Essex Afterworkers

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  • Too wet for titanium I'm afraid, will be coming on steel.

  • At balham st, but hiding inside-out of the drizzle.

  • That was fun! Cheers doc cake and blowfish, you are excellent riding companions.

  • Thanks for the ride=) good route, lovely scenery and no rain!

  • Thanks for the ride and encouraging me to keep going! It was a lovely route. I shall get better on hills and join you again sometime hopefully :)

  • Have you guys stopped doing these lately? I'm doing afterworkers with my workmates one day a week but they're terrifying to ride with because they're all over the place. I'd love to take them on one of these (one at a time, to reduce the Fear (my Fear, not theirs - they haven't got any Fear which is what makes them so scary :( )) so they can get a feel for how to ride in a group with people who know what they're doing. I realise this seems a bit gatecrashy and cunty but I have been meaning to come on some of these for ages in any case, and I'm not just thinking "yeah I can use this for bringing along randoms so I don't need to do any route work myself". Tell me to fuck off if it's a massive faux pas, though.

  • I don't think there's been a regular afterworker for quite a while.

    Would the TNRC be a bit quick for your colleagues?

  • I shouldn't think so - they're not novice cyclists as such, they're just not used to riding as part of a group. The only reason I haven't taken them out to TNRC is because I've got a class on Tuesday evenings, unfortunately.

  • It's great you're riding with them! Have you recommended cycle training to them? It may just be a lack of basic bike control skills.

  • I'd feel a right hypocrite telling them to do something I haven't even managed to do yet :p

    Nah, their control is fine, they're just not used to maintaining a steady pace and indicating when something changes, so there tends to be slowing down for no reason and without warning, and forgetting to make sure everybody knows where you're going before making turns. I've sold them short a bit by implying they're dangerous wobblers, they aren't really.

  • Hello! I got a bit fed up with work fucking over every attempt I made to organise an afterworker, so I've been doing them a bit but gave up posting. Things are a bit less nuts at work though so I am probably safe to get them going again. I'm off today but will check my work calendar tomorrow and see if I can get one in for Thursday and a couple in next week. (I'm off on holiday after that for a few weeks.)

    Attendance of others might be a bit low though as I haven't been doing them regularly (I think only two others came on the last organised one) so not sure how useful it'd be in that respect. I do like shouting 'HOLE!' and 'CRAP IN THE ROAD!' (sometimes also 'DEAD BADGER!' and 'LLAMA!') and other such instructionals though, so maybe that'll help.

  • Dead badger instructionals are always good. TBH it'd only really be the more experienced ones tagging along anyway as the more n00by types wouldn't be able to hack the distance/speed. If you do go for Thursday then I'll make a call on it on the day as I'm supposed to be shepherding them to Chertsey that evening but if it rains 99.9% of them will bedwet it, leaving me to do something more interesting / challenging.

    (btw top work on the tandem action at DD)

  • Sorry to intrude on your thread but thought this might interest some of you, especially if your rides have been infrequent of late.

    Would anyone be interested in riding to Lavenham with a few of us from Brentwood this weekend or next? It's nearly 100 miles there and back. In the past some londoners have caught the train out (about 25 mins) to ride with us doing other routes and said they enjoyed bypassing the city traffic to get to the countryside.

    Details here: http://www.lfgss.com/thread89249.html although the date isn't really fixed yet so feel free to suggest when you can make it

  • Anyone up for an evening ride in Kent? Perhaps 40-50 miles from Crystal Palace? Am thinking Beddlestead > Ide Hill (easy side) > make it up as go along.

  • When are you thinking of?

  • 730 Crystal Palace? I can be flexible though.

  • Today? I can’t do today, could do tomorrow instead though?

  • I could do that. But I will probably go tonight too. Let me know if you can do tomorrow, tomorrow...

  • Will do!

  • I can't do tonight as I've got stuff to do, but could/would like to do tomorrow too.

  • Ooh, I quite like the idea of tomorrow also.

  • Holly, re your friends, i don't think TNRC (or rosie et al) would appreciate a bunch of people coming along with no roadcraft or group ettiquette! i think you have the right idea in bringing along a couple of the more experienced ones and then good habits can diffuse from them/you on your own group rides.

    it's actually quite fun calling/pointing hazards, and actively thinking about keeping a group together on the road and adjusting your pace and approach to junctions and traffic with the whole group in mind. if your friends see people doing it well, they will probably fancy a bit of that!

    i know you know all this and have plenty of group ride experience, i'm just putting my thoughts down.

  • Yep, absolutely agreed - my intention was originally to take one along so that the concepts could gently filter down to the others. But! From what I've seen on our rides, they're not comfortable with the general actions and way of behaving that's needed during group rides with me taking the lead, so I'm less comfortable with the idea of bringing any of them along to something like TNRC or essex afterworkers. I find them difficult to manage and they're resistant to being "taught", especially by me.

    So basically, bollocks to the lot of them, I'm going out to enjoy my bicycle with people who are not trying to kill me*.

    *i realise this is quite defeatist but there's not much point in trying to persuade people to do tings they don't want to do innit

  • I could do that. But I will probably go tonight too. Let me know if you can do tomorrow, tomorrow...

    I can do today, today!

  • Yep, absolutely agreed - my intention was originally to take one along so that the concepts could gently filter down to the others. But! From what I've seen on our rides, they're not comfortable with the general actions and way of behaving that's needed during group rides with me taking the lead, so I'm less comfortable with the idea of bringing any of them along to something like TNRC or essex afterworkers. I find them difficult to manage and they're resistant to being "taught", especially by me.

    So basically, bollocks to the lot of them, I'm going out to enjoy my bicycle with people who are not trying to kill me*.

    *i realise this is quite defeatist but there's not much point in trying to persuade people to do tings they don't want to do innit

    This does not bode well for my idea of gentle spins after work with my colleagues.

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Essex Afterworkers

Posted by Avatar for tricitybendix @tricitybendix

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