Time Trial / Time Trialling / TT

I guessed weinman 500s , they were ridiculously light and cheap.
I thought 017 was a fairly premium tubing, again very light.

I thought 017 was a fairly premium tubing

I think all the Ishiwata butted sets were pretty much the same price, you just got less for your money with the lighter sets 🙂 I think it might have been slightly cheaper than 531C at the time, but there wasn't much in it. The gauging is more like 531SL/Pro

What I should have done instead of getting 017 to my exact requirements from the friendly shop was put up with the grumpy bloke in Rotrax telling me what he would build for me.

Turns out 017 wasn't the "Record Breaker", I set my 25 PB and club record on 022 Speed gallant on the next bike after the white one.

1 Attachment

I thought you set your pb on the T3?

No, best 25 on the T3 is a 59:25, that's nearly 5 minutes slower than my PB

To be strictly fair, I did do four 25 mile PBs on the white bike, starting with a 1:10:56 in my début at the distance and dropping to 1:0:49 by the end of the season. I also took a less impressive 35 seconds off my pre-existing 10 PB in three steps the same year, going from 24:33 to 23:58

Oh, and here was I hoping that as yet unimagined technology would yield a lifetime of future pbs...

how the hell do you remember 35-year-old PBs?!

i can't even remember last year's end-of-season PB

All good racers take notes :)

I don't know my current time PBs but I could dig them out.

i write mine in the calendar to be fair, but i think my wife binned 2019

CTT site has them now, for the last few years anyway.

how the hell do you remember 35-year-old PBs?!

Back then, I had custom Filofax pages printed to record the details required on the standard entry form, which was much more comprehensive than the modern one. I switched to an Open Office spreadsheet in the 21st Century and transcribed the Filofax pages just a couple of years ago.

In the mid 90s, I even went so far as to use database functions on a Psion 3 to pull the info into the fields on the entry form and lay them out for overprinting the pre-printed form. Not that testers tend to be geeks or anything 🙂

Without any written records, I'd still remember that 25. It was one of those special mornings when you just stick it in top gear and spin the cranks like you're not even trying. I had a stopwatch on the bars but no computer, and was on a course variant I hadn't ridden before. After what seemed like a ridiculously short time, I went flying past two blokes sat beside the road, with what may or may not have been a small chequered board. Unsure of the position, I thought it best to give it the benefit of the doubt and kept on the gas for the four minutes or so remaining until my old PB expired. I sat up and rolled back to the HQ, and seeing nobody else by the roadside it became obvious that those two blokes must have been the timekeepers. There was always an element of guesswork in the olden days with no hi viz, no GPS and no Google street view for pre-race reconnaissance. You tell kids that today and they won't believe you.

You tell kids that today and they won't believe you.

Nah I've been to rowing races these days where it's hard to tell where the hell the finishing line is, I believe you.

Yet, some of us 'kids' still manage to sit up before their 100mi is finished, or get lost on a 100mi so they end up doing 106mi or forget their shoes or...

I got lost on my first open 25, going straight on at a roundabout rather than turning left, despite the signs and marshals. When I realised and turned around, I dropped my water bottle - back in those days I'd take a bottle on a 25. Ended up doing 26.2 miles. The chap I overtook twice looked a bit perplexed at my reappearance.

On what would have been a 50 pb at the time, I rode straight past the sliproad off the A3 where the finish line was. Pulled off about 100 yard down the road and approached the TK on foot, which he was a bit confused by.

First time at our Club TT I missed a turn and took a later turn which rejoined the course past the finish, so I ended up riding back past the finish line in the wrong direction....

I've ridden onto the motorway ramps on more than one occasion during 25s.
I think I've taken wrong exits during most races to be honest.

That's not bad. I didn't even know I'd taken a wrong turn in the 100 until I noticed the next RAB where I was approaching other riders from a different direction and thought something was off. Distance confirmed my detour at the finish. This was the same 100mi I wore sneakers during after leaving my shoes on @fasteddy drive. I wasn't last and since it was my first 100mi it was still a PB (and got mentioned in CW) :)

so I got myself a TT bike

What did you get?

how the hell do you remember 35-year-old PBs?!

How can you not remember a PB?

My own PB 25 was done in 1987 - a mere 33 years ago. If I'm spared for another couple of years I'll let you know if I can still remember it.

I know someone (not Tester's Dad BTW) who has his whole TT career (fifties to nineties) recorded in handwritten diaries. This amounts to about 800 rides, and the danger is that allowed half a chance he will give you a pedal stroke by pedal stroke account of every one of them.

Damn. I can't even recall a race the same day I finished it.

(not Tester's Dad BTW) who has his whole TT career (fifties to nineties)

Obviously not my dad, as his runs 40s to teens, and if they let us race, the 20s 🙂 Despite the common break for National Service/career progression/raising a family, he has actually done 50 consecutive seasons since restarting.

How can you not remember a PB?

Some are more memorable than others. As described, the 25 stands out in the memory. The 10 I know what time I did, but it was just one of several very similar rides on the same course and the different memories of those tend to get conflated - was it the one my brother promoted, the one where the comp record was broken, the one where I knew at the end of the entry slip after less than a minute that I was on a ride? The 50 I have to look up to even see what time it was (and it was nothing special) and I don't recall any particular moment - I've covered some parts of the A31 at least 80 times this century, so they definitely tend to merge in to one recurring nightmare.

How can you not remember a PB?

i dunno man, i'm not very fast. last season (only my 5th and even that's been on and off) i think i broke my PB 2 or 3 times. can't remember each one of those!

they definitely tend to merge in to one recurring nightmare.

This.