Just signed up to do London to Cambridge in 3 weeks time. Anyone else doing it?

Not me. How far is it?

Here's a possibly slightly OTT but still resonant article about cycling in London:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/hell-on-wheels/9008/

Had a hard spill yesterday as I took a corner fast and the front tire kicked out (pressure too low - should have known better as it'd been in the basement for three weeks). Wasn't wearing a helmet and though my rugby instincts allowed me to brace my fall, preventing my head from contacting the ground, I still had my bell rung a bit from the force.

Reminded me of the interview I heard from a danish-canuck last week, advocating both better city infrastructure for bikes but also doing away with 'naive' helmet laws. Wish I could find an audio clip of that interview, as he said more cities were doing away with the requirement than adopting it in the interest of getting more people on the road cycling.

I wouldn't bother riding around town. I'd put my bike on a train and go ride somewhere scenic and breathe fresh air instead of exhaust fumes.
I like riding at dusk when all the wildlife are scampering about the place: bunnies, foxes, deer, MILFs etc.

Unlike that writer I'm not a softfanny, so I enjoy the cut and thrust of silly commuter racing in London. However, she's right about some of the idiocy on display from those who can't best an opponent through fair means, and have to resort to risky filtering or RLJing to win dubious 'victories'. She also captures the tension at the lights quite nicely - I myself am so tightly coiled that I sometimes go early when another light blinks in my peripheral vision, and this usually makes one or two others false start too.

This morning I fairly bellowed 'NO!' at a hapless pedestrian who was just about to step into the road as the light went green at the top of Tooley St. I won the sprint over London Bridge though, so it was worth it.

Just got linked to this clip of a Melbourne trial rider, he is absolutely insane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJHayGJG ... _embedded#!

Yeah, it is a good article and gets some of the flavour of commuting in London. I go along the Embankment so see all the SCR-ists but can't be arsed with all that stuff myself. Twats who push ahead of you at lights just so they can do a wobbly track stand are my pet hate.

Yeah, I can't stand any kind of pushing in at lights. It's not just the competitive who do it mind, you also get the slowcoaches who feel the need to slowly wend their way to the front of the bunch at every set of lights. I suppose it's better they are safely out in front than stuck by the kerb on the inside of a skip lorry, but even so there is something quite irritating about it.

Then you get the bellends who go through the red and hover halfway across a junction - often in a position where they can't actually see the lights to know when to go! The oddest one I've seen was the other day when a chap on a Boris bike pulled up at a set of lights in the right hand lane, dismounted and stood leaning nonchalantly on the bike by the central reservation, then when the lights changed, got back on and set off, slowly drifting across two lanes, with a queue of traffic behind him, to get back to the kerb. Truly bizarre behaviour.

I gather the embankment is SCR central, I don't think there's anything quite that overtly competitive on my route, although of course impromptu little tussles happen quite regularly.

SCR-ists on the Embankment are really just a subset of the riders and they are appreciably quicker than everybody else who isn't SCR-ing. I'm in with "everybody else" with my panniers, 28c tyres and steel bike so the SCR-ists are just riders whizzing past as far as I am concerned.

I know what you mean about slowcoaches pushing past. Last year someone did it to me 3 lights in a row along Kensington High St/Hammersmith Rd. At the next light I (politely!) pointed out that there was really no point in this as I was just overtaking him within a few meters anyway, and it looked like the penny dropped, and he just wasn't aware of what was going on.

I've been freakishly lucky with punctures and haven't ever changed a road bike tyre (done loads of MTB ones in the past obviously).

I got one of those floor-standing pumps with the pressure gauge the other day so I could actually inflate my tyres to 100psi instead of just 'very hard'. Anyway, the front tube, which had a very, very slow puncture blew at 95. Fine I thought, I'll just change it for my spare tube and buy another spare.

