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...

I live in the Rountree area, so Fremont is my "home stretch." I take Seminole to Fremont when I'm trying to get home from a long road ride quickly, and I use it to commute across town for special errands a few times a week.
I'm usually on the lookout for other commuters; I'm surprised I didn't see you. I was probably preoccupied with not getting killed by Springfield drivers...

I hear that... that night I had two different drivers pull up and stop in the opposite lane and stare right at me, so I figure they're stopped and going to yield to me while I cross the intersection and then turn left... and then both of them wait until I've just started to cross and then start pulling out! WTF?!

I really need to start carrying an air horn and offering a free wake-up call to each one.

Anyway, good to see another Springfield cyclist on here...

Why does an Electric bike have a starting FCN of 14 - the highest starting FCN in the list? I've had a couple of silly commuter races with electric bikes, and I always lose. I'm not the fastest guy out there, but I'm not slow, either.

Thouse guys are probably timing your speed and turn as soon as you pass by. This used to spook me too until I got kinda used to it. Kinda because its still spooky to see a car turning left towards you.

Or they completely misjudged your speed and thought that you are going too slow to wait for. Its those moments of hesitation by drivers that are the most dangerous.

It was the latter. They'd come screeching out of their side of the intersection like a bat out of hell right as I was leaving the sidewalk, then all the sudden it registers that I'm there, and so they slam on the brakes and wait for me to pass.

(Note that I am aware that taking the sidewalk is both illegal and dangerous; I only do so if taking the lane would be even more dangerous, which it sometimes is in Springfield.)