London 2 Brighton

[Kestonian]

I had the very same discussion about cleats along the way - a lot of people who are not used to riding them wobbling around, especially near the start.

The other blight is mobile 'phones. We saw one very bad crash caused by a rider answering a phone when coming down off the beacon, just after the left hander onto the final descent to the main road. Rider 1 answers 'phone, yanks front brake, goes down taking rider 2 with her. It looked very messy, probably not helped by the freezing rain that had decided to greet us.

I'm not against "novice" riders enjoying the day out. I think it's great for cycling but most of the problems are caused by selfish attitudes

 

[twain]

I had the very same discussion about cleats along the way - a lot of people who are not used to riding them wobbling around, especially near the start.

The other blight is mobile 'phones. We saw one very bad crash caused by a rider answering a phone when coming down off the beacon, just after the left hander onto the final descent to the main road. Rider 1 answers 'phone, yanks front brake, goes down taking rider 2 with her. It looked very messy, probably not helped by the freezing rain that had decided to greet us.

I'm not against "novice" riders enjoying the day out. I think it's great for cycling but most of the problems are caused by selfish attitudes

not to mention the riders that treat it like Tour De France - sprinting and cutting in very closely to otherwise very novice riders. especially on the decents.
those people need to set off earlier in my opinion - to avoid all the novice late comers (or at least the majority of them).
all in all, to have 31,000+ people riding, and only have a handful of accidents that required immediate medical assistance is quite a miracle!

i'm up for doing it again but with a more appropriate bike setup - although i think i'll resist the urge to don the skin-tight outfits. i still cant get my head round the people that wear these with their gut suspended above the top tube..... :|

 

[russ77]

Re:

Gotta love a thread resurrection! I’ve just signed up for this year’s event and was wondering if anyone else here was thinking about doing it?

Currently looking at my training plan for fat boy to racing snake transformation in just over three months. Realised today I’ve not actually ridden a bike for over a month.

Would it be a bad idea to do this on a 27 year old steel framed MTB? T..

 

[hamster]

Re: Re:

Currently looking at my training plan for fat boy to racing snake transformation in just over three months. Realised today I’ve not actually ridden a bike for over a month.

Would it be a bad idea to do this on a 27 year old steel framed MTB? T..

Slick it up with something like Schwalbe Marathon Greenguard 26x1.5" tyres and you are good to go.

Ride plenty beforehand - if you can do 45 miles in 4 hours by a month before you will be fine.

 

[J i m s t e r]

Re:

Rode this beast all the way years back. Hardest thing I've ever done, including running Marathons... Recumbent position means no body weight over the pedals, so the day after, I had the knees of a 200-year-old.

Great day out, the bike was built by the engineers at Killingholme power station out by Grimsby, I did some work there and volunteered to do the L>B with them the next time. I think we were the only team to ever ride it up the beacon, everyone else got off and pushed it.

Everyone else was wise.