J courses, starting about 10 minutes after a rider who did just that. The penalty he received was substantially greater than just 6 mths.
Oh yes. 6 months was a minimum. That was 6 competitive months. So could be almost 12 calendar months.
All depended on the circumstances.
 
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Smokin Joe

Smokin Joe

Legendary Member
I rode an event on one of the J courses, starting about 10 minutes after a rider who did just that. The penalty he received was substantially greater than just 6 mths.
The E31 course on the Southend road had a few like that, including one poor guy who buried himself in the back of a milkfloat.

For all the crashes that are a regular occurrence in road racing time trials have always had a far higher fatal accident rate. Mixing it with motor vehicles on NSL dual carriageways took it's toll over the years.
 
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