ericcox

So I was headed home after work today. It's about 1.5 miles from my work to the riverside trail I take home. I did a quick glance over my shoulder as I entered the trail, noticed what appeared to a mountain bike about 50-60 ft back. I didn't think anything about it, as the trail attracts a lot of folks, serious and non-serious riders. The quick bike profile in my mind was that this was a casual rider that I would probably not see again. So I jumped on the trail and accelerated a bit.I was riding into about a 15-20 mile head / cross wind. A mile or so later, I heard a bike behind me, and saw the rider pull up to let me know he was there. It was a 20 inch wheel on a Bike Friday. But this was definitely no fred, by Pcad's definition. No helmet mirror, no bell, and his legs were shaved (a nice juxtaposition to my Chewbacca-like lower extremeties, I might add).

I thought, "a little company never hurts, and I can pull him to help my workout;" he dropped in behind me as we approached some traffic, and I pulled for another .5 mile or so. Then he comes around me, we share a few words, I ask about the bike, and he starts pulling. I appreciate this as he is TALL, and I am not and we are still riding into the wind. I think it should be easy to sit in. I was mistaken. I start hurting. I had planned on a hard ride home as I was late, but he is moving. It doesn't help that I pretty much suck, but still he has my heart rate pegged pretty well. Eventually he slows a bit (after ~1.5 miles), and I pull through, but hold the pace. Finally I make my turn, we wish each other a nice ride, and go our separate ways. I continued riding hard, and made it home about a minute faster than I normaly do on a non-windy day.

He made my hard workout just a little harder, for which I am thankful. Truly the quickest collapsible bike I have ever seen. I have been pwned by a stealth road nazi.

waterrockets 

Nice. You never know what you'll get out there

FrankBattle 

Texas.

I hate you people. Riding outside in firrggin February.

WxGuesser

there's always someone faster... sounds like you had a fun little ride.... that guy was probably glad you turned off...

ericcox

Yeah, one day last week it was 27 when I left my house in the morning. Friggin' toe covers, long sleeve jersey, jacket, heavy gloves. Today at 7:30 am... 71. I liked today better.

patentcad

15+ years ago I'm on my Merlin (Spectrum actually, same thing) Ti racing bike down riding north from Cape May NJ (Jersey Shore). This guy comes up behind me on a heavy fixed fork MTB. It has a steel box welded to the rear seat stay for carrying a surfboard. This bike of his had to weigh 40lbs, big knobby tires. I was in my early 30's at the time, in pretty decent shape (I was just getting into racing). The MTB guy was under 30. We're riding along, then he goes to the front and starts taking monster pulls into a head wind. It was everything I had to stay on his wheel, which I did manage. When he relented, I asked him about that. He confessed he was an ex-Cat 1 bike racer.

Stealth Road Nazis are almost as bad as Freds From Hell (Freds who can put down 400+ watts for 10 mins. at a time). Almost.

aikigreg

It's basically been 80 since Saturday So of course THIS is the summer I opt for foot furgery.

I'm a baseball coach too, so at least practices have been nice this weekend and yesterday.

garysol1 

I know quite a few very fast roadie airplane pilots that travel with a folding bike on board for there layover days.

Pablo.

I believe that it is okay to be passed by someone on a MTB, but only if the mountain bike is more money than my road bike.

garysol1 

It is NEVER OK......NEVER NEVER NEVER......It happens but it is not ok.

patentcad

Correct.

Tri-FatBoy

Unless for some reason you end up on a trail. 700x23 + gravel = fail. Also, rain today... inside ride it is (yes I know HTFU)

ericcox

I'll adopt this theory since I live in the hometown of American Airlines; of course we are a bit far from the airport, and many AA pilots tend to be based here, negating the need for the folded bike. I still like my theory.

garysol1 

I learned my theory living in Memphis.....Home of every Fedex pilot.

SushiJoe

True. I'm a fair weather rider anyway. Non-hardened by choice. I figure that's what I bought my rollers and fluid trainer for. I pretty much avoid gravel, sleet, snow, rain and wind over 30mph, lol. I like to enjoy my rides - inclement weather doesn't much float my proverbial boat.

Living in Nebraska/Iowa, inclement weather happens more often than I'd like...

Rutnick

maybe the grammar police guy will come out again because you used the word pwned!

Treefox

Hey, I'm at 51 degrees North latitude and I've been out almost every day for the past two weeks!

eb314

FredEx pilots?

Tequila Joe

Pfft! 27? Pfft!
At 27, I'm still wearing shorts and flip flops.

^*^BATMAN^*^

But you are in the UK. So it just rains there.....

ericcox

What can I say, I am an uber-weenie. My other big sin is that in the mornings, I normally take the short way to work... I need to HTFU.

Tequila Joe

On a side note, I am Canadian and eating whale blubber conditions you to the cold.

merlinextraligh

Don't underestimate Bike Fridays. Bike Fridays can be very fast. And the 20" wheels spin up fast. (despite Waterrocket's rotatinig weight calculations.)

Alexi Grewal is purported to be fairly fast on his.

^*^BATMAN^*^

just gotta get some race wheels on that sucka, and you are ready to race.

curveship

Hey, I've been that guy!

Last summer, I was just coming off my peak of fitness with 2 cat 3 wins. Best shape I've ever been in.

Well, we had a family trip to my wife's parents in Oklahoma City. They told me they had a bike I could use. Got there to find out it was a creaky old 15" Roadmaster mountain bike. With a flat rear tire. Hmm ...

Well, gotta maintain fitness, so I put as much air into the rear tire as I could with my mini pump, which wasn't much, since it was a Schrader valve and my pump was Presta. I jacked the seat up 2" past the maximum -- they overbuild these things, right? Oops, looks like I forgot my jersey, so bibs and a T-shirt it is. And my helmet was left behind last minute when we overpacked the suitcase, so out I go in their 90s era foam bucket.

This was my only chance to ride all week, which meant I had to hit it hard. I headed out to a local paved path around a lake. It was a Saturday, and there were lots of people already out there, about a rider about every 100 yards.

Now, I'm sure there are plenty of fast riders in OKC, but either they weren't there that day, or if they were they weren't riding with my hellbent, 1-hour-is-all-I-have-this-week intensity.

It was like stealing candy. Pass. Pass. Pass. Oh, he's grabbed my wheel ... and now he's dropped. Pass. He wants to trade pulls ... whoops, he blew up, gone. Look, 6 guys in team gear filling the trail. "Hey, mind if I come through?" Whoosh. They all got to watch my squishy rear tire bounce and buzz away.

Bwahahaha. It still cracks me up.