Bike to the Bank/Park - Charity Bike Ride

i can do 20 in 1 hour 45 and  have done 35 in just about 3hr 10 but that was with a couple of stops of 5 mins and one of 15

The plan was always to stick together. You just make it more difficult doing it that way with seperate support cars. It stops being a ride and turns into a race if you do go along with this idea Over the last 5 hours of riding I have averaged 10.4mph and have cycled just over 50 miles. We always worked out how long it would take to an average speed of 10mph and so I worked up to just over 10mph. My bike also won't let me ride over about 20mph for long. Even then, thats going downhill.

Also with you bezzing ahead you will cause the silly younger ones to speed up to you and be knackered before we've even left town.

I suggest we stick to the original plan. I think this will be the general consensus of the group.

Can't make the meeting either.

Got the bike today and go some paddded shorts, it then kept raining on and off, and tonight got roped into organising a party and putting gezeebo's up for weekend.

I think we will all be fine if we stick together, the faster ones by all means can go ahead makes no odds to me but I will be pacing I don't fancy ending up in hossy with after an asthma attack

we aim to have 3 groups

Experienced
Intermediate
Beginner


i have just come back on cos this disturbs me...as LH states the plan was for us all to stick together...and again the original pace thought practical was 10 mph
having an experianced group go ahead is wrong on so many levels
with your brilliant organisation you have managed to persaude/make do able an effort many doubted(even marinerian started out as a doubter) some of the riders have got on a bike for the first time in years....and some of us will struggle

surely it should be the job of the experianced to ride the group encouraging , helping , cogjoling(sp)

if you ride ahead  then you get to the rest break 10 to 15 ahead of the rest....as the beginners arrive you wilk be ready for the off.....so off you go.....all of a sudden the beginners only have a five stop so not to get too far behind....so the beginners  who need the rest stops more end up.....haveing less ..so getting more and more tired

they then get dropped by the intermediates as they struggle....so now you have a group of people who are trying to do probably the hardest thing they have done for years and they are on their own....then resentment will start to creep in.....and then the enjoyment  goes and you start to wonder why the bloody hell you bothered
thats when the temptation to jump in a support vehicle creeps in  and all of a sudden potential sponsorship is lost

also you arrange to meet the lincoln mob(which i am sure a great bunch) you experianced get there and a meeting takes place handshakes ....a coffee....even a pint maybe....then come the intermediateries and handshakes a hug ..no time for a pint......if you decide to stick around long enough..the  beginners get there....but they will no longer be beginners in the eyes of the Lincoln mob....they will be the numpties holding everyone up.....more resentment ...more reason to sit in a van  and fail the task

you get to lincoln  and the lord tennyson...some have a sausage buttie some have a shower the chairmen come along and pics taken......up cpme the numpties at the back....sausage buns cold ....missed the pice......very short rest break and last 2 miles to ground....the experiance at the front taking the admiring glances of the general public as they ride into town....the poor beginners/numpties who have riden their best ...cut short their rest breaks .....missed refreshments to stay on back of group into Lincoln are at the back getting the angry looks from the traffic being held up to let 50  odd bikers show what they can do

so because you can not be bothered to ride with everyone else and you want t show what your youthful legs ...your great bike  can do  instead of of helping some older fatter well meaning fool on a bike built 20 years ago  you will spoil the experiance and the ethos of the whole thing for many

i intead to shake everyones hand at the beginning and wish them luck....and i intend to shake everyones hand at the end and congratulate them....and i intead to stick with the Town fans and welcome the lincoln fans as one big group


sorry if spelling is out ...or some words /phrases are wrong.......but some times you just have to go with what you think is right

Agreed.

Before everyone gets on Josh's Back, this was something we talked about earlier.

This was in the idea stage i.e Josh's post. (at his otherwise it would of come from my username)

There is a few elements we have to take into consideration
Traffic / Roads
Convoy
Health and Safety.

I will explain all tomorrow but please continue to post your thoughts as to groups etc.

I think you need to ride as one group. Also congratulations on what is already a great achievement. Good luck to everyone!

Quoted from LH

The plan was always to stick together. You just make it more difficult doing it that way with seperate support cars. It stops being a ride and turns into a race if you do go along with this idea Over the last 5 hours of riding I have averaged 10.4mph and have cycled just over 50 miles. We always worked out how long it would take to an average speed of 10mph and so I worked up to just over 10mph. My bike also won't let me ride over about 20mph for long. Even then, thats going downhill.

