2009-09-20 - London freewheel

Anyone heading in from Walthamstow direction in the next wee while?

Aye if you swing past Dalston on your way in...

Surprisingly little nodder carnage.. today looked neater than a Bridges ride! Ha!
Saw a couple of kids hit the deck but that's to be expected with so many people.
Mal and I had a good time and by the end of the day she was splitting gaps like mad woman.

Sorry we didn't connect hael. Hi Jacqui.. would've stopped for a chat but we had lunch to race to! :)

what does "nodder" mean?

what does "nodder" mean?

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nodder

So much better than the real definition.

Had a bunch of fun at this today - I think it's great to see so many people out on bikes and enjoying it so much. It was slow as getting around the congested bits, but as people have said, it wasn't about going fast anyway.

Got handed a flyer from a "mobile bike repair" outfit... £19 for a puncture repair - I'm in the wrong business!

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nodder

So much better than the real definition.

Yet another term for a blow job.
I had a wicked nodder last night!

hahaha

as they said - you can ride a traffic free route. well it was even worse.
good fun though. people like sheep going round in circles.
elvis was there, unicycles and unipacks.

I liked the drummers at each end of the tunnel.

aye the drummers bought a smile to my face.

any corner was pretty much a bottleneck disaster waiting to happen...

but... got a clear run down the Mall on the way back, just before they opened it up to traffic again :)

I liked last years' but this time it was a bit annoying. You had to be on your guard constantly with people cutting you up left right and centre, people on crappy full suspension "mountain" bikes pulling in front of you and then failing to get up hills, and most of all marshals making everyone stop at every red light, despite the complete absence of traffic. To be honest I much prefer mixing it with the cars.

But I chatted to a guy on a beautiful silver Hill Special, met some Moultoneers, saw Chris Hoy, and it's one of the few times I get to go on a proper bike ride with my girlfriend.

There was one quite serious crash, over near all hallows, just on the way down from there. Guy was being loaded into ambulance. Saw a new pista proped up, dunno if it was his.

Was a good day though, lovely weather... very very slow ride though!

Did the ride today with the Mrs. and our neighbours. Met Kirth and I think we all enjoyed a little pootle through town although the density of cyclists was a bit mad. We did shoot off after a lap and enjoyed a nice ride to a pub.

I think it's a great event and if it encourages people to get out and cycle, then it's all good.

I don't know how that accident happened but it was pretty serious judging by the guy being loaded into the ambulance.

enjoyed it. we did one loop that took ages. very very slow, partly cos of traffic and partly cos my son was asleep most of the route. had to ride with one hand on the bars and another under his sleepy head. bit sketchy with lots of little kids weaving across everywhere. didnt really annoy me but you'd think here's an opportunity for parents to teach their kids how to ride on the road, uummm, how about teaching them how to ride straight?

saw few fckheads going really fast and idiots going around ped xings along the pavement. W(A)Cs.

but all in all, it was a top day. we were at the kids play area/facepainting when hoy was being interviewed next door.

"There were many, many reasons to love Skyride London. But perhaps the best was the way it brought the many cycling tribes together. There were Mums and Dads with their children in trailers. There were London's cooler-than-cool fixie community, weaving amid the two-wheeled crowds on their custom fixed wheel bikes."

"There were many, many reasons to love Skyride London. But perhaps the best was the way it brought the many cycling tribes together. There were Mums and Dads with their children in trailers. There were London's cooler-than-cool fixie community, weaving amid the two-wheeled crowds on their custom fixed wheel bikes."

where's that from ?

from here...

http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/skyride/london

Didn't see Hael or Hippy there, I left on the 11am Ealing one, great day out, there were some complete TT-wannabe idiots though, actually saw some guy bombing up the mall swerving through kids on the aero bars, WTF?!

All in all a great day though!

I saw a few fixers out but none I recognised. Orange bike + deep white rims w/ white hair and safety glasses was probably the most obvious.

anyone see the fixer with Black and anodized red bike. Nice red risers but no grips

Numbers were reported to be quite high, leading to a noticeably more congested route. I liked the 'City loop' best, as that hopefully points the way to a route in future years that will take in more landmark streets and more of the actual centre.

Why don't they organise this ride in the spring or beginning of summer? It's great to see people cycling around including many who clearly don't do it regularly. It's a good way to get people to build up some confidence but doing it right before the weather turns sour seems to me to guarantee that a lot of them will shelve their bikes until next Skyride.

Good point. Email the organisers with it?

The LCC is calling for 'Cycle Sundays' to take place in each local authority area in London on Sundays over the warmer part of the year. (There are 33 local authorities in London.)

This year's 'Mini-Freewheel' in LB Hounslow was the first locally-based ride that was independent of the main Freewheel, so it is to be hoped that other LAs will follow suit.

What about these "Cycle Fridays" I keep seeing posters for?

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/12293.aspx