Are you a cat 6 commuter?

• Do you ride above the speed limit on your commute?
  
• Do you run 23 mm at 130 psi all year round?
  
• Do your knees make funny noises?
  
• Do show people your bike scars at parties?
  
• Midlife crisis and/or feelings of youthful invincibility?

If you answered yes to all of the above questions your are a cat 6 commuter!

Most of the threads here seem to cater to newbies and yellowjackets. This thread is meant to be haven for competitive commuters.


Some personal info:
Although I only commute ~5 miles its fairly hilly and there is a 400 foot 0.6 mile climb. This commute used to take 45 minutes by cage. It now takes me ~20 minutes. Do the ****ing math yourself.

This commute happens to overlap with a hilly training ride so I get to pass or draft lots of lances and freds. Apart from racking up "points" I also enjoy passing SUVs, making leisure riders gasp, and amusing cagers with my trackstanding skills.

My main commuter is an orbea diem disc. I love this bike. Its stiff, responsive, and can take a beating (the carbon fiber repair people at calfee send me christmas cards).

My windy weather commuter is a steel kona kapu with ultegra everything and mavic rims.


I'd like to propose cat 6 rules and guidelines:

• Using a compacts or triple should result in immediate suspension
  
• Never use a tire size above 23 mm.
  
• Using the small chainring should be avoided at all cost. (Grinding knee noises are totally normal).
  
• Take the manufacturers recommended tire pressure and add 20.
  
• Cyclocrossing is forbidden. CXers use knobby treads and carry their bikes. How fricking lame is that!?!!
  
• Riding a mixte or dutch will should result in immediate demotion to cat 1.
  
• Cycling in sandals is only permitted if they have cleats.
  
• Cycling at a cadence of less than 60 is only permitted when legally required to stop.

53-11, is that you?

None of the above applies to me. My number one priority when commuting is to arrive at my destination uninjured. Second priority is to do it comfortably so I can repeat the process day in and day out. Third is to have fun. Fourth is to not be a nuisance on the road. Somewhere way down on the list is going fast, but racing all the time is generally not a sustainable long term strategy when it comes to commuting.

BTW, you have your cats mixed up. Cat 1-2 is professional, cat 5 is entry level, and cat 6 is below that. Every newbie commuter is a cat 6.

Nah, those rules are silly. The competitive-minded commuter actually gains EXTRA points for using less-advantageous equipment. I like shredding 20-mile hilly commutes at >20mph (average) on this thing once in a while:



Besides being surprisingly fast, it's also lightning-quick off the line in traffic. Granted, it's not running a triple, but a 32-44 does sort of qualify as a compact. Sorry, I can neither confirm nor deny allegations that the Continental RaceKing 2.2 Supersonics posess magical properties

Troll....

Pfff, that's nothing, I did all that plus I've abandoned my family and went to live at a Holiday Inn.... I'm hardcore cat7 all the way baby! you cat6 beeaches got nuthin' on me.

Precisely. That's the kind of thinking I follow and the kind of message I try to get across to other people.

Let me quote my own blog:

"(...) according to my philosophy bike commuting is not just about getting your behind from point A to point B, but about doing this comfortably, safely and being fun and healthy at the same time. I don’t want your commute to be a chore and misery that you have to put up with. You might as well take the subway and be miserable without any effort."

BTW, IMHO "not being a nuisance on the road" is part of cycling safety and defensive cycling.

Adam

Wow. Only January and we already have a candidate for Best Post of the Year.

What is a yellowjacket?

As said:

Cat 5 = slowest noob competitor
Cat 1 = Elite semipro

Thus, Cat 6 below noob competitors.

And I, and many others here could definitely outclimb you on a mountain bike with knobby wheels, with only 400 total feet of elevation change on the course. Give me a road bike, and it won't even be close.

And to top it off - I can barely keep up with a Cat3, and am probably more in Cat4-5 range for racing.

True racers don't even waste time with this kind of commute-competition stuff - they save their effort and mental focus for real racing.

Just feeding the troll..

I thought the rules were already established. https://www.itsnotarace.org/

I too, would like to know what is this yellowjacket thing you speak of.

Your first post and you come in setting "rules". I'm guessing total control freak.

Get run off of the elitist road bike forums?

Impossible to do that where I live. Too much snow and ice. I need to run something much bigger then that. Running bigger tires with studs is what allows me to ride all year round. Also bigger tires allow me to ride off road trails on my way from work.

I'm guessing a yellowjacket is someone who doesn't care about average speed, dresses (yellow jacket/jersey) to be seen by motorists and, like some of you, really only cares about arriving at one's destination uninjured. I run max psi on whichever bike I am riding, and I go as fast as I can. It's just how I ride. Don't really care what everyone else thinks about my commuting habits, I do it because it is fun.

Yeah, I figured a yellowjacket is just someone who wears a reflective vest.

The OPs proposed cat 6 rules and guidelines are rather silly and inappropriate for commuters in general, IMO. I propose that the OPs rules and guidelines should be ignored as irrelivant to commuter cycling.

I understood that to be the range also, so, yes - I am a cat 6 commuter. I only got a score of 2 on the quiz so I won't brag.

usually someone claims cat 6 when the next step up is cat 5, i.e. actual organized competition. I like to ride my go-fast bike to work sometimes, but I have to say that I never race. Just can't talk myself into it.

uh. . i'm not sure if any of those rules the OP just made up applies to me.

I just simply ride and get there

Competitive commuters never ride in true winter conditions? Lame.

Competitive commuters stop when "legally required"?

--J

15 mph average on an Orbea going all out for 20 min? That might be Cat 7.

This one time I was riding home from work when I spotted two riders in the distance. I totally cranked up the wattage and hammered until i was right up behind them. The one in front was probably around 70, but the one in back, she was a good five years younger. I stayed right on her wheel and waited until we came to a 150 yard climb and I attacked. We were almost to the summit when they mounted a counter attack, but at that point the road narrowed and cars were coming and I was able to force both of them into the ditch. I yelled "HTFU" in my best Wilford Brimley voice as I sped down the backside, reaching almost 17mph at one point.

Maybe, if hadn't been done before.