Author Topic: That’s annoying...  (Read 6118 times)

Pedal Castro

  • so talented I can run with scissors - ouch!
    • Two beers or not two beers...
That’s annoying...
« on: 07 May, 2019, 08:25:47 pm »
Just had the Flatlands 600 email saying mudguards compulsory. My fault for not spotting it when entering but I vaguely remember that could be why I haven’t ridden it before. Although I almost never ride in the rain without mudguards I can’t fit a mudguard fitted bike in my car. I need to think again for my PBP qualifier.

Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #1 on: 07 May, 2019, 08:27:52 pm »
I wouldn’t worry about it ! No one checks but if wet a nice courtesy for others if you are in a group

arabella

  • عربللا
  • onwendeð wyrda gesceaft weoruld under heofonum
Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #2 on: 07 May, 2019, 08:44:02 pm »
It's not just for those following though, is it - it's also for where you stop and eat.
Or better still, bring the mudguards with you and attache when you arrive.  istr race blades (or the long ones at least) have some sort of QR
Or put the front one on the back and vice versa and you can pop it out, if that's where the extra 2cm is?
Any fool can admire a mountain.  It takes real discernment to appreciate the fens.

Pedal Castro

  • so talented I can run with scissors - ouch!
    • Two beers or not two beers...
Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #3 on: 07 May, 2019, 09:17:03 pm »
I wouldn’t worry about it ! No one checks but if wet a nice courtesy for others if you are in a group

But roolz  are roolz. If it says mudguards I need to use mudguards or not ride.

Chris S

Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #4 on: 07 May, 2019, 09:23:57 pm »
As Arabella says - just bring some race-blades and attach them before you ride; they're a ten minute job (don't hold me to that!).

S2L

Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #5 on: 07 May, 2019, 09:29:18 pm »
I wouldn’t worry about it ! No one checks but if wet a nice courtesy for others if you are in a group

Pretty sure the organiser of this actually means it

Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #6 on: 07 May, 2019, 09:40:29 pm »
There was just a bit of a blow up on the AUK Facebook group about this, with many objecting to the very idea of asking if there's any flexibility at events with an "M" on them.

(and talk of riders at one event being disqualified for only having rear mudguards...)

Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #7 on: 07 May, 2019, 09:45:00 pm »
Just had the Flatlands 600 email saying mudguards compulsory. My fault for not spotting it when entering but I vaguely remember that could be why I haven’t ridden it before. Although I almost never ride in the rain without mudguards I can’t fit a mudguard fitted bike in my car. I need to think again for my PBP qualifier.
Why not just take them off your "mudguard fitted bike", pop it in the car, and then fit them when you get there. How hard is that? I've had that issue and done just that.

Redlight

  • Enjoying life in the slow lane
Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #8 on: 07 May, 2019, 09:46:27 pm »
There was just a bit of a blow up on the AUK Facebook group about this, with many objecting to the very idea of asking if there's any flexibility at events with an "M" on them.

(and talk of riders at one event being disqualified for only having rear mudguards...)

Perhaps the most productive course of action would be a polite email to the organiser asking whether he intends to enforce the rule strictly. Knowing the route, I can fully understand why he might have added the requirement. It wouldn't take a lot of rain to transform some of those road surfaces into slurry-topped tarmac.
Why should anybody steal a watch when they can steal a bicycle?

Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #9 on: 07 May, 2019, 10:00:18 pm »
I rode a event recently were the event required mudguards and all riders were reminded of this in a email,  two riders turned up without them- no brevet simple( and possibility no pbp)

As a organizer its the problem of arranging controls and not having riders turning up covered in mud etc.....

Chris S

Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #10 on: 07 May, 2019, 10:10:14 pm »
As a organizer its the problem of arranging controls and not having riders turning up covered in mud etc.....

This has always puzzled me, because I thought it was a no-brainer - y'know, "Don't cover someone else's stuff in road-crud".

But hey, I've seen complaints about audaxers pissing in people's driveways, so I guess there's no accounting for some people.

Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #11 on: 07 May, 2019, 10:26:46 pm »
I’ve been on a few “mudguard compulsory” Audaxes and spotted loadsa riders without them, or with useless ones spraying everywhere.
Bikes are for riding, not cleaning!

Wycombewheeler

  • PBP-2019 LEL-2022
Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #12 on: 07 May, 2019, 10:53:32 pm »
I’ve been on a few “mudguard compulsory” Audaxes and spotted loadsa riders without them, or with useless ones spraying everywhere.
Spraying everywhere but I get they kept the shorts clean for sitting in controls. So not entirely useless.

Eddington  127miles, 170km

Pedal Castro

  • so talented I can run with scissors - ouch!
    • Two beers or not two beers...
Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #13 on: 08 May, 2019, 06:29:58 am »
Knowing the route, I can fully understand why he might have added the requirement. It wouldn't take a lot of rain to transform some of those road surfaces into slurry-topped tarmac.

In which case I wouldn't ride anyway, I'm doing this for fun. Assuming I qualify for PBP, if there was a lot of rain forecast I'd probably not ride that either.

I do have some pretty useless race blades somewhere in the garage (used them once), also a pair of those 6" mudguards they would fit to "racers" back in the 70s maybe they would do...

Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #14 on: 08 May, 2019, 08:37:18 am »
I stopped group cycling about 10 years ago because of the MUDGUARD thing, I was fed up of eating cow shit washed down with road salt & having grit embedded in my eye balls.

Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #15 on: 08 May, 2019, 08:58:13 am »

But hey, I've seen complaints about audaxers pissing in people's driveways, so I guess there's no accounting for some people.

While regrouping in a driveway at the top of a climb near me, the homeowner came striding out to hurrang us. He complained about 'you cyclists' leaving cola bottles full of piss in his hedge.  ???

Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #16 on: 08 May, 2019, 09:02:09 am »
I stopped group cycling about 10 years ago because of the MUDGUARD thing, I was fed up of eating cow shit washed down with road salt & having grit embedded in my eye balls.

I rarely bother with the club runs in the winter for this reason. I must be the odd one out because people seem to be overwhelmingly OK about returning from a 3hr ride looking like they have competed in a particularly grueling running of a Belgian classic.

Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #17 on: 08 May, 2019, 09:06:33 am »

But hey, I've seen complaints about audaxers pissing in people's driveways, so I guess there's no accounting for some people.

While regrouping in a driveway at the top of a climb near me, the homeowner came striding out to hurrang us. He complained about 'you cyclists' leaving cola bottles full of piss in his hedge.  ???

I hope you put him straight: it's white van man whose spoor is piss-filled plastic bottles, but as cyclists surely you'd just be pissing directly on it.

Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #18 on: 08 May, 2019, 09:10:34 am »

I hope you put him straight

Tried. I don't think he was having it. He'd found his justification for being annoyed at being held up from time to time  and he was sticking to it.

Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #19 on: 08 May, 2019, 09:11:10 am »
I stopped group cycling about 10 years ago because of the MUDGUARD thing, I was fed up of eating cow shit washed down with road salt & having grit embedded in my eye balls.

I rarely bother with the club runs in the winter for this reason. I must be the odd one out because people seem to be overwhelmingly OK about returning from a 3hr ride looking like they have competed in a particularly grueling running of a Belgian classic.

No, they like that look because if makes them look 'Rapha-hard'. Just add a b/w filter and you have instant attitude.

I remember a Shark (which is very clubby) and a group turning up at first control looking very Belgian and coated in Rapha and Assos and expensive carbon dust, and no doubt loving the taste of agriculutal road shit in their mouths. Two minutes later Tomsk walks in off his 70s tourer, shorts and sandals, dry as a bone, smiling, looking like he'd just popped down to the shops. Now I love that people from clubs do Audax's and I am no mudguard pedant, but there's a lesson then, or something, and what a great excuse for a.n.other bike :-)

rob

Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #20 on: 08 May, 2019, 09:31:00 am »
I started Wilkyboy's 200 with 2 mudguards and finished with one.   That could have caused a validation quandary.

Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #21 on: 08 May, 2019, 09:44:53 am »
Just had the Flatlands 600 email saying mudguards compulsory. My fault for not spotting it when entering but I vaguely remember that could be why I haven’t ridden it before. Although I almost never ride in the rain without mudguards I can’t fit a mudguard fitted bike in my car. I need to think again for my PBP qualifier.

I just read your accounts of your PBP 2015 and 12 hour record attempt. Are you attempting to distance yourself from the Audax world, as a preparation for another disappointment?

Why did you choose the 84 hour for your first PBP? I'd view your attempt to do an 'evens' 12 as ambitious, but doomed. However, I can't see any reason for you not to get round PBP in under 90 hours. It's a perfectly reasonable target with a 200 mile+ 12 last year, assuming that you've got a 90 hour place. Completing the PBP project is worth a bit of fiddling with mudguards.

Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #22 on: 08 May, 2019, 10:36:56 am »
I hope you put him straight: it's white van man whose spoor is piss-filled plastic bottles, but as cyclists surely you'd just be pissing directly on it.

Around urban areas it's far more likely to be 'Uber juice', had to dodge a large bottle of this pre-dawn in the road on my last ride.
“That slope may look insignificant, but it's going to be my destiny" - Fitzcarraldo

Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #23 on: 08 May, 2019, 12:35:23 pm »
If I bring my trike Tomsk will nod approval and others may wonder about my naked rear wheels.

Pedal Castro

  • so talented I can run with scissors - ouch!
    • Two beers or not two beers...
Re: That’s annoying...
« Reply #24 on: 08 May, 2019, 12:40:37 pm »

Why did you choose the 84 hour for your first PBP? I'd view your attempt to do an 'evens' 12 as ambitious, but doomed. However, I can't see any reason for you not to get round PBP in under 90 hours. It's a perfectly reasonable target with a 200 mile+ 12 last year, assuming that you've got a 90 hour place. Completing the PBP project is worth a bit of fiddling with mudguards.

Simple answer, so I could start after a good night’s sleep. My DNF was due to Achilles Tendinitis not fatigue and I could have easily finished on my 84h schedule. This year plan is to ride faster and sleep more. The mudguards are not the issue, even with mudguards on I don’t enjoy riding in the rain so won’t if I don’t have to. I am riding in the rain today (with mudguards) because I have to. Sometimes it rains on tour, the odd day here and there is not too bad but if the rain sets in for days on end I generally come home a few days early.