More Cyclists

[fossyant]

Bit of SCR fun this morning with a 'regular'. Just pulled away from lights and can see a shadow matching me along the flat coming out of the Town Centre. Keep the pace steady, hit traffic. Another open stretch now we are through lights, but it's up hill, so power away, leave cyclist for dust. Not seen again through next two sets of lights. Waiting at third set, pull away and he shoots past - I look down and I'm doing 24mph and that's about as fast as I can maintain on the fixed. It's only a 'regular' - quite a powerful guy on a Bianchi, but he can only pass me on the downhill - he has no chance on the up-hills - the cheeky bugger . Anyway, he jumps the next set and is gone.

I've tried to talk to him in the past, but he's a 'headphone' cyclist, and he just doesn't talk back - in his own little world.

 

[potsy]

Seen a couple of extra cyclists this week at 5am, 1 was a pavement boy and the other had no lights

 

[BSRU]

I had a "regular" join me yesterday as we both turned into the same road from different directions. Last time I encountered him I was on Marathon Winters and it took me about 1000 metres to catch up from being about 100 metres behind.
Luckily I was on the road bike yesterday so no contest, 1.1km later as I turned off I had a good look behind and could not see him.
Fortunately, having a rear camera I was able to watch it in lovely HD, several times, and enjoyed seeing him disappear into the distance, he seemed to think putting it into a bigger gear would make him go faster.
I already seem to be at about the same speed now as I was during my best weeks in the summer last year. Al I need now is to meet the guy on the Bianchi TT bike as he was blisteringly fast

 

[Maylian]

More in Southampton, but ours started last spring. All the cycle locking points at work and in town by the shops have been filled.

What I hadn't seen until this last 2 weeks was how there are more between the rush hours. I've been off work for just over a week taking the last of my holiday so went out a couple of times on the bike. 10am and I've seen a fair few out. A lot are very young or slightly older than your average (mid 50s). I've also seen a few in the evenings whizzing past my window.

Southampton is no where near London or Bristol imo. The council estimate there to be about 4-6000 regular cyclists here.

Got to admit I've been cycling for the last 14 months and noticed lots of newer cyclists. I got to know a lot of faces on my commute which is only 4 miles but lots of newer faces being seen in the last 4 months I'd say.

 

[fimm]

I must not SCR on the Brompton.
I must not SCR on the Brompton.
I must not SCR on the Brompton.
I must not SCR on the Brompton.

I ride the Brompton in the clothes I wear for work, so turning up to the office in a sweaty suit that I'm going to wear all day is a Bad Thing...
(SCR = Silly Commuter Racing, for the person who asked. Emphasis on Silly.)

 

[Sittingduck]

It was busy this morning! I wore shorts for the first time since October
Won my 'sprints' up Kennington Road / Lane, along the newly surfaced Bus lane to Lambeth North Stn too

 

[dellzeqq]

we went to Islington a little later than usual yesterday, arriving about 8.30. Cyclists beyond number - we might have passed a thousand, or it might have been more. 32 at one red light.

 

[addictfreak]

I have seen a few similar "roadies" this year already, nice shiny bikes and brand new gear but they appear to have hibernated during the winter as it was easy to catch them and drop them, even on my heavy hybrid.

I'm a Roadie too, those riding hybrids or MTB round here are no sport at all. You could pass them on a push along scooter!

 

[downfader]

Got to admit I've been cycling for the last 14 months and noticed lots of newer cyclists. I got to know a lot of faces on my commute which is only 4 miles but lots of newer faces being seen in the last 4 months I'd say.

Some of those will be fair-weather riders. The really keen riders are the confident guys who assert a good position, or out in all weathers. Like the Sotonia riders I sometimes see about in their kit.

 

[Hip Priest]

SCR! I came across as a bloke today on a Carrera Vanquish going at a fair speed, so I decided to try and keep pace with him on my rusty old MTB. I managed it for a while, but had to give up when I got out of the saddle and the chain went crunch - embarrassing.

Oh well, new commuter bike arrives tomorrow!

 

[marafi]

There are loads of cyclists in my uni today all of the bike parking were FULL. lol I must start cycle to uni now with my roadie.

 

[annaspanna]

SCR.. Like that.. I have more trouble with "I'll just follow you" and then realise they prob aren't going where I am :-S.

 

[stowie]

I have only cycled into central London once this week - work commitments mean I have been travelling in the car outside London. But on Monday there were a lot of cyclists indeed - many more than I saw this time last year. I normally struggle around Tottenham Hale on my own, but there were several cyclists even here, and once I got past Stoke Newington, the A10 became more cyclists than cars.

Tonight, I struggled through sauf Lundun, through the Blackwall tunnel and then through Leyton in the car. Eastway by the Olympics was bumper-bumper with a steady stream of cyclists filtering up the left. Until a moron in a corsa tried to undertake the queue with imaginative use of the cycle lane and pavement - a tactic sadly rendered useless by the unmarked police car closely following behind..

Even saw a cyclist on the A12 just past Blackwall. Rather her than me, although traffic was slow enough at this time of day.

So, there seems to be loads of cyclists around now. A great sight, even whilst I was stuck in my annoying metal box with them streaming past. Lucky sods!

 

[jim55]

done a wee bit of scr myself tnt ,me (on my road bike )chased a guy down on a mtb (even went a longer route to catch him)caught him pretty easy and just as i drew level(he didnt know i was chasing at this point) the lights went red ,i stopped , he didnt !this gave him a bit of a head start until i caught him again and he was defo trying not to b caught ,standing on the pedals and looking back to see how close i was ,this went on for 4 sets of lights on a main rd(prw ,big wide fast moving stuff ) ,until he stopped at the side of the road ,i stopped to see if there was something wrong ,his words "na big man ,im goosed ,stopping for a rest ,u beat me "!!!!i was well chuffed ,,and then i went round the corner out of sight and nearly had a stroke i was breathing so hard ! lol,