Thank fuck I didn't have to try it for the first time on the side of the road, was at home. Gave up after 25 minutes. I really don't know what I am doing wrong but there is no fucking way I can get the tire back on. I took the tire half off, removed the tube and tried to lay the new one in the rim. Precious little room. Apart from a tiny section (maybe 10% of circumference), I can't get the tire back onto the rim. It's nothing to do with the tube, the tire just feels too small for the rim. I called a mate who has been racing bikes for years and he said it should be easy to get the tire about 3/4 of the way back on and then there will be a bit of levering to do. I can't even get 25% of it on without exerting so much leverage with tyre irons I am doing visible damage to the rim. Another mate who was over at my place looked at it without success too but again he is only really familiar with changing MTB/hybrid tubes.

I bought the bike secondhand so I have no idea how long that tire has been on. It doesn't look perished but is there any possibility it has shrunk/perished while on the bike? It could easily have been laid up for a while. It was mildly tricky to get off but didn't feel too bad. I have a horrible feeling I am doing something super-dumb but I can't for the life of me figure out what. Tire and rims are both 700c, think the tyre is a Continental, rim is Shimano. The tube is a 700*25 but the tube isn't the issue.

I am dreading having to go into the bike shop, I am going to get laughed at! Any ideas?

Yeah, I'm sure that's usually the case. I don't say anything as I often seem to come across as more aggressive than I intend to be in that kind of situation. I wouldn't want something intended as friendly advice to come across as being a cunt.

Appo,

I'm not sure what you could be doing wrong, tbh. Some tires are tighter/harder to get on than others. Maybe try a new tire (maybe a different make) if it really won't go on, but tbh if there's nothing otherwise wrong with it, I would risk being a cause of hilarity at the bike shop if it means avoiding paying out unnecessarily.

Apposite - some roadbike tyres, particularly the ones with extra puncture protection, are absolute cnuts to get on.

There is a brand called Schwalbe Marathon Plus that are notoriously difficult and if you search youtube a number of people have posted videos showing how to fit these tyres but the technique will work with any brand.

OK, will look on YT, thanks lads. There might be some sneaky little tricks I can use.

I'm pretty sure I could get it on with brute force (I am a bit of a tank after all) but the issue is that I would fairly significantly damage the rim with the tire irons (which would probably lead to more punctures). As I said I was having to use a fair bit of effort to even get a quarter of the tyre on and I was leaving gouges on the rim edge, presumably this would have got steadily worse as I moved around the rim. I was also fairly sure I would have ended up badly pinching the tube under the clincher bit of the tyre in several places.

The tyre probably needs replacing anyway. I'll have another bash if I can find a better vid on YT (I did previously check a few) and if not I will hit the bike shop and risk ridicule, far rather do that than destroy a perfectly good wheel. Seeing how the lads in the shop do it would be instructive too.

The whole thing is very but as I said I'm pretty glad this didn't happen to me on the side of the road on a rainy morning. I'd say persuading a taxi driver to take me soaked in rain/sweat with a half-disassembled bike in rush-hour would have been annoying and expensive.

'bout the same as London to Brighton...60 miles / 96 km. Up from Pickett's Lock through Hertfordshire, Essex and Cambridgeshire.
Hopefully the weather will be kind.

Well you'll be unlucky not to have a bit of a tailwind going in that direction, anyway!

I might look to do one or two different rides next year. Maybe the Dunwich Dynamo!

This.

I usually give it 2 or 3 sets of lights before telling them they are getting on my tits. Slightly more agressive method but equally effective.

Mikerob, sounds like you do a pretty identical route to me.

I live in Chiswick, work near Tower Bridge so my normal route is Chiswick High Rd, King St Hammersmith, Hammersmith Rd, High St Ken, Hyde Park, Constitution Hill, The Mall, Trafalgar Square, Embankment, Upper & Lower Thames St.

Lots of disruption and detours in the middle bit because of the Jubilee and Olympics.

yup, I live near Ravenscourt Park and work on Tooley Street. First few days of the diversions has lots of problems finding a route that didnt invlolve the middle of Victoria and certain death, but have actually found swinging round the Palace and up Birdcage Walk to pop out at Westminster to be better than before.

