You are reading a single comment by @HoKe and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
-
Thanks for the mention @youramericanlover, yes definitely jumped into people scene with the double spoke Fuji back in the days and then he countless crackyons too. I think there was been many downs with riding bikes but I do remember one time me and yourself riding regents parks in the early hours of 6am (when we were young and active and I think you just had a child too…) where you turned up with your bibs shorts inside out and had to chance inside the bike (thank god it was dark out no?) ;)
Granted I did get dropped on every lap from you so served me right to lol…
Come back from Kent soon man! Miss your vibes and energy!
HoKe
youramericanlover
I try not to think too much about how much time I waste on the forum. But I am always happy to think about all of the genuinely great people and exception experiences I’ve had by hanging with them. Almost all of my bike life is somehow intertwined with you people and most of what I know about bikes comes from LFGSS (this is both good and a little bit bad :)
Below is a vaguely chronological list of people on the forum who’ve had a positive impact on me. In a deeply fucked up world and one that has pushed all towards being kind of salty online this could be a thread to give a shout out to nice people or a nice memory. Or maybe I just might keep posting here until the forum book comes out in March 2022.
In only vaguely chronological order:
@|³|MA3K and the OGs – never got to be an OG and they intimated me, but I was a John Mack fan when Circle Line and Bridges rides were big. I see him as everything that was fun and rowdy about riding fixed. Also OG-wise @6pt was doing things on road and track bikes in 2012 I wouldn’t understand for another 10 years. We are friends now, but I have only ridden a bike with him 3 times I think and one of those he doesn’t remember (and it was to Brighton!)
@Dropout regaled me with history and insights during an overnight ride to Avebury when I got dangerously sleepy. This also got me an invite to his forum birthday party at a Thai restaurant in Ladbroke Grove which was full of great forum people. His London Light Christmas rides were so fun that I took over the reigns for a bit. A man universally adored for good reason.
I kept bumping into @KT_Bee on different forum rides, and memorably one deliciously salty one led by @dancing james after some wasteman bailed on his own ride and the weather and route were shit (sorry DJ, too much time on the B2036). Katy turned out to be smart, funny, a very good rider and a tough as nails rower. She is also hot shit at her job.
DJ also taught me how to follow a wheel in a group on my first Hard Day in January. While our personality Venn Diagram doesn’t do a lot of overlapping, it doesn’t mean I’m not grateful for his insight and have fond memories of that day. And of course @clubman for organising the HDIJ rides and being my no-nonsense road inspiration for many years.
@BringMeMyFix was a TNRC leader when I first started and was capital ‘F’ Fast b was nice to me even though I was and am a clueless chopper. @middleofnowhere took over the TNRC reins and he (and the woman in his ear) led me and the TNRC crew on maybe my favourite riding I’ve done. The rides always seemed to be the right distance and ended with an invariable fun time in the pub. Matt and the rest of the crew ended up becoming real friends. Important moments happen too: while riding through the sunsets over different seasons with @Rod_Munch we talked consistently and I watched him go from being in a not great relationship to happily married Crouch End Power Dad. I still don’t understand how he rode out and back to all those TNRCs.
@almac68 and @Bernie for taking me to Belgium twice and showing me all the roads of Flanders and Roubaix when I’d never watched a pro race and didn’t even know that cycling was A Thing in Belgium.
“Dan this is a famous climb called the Muur.”
Me back home: “I rode up some cobbled street to a church and I did it fixed!”
You guys are great, sorry that youth is wasted on the young.
Sort of like KTBee I bumped into @pastry_bot a number of different forum rides, to Brighton, to the Stones, on the M25 Orbital Ride. Only in the last few years did we do a fair amount of riding together, but he helped me think about where to ride and what bike shit is good (and especially what is unnecessary). He is a wealth of knowledge and experience, and helped give me the courage to do trips to the Yorkshire Moors and the Peak District. Sorry about that last Peaks trip btw dude.
I met @cagimaha through TNRC and then we started doing the odd Toys Hill Loop© together. He helped scrape me off the floor in December when I broke my goddamn femur at the bottom of Beddlestead. Propped me up, called the ambo, visited me in hospital. He’s one of humanity’s greatest humans imo.
Machine gun:
@cgg 's savoir faire
@Kat_Balou and @OneLessCardigan 's hospitality and early 2010s rides
@Stonehedge when we rode to St Margarts Bay with the guy who had the 6ft long map
Knowing that @HoKe is gonna HoKe even if he doesn’t have a double spokk’d Crackyon
All the muddy fuckers like @BareNecessities who showed me that going offroad is an acceptable thing to do and @ioreka who helped me be Team Pomp Princess at NYD Madison CX among many other shared SE London japes.
@Mickie_Cricket, @Sparky, @pastry_bot and @amey have been with me through torque wrench fiascos, boiling cranks on a stove, and seeing a man wipe his own cat’s butt. We all also share the bond of being friends with Amey.
I could go on. The forum is pretty good, but there are a lot of great people behind those keyboards.