Comparative cycling
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Hello all,
I recently moved from Durham to Lincoln, along with the rest of my research group. It's quite
interesting how one's ride experiences change even though the locations are only about 140 miles
apart[1]. On the whole, I think I prefer Durham; the hills are exciting and challenging and though
the drivers were occasionally incompetent they were very rarely malicious or dangerously impatient.
Lincs just has rain, cabbages and headwinds :(
I also miss my commute; I'm finding it quite hard to get the miles in when I live all of ten minutes
walk away from work.
While out for a ride one evening last week, coming back towards Lincoln on the A57 in primary
position with only two cars coming in the opposite direction, some ray of sunshine got up close
behind me and leaned on the horn for the whole seconds it took for the two cars to pass, thus
allowing them to overtake dangerously with inches to spare, despite the abundance of empty
carriageway ahead and to the side. In the two weeks or so I've been here, I've experienced more
incidents such as dangerous overtaking and people encroaching on my right of way at roundabouts and
junctions than I did in any two months in Durham. Ho hum.
Still, it is fun to cycle around the lanes with my dynamo headlamp the brightest thing for miles.
Regards,
-frazzled david
[1] Yes, I do plan to ride it at some point :) Probably at the start of March to coincide with
a trip up to Newcastle to see the Dropkick Murphys. Need a few more hours of daylight
first though.
On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 13:46:14 +0000 (UTC), David Nutter
<David.Nutter@durham.ac.uk> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I recently moved from Durham to Lincoln, along with the rest of my research group.
Crikey, a whole group transfer! You weren't in one of the threatened departments were you?
> I also miss my commute; I'm finding it quite hard to get the miles in when I live all of ten
> minutes walk away from work.
Well, you know the answer to that one, move further away.
> -frazzled david
You'll not be surprised to know that the council still haven't returned the cycle parking to
outside of the shopping centre. And, the Castle Chare Cycle Bridge, a bridge from nowhere to
nowhere, is yet to open.
At least Lincoln also has a spectacular cathedral.
Colin
--
Colin Blackburn <colin.blackburn@durham.ac.uk> said:
> On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 13:46:14 +0000 (UTC), David Nutter <David.Nutter@durham.ac.uk> wrote:
>
>> Hello all,
>>
>> I recently moved from Durham to Lincoln, along with the rest of my research group.
>
> Crikey, a whole group transfer! You weren't in one of the threatened departments were you?
Yep. Computer Science. It has been "refocussed" to concentrate on theoretical work and teaching so
the various applied people scarpered to the four winds (Strathclyde, Leeds, Lincoln and St Andrews).
>
>> I also miss my commute; I'm finding it quite hard to get the miles in when I live all of ten
>> minutes walk away from work.
>
> Well, you know the answer to that one, move further away.
Yeah, I'm only in my current accomodation for 6 months then I will find somewhere out of town.
> You'll not be surprised to know that the council still haven't returned the cycle parking to
> outside of the shopping centre. And, the Castle Chare Cycle Bridge, a bridge from nowhere to
> nowhere, is yet to open.
I noticed a while ago that the racks outside Clayport library had been engulfed by the temporary
ice rink. Are they back yet? No surprise about the Castle Chare bridge as I tried to cross it
when in Durham last weekend and found the fences a bit much when carrying a big rucksack and
laptop computer.
> At least Lincoln also has a spectacular cathedral.
True.
Regards,
-david
David Nutter wrote:
> Yep. Computer Science. It has been "refocussed" to concentrate on theoretical work and teaching so
> the various applied people scarpered to the four winds (Strathclyde, Leeds, Lincoln and St
> Andrews).
>
Shame you ended up in Lincoln, theres some great cycling around Leeds. Traffic is bad in the city
and we have our fair share of twunts but the hills are great. Not as close to Hartlepool[1] as
Durham though.
[1]My home town.
--
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MSeries <skankmartin@hotmail.com> said:
> David Nutter wrote:
>
>> Yep. Computer Science. It has been "refocussed" to concentrate on theoretical work and teaching
>> so the various applied people scarpered to the four winds (Strathclyde, Leeds, Lincoln and St
>> Andrews).
>>
> Shame you ended up in Lincoln, theres some great cycling around Leeds. Traffic is bad in the city
> and we have our fair share of twunts but the hills are great. Not as close to Hartlepool[1] as
> Durham though.
I went to the Wolds yesterday, taking advantage of the nice weather and only encountered
significant rudeness from drivers on the A158 leaving Lincoln[1]. Once I got off the trunk road all
was well and I ended up doing a nice 70 miler with the furthest point being Louth with a cup of tea
and a cake in Binbrook.
Halfway to Durham, thinks I :)
Regards,
-david will win his bet on riding to Durham in under 24hours, oh yes.
