When they hot-shot ahead, I never give them the satisfaction of passing. I jest ride their wheel...Frustrates the heck out 'em They slow down, I slow down. They speed up, I speed up... Maw HAW HAW HAW

Ha ha! Good one...spank 'em and spank 'em hard...don't worry slow learners always come back for more.

This kind of thing always makes me laugh, but in a good way. On my commute, or just on a ride, or to and from the trails, I LOVE chasing down the people I see in front of me. Sometimes I make it, sometimes I dont. But it is always fun.

One thing I have noticed since I started commuting was how much stronger the bags and rack make you. I love it, since I dont have time to ride to the fitness level I want to be at if I dont bike commute. A number of years ago, I was very fit from a winter pounding the pedals at a gym all winter long - I could sprint for 3/4 of a km off road and not get winded. It was great fun chasing down people on tri-bikes and road bikes using my then only bike (a mtn bike...).

The commute has been great for helping me be stronger, and faster when I want to be. (Well, when unloaded... It is early days for the commute, and I am not that fast yet loaded.) Thus far, almost every person I have seen on my commute has cruised past me - commuting racers on their carbon bikes with backpacks to those on their cross bikes (saw a sweeeeeeeet cross bike the other day for a few seconds as the guy passed. nice bike.) I dont know about the rest of you commuting with racks and bags, but I have found that I can climb MUCH stronger now than before when out riding unloaded.

Anyway, it is good fun so far, and hopefully, I will be able to keep it up or at least maintain the mileage when my job situation changes (which it will.....)

I usually don't bother to try and keep up with or pass people since 99% off the time I'm on the 3-speed, and accelerating a 38lbs bike takes a lot of effort.
But... today I was going downhill when I came upon two girls on road bikes, I wasn't sure if I wanted to pass them or not (because it meant giving up such a wonderful view) but we were going downhill, and there was a tailwind so I had a rare chance to really spin in that seldom used 3rd gear. They let me pass (they moved to the left so I could pass on the right - they must be new to this whole bicycle thing, so I'm probably giving myself too much credit) and I stayed ahead of them until we had to go our seperate ways (about a 1.5 miles down the road or so). They didn't even begin to catch up until we had to start going uphill and into a headwind.

The point is, I beat two girls who weren't even racing, and maybe not even very experienced on my 38lbs. clunker (generator was on at the time by the way) when they were riding much nicer, lighter road bikes (and wearing some spandex too). I could brag that I also passed somebody who was obviously pretty new to biking on my way uphill earlier that day, and another girl on a mountain bike also on the same uphill stretch.

I'm going to say that I was probably putting out a gajillion watts at the time.

I got you all beat. I blew past all you suckers today doing 460 mph w/ a 35,000 ft. climb. I was flying!

Loozer! Beat ya. I did it on Wednesday. And got a free round trip United ticket for the 48 states by volunteering to be bumped to a later flight. Even sweeter since Wednesday's flight was made on a free ticket I got last year for also taking a lbump and a later flight. Hopefully I can recycle this ticket every flight.

Hell yeah! That's the way to do it!

MUHAHAHAHA....(Evil Laugh)........

Roadies you are "OWNED"

I'm always amused by non-roadies who pass me and look back basking in their sense of accomplishment. Yes, road bikes are engineered to be faster than others but we aren't hammering all the time.

If road bikes are no good for speed why the heck do people spend so much on them I am confused?

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. 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.
(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!



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.