Am i the only one

[Mad Cow]

Reminds me of the pastime of "roadie baiting" that we engaged in during the early days of mountain biking. The rules go like this:

Best done with three off you, hang out on the side of a nice straight road with lots of off road access points, all the better if you are hidden by vegetation. (The Wanstead New Road and Epping New Road through Epping Forest was ideal for this).

Upon spotting a bunch of roadies out for their Sunday morning chain gang, get read to go.

As they pass, pull out and hammer like mad until you get on their tail, obviously rider one in your group has to lead out.

Stick on the end of the chain and let rider two take the lead until the opportunity to break comes, this is usually when the lead roadie pulls off the front.

Rider two puts the hammer down big time and passes them, dragging the other two with him, it helps if they were not even aware of you catching up. Usually the element of surprise will give you a gap on them.

Once past, rider three takes the lead and you pedal for all you are worth because you can guarantee that they will give chase.

Once you have suitably annoyed them, your lungs are about to burst and they look like catching up, look for the nearest point you can go off road and peel off the road! Thus leaving a bunch of frustrated roadies unable to follow and continue the chase.

Oh what fun

 

[orange71]

that's the way!

 

[stevek]

Mad Cow, you just put a smile on my face with that little story, conjured up all sorts of images!
Very funny!

 

[Stick Legs]

Remember those duck egg blue invalid carriges (made by AC of all people!)...

When I used to work in a bike shop (1993-5) one regularly went the same way as me to and from work:
Spot it,
Catch it,
25mph all the way to work!

 

[orange71]

My favourite are slow lorries - slip into the slipstream of them and hey presto 40mph all the way to work if they're going your way! Only problem is being 18 inches from their bumper the brake lights tend to be in the periphery of your vision which makes for a bit of a buzz and a big grin on your face as you get to work!

 

[gump]

This is gonna sound a bit sad, but for years, whenever I see another rider in the distance, I must take chase. Roadie, mtb, granny picking up the hovis, doesn't matter, had to pass them.

Whys that sad?
Well as soon as I see something up ahead, I get flashbacks to the final death star scenes where before Luke blows it up, some other biffer is in the trench and he says to himself 'stay on target, stay on target' - and this phrase just keeps going off in my head :?

'stay on target, stay on target' aaahhhhHHHHH!!!!

Still happens now.

MAKE IT STOP!!!

 

[JS1500]

Remember those duck egg blue invalid carriges (made by AC of all people!)...

When I used to work in a bike shop (1993-5) one regularly went the same way as me to and from work:
Spot it,
Catch it,
25mph all the way to work!

Sorry i'm late boss, I missed the invalid carriage

 

[orange71]

'stay on target, stay on target' aaahhhhHHHHH!!!!

my mantra is "Reel him in, reel him in!"

so you're not the only one!

 

[mynchiboy]

Gotta say I like the flat out approach also...especially scaring people on brompton bikes who seem to be mostly wallies with no road sense and who wobble all over the place. Hardly surprising when they travel 3/4 of the journey on the tube and 200 yards to the office.

Don't mean to offend so for those fans of the poncey fold up replace with either grey specialized sirrus or ridgeback cyclone (the most nicked bike ever?)

 

[Kestonian]

My pet hate is those that wobble to the front of the queue at the traffic lights, push past and then pedal off at 2 miles a decade.

My personal mantra is "I can do, I CAN do it" Thomas the Tank Engine style. Should I have kept that to myself?