[1] Top place goes to a Merc driver hammering past too close at Ludicrous Speed, as we passed a
large sign pointing out the obscene number of deaths on that road. Oh, and making gestures to
the effect of "get into the gutter, bloody cyclist". Humph.
David Nutter wrote:
> -david will win his bet on riding to Durham in under 24hours, oh yes.
How far is Lincon to Durham ? 180 miles ? Mostly flat I would say, nice challenge. Is the wager a
large one ?
--
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MSeries <skankmartin@hotmail.com> said:
> David Nutter wrote:
>
>> -david will win his bet on riding to Durham in under 24hours, oh yes.
>
> How far is Lincon to Durham ? 180 miles ? Mostly flat I would say, nice challenge. Is the wager a
> large one ?
About 140-odd if I ride a fairly direct route[1]. It's pretty much flat all the way and I won't need
huge amounts of kit since I'll be staying at a friends house. Also, if I wimp out there is always a
mainline station within 30 miles, so no chance of being stranded.
The wager isn't huge; a couple of crates of ale is all. It merely provides an excuse... :)
Regards,
-david
[1] Unfortunately that route involves lots of trunk roads including junctions with the A1(M) at a
couple of points which would be Not Much Fun Really. Keeping clear of scary roads as much as
possible would probably push it to 160 or so.
David Nutter wrote:
> MSeries <skankmartin@hotmail.com> said:
>> David Nutter wrote:
>>
>>> -david will win his bet on riding to Durham in under 24hours, oh yes.
>>
>> How far is Lincon to Durham ? 180 miles ? Mostly flat I would say, nice challenge. Is the wager a
>> large one ?
>
> About 140-odd if I ride a fairly direct route[1]. It's pretty much flat all the way and I won't
> need huge amounts of kit since I'll be staying at a friends house. Also, if I wimp out there is
> always a mainline station within 30 miles, so no chance of being stranded.
>
> The wager isn't huge; a couple of crates of ale is all. It merely provides an excuse... :)
>
> Regards,
>
> -david
>
> [1] Unfortunately that route involves lots of trunk roads including junctions with the A1(M) at a
> couple of points which would be Not Much Fun Really. Keeping clear of scary roads as much as
> possible would probably push it to 160 or so.
I live in Leeds ATM and have cycled to Hartlepool before (95 miles) avoiding the A1(M) and A19 and
most of their junctions. I know the bit south of Durham around the A1(M) quite well. Email me on
mseries1965 at hotmail dot com if you want some help with routes.
Now of course I don't know what sort of rider you are but 160 flat miles should be doable in
daylight in mid summer.
Crates of ale ? good incentive considering we normally do these things for fun !!
--
The Reply & From email addresses are checked rarely. http://www.mseries.freeserve.co.uk (http://www.mseries.freeserve.co.uk/)
MSeries <skankmartin@hotmail.com> said:
> David Nutter wrote:
>
*snip*
>> [1] Unfortunately that route involves lots of trunk roads including junctions with the A1(M) at a
>> couple of points which would be Not Much Fun Really. Keeping clear of scary roads as much as
>> possible would probably push it to 160 or so.
>
> I live in Leeds ATM and have cycled to Hartlepool before (95 miles) avoiding the A1(M) and A19 and
> most of their junctions. I know the bit south of Durham around the A1(M) quite well. Email me on
> mseries1965 at hotmail dot com if you want some help with routes.
Thanks for your kind offer but I'm kind of enjoying poring over maps. With a bit of help from
multimap or an A-Z to supplement my road atlas I'll find a suitable route, balanced between
directness and the need to avoid Evil Roads. After all, no rush at the moment since we're plumbing
the depths of winter at the moment.
> Now of course I don't know what sort of rider you are but 160 flat miles should be doable in
> daylight in mid summer.
I think I'll try it at the start of March as on the evidence of yesterday's and saturday's ride I
shouldn't have too any trouble if I take it easy. It'll mean leaving before dawn, but if I can keep
up my usual steady 16mph and stops to a minimum all should be well.
> Crates of ale ? good incentive considering we normally do these things for fun !!
Luckily I have a friend who doesn't believe it is possible to have fun in this way :)
He'll have his revenge when he crushes me 6-0 at darts. Again.
Regards,
-david
David Nutter <David.Nutter@durham.ac.uk> wrote in message news:<slrnc1a2l4.pp1.David.Nutter@pc059139.lincoln.ac.uk>...
> MSeries <skankmartin@hotmail.com> said:
> > David Nutter wrote:
> >
> >> -david will win his bet on riding to Durham in under 24hours, oh yes.
> >
> > How far is Lincon to Durham ? 180 miles ? Mostly flat I would say, nice challenge. Is the wager
> > a large one ?
