2010-06-13 - Rapha Gentlemans TTT - London to Brighton to London

I read the first page or so of this thread, and thought, cool, LFGSS represents, old timers, having fun, doing a team time trial.
Leave the thread for a couple of days, cause its pretty much all sorted, and all hell breaks loose, and 13 pages later its come to this.
I'm conflicted, and arguments have been made for and against riding with gears vs riding fixed. I'm not even in the country and it feels so convoluted and torturous, but THAT IS THE FORUM! We are a democracy, not a dictatorship, though sometimes it comes down to who shouts/writes loudest and longest wins. Its about convincing people, about making your point - repeatedly, about letting it lie, about going with the majority opinion, about opting out, but not flouncing.

I think this thread is the best and worst of the forum, how could it not be, we are passionate about bikes and this proves it, but we, each of us, can be narrow minded, opinionated, intolerant, belligerent fucks when required, which is usually most of the time.

I'm not quite sure what I'm trying to say, but I think the heat needs to be taken out of this situation, to paraphrase EPMD "It's forum business, never personal." Don't take this angst hand wringing and honest declarations to heart, it is the forum and you know what, fuck it, do what you gotta do.

This was orginally mooted as a fun thing to do, and it should remain thus, whether it becomes competitive or not, for some competition is fun, for others not so much. We as a cycling forum and community are bringing so much fun to peoples cycling lives, think Tweed Run, think Bridges Rides, think the last Leaving East ride, Tuesday Night Ride Club and all its illegitimate ride offspring. We are a wide and broad church and we need to embrace this and when all the politicking, and nitpicking, and points of view have been made we need to support those who ride for us, who are us.
And also here's the thing, for those who championed a fixed/singlespeed team, you need to pull fingers out and make sure, a the people put forward outside of those who put their names down are willing and able, and b get that team down on Rapha's list. Because right now polls and pussyfooting around aren't going to cut it.
For the others who got their first and put their names down on the original team list, go out there and ride, don't bail, don't bow beneath the weight of words created, and remember why you wanted to do it in the first place. Because it would be a cool and fun thing to do, with people who you know and would enjoy riding with, hopefully

I'm off to get a cable car up a mountain, but remember.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jydm5Ra1tP8

Don't come wading in here with your well reasoned response, you cunt.

We want bitching and fallout. We want wars, virtual vitriol and vindictiveness.
We categorically do not want fun, we shall not ride bikes which are forbidden by the masses.
We shall be bound to adhere to the words of others, despite their apparent unwillingness to actually put their money where their mouth is.

We demand conformity!

Conform!

Jonny, you are 113. You can tell by hovering over your username and looking at the URL displayed at the bottom left of most browsers. I use this technique often to see just how new some newbies are.

thanks. i was trying to figure out how to find out my user number.

I did just have a black coffee.. but only because we've run out of milk. Bastard tea-drinkers nicked it all I bet.

That'd be the cereal eaters.

Communal milk is for a couple mL in a hot beverage is not for using half a liter is some special K bastards.

Hang on where am I.

Velocio,
Do you know when we will find out if we're in or not?

Go team 'FuckTheForum'!

Hi-Five!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWWyJwHQ-4E

whoever the dewy-eyed twat is banging on about pj(pj) in the tags - you've let the grass grow under your feet there. good old pj(pj) hasn't posted on the forum in more than a year, which suggests he hasn't been that arsed about being pj(pj) for a while. so do stop regarding him as your own personal mr.tumnus, especially when trying to be clever about me being a cretin. over a year mate. he doesn't care. and nor should you, you dough-faced excuse for a man.

course it could be two people. that's the fun of tagging, isn't it? sprinkling your malice here and there, hiding away being a snidey cunty chops.

i miss P.J.
that Duncan can fuck off though.

i <3 pj (pj) < This one's mine... I miss the funny fucker... :[

I'm with Corny on this one.
FWIW, I first rode fixed in the 70s and from the late 80s rode very little else (tootling round London). Had it not been for this forum, the people I've met and the rides they organised, I'd never even attempted Canterbury on a fixed wheel (let alone managed it). And, ironically, my (geared) Moser would still be rusting on my balcony.
I hope that VB,object, hippy, nhatt, lpg and Mrsmyth do the ride (on whichever bikes they choose) and have a splendid time. If they ride, I'll be there (with pom poms) cheering them on and buying them all a drink afterwards

sorry - am i "hatin'" on this thread? awfully sorry, i'd hoped everything was calming down when i logged off monday - seems like people even in the inner circle have to keep the embers of negativity stirring on a thread that some of us regarded as just one more bike-related discussion on friday.

between friday's posts and monday's i rode 140 sunny miles - way out of my mind, this thread was - by monday the people that didn't want to do it fixed were still doing it how they wanted and the people who wanted to have a shot at it fixed were being given the chance to take part. what negativity is there to work with now? - so why is the extra pages of a lingering sense that someone or some people are trying to be twats about it and keep it all going? there were excellent reasons for going on about the relevance of fgss riding.. if you find it bewilderingly unimportant, click out and go off to discuss the merits of various issues that interest you. if you disagree - instead of +1ing and "this"ing - maybe you could step up and cook up a convincing argument of your own. but don't just hide behind a couple of lame tags - you're just being a lameass if you do that aren't you?

nothing new to say here, i'm out.

anyone who wants to get in touch from the fixed team - if you'd like some help getting things organised and you'd be happy having me help send me a pm.. as corny says, it doesn't look like there's a lot of time if it's going to happen. and it could and should!

i <3 pj (pj) < This one's mine... I miss the funny fucker... :[

+1, the sarcky fucker

(aside: how do you spell sarcky, as in the abbreviation of sarcastic?)

Repped...

Neg repped...

How to form a paceline..

i like Duncans hat and P.J's hair is rather sublime.

I did the pj is not pajamas and pj is pj (pj) combo. I just wish there was more attention to detail amongst the forum membership.

Had it been PJS* we woulda been OK...

• JimJamz' pre-FixieGangKing moniker... ;P