London, here I come

aidan soup what do you think,being american and all??

I dont know exactly what youre asking. Do I as a white american feel remorse for native americans and other nations oppressed by white people in the past? Not really. Partly because i was raised in a chinese-american household (my step dad is 8th generation american-born chinese), and partly because whitey in the bay area is a minority, and thank god for that. Isnt central london the same deal; more minorities than white people? I have more of an immigrant mentality than a white-as-rice anglo-saxon, minoritys are disrupting the fabric of quality american life, type deal.

just intrested,thanks*

dicki david why don't our posts appear in the final version as we type them is there something in the bqackground getting rid of spaces gaps paragraphs etc ?

Text as you type doesn't actually happen on the web, HTML collapses white space, and to give the site additional security against Cross-Site-Scripting vulnerabilities we use "BBCode" rather than HTML. Also the final output is more accessible and well-formatted than what you would type.

So to do all of that, the text as you type it, isn't that which is displayed.

right i was just saying, that some freinds of mine who are native american indians have the opinoun that white people should go back to where ever they came from, i cant tak more about thier opinouns beacuse i am not them.

i worte a lot, but deleted it, beacuse i dont really think people are interested in a long debate. basicly i feel thus, you would not generaly call a white south african african, so i would not call myself american, if asked, i sometimes say white north american, or northa american of irish decent.

Well there is no such thing as an american race, it is made up of european immigrants who have lived there for a long long time. It's true that these new settlers killed a lot of the indiginous when they got to the new land. My friend went to nevada and told me all about it...

Ive got a couple more days left here before Im flying over by you guys and I had a couple questions.

1. Weather? How are you all dressing lately?

2. My bikes a no-go. Huge well what the hell do I do now bummer. My group got all political on how its such a burdeon on the group to be bringing a bicycle so Im stuck without it. Have you seen any bike rentals around london? While im at it, any places you might have seen renting tandems? Fun times there.

weather http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml

i am currently sitting here in a towel i suggest you don't copy that the bottom bits could get caught in the chain

kilts are the latest fashion craze amongst us london fixed riders with no undercrackers

Weather wise, occasional spots of rain requiring light waterproofs. It's still hot and sticky, though the mornings feel a little fresh (we're talking 7am here, it's fine by 9am). Dress for the sweat, shorts and shirts rather than anything too long or heavy. Just be ready if it does rain (not that it has for a few days now, the rain was a week ago and now it's getting hot again).

There are bike rentals, you'll end up with either a folder or a mountain bike.

This PDF file lists bike hire shops in London:
http://www.lcc.org.uk/documents/bike%20hire%20shops%20london(1).pdf

HAH Budgie bikes has a tandem. Thanks for that.

how long are you around for i am sure we could hook you up with some things to do bike polo on sundays
we wouldn't let you suffer the indignity of riding a folder i would give up a bike from my stable to prevent that from happening. quite a few people have bike polo bikes these days so there should definately be a spare bike of some sort about

TheBrick Britsh food and vegan do not do together.

At the risk of being a grumpy old so and so what rot. Veganism is a British tradition and most of the western ethical case for animal welfare, veganism and vegitarianism stems from the original vegan society in the UK set up in 1944!) That’s over 60 yrs vegans have been cooking casseroles, setting jellies, stuffing pies, roasting potatoes and veg, stewing stew, simmering soup, rolling vegan bangers to go with liquer and mash and making seitan (the English equivalent to tofu made from gluten) in the British Isles.

Im losing sunday entirely because of flight and the time difference, and then im leaving that saturday so Im not gonna have a chance to check out your local bike polo, even tho I wouldve liked to. Yeah im definitely not ready for that folding bike, but a tandem bikes something else entirely. If anyones available next week to ride or has a bike I could borrow for a day let me know on this site, by email, or somehow so we can meet up and Ill buy you beer. My emails Kevin.R.Tong@gmail.com .

I'm up for it.

Sunday is out as I'm doing 80 miles fast on a geared bike as part of my Etape training.

The rest of the time is cool though, just say when and where.

im down,this event seems to meet my qulifications 1 free, 2 involves bikes

Hah sounds good! Whats your numbers? Ill hit you up next monday and see when youre not busy. I dunno what sort of communicae im going to have over there, doubt my cellphone coverage is good overseas. If anything Im just staying at the Sheraton Park Tower and number for there is 020 7235 8050. Names Kevin Tong btw.

Your mobile most likely won't work. The USA use a different frequency and technology than anywhere else in the world (Iraq excepted as the system was foisted on them too). It may be that you do have a tri-band phone with GSM already, and that your plan covers overseas use. My bet though, is that you don't. The majority of Americans I know who have been over here lost the use of their phones upon arrival. So unless it was something you specifically bought, I wouldn't bet that you have it.