>
> About 140-odd if I ride a fairly direct route[1]. It's pretty much flat all the way and I won't
> need huge amounts of kit since I'll be staying at a friends house. Also, if I wimp out there is
> always a mainline station within 30 miles, so no chance of being stranded.
>
> The wager isn't huge; a couple of crates of ale is all. It merely provides an excuse... :)
500 miles in 24 hours has been done by a very few elite cyclists. 250 in 12 has been done by rather
more. Watch the met and pick a dry day when you're going to have a stiff following breeze. 160-odd
miles in a day is definitely doable by an ordinary fit cyclist highly motivated by beer. Good luck.
--
Dave...
David Nutter wrote:
> Thanks for your kind offer but I'm kind of enjoying poring over maps. With a bit of help from
> multimap or an A-Z to supplement my road atlas I'll find a suitable route, balanced between
> directness and the need to avoid Evil Roads. After all, no rush at the moment since we're plumbing
> the depths of winter at the moment.
I enjoy that too, I use OS Interactive Map on CD Rom which allows distances to be calculated quite
easily by tracing your route. It allows small maps to be printed which is sometimes useful.
>> Now of course I don't know what sort of rider you are but 160 flat miles should be doable in
>> daylight in mid summer.
>
> I think I'll try it at the start of March as on the evidence of yesterday's and saturday's ride I
> shouldn't have too any trouble if I take it easy. It'll mean leaving before dawn, but if I can
> keep up my usual steady 16mph and stops to a minimum all should be well.
Yes, you'll be grand if you prepare properly, plan your stops and use them as goals. Don't forget to
report back here once you've done it.
--
The Reply & From email addresses are checked rarely. http://www.mseries.freeserve.co.uk (http://www.mseries.freeserve.co.uk/)
"Dave Kahn" <dkahn400@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:57db8bde.0401261036.51fa6a5f@posting.google.com...
> David Nutter <David.Nutter@durham.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:<slrnc1a2l4.pp1.David.Nutter@pc059139.lincoln.ac.uk>...
> > MSeries <skankmartin@hotmail.com> said:
> > > David Nutter wrote:
> > >
> > >> -david will win his bet on riding to Durham in under 24hours, oh yes.
> > >
> > > How far is Lincon to Durham ? 180 miles ? Mostly flat I would say,
nice
> > > challenge. Is the wager a large one ?
> >
> > About 140-odd if I ride a fairly direct route[1]. It's pretty much flat
all
> > the way and I won't need huge amounts of kit since I'll be staying at a friends house. Also, if
> > I wimp out there is always a mainline station within 30 miles, so no chance of being stranded.
> >
> > The wager isn't huge; a couple of crates of ale is all. It merely
provides
> > an excuse... :)
>
> 500 miles in 24 hours has been done by a very few elite cyclists. 250 in 12 has been done by
> rather more. Watch the met and pick a dry day when you're going to have a stiff following breeze.
> 160-odd miles in a day is definitely doable by an ordinary fit cyclist highly motivated by beer.
> Good luck.
>
There is a race in Norway that is 344 miles long. The time record for this race is 13h 42m. I've
done that race 11 times, from 1981 to 1991 and my PB is 14h 28m which I did in 1987. The race starts
in Trondheim at sea level, goes south over the mountains @1000m and ends in Oslo. Keeping an average
speed of 40 km/h for 14 hours is not bad. Hjalmar
"Hjalmar Duklæt" <hjalmar.duklat@telenor.com> wrote in message news:<6QpRb.4145$hd.66533@news2.e.nsc.no>...
> There is a race in Norway that is 344 miles long. The time record for this race is 13h 42m. I've
> done that race 11 times, from 1981 to 1991 and my PB is 14h 28m which I did in 1987. The race
> starts in Trondheim at sea level, goes south over the mountains @1000m and ends in Oslo. Keeping
> an average speed of 40 km/h for 14 hours is not bad.
That would be Styrkeprøven, or "The Great Strength Test". This is one of the toughest races in the
world. 14h 28m is a brilliant time - jeg er meget imponert! Anyone wondering if they'd like to have
a go could look at http://www.styrkeproven.com/styrk2003/toreglement_en.shtml .
Dave Larrington will doubtless know all about the recumbent controversy associated with this event.
Are they still banned Hjalmar?
--
Dave...
"Dave Kahn" <dkahn400@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:57db8bde.0401270900.7dfbaee8@posting.google.com...
> "Hjalmar Duklæt" <hjalmar.duklat@telenor.com> wrote in message
news:<6QpRb.4145$hd.66533@news2.e.nsc.no>...
>
> > There is a race in Norway that is 344 miles long. The time record for
this
> > race is 13h 42m. I've done that race 11 times, from 1981 to 1991 and my
PB
> > is 14h 28m which I did in 1987. The race starts in Trondheim at sea
level,
> > goes south over the mountains @1000m and ends in Oslo. Keeping an
average
> > speed of 40 km/h for 14 hours is not bad.
