Prince_Florizel

Most recent activity

• "If you want to ride in the middle of the road pay road tax!"

  in General • 15 years, 3 months

  

  I had a variation on this with a hilariously exasperated woman shouting 'Why are you in [sic] the road! Get out [sic] of the road!'

  Not only were there parked cars on either so she wouldn't have been able to get past even if I had been gutter hugging, there were a set of traffic lights on red barely 20 yards ahead.

  I just looked back and grinned at her in a friendly fashion.

• Lots of cops essex road...

  in General • 15 years, 5 months

  

  I think it was, as overdrive said, for rlj-ing. I suppose they might have been giving advice as well, but the two people in front of me who rlj-ed were stopped, and the people who stopped at the lights weren't.

• Remember kids... always wear a helmet. (The almighty bikeradar helmet thread)

  in General • 15 years, 7 months

  

  I take it you support a helmet law for pedestrians then?

  I did see a young lad walking around wearing a helmet the other day. 'Funny little fellow,' I thought.

  Maybe it was whitestuffracer.

• Fixed Bike Shops: Duty of Care to Shoppers

  in General • 15 years, 7 months

  

  Surely can't hurt for bike shop staff to say, 'Most people who ride fixed would say it's probably advisable to get some sort of foot retention,' and leave them to make their own decision.

  'Yeah ok can you take the goddam fake bell off tho?' is an acceptable answer.

• Spotted...

  in General • 15 years, 8 months

  

  Struggling up the incline that runs alongside Rotten Row, face like a big pink ham, hulking desperately over his handlebars, slugging away at the pedals like a heavyweight boxer on the ropes, in a completely unsuitable thick blazer...

  Andrew Neil!

  'Come on! Knees up, Brillo you old cvnt!' was what I wanted to shout, but sadly I was past him before I could do anything other than grin like an idiot.

  I don't think he would have noticed tbh. He didn't seem aware of much going on around him. Eyes fixed sightlessly on the tarmac in front of his front tyre.

  Well, we've all been there, I suppose.

• South London hills

  in General • 15 years, 8 months

  

  Chalkpit - deceptively steep; lures you into a false sense of security (a false flat?); just after the hairpin, you realise it's stabbed you in the chest and pummelled your arms with a baseball bat.

  Very much that. Although the false flat is still very much uphill, it's just less uphill than that dreadful hairpin - I'm sure that's the steepest bit, but you're quite right, the steep bit after that is the one that punches you in the gut.

  Toys (steep side) - the ramp that just keeps getting steeper, and has a laxative effect on the final section.

  Made me snort a small bit of beer onto my keyboard this. It's quite true.

• South London hills

  in General • 15 years, 8 months

  

  Ah, I knew I knew it, but I haven't been up it, fixed or otherwise. Yes, might well give it a go at some point, thanks for the invite.

  [q]Is 69 gear inches to much?[/q]

  Difficult to say really, I wouldn't think it would be too much though. I haven't ever ridden it on fixed though, in fact it's a while since I've been up it on anything. As I say, it IS short, so if you feel you can do it with one big effort, then you might be able to go with something highish (not velodrome high - going up hills high).

• South London hills

  in General • 15 years, 8 months

  

  I was going to say that I haven't been up Swains, but actually it rings a bell, where is it again? Description of Chalkpit would go something like, from railway bridge at the bottom - slight incline (300 yards?), followed by longer stretch of something slightly steeper (this was the bit that always got me - you know what's coming but you're already struggling slightly - going down through the gears on a road bike), then up past the quarry (from whence it gets its name), steeper now, and steeper still, until you hit the sharpish turn right, which is possibly the steepest part (ie, if you pull on your handlebars too much you will flip over backwards), then it levels out ever so slightly - DON'T RELAX AT THIS POINT, BIG MISTAKE - because then it gets steeper again, before level out round a left turn, that brings you up to a junction.

  Botley Farm is the pub just over the way from the top of Chalkpit.

  One thing if you were going to race there, it's narrow - you can get past oncoming traffic, but you may sometimes find there's not an awful lot of room.

• South London hills

  in General • 15 years, 8 months

  

  I grew up near Chalkpit and used to nip up and down it on my road bike. Wouldn't dream of doing it on fixed, but I went out on the downs at the weekend and the slightest incline was enough to send me backwards because I'm soft as all hell.

  The only thing about Chalkpit is that it's not long, so you don't have the psychological pressures of longer stuff like Titsey, Ide or Toys. For steepness it simply cannot be beat though.

• RLJ (Red Light Jumping). (The definitive bikeradar thread)

  in General • 15 years, 8 months

  

  I'd at least try and make a complaint. A couple of people I know have made cycling related complaints about police treatment of cyclists recently and have been very well treated at least. Whether you get results is a very different matter of course