London Fixed-gear and Single-speed

It's such a nice frame.. if Dale waits till summer he'll get a PREMIUM rate... £$£$£$EURO!

Nice one. Did you get snowed on?

Cheers Dogs, Now all I need to do is go and buy a new chain.

illy, a little snow as i went thru caterham, a little rain ten miles from brighton, otherwise pretty sunny and nice all the way. of course, my cheery disposition helped.

oh, and didn't set off until 13:30. was never gonna make a 10:00 start in Putney after the night before.

dogs - if i can get polo bike sorted in time might join you on a super spinny gear. for the crack like.

Take more food if you go super-spinny. I well nearly bonked once riding down their on 65" - not that spinny unless you're with a couple of roadies averaging 25mph. I think I burnt twice as many calories as them (mainly on the downhills).

Which way are you going?
I might be tempted to leave a bit later and try and catch everyone up at some point to avoid the early start!

which ever way anyone knows

The beebs 5 day forcast has Wed at 16 and sunny. If we have good weather next weekend, this ride could be huge. The first ride of spring. The sun shining and loads of people bombing it down to Brighton, followed by beers and fish and chips on the beach. I'm really looking forward to it. And keeping my fingers crossed.

*creepy voice*

D-o-o-o-o-o-n't fo-o-o-o-o-orge-e-e-e-et the cu-u-u-ur-r-r-s-s-s-e... ;)

i didn't make it because i went out on the gears round kent instead. however, i got rained on quite a lot and my ass got soaked and my condor got covered in slurry type stuff. not from my ass, but from the lanes.

i hope you avoided the downpours.

EDIT: i thought this was today. i was wrong, on account of not being able to read the date. i may yet come next week.

I can't wait for this one. Really hope the weather holds out.

I think I saw 50:14 at critical mass last night but he was on a nice coloured Terry Dolan road bike.
Was that you. Are you here?

Yeah I was there and here! Going to drinks in Brixton on Monday next.

Watching the Madison at Manchester drome. Wiggins and Mark Cavendish.

yep I am watching that. Looks like we are about to get Gold. God knows how. I have no understanding of this event whatsover.

It's just a points race, with two riders

You have to have just done A level Probability and Chance before you get on your bike!

Looks like I am coming after all.
Have cannibalised my fast bike so looks like I will be rolling down on the effeminately-geared steamroller: 44x16
I will be at the back somewhere.

We'll still be able to hear you from the front though! ;)

I'm on 44x14 and I love it (once i spend a few days getting going).

Last time I did ditchling it was on 48x16 and all my fixed-wheel life I have been on 46x16, recently I changed my gearing down and am slowly learning to let go.

I have just never done any type of distance in anything less than 75ish an am worried I will get left behind.

I'm sure that by the time we repair all the punctures you'll have plenty of time to catch up...

Ya, I've been trying to figure out what gearing to go with myself. Right now I have 51x19, which I believe is around 71". You guys think that will be okay? Seems like it might be too spinny for a long ride, but then again I keep hearing everybody talk about hills so...

Sorry, I don't really know the route/area so any advice would be appreciated.

you should be fine, depending on how you do in the city

i rode down there last time on 42 x 16 which is 69" and i think i was the lowest, i did fine, if its what you ride normally then you probably have a higher cadence than others so you should be cool

So what time are we meeting?
I saw 8:00am, then I saw 10:00am!
How about 9:00am?

Paris-Londres use an interesting system for this..

Anyone who punctures on a training ride has to buy their whole group a coffee!

It aims to stop people using Continental shit tyres.

I am also wondering about gearing. I am more used to riding 48:17. I have been riding 48:18 the last couple of weeks getting used to a low gear for the hill. But I don't like it as much. I seemed better suited to the slightly higher gear. So I guess it is a trade-off between whether I want to get up the hill with relative ease, but be spinning a bit higher than I would like. Or go with my preferred gear and 'struggle'? up this hill. I mean how hard is this hill anyway?

It's this hard:

With 48:18 you won't struggle to keep up. But you might be thankful for it on Ditchling.

Thanks for the comment. I've been riding this 71" combination for a while in the city, but I'm still thinking of maybe going up one notch to 74 or 75". From what I gathered in that Wikipedia article, Ditchling Beacon is only about a mile long. Assuming the rest of the ride is pretty flat, I think I'd rather have the higher gearing, and suffer for that one stretch...

From Wikipedia: "Close to Ditchling Beacon is a small spur known as Blackdog Hill, which is reputedly haunted by a headless black dog."

