"Ziggy" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:
[email protected]...
> On Fri, 13 Apr 2007 10:53:19 GMT, "Alan Holmes" <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>"????" <????@????> wrote in message
>>news:[email protected]...
>>> On Wed, 11 Apr 2007 09:33:06 +0000 (UTC), Dylan Smith
>>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>>Have the police ever pulled a cyclist over in a radar trap? Have
>>>>cyclists ever set off a GATSO?
>>>
>>> My bro got spotted by a woodentop with a hairdryer a few years back.
>>> Apparenrtly doing 47 in a 30.
>>
>>You cannot say that in this group, I was called a liar for saying I had
>>averaged 29.5 over 84 miles!
>
> Alan, may I suggest something?
>
> Get yourself a bike - any bike.
I still have a bike!
> Set it up with an accurately calibrated computer.
Why would a computer be any more accurate than the old style trip counters?
Which I still use!
> Take a mile long stretch of road - any mile long stretch of road.
>
> Cycle it back and forth in each direction in one go as fast as you
> possibly can.
Alas, old age has finally caught up with me, and the chances of traveling
fast on a push bike is so remote I wouldn't even bother to try it, to give
you a clue, in a couple of months my pension will rise by an incredible 25
pence a week!
How I will cope with that much extra money I just do not know!
> Now, look at the speed you achieved and ask yourself, seriously, could you
> have
> managed to keep up anything like that speed for 42 times the distance on a
> loaded bike.
All I had, was a record of the distnce travelled, which I'm sure someone
could check, from South Ealing to Stow-on-the-Wold, my trip counter read it
as 84 miles, my mother was very precise about time so the clocks were always
kept right, I left home at 2.00 pm, expecting to get there at about 7.30 pm,
and I was very suprised to find, when I arrived, that the hostel was not yet
open, I asked a young lady sitting outside why it was not opne and she said
it was 4.50 pm. I had no watch so I was unable to confirm or deny this, but
I'm sure the manager of the hostel would be well aware of the time he should
open the doors!
> I'm sure that the readings you got and the measurements you took did
> indicate
> the speed and distance you claim, but there really *has* to be an error
> somewhere.
Possibly it was because in those days, about 55 or so years ago, the only
choice for travelling was either public transport, walking or cycling, very
few people then had any other form of transport, nowadays everyone has a
car!
Thus most of us were VERY fit, although nothing was made of that at the
time, so cycling long distances was fairly normal, I cycled about 30 miles a
day to go to work, then almost every evening the same distance to go folk
dancing, weekends with the group, would, if it was a one day weekend about
60 miles, if it was a hosteling weekend about 130, I calculated that I have,
over the years, travelled about 350,000 miles, I could be a little bit out
there!
My wages at the time was £3 perweek, so I could not stay in B&Bs or anywhere
else other then youth hostels, which got you a bed for a shilling a night, I
could not, as many thousands of others, afford to have a hostel breakfast so
I always went self cooking, this enabled me to visit parts of the country I
could not otherwise have seen, on one occassion, I travelled to, and around,
scotland, via Lancaster, and spent some time there in various hostels,
returning down the east coast, this would have been a round trip of about
900 miles give or take a few!
This would have been a normal holiday trip.
As I have already said, because of the way of life then, we were all fit and
healthy, which would have enabled people to cycle far greater distances than
today, also the roads were much quieter and safer, very little motorised
transport and thus the roads were in better condition.
One other thing which did help, was the weight of the bikes, the inertia
gained from the weight enabled you to keep the thing going with only a small
effort, just a little bit of physics!
And I shall always remember the motorist who told me I was travelling at 30
mph, when I was on my way home from work, not intentionaly trying to go
fast, just cycling normally, I couldn't understand why he stopped to tell me
that.
I do, from time to time, whilst in my car, pace the odd cyclist and it is
surprising how fast some are travelling, even youngsters about 14 can move
at about 25 mph.
Finally I don't give a damn whether any of the cycnics here believe me or
not, these are all facts.
Alan
