OD Tri, on a Brompton (Bike hire suggestsions?)
fred
Posts: 5
in General Chat
I'm signed up for the Steelman OD at Dorney tomorrow (Sunday), but my lovely old touring bike has rather catastrophically fallen apart which leaves me with my Brompton folding bike as the only bike I have. Now, I think I can take the pain of riding 40k on a windy day sat bolt upright (which is essentially the only riding position you can take on a Brompton), and I'm sure it would provide lots of entertainment for everyone else, but as I'm in the last wave (and not very fast anyway) there's a serious danger I'd be last off the bike. So, does anyone know anywhere where I can hire a road / tri bike from? (preferably somewhere South-West of, or in, London). I've got numbers for triandrun and city bike - will give them a call when they open, but can't find anything else.
Alternatively, if anyone knows a decent place to pick something up second hand (budget is no more than a couple of hundred quid) that'd be grand
Cheers,
Fred
Alternatively, if anyone knows a decent place to pick something up second hand (budget is no more than a couple of hundred quid) that'd be grand
Cheers,
Fred
0
Comments
http://www.triandrun.com/
Fred
They're surprisingly quick for something that looks like a toy, the big problem I find is you can't help sitting fairly upright (and they've got suspension, which sucks a bit out of power out of every pedal stroke). I reckon if you put a decent pair of bullhorn / pursuit bars on one of the M-types the stem would be low enough to get you in a reasonable riding position. But then of course you wouldn't be able to fold it up properly, so you might as well just buy a proper bike... A proper bike could also cope with slightly larger potholes.
S'pose best to delete this in case WAT officers around the country reckon that a foldy bike is good enough and naked carbon is totally unneccesary
Anyway - did you get the bike OK, hope so and hope you had a good one.
(video on here's worth a watch if you've not seen it http://www.brompton.co.uk/bwc/2009 )
Yeah, race went well thanks, though riding a proper road bike (as opposed to my Dad's old touring bike) has persuaded me it's time for a new one, so financially it might be a bit of a disaster. The swim was refreshingly non-violent, not a single foot to the face, bike was very windy and run was, well, pretty repetitive (4 out and back loops). It was my first OD, so wasn't really sure what to expect time-wise - was hoping for sub 3h and managed to do it in 2h47, so very pleased with that. Bring on Hyde Park!
Glad it went well - yes pretty wild those bikes, just amazing how fast they can actually go.