Sorry, we were at FL410 doing 510. Lear 45 baby.

Now it's time for the F-16 driver to post.

Well, I'm a... I'm a... I'm an astronaut! ...yeah, yeah, that's the ticket.

I'll never forget being passed going up a long hill by a dude riding a single speed Rudge or Phillips or whatever, barefoot, pedal missing (foot on the spindle), cotter pins clanking, standing up and heaving on the bars. His smile of triumph was priceless. This was in 1986, Zimbabwe; I was riding a 3 speed at the time and thought I was pretty good - that dude rocked! He kept on going, it was the man, not the machine.

I have a funny story. I had a recovery ride yesterday (ultra, ultra easy ride). I and my friend were just ridding chatting about best and worst alcohol drinks. I think we came to a conclusion that Tequila is pretty messed up. We pass this guy on an old bike. Anyway we stop at red light, it turns green. We continue in to park entrance. So the entrance is one way street with ranger booth on the left and then one way street leading out of the park. So over sudden we see this guy pedaling his heart out on that street (ridding wrong way on one way street). Gets in front of us (didn't look back), still trying to maintain the speed. We are still just chilling, and talking about different brands of alcohol. :D After few dosen feet he slows down, right before we pass him we saw this glidding parachute on the field to our left. So we pulled over to see what was going on. Never did figure it out. The guy was just standing on the ground in full jumping gear (even a helmet), pickups up wind with his chute so that it's pulling him. Then lets it go, and it falls to the ground. Maybe he was practicing or something?
So every one wins. He felt better for winning a race in which only he was competing. I got a chucle of him doing it.

I was doing 84 knots into a headwind at FL... 20... the other day. :p :rolleyes:
(C-172L)

Love it.
So, do you ride the MTB with trailer to your group rides, like most folks drive their bikes?
What is the trailer... tres kewl!

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...2&d=1150940016

I'm test riding a trailer this weekend - got a business meeting 30 miles away - need to take the laptop and projector, and I need to ride - sooooo.... going to test ride a BOB, get there early, present, and ride home.

Should be interesting.

I rarely see any other riders on my commute to work (at 11:30pm) but I do occasionaly see people on my way home. Almost always roadies with bad attitudes that don't seem to like a fat kid on a MTB with 2" wide tires passing them on a 2 mile uphill stretch. There is one guy that I see sometimes who is on a road bike loaded down with racks and bags and he always blows by everyone, even cars. He's gotta be like 70 and he looks like he's not even breaking a sweat doing it.

Man I hope that wasnt me. I sometimes read these stories thinking about how I've done that.... And here you are a local... I sometimes feel like an ass when reading some peoples comments about them but it seems like the consensus is that its just good fun for everyone in the end.

Well, if it was you it was quite impressive.
Do you ride in Washington Park?
The guy had a blue hawaiian shirt with maybe a baseball cap. I think he may have been blonde. Maybe late 30s?

The trailer is by

www.carryfreedom.com.

I try to use a bike as much as I can. ;-)

That is a nice setup! :)

I was coming to work yesterday and saw in my rear-view 2 guys busting hump to catch me. They eventually pass me, 1 guy is on a Trek 1000 in full Discovery gear carrying an impressive beer-belly, the other guy w/ toe clips and jogging shorts. It was a total ego pass, so I just tuck up behind, not really drafting, maybe 5-10 feet back. We ride down the MUP about 3-4 miles, I could really pass them any time but they're going 16-17 which is ok, but they're really huffing and puffin. The T1000 guy keeps looking to see if I'm still back there. We come to about a 70 degree downhill turn, where the foliage this time of year keeps you from seeing who's coming up the path. It's also a low-point, so it's goina be damp in the morning. Well, I'm scanning the turn and see a mountain biker coming our way, so I holler out 'biker up!' but they must not've heard, or understood, cuz they go screaming down in there, see the guy, the 1st guy on the T1000 just grabs 2 handfulls of brake and slides down hard. The 2nd guy goes right over top the T1000 and goes down a little softer. I stop behind the carnage, but it's pretty easy to see noone's any worse than road rash, so I've got a smile in my heart. Is that wrong? I said, 'well, it looks like your bikes are ok, and you guys will heal, so it's all good, eh?' The jogging shorts guy was smiling, but the T1000 guy looked pretty pissed off. I'm not sure at who. I rode the rest of the way to work.

So the question is, am I a bad person cuz I thought it was funny they crashed while trying to drop a commuter?

Nice.
I've been looking at a Nomad and will be test driving a BOB....

I think I like the 2 wheeled variety!

Nah. They were fine and it was funny watching the noobs act tough and stupid and paying for it. I wonder if that Trek 1000's on Craigslist now?

Nope, defineately not me. Young guy, guess I'm not that much of normal joe, I still wear a helmet, Camelbak, and wicking shirts.