>
> That would be Styrkeprøven, or "The Great Strength Test". This is one of the toughest races in the
> world. 14h 28m is a brilliant time - jeg er meget imponert! Anyone wondering if they'd like to
> have a go could look at http://www.styrkeproven.com/styrk2003/toreglement_en.shtml .
>
> Dave Larrington will doubtless know all about the recumbent controversy associated with this
> event. Are they still banned Hjalmar?
>
I really don't know Dave. Back when I was still doing the race they were allowed. Remeber once just
before the finish that one recumbent crashed in a roundabout. It was downhill and still dark and I
don't think the rider ever recognized the roundabout and went straight on an island in the middle of
it. Hjalmar
Hjalmar Duklæt <hjalmar.duklat@telenor.com> said:
>
> There is a race in Norway that is 344 miles long. The time record for this race is 13h 42m. I've
> done that race 11 times, from 1981 to 1991 and my PB is 14h 28m which I did in 1987. The race
> starts in Trondheim at sea level, goes south over the mountains @1000m and ends in Oslo. Keeping
> an average speed of 40 km/h for 14 hours is not bad.
Blimey! That's a seriously impressive performance; well done. Even motivated by all the beer in the
world I'd never even get close to that, or probably complete the event at all. Still, its something
to aspire to, if I ever get Seriously Good (not likely :)).
*applause*
Regards,
-david
Dave Kahn wrote:
> That would be Styrkeprøven, or "The Great Strength Test". This is one of the toughest races in the
> world. 14h 28m is a brilliant time - jeg er meget imponert! Anyone wondering if they'd like to
> have a go could look at http://www.styrkeproven.com/styrk2003/toreglement_en.shtml .
>
> Dave Larrington will doubtless know all about the recumbent controversy associated with this
> event. Are they still banned Hjalmar?
Back in 1998, Ernst Poulsen wrote:
"Only a handful of races are as tough as the Norwegian endurance event - The Great Trial of
Strength. The distance is a staggering 540 km across the mountain range - or fjell - between
Trondheim and Oslo. And just to make it a serious riders only-event, the time limit is 30 hours.
Usually the ride attracts some 3000 cyclists - including the best riders in Norway, many foreigners,
- and a handful of recumbent riders. For years none of this constituted a problem, until the Dutch
HPV-rider Bram Moens shattered all records, and won the 1997 event with a full one hours and 45
minutes in front of number two.
But instead of celebrating Bram Moens as a winner, the organizers gave the first prize of $2000 to
another rider - and to top it all off recumbents were banned in the 1998 event.
"They simply ignored me, when I arrived", explains Bram Moens, who later went back to Norway and
used part of his vacation to speak to the organizers. This didn't change the decision.
Örn Ulf Pedersen from the event organization, admits that HPV's never constituted a problem -
earlier on. They were only a rarity. Bram Moens' fast ride changed this:
"This isn't a competition - it's an endurance event[1]", explains Örn Ulf Pedersen, who admits that
the 1997 event did have a special "record group" which competed for prizes. Recumbents were allowed
to sign up for this group, and the rules - which state that helmets must be worn, and that Triathlon
handlebars are not allowed, did not state anything about recumbents.
Apparently the organizers underestimated the speed of the recumbents. Only one or two minutes before
the start, Bram Moens and the other recumbents were taken out of the record group, and were told to
start 10 minutes later. This soon became a problem, when several of the recumbent riders had to
overtake the entire record group soon after the start. At the finish line in Oslo, two of the
recumbent riders finished way ahead of the rest of the pack. But the fact that recumbent suddenly
proved to be much faster than the record group, also constitutued a problem.
"The cost of police patrolling is also of importance. We pay 180000 Nkroner (20000 Euro), and it
gets more expensive when some of the riders arrive that early, as the police have to follow them
too", Örn Ulf Pedersen explains.
The organizers did get an early warning that recumbents would be faster than all other riders. Bram
Moens participated in the 1991 event and was ahead of everyone else - until 50 km from the finish
line, when a serious stomach ache took him out of the race. But according to Örn Ulf Pedersen, the
organizers never realized this: "We only see the final results".
Despite the dispute this year - the door may not be entirely closed to recumbents in the future. "As
we see it, recumbents may be back next year. We would of course like to see as many participants as
possible", explains Örn Ulf Pedersen, who hopes to meet with HPV-riders later this year."
I've had a golf around the Organisators' web site and tucked well away in the small print is the
statement "Triathlon handlebars and recumbent are not allowed." Bah!
1 - This no douubt explains the $2000 "prize" for the "winner" - Ed.
--
Dave Larrington - http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/
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