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Sam No! Gears are real for this ride, especially at this time of year!

Yes, that was my feeling. I could do Ide Hill or Toys Hill on their own fixed but doing them in conjunction with 100km & lots of other hills seems like too much to ask of my aging knees.

Yes, I was worried that 8:45 might be too late, and it's always good at these things to start earlier so you can find a group that's doing a speed that matches what you're comfortable with. Maybe I'll just ride all the way there so I can register in good time.

Sam
I'll look out for you, fuzzbrain. I'll be easy to spot, I'll be the one in black and grey on a pearlescent pink Olmo going backwards on the hills.

Are you doing it fixed/singlespeed? I'm fairly easy to spot too: shaggy red hair wearing black and white on a much less cool blue and white Focus. How are you getting out there? I was thinking of taking the first train of the day to Orpington (arriving 8:15) and then cycling the rest of the way. That would get me to Knockholt by 8:45 I think. Do you think that's too late? I'm worried that cycling all the way could potentially make it too hellish, but driving there from Greenwich seems silly...

I'm doing the Ashdown too. Number 195. Maybe I'll see you there Sam.

Sorry to hear about your injury fbr. Hope it gets better soon.

Yesterday, I went on the West Kent Road Club reliability ride that Fixedwheelnut mentioned on this thread. Not bad. One steep hill towards the end. There was another guy who was also riding a fixed Pearson, but I didn't get a chance to ask him if he was affiliated with this forum. Anyone on here?

[cite]fatboyralph:[/cite]thanks for the info fuzz. you doin that singlespeed?

Seeing as the only bike with gears I've got is my old MTB, it looks like I'll have to. I guess the object of these things is to build up fitness...

I know fatboyralph has a bling new Wilier. Do most of you guys doing cyclosportives have road bikes in addition to your fixed mounts?

I'm registered for the Ashdown. I'm registered for the 100km route but I fear I'll have to wimp out and do the 50 if I don't get some riding done soon.

Re rail replacement: it appears that you CAN get a train to Otford which is reasonably close to Knockholt.

If you're worried about getting a bike to fit you properly, you might consider getting this from cyclefit:
http://www.cyclefit.co.uk/tupelo_ss.html

Dartmoor Classic:

1. Caspar
   
2. Hippy
   
3. fatboyralph?
   
4. fuzzbrain? (rob)
   
   

I think I'm gonna need to get me one of those new-fangled bikes with those gear thingies. Any suggestions?

Sometimes people get a bit political about other issues on this forum so I guess it's my turn...

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One of the clearest areas in which the corporate approach to producing something has many problems is software. I believe that everyone's computing experience would be better if Open Source were the default option and proprietary software were only used as a last result in special cases. There are many reasons for this, but, basically, as the man says, "Software wants to be free" (as in dom). Micro$oft got to where they are partly by turning a blind eye to people giving each other free copies because it allowed them to build up that large user base. Giving away software only helps the big boys. Using open source software helps everyone. Apple's only not evil yet because they're smaller.

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Sorry for that but I didn't start this thread and I think there's a connection between fixed gear riding and being politically progressive, and I'm often surprised how few otherwise progressive people and people who espouse an anti-corporate ethos pay so little attention to the importance of open source.

Gimp is a little bit more difficult to use than Photoshop, but I think it's just as powerful (I'm not someone who does alot of image manipulation but it's always been adequate for me (after rtfm)). I've never tried it on a Mac. It runs fine on Windows, and obviously brilliant on Linux. One of the complaints about OpenOffice on a Mac is that it doesn't fit in with the rest of the Mac interface-- if this sort of thing annoys you you might try neooffice.

A good day out. Nice to meet some people from the forum. Sorry I had to get straight back home and missed out on drinks.

-Rob

Looks like I'm going to be able to finally stop lurking and actually do one of these rides. See you at Hyde Park. Anyone from se london care to meet at Cutty Sark for the ride there in about half an hour?

It may be that your chain was too tight. I had the same thing happen to me a few months ago and I've been told that that was probably the reason.

If you're used to road bikes you could do worse than getting a Pearson Touche. It's basically a road bike frame with track ends. I agree with the above posts-- forget about single speed and just jump straight to fixed. It's really not that big of a change plus it gives you more control in wet weather and the risk of pedal strike against curbs encourages you to ride around the right side of traffic and not do stupid things like squeeze between a bus and the curb. I have a singlespeed on the other side of the hub but only use it for longer rides when I want to give my legs a rest on the downhills.

I've had a Pearson since May. I bought it on the back of reading the Cycling Plus review and also because they seemed to have a quick turnaround time from ordering to getting the bike. As Winston said above it's less oriented towards pure city riding than some other fixed offerings, but I can't say I ever wish it was more twitchy. It's also a very nice bike for doing longer rides-- I suppose because they were designed to be suitable for use as winter training bikes. You can specify different components and bullhorn bars if you like. One nice thing about them is that you don't see that many of them around town.

It's a touche. It seems to work alright , though I've not had the chance to compare it to other fixed gear bikes. The aluminium frame doesn't seem to make the ride too rough. I came to it from an old heavy mountain bike so it's been a bit of a revelation to me-- going up hills is suddenly fun.

Seem to be a lot of people here commuting from Greenwich. Me too: Greenwich to south bank; Blue Pearson. Usually around 8:30-8:45.

I was thinking of doing this fixed too (probably the 80km route).

I replaced my rear Gatorskin with a Stelvio Pro a few weeks ago-- seems good so far.

You can bay Stelvio Plus tires at the London Bicycle Repair Shop http://www.londonbicycle.com/repair.htm. I had a similar story: Gatorskins that kept getting punctured so I went in to the repair shop and after some discussion with the guy there decided on some Stelvio Pluses. They seem slightly slower than my Gatorskins but maybe it's just that I was feeling tired last week (no pun intended). I recommend that shop btw if you're in the south bank area: usually very helpful and they have a surprisingly large amounts of bits and bobs in stock. Some of the staff ride some very cool looking track bikes.