Not impressed with the new lights at the Hyde Park roundabout that means you cant make a dash across in one go anymore.

Appo, if you have only taken one side off the other side of the tyre might be harder to seat. Generally they'll go on easiest when both beads of he tyre are as close to the centre of the rim as possible. I'm a bit ham-fisted with tyre levers, I usually lube up the bead and drag it backwards over the rim. It avoids nipped tubes and scratched rims.

Appo, if you're damaging the rim, you must be using metal tire levers? This might sound counter-intuitive, but get down the LBS and get yourself a set of hard plastic ones; you'll have no fear of damaging the rim and you can then go to town horsing the tire in there. I think in 20 years of riding bikes I've changed a couple hundred tubes, and can probably count on the fingers of one hand the times I haven't used the levers to get the tire back on, even though road bike maintenance 101 will tell you it'll pinch the tube.


Oh, and it's usually easier on hot days (I find, think the rubber/canvas expands more than the metal) so maybe do it Saturday lunchtime in the garden instead of in the garage at 9pm.

Cheers lads. I am using metal tyre levers, will get plastic ones when I go to the LBS.

@ Armchair, I don't think there's any way I could get even 25% of the tyre on without levers.

My theory is that the tyre is just way too tight, will let you know what the experts say.

One would think that if the tyre came off that it'll go back on. Sounds silly but are you wedging the whole tyre on at once or one side at a time?

Coming back via Birdcage Walk though means going round 3 sides of Parliament Square unless there is a way to avoid this?

The new arrangement at Hyde Park Corner is slower but it is probably safer. Previously the light going red was the sign to dash across but there was often some cnut in a car RLJ-ing and not expecting to see a bunch of cyclists in front of him. I used to position myself to the right of the crossing so if there was a blatently late RLJ, some other poor fecker would get hit first...

With the tire half on (one side in and one off the rim) I can't get the side that is on across the tube without resorting to extreme force.

Maybe take a look at this on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XUFVrl0UT4

It isn't porn, but a beardy bloke who puts on a Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyre on just using his fingers, no tyre levers.

A couple of tips may be useful - he uses ties to secure the bits where both beads are on the rim to stop them coming off, and a key point is pushing down the tyre beads into the well of the rim as this produces the slack to get another bit onto the rim.

Love a good Strava segment. Put in a decent shift this morning, 11th of 507, average speed 43.6 km/h. Only four seconds off the leader, I reckon with a decent tailwind I could have had it.

Go for it!

I did the Dunwich Dynamo for the first time at the weekend and loved it. Definitely one of the best rides I have done. If it was raining I might avoid it.

Pete

I might well be up for that next year.

I did the Dunwich Dynamo for the second time this year. It has become the highlight of my cycling calendar.

If the weather is good, I would highly recommend it.

Don't treat it as a race, have fun and have swim in the sea at the end. Also, the pub in Dunwich opens early for breakfast after the Dynamo and does a decent pint of Adnams - highly recommended.

Anyone on this fred know of a good type of sandal/flip-flop for cycling? Not for 50 mile rides, but I've been getting around town by bike a bit lately, but my flip flops get in the way of the pedals and I hate having to dig out a pair of socks every time I take it out.

I have started a Planet Rugby cyclists' club on Strava, imaginatively called 'Planet Rugby Cyclists'.

Come one, come all, I've kudos aplenty to go around...

How do you join clubs on Strava? Never seen that before.

From memory you have to do from the website.. cant do directly from the app.

Doesn't seem to integrate with your music playlists like runkeeper does unless I'm missing a function somewhere?

Joined, I'm now a member of an elite club of two!

Hopefully should be back on the bike tomorrow, currently sitting in Charles de Gaulle, flight back to Houston delayed 5 hours. Just what you want at the start of an 11 hour flight with kids....

Yeah, you just go to the website, login, find the 'clubs' tab (under 'explore'), search 'planet rugby cyclists', and there should be the option to join.

Can't find it for some reason. Where did you set the location?

'Global', naturally.

Nope, still not working. Ahh well.