Yeah I ride there maybe once or twice a week. Did 40 miles there today, I wouldnt have stayed so long had it not been for the absolutely AMAZING scenery... At about 10am today I think the cute chick to guy ratio in that park was about 284379 to 1.... I swear I was the only guy riding, walking, or anything in that park for about a lap or two.

Nope, I would have laughed my ass off.

I've got mt bikes and I've got road bikes. I'd rather run uphill on the lighter road bikes and their easier spinning lighter wheels/tires.

Rich Pinto calls this tossing a grenade, and I found out about it after I'd had fun doing it a few times on my Corsa. What you do is adjust your speed to slowly go by a paceline. Once you go past the front of the paceline, gap them by 50-100 yards, then slowly wick your speed up, most the time the paceline falls apart around 27-30, as the strong riders want to chase and the slower guys can't hang. By falling apart they loose any aero advantage that they have and you smoke them. :)

Of course the drool factor of a Velokraft is pretty high, so of course they want to race seeing all that carbon fiber.

Seeing how 80% of your energy is used to overcome aero drag. So, to go fast, you either have to put out more power or decrease your drag. I switched to a Bacchetta Corsa, and use it for commuting, I stay aerobic and pretty much pass every bike I come across. You did find the downside to commuting, and that you are either pushing it because you have to be there in a certain time, or you see a carrot up the road and push it to catch/pass said carrot and start looking for the next one. Since I've got my power tap, 200-220 watts has me doing 23 on the flats at 125-130HR, and I can stay at that output all day. :)

On one of our Thursday drop-fests our commuter friend joined us on his squeaky Trek MTB and full backpack. He led the group most of the way, dropping roadies like bad habits. Then turned around and went home.

This is one reason I started commuting.

OK, I usually ride in fairly slowly to work in the morning, 175-220 watts. I get passed on a bike trail (doesn't happen often ... because it's not crowded ... I'm not fast at all) by some young guy on a race bike.

Since I'd never been passed before, I said ... OK, time to step it up. We motor on for another 2 miles (about 22 mph) and my heart rate is above 160. I'm working hard with two loaded panniers and my old heavy winter commuter. I finally catch him at a stop light. Between my huffing away (he isn't), I say, "I usually try to take it easy getting to work in the morning but you aren't going to let that happen are you?". He cracks up and we ride together for another couple miles and he tells me he already had 10 miles in before he toasted me. Ughhh :( To be mid 20's again instead of mid 40's. He whipped my ass fair and square.

If you're passing them, they're "Freds", not "roadies". :D

I got a guy I call the Phantom that passes me sometimes in the morning this guy just blows by me, all I can do is ring my brass bell at him. I did get to talk to him one morning as I was just pulling onto the first road we share on our commute. He has been riding for years where as I started commuting in June and rides about 14 miles to my 7 one way. I like my panniers and backpack and blinkie light and if that makes me a Fred thats ok cause I love to ride no matter what. Now when the wife and I get on our roadies we make up for the slowness that is my commute. Its all good as long as we are up on two

Yeah, they gotta pass me before thay can say they are dropping roadies...I am the minimum standard which all roadies must exceed to be a roadie. :D Best be careful though, I cheat and blow snot rockets. :eek:

haha yeah, me too. but oh well; i am still learning :)

i love this thread! very entertaining. i'm a big fan of the sleeper and hope someday to be one, because i'm too much of a nerd to ever be a carbon-fiber roadie.

Na, you just go hi tech on them. This is a true geek carbon fiber go fast bike, use the aero advantage.
Not much of a sleeper, but man, you can pass with such a huge speed difference. It climbs very well also.

http://www.bacchettabikes.com/images...onaero_lrg.jpg

I had a guy going slow on a an old cheap mountain bike the other day. I cruised by and he tried to keep up with me. I had to push it a bit harder to drop him, but it wasn't too bad. I managed to avoid standing up. (I ride a decent MTB with slicks).

I've never quite managed to drop anyone on a road bike yet- but I can almost keep up with a few guys on them now.

haha WOW! good point. i've never ridden any kind of recumbent before; i should try one out. looks like something i would wreck spectacularly though :D

Na, not hard to ride at all. I've got almost 4000 miles on mine in the last year. Hardest part was starting uphill on an incline. Other than that, no problem. It does take a bit of getting used to, but it's a good 3-4mph faster for the same effort. Not all recumbents are equal though, just like regular bikes, there are performance ones, utility ones, and a lot has to do with the engine.

On my commute a coupla few weeks ago, a beautiful young woman who works in the next building over turned into my bicycle path. I caught her quickly and happily slowed to ride along beside her for a leisurely chat.

Been cursing meself ever since for not noticing the time and not managing to just ride up on her again...