Just head into an internet cafe and give as a post on here, try and do it sunday if poss then people who can't access the net at work can chime in. Vegansdon'tneedgears might be able to meet you earlier but I am sure we could do some arly evening late afternoon action.

Hey folks, I'll be visiting your fair city from Chicago the first week of June and then I'll be back July 7-9 (going to Copenhagen and probably Amsterdam in-between). I'm staying a few extra days to catch the Prologue and Stage 1 of the Tour that second weekend - It'll be a new experience for me so I was wondering if you LFG'ers have any plans to attend the race, cool stuff that's happening around it, whether anyone's planning to see the race outside of London, etc. Second, I'd like to take a nice long ride to see the city in addition to see the sites. Any hints on borrowing or renting a bike?

I'm on the Chicago Fixed Gear Forum. Thanks for your help!

def a people watching the tour & people to show you round town. Mosty pewople at the pub azt the moment so hold up a bit. I just goein .

T

yep, few of us are going to watch the prologue.
keep an eye on the forum

check out the calender,its quite intresting

Hey there. I host ChiFG for Naz, velocity boy on there too.

We've got a load of stuff going down around the TdF prologue, if you're on a bike you can ride in with us and get space on the LCC viewing platform for the day.

The calendar is packed around then, so check that too (tab at the top).

I can't lend you a bike for the first week of June (hasn't that passed already?) but depending on size you might be able to borrow my polo bike for the July 7-9 section of your stay.

Whereabouts are you staying in London? and did you want people to show you around, or just to be given some pointers and left alone?

Hi David, I recognize you from chifg, I also read the London thread on there. I'd love to ride with you guys if I can find a bike. The biggest I normally go is 53-54ish (being a girl) - I appreciate the offer, maybe it'll work out! Perhaps you guys know of a bike shop that would rent me a beater or something if all else fails. (oh, and I meant last week of June).

My itinerary is kind of up in the air. I'm actually going to watch a friend play at Wimbledon and I should be staying with her at least June 23-27, although I can only watch so much tennis so I'll be going to museums, walking/hopefully biking around town, etc. during some of those days. Anyone who wants to do the tourist (or pub) thing with me, come along! Depending on when she's out of the tournament, we were going to travel for a week or so and then I'm coming back to London on the 6th and leaving for home on the 9th. I've no idea where I'm staying that weekend; that's my task for today: find a cheap hotel or hostel. A good friend of mine recommended a place near the Russell Square tube stop (which I remember as being very centrally located from my first trip to London a couple of years ago).

Russell Sqaure is very central. So that would definitely work. Looking a bike up around there overnight is a risk, but if it's a beater then it should be alright.

Sat 23 June - Wed 27 June, not actually a great deal going on;

Bike Polo on the Sunday, if you were here on the Friday you could hang out with us all done the pub.
If you're into indie/alternative pop music, then on the Saturday there is this:
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/17139
If you like Pulp/Jarvis Cocker then he's playing at the South Bank as part of the Meltdown series, sold out but you could get tickets from a tout.
Saturday I'm sure you'll be busy just settling in.

Happy to meet you for lunch if you're going near the British Museum as I work pretty much on it's doorstep (not literally, I'm not a beggar, just a building one street away).

On Monday or Tuesday night if you have a bike sorted I'm sure a few of us would be happy to give you a tour of the West End, City, Canary Wharf, Greenwich and back via the Embankment. It'll clock up about 15 to 20 miles depending on how we ad-lib it.

Happy to advise on pubs and restaurants if you give an idea of your preference and budget.

Now, for the second part of the trip, the July 6th to July 9th part. London will be crazy. Tour de France is going to dominate everything.

You're very welcome to join us for viewing it, if you can get a bike you can tag along the whole weekend and just have a blast.

I've got a spare bed if that works for you (no offence will be taken if you tell me to stick it), but the problem is I'm out West about 9 miles from the center, so you can't get too hammered unless you're cool riding a bike in that state. I'm also going to crash the Rapha party on the Saturday, so if you're tagging along I'll get you in too.

Anyhow, Tour de France weekend:

Friday:
Roller party, several other parties, opening ceremony.
Saturday:
Ride in, prologue, viewing stand, Rapha party, other parties.
Sunday:
Early morning all the pro's gather on Westminster Bridge, Start of Stage 1, party, bike polo, party.

I'll ask around to see if anyone has a smaller bike going spare. Would gears offend you?

PS: My email address is on the members page thing, feel free to bug me as you travel around.

bring your bike! It's free on most airlines.

y