Also with you bezzing ahead you will cause the silly younger ones to speed up to you and be knackered before we've even left town.

I suggest we stick to the original plan. I think this will be the general consensus of the group.

Can't make the meeting either.

NO it wasn't - this was quashed very early on and why we have campaigned for the number of support vehicles we have!!

sticking together is the worse thing you can do! imagine the traffic chaos caused by a clump of 50 riders - the ride MUST be split up regardless whether it is done by experience or just mixed groups.
it was the original plan in the eraly days 'lets all bike to lincoln' and this was fine with say 15 riders which was the original target, however, because it has grown to upwards of 45 we got strict advice by the police.


by law you can only ride 2 a breast, you need to keep at least 2m between bikes (which will vary above that) thats a line 87.5m long (based on a bike being 1.5m in length obv it is longer) you then have the support drivers driving at the same speed.

how is someone going to overtake a potential 100m clump on country roads? furthermore the route takes us down small rural roads (due to less traffic) you won't be able to ride 2 abreast all the time along here making the group even bigger and more dangerous it snakes round corners.

in regards to my 'great bike'

i'm riding an 8 speed off road mountain bike, heavy jump frame, oversized front suspension forks and off road heavy treaded downhill tyres. i bought it in 1999 and used my paper round money to buy strong components and therefore heavy components as it was a jump bike. it is not suited to this ride at all and is even too small for long riding ( a shorter down tube is better for stunts but not for distance ) but its all i've got at the moment, can't afford anything else. the only thing going for me is my SPD pedals which means i'm locked onto the bike which means if the bike crashes i go with it - great for power output, rubbish for the skin lol

its not the bike its the rider as to how you can keep up a high average (of which mine is not high at all - there are riders here that regularily complete 60mile haunts on proper road bikes in ridiculous times) having your bike setup for maximum stroke length and maximising your power transfer i havn't bike properly for years but my technique is still there ofsetting my low fitness.


the ideal jogging speed is 8mph so to do 10mph on a bike is slow. although the statisics show this is what we could drop down to it doesn't mean we should keep to that oyur times brazil show that you can average above this!


as regards to the silly younger ones racing ahead with me?

What young silly riders - on the last check on the database there ain't that many younger than me - plus the briefing will address things such as pacing yourself.

you can't ride to the slowest rider - it will be painful and unfair! imagine the feeling of struggling knowing that there are god knows how many people behind you!! i've been there and its awful!

also, if someones comfort zone is say 85 rpm and thats what their legs are used to to drop that down to 60 rpms is painfull.
for example, on the rider today, i started to struggle, checked my bike computer and i was only doing 60 rpms, so why was i in pain? - turns out i had dropped my seat when repairing my bike, lower rpm and the worng seat height had me in agony, as soon as i adjusted those 2 parameters it felt like i had started fresh again.

if they do try to keep up, it won't be long before they drop back, i average around 140-150bpm doing that speed, if someone tries that hard and isn't used to it they will hit anaerobic levels at like 180bpm and the lactic acid build up will have them slowing down after minutes.

i can tell you for free i won't be the fastest rider there by a mile! i will ride at what feels comfortable to me, to another that may seem like i'm racing ahead but for me its how i keep the cramp down and the warmth in my legs. i keep my legs at 70 rpm regardless, i use my gears to allow my legs to do that.

at the end of the day, there will be those that will need the full time to do it in and may have to grind out every mile but you can't ask those to slow down. consider the race for life, london marathon etc. they are all for a good cause etc. but you can't expect them to stick together.

the whole point of meeting at the lord tennyson is so that all groups can get back together, have a drink and bacon bap and rest regroup and then bike the remaining 2.5 miles to sincil bank with the police escort.

so I'M going to ruin the ethos of this am i? what a comment to make! i've done nothing but put hours into this and just because i'm suggesting an idea advised by many you say a thing like that.
i have some experience at this but what has helped is info from:
the police
biking forums
arrow cycles and their team
gainsborough cycles
mates who ride

also it is people like st barnabas that have scrutinised our risk assessment and suggested adding more info about groupings etc. this was further supported by the police. i'm not just making this up.

why do i bother...

regardless of groupings...

we will set off together and finish together.

