Home Chat General Chat

OD Tri, on a Brompton (Bike hire suggestsions?)

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

Comments

  • md6md6 Posts: 969
    you could check Tri and run (they have a store in Wimbledon i think) and they may do it, check their website which is
    http://www.triandrun.com/
  • fredfred Posts: 5
    Thanks for the suggestion - sadly they're all out of bikes. But, my fiancé, faced with the prospect of me going out and buying a new bike has found a friend who'll lend me one which is a massive relief. Now I can get on with worrying about the actual race

    Fred
  • BmanBman Posts: 442
    Fred, was that you this morning going hell for leather down Upper richmond road? I thought it a bit strange that someone in full cycling gear, SPD's and hydration pack was coming back from some loops in Richmond park on a brompton. Fastest brompton I've seen, so hats off if it was you.
  • ZacniciZacnici Posts: 1,385
    Did the Nottingham 75 mile Sportive the other week, there was a bloke on a foldy bike wearing ordinary shoes and socks - blimey we couldn't shake him for about 5km - must have been an electric - yeah that must have been it.
  • fredfred Posts: 5
    I wish I could take the credit, but it wasn't me I'm afraid.

    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.
  • ZacniciZacnici Posts: 1,385
    I was amazed at this bloke - who was rather err portly - he was just making arses of us on road bikes looking the part with cycle shorts, clipless shoes, Oakley shades etc. and there he was in a polo shirt, ordinary shorts, street shoes and socks looking as if he was just off to the newsagents for a paper. Hats off to him he was making good progress in the town but only when we got to the open road were we able to pull away - must say I was impressed in him a. tackling the 75miler instead of the 18 or even 50 milers and b. his progress, I hope he completed alright but he seemd to be just cruising along.

    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.
  • fredfred Posts: 5
    Heh, he might have been training for the Brompton World Championships:
    (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!
  • ZacniciZacnici Posts: 1,385
    Result

    Glad it went well - yes pretty wild those bikes, just amazing how fast they can actually go.
Sign In or Register to comment.