Jan and Klodi's Party Bus - part II **off topic discussion**

LollipopJimmy

I kinda miss the commuter races along the canal. Although they could be returning if I play my cards right.

I always went at my own pace, if that meant being passed by a Dublin Bike or me passing somebody in full kit on the latest Pinarello offering so be it. I did often have images of guys sitting in their offices with aches in their legs from their arseholery.

I think the key to all of this is to just roll with it, if you're blocked you're blocked, pass when it's safe to do so, otherwise you end up at your desk annoyed over something you can't change

Idleater

LollipopJimmy wrote: »

if that meant being passed by a Dublin Bike

Had to laugh on my Dublin Bike trip yesterday. Some clown brushes past me between a car (bumping its mirror) through a red light and proceeds on down the road. Lights go green and I happen to take the same turn as him, that goes up a hill (incline more-so). Anyway he's on a not shabby hipster old racer and making reasonable progress, but I rattle clatter my way up behind him over the crappy surface and sit basically behind him as he struggles on.

At the top of the road, he stops for breath in the middle of the road (as there is no other reason to stop at a junction seemingly) so I said as I passed, "you could have caught your breath at the red light back there".

eeeee

Vel wrote: »

UGH!

I am so sick of shoalers! I commute in my regular clothes which is mainly dresses and skirts, have a pretty helmet and a basket on the front but I'm pretty fit and I'm fast, especially taking off from lights and I'm pretty sure if those who shoal were assessing me based on whether I was an 'experienced' cyclist or not they'd come to the conclusion that I'm not and therefore 'fair game' to skip me in the queue.

The funniest is when you pass them out again with ease and you can hear them absolutely busting a gut behind trying to catch up.

The ones who do it to me more than once on the stretch in, tend to get a passive aggressive 'It would be great if you could wait in the queue like the rest of us so those of us who are faster don't have to keep passing you out' but obviously I'm going by them so fast they probably only catch the first half of my sentence!!

One of the shoalers this morning had their rear light on the front and their front light on the rear, and another was completely in black with no lights whatsoever. They are a special breed!

I hear ya! I get it every, single day, and I also commute in dresses and skirts.
The level of shoaling I receive is much, much less when I'm in lycra on the road or track bikes, but those that do seem to put more effort in.

They usually go backwards when there's an incline which is annoying. I continue at my usual pace, and breeze by, hands off the bars, freewheeling up the incline, fixing my hair or some such. Then you hear the furious 'click click click' of gears changing as they charge on behind. Then you never see them again :pac:

As said above, they're just dicks, they do it to everyone. You definitely get targeted more as a women in normal clothes. The only vague upside is that it's a quite sweet sailing on by and watching their ridiculous judgements blow up in their sweating, puce faces :pac:

Wishbone Ash

nee wrote: »

...The only vague upside is that it's a quite sweet sailing on by and watching their ridiculous judgements blow up in their sweating, puce faces :pac:

Well at least they're making an effort! A lot of my 'shoalers' are just cycling slowly and steadily and not trying to prove anything but just plonk themselves at the top of the queue at each set of lights/junction - seemingly unaware of what's going on around them.

eeeee

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Well at least they're making an effort! A lot of my 'shoalers' are just cycling slowly and steadily and not trying to prove anything but just plonk themselves at the top of the queue at each set of lights/junction - seemingly unaware of what's going on around them.

There's plenty of that too! I wonder what goes through their minds? Particularly when you've already had to pass them several times, as they don't stop at reds. I don't think they notice TBH

py

If you want to shoal, please make sure you're fast as hell out of the gates and are not going to be caught. It's the really show people who shoal that result in me having to move out in to traffic that really get me.

Alek

I do shoal.

My commute is fast and in fairness I have encountered only a few cyclists on the way that overtook me, in a few years.

This is not bragging, this is the exact reason why I try to position myself on the right to the first cyclist, in the middle of the lane, and practice acceleration from lights.

If I was to do this starting from the end of the queue I would need to overtake a handful of other cyclists in moving traffic, which would be less safe thing to do.

I know that nothing is forcing me to overtake, and I would never do this risking anyone's safety.

This is why I try to respectfully position myself on the front, without pushing anyone aside.

Mr. Grieves

I have a theory that shoalers do it out of habit. As cyclists, we're used to filtering up to the top of a queue of stationary cars, so some people do it to other cyclists without considering if they're faster or not.

Of course, to drivers, all cyclists are shoalers.

Hungrycol

nee wrote: »

... I don't think they notice TBH

Absolutely this.

Wishbone Ash

Alek wrote: »

I do shoal.

My commute is fast and in fairness I have encountered only a few cyclists on the way that overtook me, in a few years.

This is not bragging, this is the exact reason why I try to position myself on the right to the first cyclist, in the middle of the lane, and practice acceleration from lights.

If I was to do this starting from the end of the queue I would need to overtake a handful of other cyclists in moving traffic, which would be less safe thing to do.

I know that nothing is forcing me to overtake, and I would never do this risking anyone's safety.

This is why I try to respectfully position myself on the front, without pushing anyone aside.

It's not shoaling if you're faster than the cyclists you've skipped at the lights. I do that myself.

Beasty

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

It's not shoaling if you're faster than the cyclists you've skipped at the lights. I do that myself.

You mean you shoal :pac:

under my definition which may be different to yours

magicbastarder

nee wrote: »

They usually go backwards when there's an incline which is annoying. I continue at my usual pace, and breeze by, hands off the bars, freewheeling up the incline, fixing my hair or some such. Then you hear the furious 'click click click' of gears changing as they charge on behind. Then you never see them again :pac:

you should up your game and wheelie past them.

LollipopJimmy

magicbastarder wrote: »

you should up your game and wheelie past them.

