If lint can get stuck in it, it's a beard.

It appears that I rate as a 9... no-sus MTB FG with drops and skinnier than stock tires, cages, Chucks, torn pit-stained t-shirt, backpack and helmet. Sure I play the game, to an extent. If I see someone ahead of me then I'll push myself to catch up. If I can continue the pace and open a gap ahead of them, then I'll pass while singing something stupid like the theme to "HR Puffenstuff" and break mid-song to say hi. Otherwise I'll hang back. But if I do pass, then I certainly don't take that as a victory because for all I know the rider is on mile 80 of a 120 mile ride.

But I'm sure you smoked her none the less. ;)

Monday AM, 4/19/10

rhm ...................13 + 4 - 0 = 17

Once you start keeping your score, you realize just how complicated --and subjective-- scoring is. I slowed down to take a right, and just as I'm making my turn a girl on a road bike passed, going straight. Had I gone straight, she would have passed me (or I would have been compelled to go faster). Should I have counted her? Similarly, when I made a left off that same street: I had to turn left, so I waited for the light to go red, then I turned and rode... and now another commuter goes by on the road I just turned off of (though I'm still in the middle of it). Did he pass me? Not legally, at any rate....

Couldn't really play the game even if I wanted to. I see absolutely no one else on a bike on my 20 mile commute. It's all on back country highways that are very isolated from anything or anyone else. I kinda like it that way though, very serene and quiet.

FCN 12 on the commuter, 8 on the Raleigh. I almost never see anyone else on my commute though. The one or two times I have, they were going in the opposite direction. Good to know the rules just in case!

To keep things challenging, I'd give the "points" to the "opponent" or just call it a wash.

I would venture to guess that we all underestimate the FCN's of others, while we are all very well aware of all the points that might add numbers to our place in the food chain. Acknowledging a few extra defeats probably makes up for any of this.

I had a bit of a cat and mouse pass and re-pass thing going on for a mile or three with a local fixie rider. (Only one I've ever seen in Milford). I was observing red lights, he was not. I also had the excuse of having ridden all the way from the next county and having had the unpleasant experience along the way of being both almost arrested and intentionally hit by a car at a red light.

Not sure how to judge the exchange overall. I think I'd need a calculator. I guess if I have to think about it that much, I consider it a check in my "loss" column.

That is against rules. "No passing at Lights/Junction/Crossings, if you do, it doesn’t count" Full points for you.

Are we supposed to take the other cyclist's FCN into account? I missed that part of the game rules. It makes sense, but in a practical sense... if you're busy passing someone, you're not checking out their equipment.

LOL in true SCR fashion, I shouted "Mornin!" to her as I sped off into the distance...

What? I'm not racing... I'm just faster than you... :)

If she'd pass me, I would've hit her with my spiderman lunchbox......

Ha ha! I'm getting a bit old for this but the urge is still there. One day last fall I could hear a derailleur gear being changed behind me. I shifted up and pulled away. It happened three more times, until I had to turn off. As I glanced back I could see a young woman staring at me with a baffled expression on her face, as the lack of an external gear on my bike meant she couldn't really tell I was shifting.
I couldn't make out the scoring system at all, it just didn't come up on my computer. Do I get points for being a fat old lady?

I was just owned on the way home... skinny dude on an old 80's touring bike with bar end shifters and toe clips pulls into the road about 2 blocks ahead of me...

This guy ignores all stop signs and fears not death, so I spool up and ride as fast as I can while still obeying the traffic regulations. I normally average 14.5 mph, but I kept up 22 for 5 blocks until I finally caught the bastard at a red light... and was like "Hi!"

He was like "Hey, where are you going today?"

I replied "Just down here off of Seminole. You?"

"I'm going to [couldn't hear because traffic got loud] to get some new shoes."

Light turns green, and he TAKES. OFF. I figure "I just got thoroughly owned." and continue on my route home. But someone else was on my same route today!

Also, there where 3 bike commuters at work today... up from the usual me and one other guy!

Sounds like you won that round, Rhodabike! :)

Yeah, I play it, and it makes me happy to drop a kid on a fixie or a Fred on a road bike. Personal best: dropped a guy in Lycra on his expensive Cervelo road bike while riding my ho-hum hybrid. FCN9.

I'm a dedicated year round commuter. I ride through snow, sleet, hail, rain, heat of day and cold of night pretty much every day. Roughly 20 miles every single day. I sometimes pride myself on my fitness as I roll the 10 miles in or home from work. Today was the first day I pulled the road bike out in months and did a non-stop 55 miler- what a surprise! I mean it was a fine ride but it's as though I have a limiter on my carburetor- I'm S-L-O-W!