Night ride, perhaps?

this is not a night ride, its on country roads so no street lights, its already hard enough as it is

oh and suffering that one stretch, don't forget turners hill, or the other one i forgot the name of

You actually forgot the name of ditchling beacon?

1. Lucky 7
2. Jonny
3. FatboyRalph
4. Cornelius Blackfoot
5. Mikec
6. Dogsballs
7. 50:14
8. 63:11 brakelessrider
9. PJ (48:17, not geared, but wishes he was)
10. Villa-Ru
11. slamm
12. Object (No one riding 50*14 is coming anywhere near me this time)
13. Flickwg (Object will ensure his attendance) (i only just noticed this)
14. Photoben
15. dt (if it's a saturday)
16: xsheepx (if it's not saturday the 5th, can do the 12 or 19th tho)
17. Andy
18. dave4
19. illy
20. somebody
21. Mongrel 48:18
22. IanF
23. Splatbucket
24. atk
25. JimL
26. Aroogah

I'm in - will look to join in the Wandsworth/Trinity Road/Balham area, so confirmation of route and ETD would be appreciated

no i meant the one at the beginning, it took me by surprise

That might have been Whyteleafe Hill.

That'd be the one. The only reason any one struggle on that was because we got to the bottom doing about 5 miles an hour.
At a normal pace you're 3/4 of the way up before you start realising you're on a hill.

i'm not going to go on this ride.

i can't be arsed to ride fixed to brighton when it's infinitely more enjoyable on a half-decent geared bicycle.

marshmellow!!

Come geared then. I'm sure no one will mind.

come on lake of darkness, haven't been on a ride (pnah pnah) with you in ages apart from the social ride where i fell off in sympathy when someone else came a cropper, I think a couple of others will be geared as well

hmmmph.

Ok. I want to do this ride and have the option of fixed 44x18 or geared Hybrid (and am of an age that gears are acceptable and I'm not slow on this bike) would love to do it fixed but don't want to bore others by holding them back, or spinning wildly.
I understand the current start to be Wellington arch 08:00 am Saturday, is this correct?
I see the majority are going fixed. How many are going geared??
Stu

1. Lucky 7
2. Jonny
3. FatboyRalph
4. Cornelius Blackfoot
5. Mikec
6. Dogsballs
7. 50:14
8. 63:11 brakelessrider
9. PJ (48:17, not geared, but wishes he was)
10. Villa-Ru
11. slamm
12. Object (No one riding 50*14 is coming anywhere near me this time)
13. Flickwg (Object will ensure his attendance) (i only just noticed this)
14. Photoben
15. dt (if it's a saturday)
16: xsheepx (if it's not saturday the 5th, can do the 12 or 19th tho)
17. Andy
18. dave4
19. illy
20. somebody
21. Mongrel 48:18
22. IanF
23. Splatbucket
24. atk
25. JimL
26. Aroogah
27. ornmnt

seems like there should be quite a good number of riders. From those that have done it before on fixed, how long do people think it will take (just roughly) as gf want's to meet up in brighton after and she needs a time lol.

If noone punctures or crashes and you don't get lost or stop to regroup or eat food or rest and everyone canes it up Ditchling then about 4 hours.
Took us 7 last time if memory serves. I think Hippy's supercomputer had us at 4 hours riding, 3 hours stopped.

mmm, need to borrow some road bars and short stem if i'm going to ride the polo bike, my source has sold his bike :(

otherwise its the black stallion 45:18

with very little stops, you can do it in just under 4hrs. with a big group, could be anywhere between 5-8hrs.

1. Lucky 7
2. Jonny
3. FatboyRalph
4. Cornelius Blackfoot
5. Mikec
6. Dogsballs
7. 50:14
8. 63:11 brakelessrider
9. PJ (48:17, not geared, but wishes he was)
10. Villa-Ru
11. slamm
12. Object (No one riding 50*14 is coming anywhere near me this time)
13. Flickwg (Object will ensure his attendance) (i only just noticed this)
14. Photoben
15. dt (if it's a saturday)
16: xsheepx (if it's not saturday the 5th, can do the 12 or 19th tho)
17. Andy
18. dave4
19. illy
20. somebody
21. Mongrel 48:18
22. IanF
23. Splatbucket
24. atk
25. JimL
26. Aroogah

Cannea go now, got some business...

route, route, route.

brett, you got that route sheet from last time. when i did it last week i got lost and ended up seeing a lot more of the A23 than i intended. or does anyone know that route off the top of their head.

we gots to get organasized.