Good people of the forum

I try not to think too much about how much time I waste on the forum. But I am always happy to think about all of the genuinely great people and exception experiences I’ve had by hanging with them. Almost all of my bike life is somehow intertwined with you people and most of what I know about bikes comes from LFGSS (this is both good and a little bit bad :)
Below is a vaguely chronological list of people on the forum who’ve had a positive impact on me. In a deeply fucked up world and one that has pushed all towards being kind of salty online this could be a thread to give a shout out to nice people or a nice memory. Or maybe I just might keep posting here until the forum book comes out in March 2022.

In only vaguely chronological order:
@|³|MA3K and the OGs – never got to be an OG and they intimated me, but I was a John Mack fan when Circle Line and Bridges rides were big. I see him as everything that was fun and rowdy about riding fixed. Also OG-wise @6pt was doing things on road and track bikes in 2012 I wouldn’t understand for another 10 years. We are friends now, but I have only ridden a bike with him 3 times I think and one of those he doesn’t remember (and it was to Brighton!)

@Dropout regaled me with history and insights during an overnight ride to Avebury when I got dangerously sleepy. This also got me an invite to his forum birthday party at a Thai restaurant in Ladbroke Grove which was full of great forum people. His London Light Christmas rides were so fun that I took over the reigns for a bit. A man universally adored for good reason.

I kept bumping into @KT_Bee on different forum rides, and memorably one deliciously salty one led by @dancing james after some wasteman bailed on his own ride and the weather and route were shit (sorry DJ, too much time on the B2036). Katy turned out to be smart, funny, a very good rider and a tough as nails rower. She is also hot shit at her job.

DJ also taught me how to follow a wheel in a group on my first Hard Day in January. While our personality Venn Diagram doesn’t do a lot of overlapping, it doesn’t mean I’m not grateful for his insight and have fond memories of that day. And of course @clubman for organising the HDIJ rides and being my no-nonsense road inspiration for many years.

@BringMeMyFix was a TNRC leader when I first started and was capital ‘F’ Fast b was nice to me even though I was and am a clueless chopper. @middleofnowhere took over the TNRC reins and he (and the woman in his ear) led me and the TNRC crew on maybe my favourite riding I’ve done. The rides always seemed to be the right distance and ended with an invariable fun time in the pub. Matt and the rest of the crew ended up becoming real friends. Important moments happen too: while riding through the sunsets over different seasons with @Rod_Munch we talked consistently and I watched him go from being in a not great relationship to happily married Crouch End Power Dad. I still don’t understand how he rode out and back to all those TNRCs.

@almac68 and @Bernie for taking me to Belgium twice and showing me all the roads of Flanders and Roubaix when I’d never watched a pro race and didn’t even know that cycling was A Thing in Belgium.
“Dan this is a famous climb called the Muur.”
Me back home: “I rode up some cobbled street to a church and I did it fixed!”
You guys are great, sorry that youth is wasted on the young.

Sort of like KTBee I bumped into @pastry_bot a number of different forum rides, to Brighton, to the Stones, on the M25 Orbital Ride. Only in the last few years did we do a fair amount of riding together, but he helped me think about where to ride and what bike shit is good (and especially what is unnecessary). He is a wealth of knowledge and experience, and helped give me the courage to do trips to the Yorkshire Moors and the Peak District. Sorry about that last Peaks trip btw dude.

I met @cagimaha through TNRC and then we started doing the odd Toys Hill Loop© together. He helped scrape me off the floor in December when I broke my goddamn femur at the bottom of Beddlestead. Propped me up, called the ambo, visited me in hospital. He’s one of humanity’s greatest humans imo.

Machine gun:
@cgg 's savoir faire
@Kat_Balou and @OneLessCardigan 's hospitality and early 2010s rides
@Stonehedge when we rode to St Margarts Bay with the guy who had the 6ft long map
Knowing that @HoKe is gonna HoKe even if he doesn’t have a double spokk’d Crackyon
All the muddy fuckers like @BareNecessities who showed me that going offroad is an acceptable thing to do and @ioreka who helped me be Team Pomp Princess at NYD Madison CX among many other shared SE London japes.
@Mickie_Cricket, @Sparky, @pastry_bot and @amey have been with me through torque wrench fiascos, boiling cranks on a stove, and seeing a man wipe his own cat’s butt. We all also share the bond of being friends with Amey.

I could go on. The forum is pretty good, but there are a lot of great people behind those keyboards.

Fond memories mate, we only rode together a few times but they always seemed to be eventful and memorable for the right reasons.

@Velocio for making it all possible, putting me on the naughty step when I completely unravelled and then allowing me back

@31trum for making west beers the institution it once was which helped me get involved

@dammit for many things including loaning me a bike so I could take one on holiday

@digger for directing me to the life I lead these days

@scherrit for introducing me to the person I am now partnered with

@|³|MA3K for the rides

@hillbilly for building my first proper bike

@BringMeMyFix for support and knowledge

@cliveo and @tw for great counsel in moments of stress

@skydancer for giving me cycle training which opened up an entire career change

@dovvles / senor bear for support

@tom. for starting me mountain biking

@Jacqui for being inspirational when I first joined

@clefty for the warm welcome

This list could go on and on, it’s great to focus on the good bits

@youramericanlover your diary records from our first ever Flanders trip in 2012 was pure gold. That and you towing me on the return leg for HDiJ with @clubman our legend forum member waiting patiently for us to finish at HQ