Brazilnut,

it is likely that the 1st group won't be the one meeting the lincoln riders but more likely the 3rd group.

the main exclusive meeting point for the riders is the lord tennyson that way there will be the chance for all riders to meet each other over a pint/bacon butty etc. we also hope to get the chairmen to meet there for the rest of the 2.5 mile ride.

lincoln traffic - we have to ride as one group for this, we have a short time to (but long enough) to get through lincoln via police escort and roadblocks. the section this really counts for is lindum hill which is lovely and steep (pedalling hard you can get 35mph easy lol).

i would love to ride all as one group, but not even the professionals can do that so how do you think we can!

we are not going to keep everyone happy with this but i don't give a 5hit when health and safety are concerned.

you search on the internet regarding bike groups, most suggest groups of 8 max! now we certainly can't do that - 3 groups of 15-20 will still be a big enough presence on the road. but will allow cars to overtake safely. i don't want to be in the middle of the pack when a car finds out it has no where to go when overtaking us all.

another point - if you have 1 group of riders with just cars at the front and the back - think of the aggro the cars and st johns will have to go through to get to the middle of the pack.

if we end riding as 1 group - i WILL pull out for health and safety reasons - thats how ridiculous i feel riding as one group is. Not only that updating the police with the news will probably have them shutting the ride down - at one point they were capping the riders rememeber, one of the reasons we got over this was through grouping the riders with support cars front and back of each group.

i get the impression you think i'm some big biker - used to be like 8 years ago and done the odd ride over the past 3/4 years. i'm not after showing my youthful legs because they are not youthfull at all.


maybe naming the groups as experienced etc. was wrong and has got peoples backs up and i fully understand that how they must feel. but i'm afraid that it will naturally breakup even with 1 group, even if your doing 1mph more than someone else after 2 hours your 2miles in front. putting people in groups reduces how spread out you get and vene more so if you use my grouping. at least by grouping you can look out for the peopl in your group and move with their pace rather than just having the odd 1 or 2 in a group then a mile gap once the natural break occurs

your idea of riding in a group is idealistic and unfortuantly not realistic - no offence meant. by your own admittance brazilnut, your going with what you THINK is right' how much experience have you in this sort of thing?

if you have a solution to the problem of:
50 riders
highway code
health and safety
riders of different experience (in know there are some VERY expereinced 50yo riders!)
traffic
a range of roads (a roads and b roads)

the route has been changed time and time again to allow for safety, we won't be going past any streets lined with people (if any people at all) as it just isn't safe. the ideal route would be done the highstreet with our collection buckets on our handlebars etc. you just can't do that. thats why the lord tennyson is a meet up place. robbie has been great in there to accomodate - do you honestly think if 50 turn up at one your any more likely to get a hot sausage from a small pub kitchen!!

brazilnut - just looked at your timings

35 in 3hr 10 = 11mph

that means you'll do 40 in ~3h 30 add another break in of say 15mins and you have ~3h 45

7am start you are likely to get there for 10.45 (in a perfect world and based on those stats) but call it 11.30 you've arrived in plenty of time, we need to be at sincil at 1.30 that gives you 2 hours to re-coop ready for the last bit and talk to other riders etc.

based on my stats i'm looking at 2h 20 and thats if i take no breaks, i will be doing - i could probably just do 30 without a break but don't fancy it call my time 3hours.  one thing i have noticed is that i don't have the endurance i used to have!!

your well on track mate - and say if you classed yourself in the 'beginner' group - your only 30mins behind the 'experienced' group. that 30mins is a great safety buffer though. you'll never be too far away, you have blown out of proportion the affect the grouping will have

few tips:

over inflate the tyres to reduce rolling resistance
keep that seat hight (ok you look like a roadie) and keep your optimum power output
set your self small targets in the distance (on hard bits i use lamposts!!) psychology plays a huge part in not giving up!

these tips come from a friend who maitains a 30mph constant on his road bike!! eeek!!

i CANNOT wait for the last 2.5 miles all together and partially refreshed riding into sincil bank dumping the bikes and just congratulating everyone.

all down my arms will be putting masking tape with the peoples names i'm doing this for, i look forward to dropping that bike and having 60secs to myself think of those i've done it for.