Rutnick

Don't really see the big deal in this. Unless you KNOW they were all trying their absolute hardest and being equal then I find the whole thing moot. Don't know anything about Harlem hill but honestly it doesn't sound like much of a challenge.

The absolute BEST and I mean best riding I have seen this year was on a club TT when we all lined up in 20+ mph winds. We had a tailwind for 3 miles and I ran out of gear because I was setup for going to do Brasstown and had a compact and a custom 13/27 on the bike. I was hitting 33+ on the tailwind section and ran out of gear. Long story short, we ALL beat the course record that day even with 5 miles of headwind.

What was the best ride? It wasn't my 2nd place finish or my friend getting 1st. It was a fellow club rider showing up on a FIXED GEAR bike with 42/18 gearing and was 1:30 off the pace! He didn't even have clipless pedals, wore canvas tennis shoes, t-shirt, cotton shorts and is a clydedale.

When I saw his time, I just felt like such a dork. The best I could do was 1:15 seconds ahead of him and I had gears and was coughing up junk for 2 hours. We topped it off by doing a 25 mile hilly ride where he passed me doing at least 25mph.

We don't call him, "the animal" for nothing.

FixdGearHead

Something wrong with the rider...not the bike

Yes, in a me/road bike vs me/fixed gear race up a hill...me/road bike should in theory and all things being equal (except of course the bike!) win.

But, on average, I seem to ascend faster on my fixed gear because I've got no option in gearing; it's a mental thing. Fixed gear: keep cranking the pedals or stop...Road bike: Keep cranking the pedals or shift or stop.

brunop

right on, bro! this is the truth exactly. for me anyway as well.

mirona

I own a 5000 dollar bike and destroy hipsters on ss's. Imagine if I rode a ss, wore tight jeans, had a messenger bag and an emo haircut! I would be the fastest man alive!!!

Phantoj

Is this the "Road Cycling" forum or the "Park Cycling" forum?

FixdGearHead

Note to all: Fixed gear riders wearing jeans and a messenger bag and roadies in full gear are not mutually exclusive.

Case in point...
Me on my ride to work: jeans, messenger bag, fixed gear ride
Me on saturday ride to Bear Mt, NY: lycra shorts, high-end fancy dancy jersey, road bike

FixdGearHead

You don't exist if you live outside the Tri-State area...at least that's the feeling I got when I moved from the Midwest to NYC

gfrance

Same here, but as I said earlier, fancy kit on fixed gear very often too on weekends or evenings.

And that's one of the things that bug me about the OP. He wants to put boundries around what is 'hip' or what is 'gay' or whatever he's implying.

brunop

what? i wasn't implyin' anything like that bro. why so defensive?

and "boundaries"? we're all cyclists!! that's the main thing!!

brunop

wait! you mean there is something east of the hudson??

superted

gfrance chillout, I dont think brunop was making any real confusions about the riders, or about their sexuality, ability or whatever.

I can see the amusement in such a site but well understand that the riders who got overtaken could have been on a recovery ride or whatever.

FixdGearHead

You mean West of the Hudson?
Only thing West of the Hudson I know about is Route 9 and my family back in Iowa.

Cromulent

brunop - when speaking with roadies, it's important to know that whenever someone passes us, it's only because we're recovering between intervals. Or we've ridden 4,000 miles that day, and we're a bit tired. Sometimes both. And many of us are bloated and prematurely aged and grey from our efforts, so our pro-kits don't fit like they did when we left the house. Extreme efforts and dehydration do that to us. And sometimes we go for what are called recovery rides, where we ride extrememly slow. I take lots and lots of recovery rides. There are no slow roadies. If you pass us, especially on a fixie, it's because we let you.

jeffremer

I ride 4,001 miles a day and I'm still slow...maybe I need to ride a fixed gear.

brunop

yeah i meant west! and 9w is a great rice up towards nyack. i love ridin' there. that's where some dude named lance armstrong rides sometimes when he's in nyc. that is, when he's not gettin' dropped by ss and fg hippies.

superslomo

Do you mean "hipsters" maybe?

I don't think there's much of a groundswell of hippies riding FG.

Cromulent

It's all about the bike.

gfrance

Sorry if I misunderstood your intent. And I applaud and agree with the 'big tent'.

Rolling15

Speaking of Central Park
I just received this from The Car Free Central Park Campaign.

The Parks Department is issuing tickets to cyclists who go through red
lights in Central Park, even if the cyclists are yielding to
pedestrians in crosswalks.

While there is no excuse for cyclists who ride recklessly through red
lights without regard to the safety or rights of other park users, the
fact is that the lights were installed in the 1920s to control car
traffic and have nothing to do with using the park for recreation.
Nevertheless, Parks Dept. police are writing tickets even to cyclists who slow
at crosswalks and wait until all pedestrians have safely passed.
Forcing park users who are exercising to pointlessly wait at a light makes
no sense.

FixdGearHead

Reminds me of the alleged issuing of speeding tix last Summer (if you exceed random "15 mph Speed Limit for bikes" law); never heard of anyone actually receiving a citation tho for a few days the enforcers were out there handing out fliers stating tix would be issued.

EDIT: regardless, hence the reason I prefer to ride later in the evening in CP and avoid it all costs during the weekend.

Bob Ross

More often than not when I ride in CP it's the other way around: guys'll pass me just prior to the downhill on the north side of the park, but sure enough halfway up Harlem Hill they're staring at my back tire again. It's a gift, I swear.

Bob Ross

In addition to ticketing cyclists who run red lights (I saw two incredulous guys in team kit getting written up around 7:45AM today), park police were out in force this morning enforcing the separation between the cycling lane and the pedestrian lane, directing all joggers to get out of the bike lane and over the curb-like divider into the inside-most lane (in the southwest section of CP).

While stopped at a traffic light another cyclist thanked the police officer for getting the runners off the bike lane, & the officer replied "I been working here 24 years and I never knew we even had Bike Lanes and Pedestrian Lanes, this was all brought to our attention recently."

WTF?!?!?

sancocho

harlem hill is for wussy

Stacy

Does this mean I can never wear yellow in CP again?

Yep

Is this the same clown who was trying to get a rise out of people when he posted about dropping a roadie? Either way, obvious troll.