My brain is just too fuzzy right now to shout out everyone I rolled with since joining, the London Classic / Cobblemonster @OneLessCardigan @Zebra_Cyclist @Skülly @dubkev
Ride of the Falling Leaves @Bernie, Urban hill climb Swains Lane @Rapsac and Winston, Hell of Ashdown, Tweed Runs @General_Lucifer, Olympic Bike Ballet @Miss_Mouse @ada, Prosecco Gran Fondo @hats @esstee @KT_Bee @bothwell, Chiltern 100, Ardennes Bomb squad @OneLessCardigan @braker @esstee @bothwell @branwen Oxford Town and Gown with Mary Poppins and the Chimney Sweeps @hats @ian(conker) @cafewanda Strykeprøven in Norway @esstee , Roubaix Velodrome / shower block / western Flanders @youramericanlover @ian(conker), Grand Slams in a Day, North Beers c/wDeath TT, Hell of North London, Guinness Rides @bernie, West Beers @31trum, Rollapaluza rides @maxl, Muddy Hell @Rapsac, Dunwich Dynamo @Miss_Mouse, Waifs and Strays @Digger, Wake up to Muff @Mickie_Cricket Green tea meet ups with @Oliver Schick @cliveo My bike box loan outs which has travelled extensively around Europe, which I haven’t seen for nearly a decade and probably deserved its own thread...

so many beautiful people on this forum 🥰🥰🥰 loads of names missing above but the biggest love is for @Velocio

Meeting + drafting on @clubman wheel on one of the HDiJ is a big one for me.

Big love to @Oliver Schick for keeping me company while being slow af on my 1 and only London Classic/Cobblemonstėr riding a bmx

And generally being a badass

All the muddy fuckers like BareNecessities who showed me that going offroad is an acceptable thing to do

Acceptable? I think you'll find it's the very best thing you can do on a bike :-)

Roughly in order:

I think @Crop was the first I met off the forum at a Critical Mass. They say you never forget your first time.

HDiJ was my first forum ride and is also my most local ride, so it will always have a special place for me. The couple of times I've ridden it the riders have been tough but also very fun and accommodating. I can't remember everyone I've met on that ride.

@clubman is an inspirational rider to me. He always says how he was never a particularly fast or powerful rider in his prime, but I want to make sure I can still ride like him when I'm his age. Memory 1: a very chilled pre-50s ride with him, @falconvitesse and @anidel but sadly Ani had a crash and bent his Gillott. Memory 2: he invited me round to one of the club meets one evening and it was cool having a beer locally with 10-15 riders in their 70s and 80s, all local race winners and ex TT champions!

@Eseman for sorting me out with local parking near Kings College Hospital when we were about to deal with a difficult hospital visit and the parking regulations we were relying on changed about a week before. We'd never met before and he just offered to help. Was glad to meet him in real life, to say thanks and explain the situation (and I still owe you a coffee and a cake someday)

seeing a man wipe his own cat’s butt

whaddd?!!! I need to go out on more forum rides.

I'm adding you @dancing james for always kindly phoning to check to see how I am, which I always an greatful of.

Recall some of the aforementioned. Shout out to @ma3k for many rides to the coast, @pajamas for Those Bright Bright Lights rides especially with Tron Sq, @middleofnowhere for steering me - half cut - the wrong way up many one way streets to be first to the next pub on @Bernie 's Guinness fandango

❤️❤️

This thread is making me tear up. I can't even begin to explain the impact that some of you reprobates have had on my life.

Big love to @Oliver Schick for keeping me company while being slow af on my 1 and only London Classic/Cobblemonstėr riding a bmx

And generally being a badass

YOU doing the cobbles on your bmx.

It was Cannonbie and Eliot Bank wot done me

And no cobbles will prepare someone for the bomb holes of Elliot Bank

I can't even begin to explain the impact that some of you reprobates have had on my life.

This in spades Hats. Hope you’re well btw!

@PhilDAS who although Amey thinks is a cunt gave me a great winter baselayer for free (+ charity donation). That baselayer saved my ass 3 times last winter.

Also big love to @BareNecessities for keeping me not lost in Epping

Oh, this is just lovely! There’s lots of overlap between my list and @youramericanlover ‘s. I’ve had so many amazing experiences: my first forum ride to Cambridge, Flanders and the Prosecco ride led by @almac68 and Bernie, the Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday night ride clubs, Souths at the Coach and Horses, BToB and all its spin offs, overnight rides to Essex, Bath and (memorably) round the Isle of Wight with @Rodmunch and @middleofnowhere , @Oliver Schick for tempting me out of tagging retirement … the forum really is the friendliest place on the internet and in London (as long as you stay out of the football, politics and golf club threads).

Thanks for the mention @youramericanlover, yes definitely jumped into people scene with the double spoke Fuji back in the days and then he countless crackyons too. I think there was been many downs with riding bikes but I do remember one time me and yourself riding regents parks in the early hours of 6am (when we were young and active and I think you just had a child too…) where you turned up with your bibs shorts inside out and had to chance inside the bike (thank god it was dark out no?) ;)

Granted I did get dropped on every lap from you so served me right to lol…

Come back from Kent soon man! Miss your vibes and energy!

Hilarious and mortifying

Should there be a new thread for drug addled OG forum members whom when confronted in face to face situations to say to an actual person what they claim online suddenly become very apologetic. Then claim they will apologise online then never do, then make claims more claims?

Or should we have a OG forum members that buy stuff on here, don't pay for it and then sell it on on the same forum for more money and still not pay the original vendor?

Asking for a new forum member.

Should we not mention you and others for organising informational rides such as underground London.

Can I mention thinking you were another forum member, while talking to you?

To the forum ride organisers, from the bridges rides, rides to brighton and else where and general fixed gear wanderings. Let us not forget the waifs and strays rides.

This forum has some great people and great moments.