[stealfwayne]

After only 2 laps of Regent’s park the other night, I and two other cyclists gave up and went home – Happy to have made it out of there safely. 2 laps, that less than 6 miles. I saw Taxi doing U-turns without signals, this on one occasion turned into a crash as another black cab hit him. 3 very near misses when posh Merc’s and BMW dropped off people in the middle of the road not at the dropp odd area. Very poor crossing point meant that pedestrians just ambled in front of a chain of us – we all had to take evasive action. The last straw was as I turned left at the junction and came face to face with a black cab coming at me ont he wrong side of the road….
Hopefully it’ll return to normal and we can all enjoy the ride instead of counting lucky stars we survived the ordeal.

Topic

[sm]

Raleigh wrote:Like I said

Raleigh wrote:

Like I said above I’m normally there early, as any later than 7.30 and it just gets silly… and I’m not talking about drivers.

+1 Other cyclists are worse than the drivers at times around RP. It’s nice to get in a mini-chain gang every now and then if everyone pulls their weight and knows what they’re doing but 9 times out of 10 I just want to do my own thing. This includes sprints which often seems to confuse some people trying to follow me and then wondering why I slow down again 30 seconds up the road.

[Raleigh]

Like I said above I’m
Like I said above I’m normally there early, as any later than 7.30 and it just gets silly… and I’m not talking about drivers.

Blokes on their new SPECIALIZED/GIANT/TREK bikes come and smash it round with other blokes, racing hell for leather with scant regard for people who are training for actual races…

Don’t mean to sound like a tw*t, but I often find that I’m towing six or seven guys round the park, and when I wave them through there’s either no response, or two of them sprint off into the distance.

I’ve had a whole peloton of south east asian guys come past on the inside and say to me ‘YOU NO IN THE RACE?’ and I’m like… Nah m8.

Also had people asking me to lead them out for strava segments. Which was met with vitriolic abuse. VITRI-*******-OLIC.

[sm]

Just to echo others – don’t
Just to echo others – don’t complain. Avoid Regents during the Frieze. It’s a once a year event. Head to the hills, the lanes, anywhere but RP. RP is a public road not a velodrome. Alternatively get up nice and early for your hot laps.

[harman_mogul]

All clear now. I agree the
All clear now. I agree the Frieze Fair is a hindrance to fast lapping but be reasonable, the Outer Circle is actually not a velodrome! We (Central London CTC) see some pretty risky riding there, as well as clueless car drivers. Get out early on Saturday morning if you want to enjoy the Regent’s Park circuit at its best.

[Raleigh]

Lot of love for Amritpal on
Lot of love for Amritpal on your homepage B-)

[700c]

*post deleted
*post deleted

[arfa]

20 laps of regents park !
20 laps of regents park ! There was I thinking 5 of Richmond get’ s a little dull ! Hats off to you for doing it in the dark as well

[willdeath]

We ride 7am Tues and Thursday
We ride 7am Tues and Thursday at RP: cc-london.com

[Raleigh]

Anyone up for establishing a
Anyone up for establishing a Road.cc RP club?

[Carvers]

Trying to stay in the
Trying to stay in the Bikeradar (sorry!) Metric Challenge and calendar clashes this month have meant no weekend time to get a century ride in, so had to suck it up and do it as an extended commute, bleurgh.

Calendar being booked out for weekend rides in Nov/Dec already to avoid the same again. Being on the bike is great full stop, but laps in the dark are a serious test of ones boredom threshold!

[stealfwayne]

I normally manage 5-7 laps
I normally manage 5-7 laps then my mind wonders.. How you did 20 laps I can’t imagine…
Good work Fella.

I am looking forward to going after work this week perhaps tomorrow (wed) evening… for an hour or two..just to see if it has calmed down… will report back then

[LondonDynaslow]

It was always going to be
It was always going to be chaos.

I resolved not to go there at least 3 days either side of the event, but I am hoping to be back tomorrow morning.

I heard that Rapha cancelled its weekly women’s ride last week on safety concerns and some people in my club also stayed away.

Thankfully I was able to take my bike out of town on the car roof this weekend but I could see driving through the park off-peak that the temporary barriers had made the pinch points narrower than usual and can only imagine what it was like with confused taxis, all the HGVs and the temporary traffic lights.

It might have been an idea to ban motor traffic (and possibly even bikes) from part of the Outer Circle while the fair was on. A bit of planning would have gone a long way.

Does anyone know when the temporary structures will be carted off? We’re talking dozens of low loaders full and I don’t fancy sharing the park with HGVs – I go there to escape them.

Oh and WOW – 20 laps of Regent’s Park? That deserves some kind of medal!

[Carvers]

And don’t get me wrong
And don’t get me wrong either, I’m also all for them running the whole Freize (and any other) event more sensibly and with minimal added risk / impact to regular users. My point was more that it did just feel like riding through the rest of London at rush hour (Embankment / Vauxhall etc), rather than it being out of teh ordinary.

There were still RLJers at most lights and others not heeding to the organisers requests for traffic to stop to let lorries ot etc, so it (like everything road safety related) still needs us all to do our bit to make it a more pleasant place to be. Until that all comes together it’s still just a case of keeping alert, aware, not taking any undue risks and ensuring you’re as visible as possible. Or staying indoors / getting the tube. I’ll still pick the bike over any of those options:)

[stealfwayne]

I don’t want to sound too
I don’t want to sound too ranty. Certainly not like that man from Surrey.
I actually have been to the Freize show and ‘DO’ appreciate the oppurtunities that a lovely park in the capitol can bring to all communities. A few weeks back was the Food fair, this was handled with care and attention for all. My issue is with poor management of traffic for all users of the roads specifically for the freize art show.
Someone is going to get very hurt. I do hope not. But you can see an accident waiting to happen.

I’ll get there a bit later in the evening and see what the traffic is like then – hopefully the rush will have calmed down.

[Raleigh]

Er.
I’m at Regent’s Park most
Er.

I’m at Regent’s Park most Saturdays (in term time) from 4.30 onward, and last year (2012) the Frieze traffic was APPALLING.

It was dark and the vans were careering around with little regard for ME, the only guy there not in the bloody art show.

Like guys stopping them in the middle of the road and stuff like what stealfwayne said.

[Author]

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