It's easy to feel like a bada** when commuting but, man, I've got to kick it up a bit before I can consider myself a speedy bike rider. I am humbled by the clock.:(

Does it count if I pass a cyclist while I am inline skating and not exactly commuting but on a very well used commuter route?

When I am unable to bike commute to work, I put on my skates and get on the W&OD trail here in Northern VA at lunch time to get my alternative work out. I put in about 8+ miles and a lot of cyclist pass me but every now and then I start gaining on some of them when it is down hill and I can get my rhythm going. Granted the guy that I passed was 'older' (older than me and I have two years before I can join AARP) and he was pretty slow.

I'm confused by the base scoring...
 

Or rather my bike is. I'm a hairy-legged roadie on an old-school steel frame Raleigh, with fenders and clipless padals. Depending on whether you call that a touring bike or not, I'm either a 6 or an 8. (Panniers and a beard).

How does it score when your target gets away only by running a red light and then turning off a block later?

My FCN 4 dropped to 3 'cuz I stopped wearing a backpack.

Passed a couple riding MTB's with fenders. The female had a wicker basket and the guy had plastic bags hanging from the handlebars. A few miles later I saw my nemesis: Red road bike, baggy shorts, T-shirt and pannier bags. I smoked his ass so bad I "scalped" him. But it deosn't count, damn.

Me: lycra, jersey, road bike w/clipless pedals. Maybe I should start wearing my back pack again, grow a beard and attach fenders on all year round to increase my starting FCN?

I almost feel like it's cheating that my beard and fenders increase my FCN so much. I don't think either of these things have any real impact on my speed. I feel that even my panniers (fold down panniers from a rack trunk) have negligible effect unless there's a strong headwind. But rules are rules, right? :) That being said, I need to start leaving earlier to ride when there are more commuters out. At least, I hope, I'll find some prey on the way home...

If I don't shave for 2 days I get at least a quarter inch of facial hair. Does this count as a beard? Is there regulation length?

Resisting Temptation.
 

I was doodling along t'other day, an' a guy on a spiffy mtn bike passed me. Apparently he was afraid I was gonna play the game because he kept looking back. I was about 1/4 in the rear and mtn boy was still checking. Ok' who am I to disappoint? Slam of gears.... Specialized Cirrus in pursuit. I was within 5 feet of passing but I wanted to turn off, so I did. COULDA passed and gone to my destination with only a slight detour...but I wanted to see if I could resist the urge. Feels kinda old fartish that I did. Dagnabbit!

dooood... you should a passed him.

I can't believe it actually has a name.

God I love the game though I don't do so well sometimes :P

Hmmm..... either a 10 or a 7, not sure. 74 John Deere men's racer converted to flat bars with fenders, rear rack with a backpack, 15 year old lycra with the cotton t-shirts, and a helmet with a face shield. No beard.

The Game has gotten harder to play without dropbars but it sure is easier to maneuver in traffic.

I had a score of 15 this morning when, just before I turned off the Central Park loop, a whole bicycle club came whizzing past me. I was going about 19, and they were going way faster than that. 16 of them. Score for today, -1.

I guess I'm a commuter racer, but I don't keep score. I do find it lame that everyone assumes a guy in street clothes on a fixie with fenders, platform pedals and a beard is going to be slow so they blow past me at a red light or stop in front of me...just meaning I have to pass them all again in the first block after the light.

You only lose points if they're a higher FCN # than you... club riders doing 20+mph are probably all a lower FCN than you if you're on your way to work... I assume anyway.

Oh, I get it. Well, then, I guess I'm pretty much guaranteed to win this game. I mean, I'm in my work clothes (trying to look faintly professional) on a folding bike with fenders and dynamo headlights going the whole time (switch is usually broken, so I get out of the habit of turning 'em off; switch is actually working now, but I'm out of the habit), rack, messenger bag... so I start out with an FCN of 13. The odds of meeting anyone with a higher FCN are poor, the odds of them passing me are poorer still (though there is a guy on a Brompton...).

Oh, yeah, I hate that.

Well Tony. I had to read that post several times to realize that the "skinny dude" was me. I was riding the dark green Lange 1980s touring bike with green shoes and a roughed-up camelbak. I took the lane for the red light at the corner of Fremont and Sunshine.
I kept it slow at first, thinking you would draft. But when the cars started speeding up, I had to pick it up and take the lane.
Also, I think I at least halfway Idaho-ed those stop signs :P

Sweet! Small world!


And lol you're a hell of a lot faster than me... especially after I spent 5 blocks red-lining it trying to catch up... I wouldn't have gotten any points for passing you though, because I was in lycra on a road bike. Oh well. They should give points for being a clyde.

You ride that route often? Fremont is my to and from work route...