Time Trial / Time Trialling / TT

Definitely some bargains out there.

Can only find 2 spare ones - a “small” Bell javelin and medium Scott Split (ex team helmet so it’s badged as an Abus)
Thought I had a couple of others but must have got rid of them.

Depending on what adapter you get for your madone I have some spare extensions too - including a speed concept mono extension thing that I think can work with older Madones

I reckon they'd be too small. Cheers though.

Il probably just grab one of those Carnacs from planet x. Looks like a knock off kask bambino.

Not sure what to do with bars. I'm running a normal round bar at the mo,so may just get some deda crononeros. They seem to have decent levels of adjustability

I’ve got a Bell javelin you can have for free. Not sure what size though, can check on Monday

FWIW I did my local 10s on a road bike on the drops and enjoyed it immensely. There are road bike specific TTs also.

I see CTT is enforcing 20mph speed limits on courses where they are such limits for cars.

I don’t really know the history, has there been an incident that triggered this?

has there been an incident that triggered this?

The triggering incident is that local highway authorities are introducing 20mph limits where none existed before.

Decided that as good as the madone would be with aero bars. I can't be arsed with the faff of taking them on and off/moving the saddle around etc. So I bought this. It's pretty battered, but very cheap.

Should be able to get it raceable for £4/500 all in.

Nice spring project.

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I would be but if May 19th, that's the same date as the Essex champs

https://www.shaftesbury.cc/events

Better than that, all the CTT Opens can be done on a road bike and the organiser can sort TT from RB after the fact. Except road bike champs, which is 28th April this year and just up the road in Cambridgeshire.

all the CTT Opens can be done on a road bike and the organiser can sort TT from RB after the fact

Now that you specify whether you're on road or TT bike when you enter, I'm not sure what happens if you then ride the other kind. By analogy with tandems, the logical thing would be that if you ride the wrong bike compared with what was on your entry form, you're allowed to ride but "shall not be eligible for any prizes in either the event nor any accompanying [other machine class] event and the time recorded shall not be used for any purpose"

That's a pity. It would have been good to have you riding.

Does this clash affect many others?

Without specific guidance on how event organisers are expected to enforce this rule, or how strict they are to be about DQing riders they suspect of exceeding a 20mph limit; this feels like a box ticking exercise by the CTT to cover their own backs.

They can now hold up their hands and say "nothing to do with us, we told them to slow down", and has shifted responsibility to deal with "public outrage*" onto event organisers.

(* their words, not mine.)

20 mph Speed Limits

Motor Vehicles: I live on a road which has had a 20 mph speed limit for some years. The only time I've seen anything going that slowly is when there's a traffic jam; 40mph is more typical. There has been zero attempt at enforcement but I haven't noticed any public outrage, although there's certainly irritation on my part.

Bikes: As I understand it, speed limits generally don't apply to bikes because there's no obligation for a bike to have a speedo. Is this still the case? What are the implications of voluntarily fitting a speedo? Of course the law relating to dangerous and reckless riding applies whatever speed limit there may be.

I was involved in a road race last year where a small section of the course did go through a village with a 20 limit. There was no attempt to slow the riders through that village, but the following cars were instructed to observe the limit and then catch up as best they could. This did work OK on the day.

It looks to me as though the CTT has put another unnecessary nail in its own coffin.

More dead courses.

I think it's been 2.5 years since I've touched my TT bike and now I'm wondering if I'll ever race it again.

More dead courses

I know there are some, but isn't a highway authority imposing a 20mph limit just a far more expert and disinterested voice in the ear of a CTT risk assessor who had made the wrong call in the first place?

If they're assessing actual risk, then they still wouldn't be imposing a 20mph speed limit to bikes though. End result is people won't bother with courses with speed limits if you risk DQ for speeding.

CTT has put another unnecessary nail in its own coffin.

The first time a toddler gets killed by a tester doing 35mph in a 20mph zone, CTT is effectively dead because they will no longer be able to provide the one vital function of a national organising body, indemnity insurance for event organisers.

If they're assessing actual risk, then they still wouldn't be imposing a 20mph speed limit to bikes though.

Highway authorities aren't imposing a speed limit on pedal cycles, because they can't. CTT course designers, though, should consider whether it's appropriate to send head-down red-mist hands nowhere near the brakes testers at 35mph through a zone where the highway authority thinks the risks merit slowing motor traffic to 20mph

Sure. But the ACTUAL risk of incident is still low. Now I wonder what the force is of 100kg at 35mph vs. 1500kg at 20mph (not that anyone in a Range Rover has ever stuck to the speed limit)

I wonder how many years until all UK bike racing is just Zwift?

fredtc in reply to @clubman

Not sure I have a suitable bike. I’ve got something round tubes with 25mm rims but modern steel with etap. Could ride it on that?

Round steel tubes would be fine for this event.

Here's my final fixed TT bike - it's easy to exceed 20mph speed limits on this!

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If a tester killed a toddler under these circumstances I think it would be called reckless or dangerous riding (see above) - the speed limit question would be a rather minor evidential point. The outcome would be the same as before.

Highway authorities are not assessing actual risk - I believe Oxfordshire (for example) has imposed a blanket 20 limit on all its villages. This looks to me like following a political fashion.

I'll now be off grid for a couple of days, so I won't be able to respond again till I'm back.

I believe Oxfordshire (for example) has imposed a blanket 20 limit on all its villages.

I don’t know if this is true, but there is certainly a proliferation of new 20mph zones, including on several of our courses. The decision about whether a 20mph limit should be introduced seems to lie with the parish councils (source: my mum is a parish councillor and they recently caused a minor furore by implementing a 20mph limit for the picturesque expensive parts of the village while excluding the 70s developments who had apparently been requesting it… I think my mum is the only councillor who lives outside the zone).

Last time I went to a committee meeting our tt sec was saying that CTT would no longer insure any courses that ran through 20mph zones, but from the discussion on here it sounds like that is wrong (or has changed).

the ACTUAL risk of incident is still low

Yes, and even allowing for all the other factors, a tester doing an undiminished 35mph will do less damage than a 2500kg SUV (Range Rover Kerb Weight varies from 2454 to 2725 kg) which has automatic safety braked to 15mph before impact.
The issue is not really about the actuarial probability×damage, it's that it only has to happen once for CTT to become practically uninsurable.

Last time I went to a committee meeting our tt sec was saying that CTT would no longer insure any courses that ran through 20mph zones

That has never been CTT policy. As I've said many times before, what insurance does and doesn't cover, and under what conditions, is widely misunderstood and misrepresented by people who really should know better. If anybody ever claims "because insurance", ask to see the policy documents.

What is known, because it's in the annual report, is that a single major personal injury claim can spook the underwriters so much that the premium increase can cause a material concern about the financial viability of the sport at present revenue levels.