Time Trial / Time Trialling / TT

faffing with pins

Pin faff is nothing compared with the amount of faff you're getting into with a number pocket 🙂

Too late the credit card has been debited. No turning back.

"The decline in the number of entries at CTT events this season is causing some concern and, to try to find out why people aren’t currently riding, a very short survey (four questions) has been compiled to try to find out why."

I basically said: Peaked and chasing arbitrary times is boring, living in London sucks for training, traffic sucks and the aero arms race doesn't interest me.

im having to drive miles just to find races in the westcountry Plenty on around Bristol. Events are made up of mostley 40 50 and 60 yr old vets. Is online stuff like zwift the issue?

Zwift types don't want to find out how slow they REALLY are, could be a factor.

Mostly I find riding in the UK shit these days. Drivers are all arseholes and I feel I've lost the desire to roll the dice just because I know I'm right - I'll still come off second best. It's not even so much the racing, it's the training near London that sucks arse.

I should've just written "doing a 299mi 12hr is enough to make anyone pack it in for a year"

Who have they sent it to? I didn't get it.
maybe not having ridden an open since 2018 means I'm off the mailing list.

Just the cool kids, obvs.

Are you subscribed to their mailing list? Maybe just people who raced last year?

It was the most ridiculous of surveys. Looked like the questions were designed by someone aged 8.

Do you still TT? Yes or No (if yes, then thank you very much for your answer, we will welcome your cash).

Looked like the questions were designed by someone aged 8

Well, that's progress. Every direct interaction I've had with a board member has been like talking to a particularly obstructive 5 year old

gbj_tester in reply to @Sam

Looked like the questions were designed by someone aged 8

Well, that's progress. Every direct interaction I've had with a board member has been like talking to a particularly obstructive 5 year old

With cycling officialdom you're more likely to be talking to an eighty year old than a child of eight (although I must confess to being much nearer to 80 than 8 myself).

I was sent the survey even though I 've been inactive for some years. I responded that (a) I might have carried on racing if the vets' standards had not been altered - increasing allowances being the one good thing I had to look forward to once I'd got my bus pass and pension, and (b) that to encourage young people it would help to give emphasis (and publicity) to the use of non specialised TT bikes, in the hope that outsiders could see the possibility of competing without facing bankruptcy.

Strange how it doesn't ask for feedback/suggestions from people who are still participating...

I’m not the worlds most committed tter but I love racing. IMO In the age of Instagram I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photographer at a tt, coupled with the necessity to spend a few k On a specific bike to not have an aero disadvantage and that the races start at 7am in the arse end of nowhere and there’s little prize money on the line

Hardly surprising numbers are dwindling

Put on a road bike tt around velopark on a Sunday afternoon with a commentator and a few hundred quid on the line across various categories and might be different.

Not that strange for a complacent bunch of reactionaries, which is what the CTT leadership has been for some time now.

In the age of Instagram I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photographer at a tt

My experience is that there's often a photographer, you just can't find the pictures afterwards

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photographer at a tt

I rarely don't see one. I guess it just depends on where you race.

the necessity to spend a few k On a specific bike to not have an aero disadvantage and that the races start at 7am in the arse end of nowhere and there’s little prize money on the line

The prize money and aero disadvantage is irrelevant to the 95% of testers who wouldn't get a sniff of the prizes even if they were as aero-optimised as the hitters.
If TTing wants to make the psychological experience that of a park run, it needs to emphasise that it doesn't matter what you ride because you're racing against yourself, not anybody else.

Also, I'm old. TTing has been variously booming and busting the entire 40 years I've been doing it, and the 30 years my dad was doing it before he first took me with him to an evening 10. It will continue, for where two or three are gathered together (one to ride, one to operate the watch) in its name, there it is in the midst of them.

Put on a road bike tt around velopark on a Sunday afternoon with a commentator and a few hundred quid on the line across various categories and might be different

No, you put it on. There's nothing in the regulations to stop you. The future of TTing doesn't depend on people having ideas of what somebody else should do, it depends on their getting off their arses and implementing them.

In the age of Instagram I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photographer at a tt

My experience is that there's often a photographer, you just can't find the pictures afterwards

I've photographed Hounslow events for many years. You can usually find my reports and pictures on VeloUK.

I believe VeloUK could be a more valuable asset to time trialling if it were better used. Most events just have a bare result with virtually no report. Organisers really should make an effort to get a report done - this does take some effort, especially if you haven't done it before, but it's a skill that practice makes easier.

Time trialling in the past could never have achieved the popularity it had without the publicity it used to get in Cycling ( plus Coureur and The Bicycle). The opportunity exists today to get reports published, it's up to people who want to see the sport to continue to make the necessary effort.

Of course this is not the only thing that needs to be done, but it could be a useful step.

I'm not a professional journalist, but if anyone here wants the benefit of the experience I've had over the past twenty years - pm me.

The future of TTing doesn't depend on people having ideas of what somebody else should do, it depends on their getting off their arses and implementing them.

Absolutely correct!

I feel part of the problem is that many race organisers have become too old to carry on, but not enough middle aged people have come forward to replace them.

Was thinking, if the aerodynamic differences are so small between the main manufacturers, is the weight difference also very small? I am thinking about a switch to discs and for riding hilly courses if aero is equal/too subjective to measure then a reasonable weight saving would make riding the bike year round more fun.

many race organisers have become too old to carry on, but not enough middle aged people have come forward to replace them.

This is certainly true. What are those middle aged people doing instead?

Mainly they are still riding, until they are older than in the past, some doing TTs but most are doing more of other types of cycling, from crits to ultras. TTs just have less of a share of the overall cycling scene than they used to.

Not sure where to start with that but aero differences are mainly between riders and positions than between bikes. But there is a trade off between aero and weight for frames, because you need more material to make tubes in aero shapes.
It also makes them stiffer hence less comfortable for general riding.
So you can certainly have a bike that is nicer to ride but will inevitably be slower on a TT if that's what you want.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203916336227?
Bargain(currently) P3
2hrs to go.

That went at a decent price, sometimes those wheels fetch the better part of that.
On that note, got some TT basebars and extensions for sale here if anyone's keen.