2009-06-21 Sun - BHF London to Brighton

are they as rare as the full campag BMX gruppo?
They were Campagnolo (C?) Record Pista cranks from the late 80's/90's, when it was the vogue in the British time-trailing scene to use long single ring cranks. Now and again they do pop up on Ebay.

I sold them to a bloke in America who then improved his times for the kilo on the track, compared to his previous shorter cranks ... uurrgghhh ... wish I never sold them :(

Campag don't make them any more but you can get Shimano Dura Ace Track and Sugino 75's in 175mm lengths.

Did the ride geared, as I'd been out of action for over a month with a broken hand. Stupidly woke up late and missed my 6.30 slot, ended up setting off about 8.45. As a result - lots of climbing hills on foot, mainly because there was no room to cycle in. For some reason I also don't climb as well geared as fixed (counter-intuitively), or else I think I would have been a bit more confident weaving through the pushers. And there was a lot of idiots doing stupid stuff on the downhill runs. Felt more like I was commuting in heavy traffic than anything else.

Apart from that - lovely weather for it, nice countryside and generally enjoyable.

Next year, I might do it fixed and make sure I set off at 6am, we'll see.

Next year, I might do it fixed and make sure I set off at 6am, we'll see.

How about, next year, we all start as a 'club' together at 6am.

Hangovers from the night before are actively encouraged :)

The highest gear I've done the whole L2B (and Ditchling) was 47x15 (84 GI) but I cheated, stopping at the foot of Ditchling to rest for 10 mins, smoked a rollie, ate an ice cream, then stomped the pedals all the way up the Beacon, pee'ing off all the geared geezers walking up :) Also had the secret weapon of some super long 177.5mm Campag 'climbing' cranks then!

Confused: crank length is one component of GI calculation. Sounds like you were on fewer gear inches than you thought.

Did it this year again, last year geared with a friend who "trained" for it. Started at 9 o'clock and it was painful, alhough I managed to pick my way around all the people. Finish time 7 hours (at a friends pace)

This year on my own, started at 6 o'clock SS made it up he beacon again! Finish time 3 hrs 25 mins, then cycled home just over 100 miles 6 hrs 25mins.

So next year I will do it again but fixed, raised enough cash to get priority place if anyone fancies a team effort (fixed).

Oh year 72 inches.

(my 2ps worth)

Did it this year fixed (48x18), 9:30 start - found it ok but got held up a lot in the first 25miles, spent a lot of time queueing.

It's a shame people don't walk on the left on all the hills, like they do going up Ditchling?!