You are reading a single comment by @dancing james and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@dancing james
I really enjoyed the ride with Clive on Sunday.
[ame]http://connect.garmin.com/activity/110679011[/ame]
We met in Richmond park and had a clear idea of what we wanted to achieve. A moderate pace out to Windsor and back, relatively flat with one bump and a decent descent for Clive to test the handling of the new bike on descents.
Richmond park was entertaining, two guys decided to race past us and cut back in on the flat approaching Sawyers Hill, only to go into reverse the moment the gradient kicked in. Funnily later in the day I saw the same two guys riding back through central London (I had already been home, cleaned up and changed clothes and bike by this point). Clearly they were doing a long ride, so why the desire to act like Cat 6 commuters whilst in the park?
Most of our route out involved pushing against a headwind, nothing too strong but it did sap our legs a little bit. From the garmin stats its clear we both found it a little easier on our return leg, the pace upping by a couple of miles an hour.
Again this route was a bit of a history of Clive ride, taking in the maternity hospital where he entered the world and a couple of other points of interest. Additionally it actually covered a lot of the route he and I had done a couple of years ago with a bunch of people from the forum, so we twice went past the point where Clive had snapped the bolt on a seatpost.
It was fairly much a pancake route, so I was simply trying to keep my legs turning at a relatively constant pace, and quite enjoying leadout and shouting abuse at Clive on a couple of climbs to keep him attached to my wheel. After Saturday's Hell of the North it was nice to just clear the legs, and not have wheels spinning on muddy ascents.
The headwind stopped either of us breaking 40 mph on the drop back into Windsor. Clive had a look of glee from the descent, it really is the most simple, untechnical uncomplicated point the bike down the road and go. I have done it fixed before and would quite like to give it another go again.
The Magna Carta tea rooms are always a delight. Good sarnies, great cake (we both had a couple of bits of cakey goodness - pecan pie was great) and then had to set off home.
Somehow the rain cloud that was behind us managed to pass over head with barely a drop touching us, and we then spent the rest of the day chasing the rain, it was at times visibly raining further up the road from us (though only lightly) and we just had a little bit of roadspray to contend with.
There is something so moronically simplistic and pleasurable about few hours spent on a bike, not trying to prove oneself, just enjoying the scenery, the fresh air and the delightful company of a good friend.
I really hope Clive's jaunt next week goes well. He has put in the hours training and has such a healthy perspective and realistic aim of how to get there in his own good time. As was proven by the two numpties at the beginning of the day, going too fast too soon impresses no one. I have a feeling Clive's long term strategy will pay dividends next week.