While brushing the hair

guanciale

While on the topic of rude commuting, I was heading up the quays in the IFSC last week. At the traffic lights at Citibank about half the cyclists stopped and about half proceeded through a red light.
Behind me in the queue a cyclists begins shouting and then screaming at the red light jumpers.
I nearly fell off the bike with laughter. You meet all sorts.

eeeee

magicbastarder wrote: »

you should up your game and wheelie past them.

nothing would make me happier than the ability to wheelie. I have never tried, but I'm 90% sure it's beyond me.

Don't brush my hair ever. I don't even own one. Curly hair hates brushes. :cool:

magicbastarder

i used to have regular dreams i could wheelie properly, to the point where i actually half believed it. don't stop believing, is what i think the cool kids say.

rollingscone

My aluminium road bike has had last minute mechanicals before every major event I've counted on it for.

Resulting in me doing the 2016 Reservoir Dog and 2017 WW200 on my beautiful tank Croix de Fer.

So I'm doing the Dying Light 200 tomorrow on the CDF. At the start of the week I discovered that the front rotor was visibly warped so I ordered a replacement (and a set of anodized steel bolts as I don't trust aluminium bolts) went to fit it today but two of the bolts rounded and will have to be drilled out after various attempts to file them down for a mini vice grips or a screw driver to get purchase were defeated by the buttery aluminium.

So I gave up and put my CX front wheel on instead.

Then the piston in the caliper failed.

So I'll be heading out in the morning on my aluminium road bike...the circle is complete.

Harrybelafonte

Re commuting: I had a weird one this week. Usually commute from gym on fixed gear. Had a super hard session so I basically just wanted to be able to make it home. Was passed by someone on super nice road bike. Looked like they too were heading home from gym. Was not in form for racing but still caught and passed them. Kept it steady and was passed again. They must of tired cos I passed them again. Came around top of O’Connell street and the new lights by the Rotunda were red. Stopped and she went right into the back of me with a little help. I waited for some comments. Silence. Then went around me and broke the red along with three others. Small wonder the driver anger seems to rise each week.

ford2600

nee wrote: »

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Jaaaaaysuuus. I don't think I could even start that.

Is the 60:14 as against 52:12 for efficiency or is there some other reason you use such a large front chainring?

There is probably a very simple reason I can't think of

Harrybelafonte

ford2600 wrote: »

Is the 60:14 as against 52:12 for efficiency or is there some other reason you use such a large front chainring?

There is probably a very simple reason I can't think of

Am gonna go with efficiency tbh. It'd be tough to start but on a banked track it might help keep moving at the kinds of speeds they do at six day races. This chart doesn't even include a 60

eeeee

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

Re commuting: I had a weird one this week. Usually commute from gym on fixed gear. Had a super hard session so I basically just wanted to be able to make it home. Was passed by someone on super nice road bike. Looked like they too were heading home from gym. Was not in form for racing but still caught and passed them. Kept it steady and was passed again. They must of tired cos I passed them again. Came around top of O’Connell street and the new lights by the Rotunda were red. Stopped and she went right into the back of me with a little help. I waited for some comments. Silence. Then went around me and broke the red along with three others. Small wonder the driver anger seems to rise each week.

Wtf? Not even a sorry I crashed into you there? Jaysus :rolleyes:

eeeee

ford2600 wrote: »

Is the 60:14 as against 52:12 for efficiency or is there some other reason you use such a large front chainring?

There is probably a very simple reason I can't think of

There's a theory that *I think* is that big big it's more efficient as the chain doesn't have to bend as much - big small and small small will kink the chain more - it has to bend around a more acute angle iykwim. Team GB pursuit with a 60 on the front for that reason. They're essentially 4k sprinters.
I personally prefer a smaller chainring on the front, as I think it's easier to start and also jump off, but ymmv. For me it's largely psychological in fairness :pac:

Lusk_Doyle

Big day tomorrow. Dublin City Marathon here I come! Any other boardsies taking part?

LollipopJimmy

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

Big day tomorrow. Dublin City Marathon here I come! Any other boardsies taking part?

If rather stick pins in my eyes but I do have an admiration for people that can run marathons. So fair play and good luck

RobFowl

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

Big day tomorrow. Dublin City Marathon here I come! Any other boardsies taking part?

A few here

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057761900

Good luck Doyler, 3:25 is my prediction ...

magicbastarder

LollipopJimmy wrote: »

If rather stick pins in my eyes but I do have an admiration for people that can run marathons. So fair play and good luck

one thing i read recently which was Quite Interesting was that you burn roughly the same number of calories no matter how fast you run a marathon - it's about 100 calories per mile.

Lusk_Doyle

RobFowl wrote: »

A few here

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057761900

Good luck Doyler, 3:25 is my prediction ...

Ah, they don't count! I meant cycling boardsies!

Also, I hope you don't have any money on that time but I admire your optimism.

robyntmorton

Mentioned on Eurosport:

Lydia Gurley out of 6 Day London. Took a tumble earlier. En route to hospital with suspected broken leg

Not good to hear. Get well soon Lydia.

Beasty

Almost the worst possible time with today's Omnium getting UCI points and Track World Cups coming up over the next 2 weekends.

Other than that I've really been enjoying this 6 dayer. Plenty going on in virtually every race

The sprinters are actually all very pally, as they share a small section next to the hospitality area. The New Zealanders are flying - reckon they'll be the ones to beat in the Polish and Manchester WC events

robyntmorton

I’m not one to really follow the track, but anything I’ve seen of the 6 day events I’ve really enjoyed. The Cav finish to the derny race there was spectacular.

I probably should get into the crowd for one of these things at some point. There is a good atmosphere there for it, and that adds to the fun.