Drafting behind vehicles

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

temporary pedant licence

[quote]Sounds like an amazing toe,

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

temporary pedant licence

[quote]Sounds like an amazing toe,

[quote="George"][quote] 63 we had snow till Easter.

[huw williams]

Always plays an important part of winter training for me.

Go down the Caterham bypass (A22) do laps of the roundabout at the M25 Junction while waiting for the Tesco trucks delivering to Purley or similar big heavy lorries to come off the M25

If you can hang on as it accelerates up the first long drag you can usually do 30mph+ all the way to Purley

Awesome

'Guy on a Bike' Michael Seacrest who currently holds the world records for 12hr and 24hr on an indoor track was promising to attempt this:

[quote]Bicyclist Michael Secrest will attempt to bicycle across the entire U.S. (from California to Florida) in only 2 days, drafting behind a semi-tractor/trailer, traveling at an average speed of near 60 miles per hour! That is the equivalent distance of riding the Tour de France (which takes three weeks and covers approximately 2,100 miles) in less than 1/10th the time!

This ride will require Secrest to AVERAGE the "impossible" speed of 60 m.p.h. that was achieved in 1899 by "Mile-A-Minute Murphy", but for approximately 2,440 miles.

[Sylv]

We were about to be on for a good one on the way back from the ACC road race - a handful of us started drafting behind a huge 18-wheeler on the dual carriageway whilst mrpvt was knackering himself on his own ahead of the lorry - he'd missed the bus, literally.

Lorry was not going quite fast enough to be exhilarating though, and I don't know if the driver got annoyed by us or what, but he sooned pulled out in a lay-by.

[huw williams]

We've got a new mercedes sprinter van at the office - and a qualified Derney pilot volunteering to drive it for training tows - anyone interested

[Sylv]

Are bikes allowed on the M25?

I forgot about that one - there's a tunnell under the Thames in East London that's allowed for bikes - it's about a mile long. (name?)

Not long ago I took it back and forth, drafting all the way behind a car. It is limited to 20 but the first one was doing up to 30. Easy on the way down, not so easy on the way up!

[Andrew G]

[quote="huw williams"]We've got a new mercedes sprinter van at the office - and a qualified Derney pilot volunteering to drive it for training tows - anyone interested

[quote="Andrew G"][quote="huw williams"]We've got a new mercedes sprinter van at the office - and a qualified Derney pilot volunteering to drive it for training tows - anyone interested

[Sylv]

That's the name I was thinking of, wasn't sure of spelling though so didn't want to write it down for fear of a pedant-attack.

[Andrew G]

Not worried Huw, I frequently grab tows, people carriers just make life easier and they tend not to pull away so quickly from lights so make tucking easy.

Bikes not allowed on any motorway Sylv. I remember one team (Kenya? - an African one definately) got pulled up on the motorway where they were training for the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, they just hadn't realised they weren't supposed to be there.

[huw williams]

they had bike racing on the M25 before it was open

Imagine closing the M25 for a day and having a 1 lap all category race - its aboout 120 miles I think - it'd be savage

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

I was racing there (1985) - we parked on the slip road that is now the Leatherhead junction, turned through gap in central reservation and headed up towards Reigate, turning at the top of the hill (another gap), and back down.
It may sound boring, but it was traffic free ultra smooth tarmac with a slightly downhill finish - fantastic.

Riding the handicap world championship there, Tom McCall won it and I snatched 2nd

Still find it amazing when I drive that section to think what it was like, and wonder how many cyclists can say they have ridden up and down the M25

[sid_day]

One of my favourite commuting games is drafting a bus then, knowing it's route by the route number timing the slingshot out of the slipstream as the bus pulls into a stop.

Then travelling off at 30mph under your own steam

I use this when I can heading up to Waterloo from Elephant.

If I'm lucky I'll get a X68 which doesn't stop.
(There is no emoticon for yawn)

Unfortunately it is confounded a nowadays by large numbers of cycle commuters: the bus gets stuck behind them.