Can road bike time trialling revive the TT scene.

[landsurfer]

In the 70's , 80's and early 90's I was a regular Time Trialist..
3-4 weekend races each month (10, 25 and 50 miles) and someones club mid week 10.
Jules would come with me ..
I would race on the bike i toured on, entered 4th cat circuit races, and rode off road on... not a shabby bike ,, Holdsworth 531 frame ..
Campag Gran Sport kit ...
Then i stopped riding TT's ... and cycling .. my life changed ...

15 years later ..
Riding again, training, oblivious to what was happening, had happened, in time trialing .....

So I did not compete, the whole ideal of TT was gone .." Turn up on your bike and race against yourself" had disappeared.
Super carbon space ships with wriggly bits where all there was to be seen.

In the "comic" this week is an article .. " Can road bike time trialling revive the TT scene." ... YES !

The Road Bike category would have me back in TT tomorrow ..
" Turn up on your bike and race against yourself."

Am the only one that feels that way ?

[Cugel]

In the 70's , 80's and early 90's I was a regular Time Trialist..
3-4 weekend races each month (10, 25 and 50 miles) and someones club mid week 10.
Jules would come with me ..
I would race on the bike i toured on, entered 4th cat circuit races, and rode off road on... not a shabby bike ,, Holdsworth 531 frame ..
Campag Gran Sport kit ...
Then i stopped riding TT's ... and cycling .. my life changed ...

15 years later ..
Riding again, training, oblivious to what was happening, had happened, in time trialing .....

So I did not compete, the whole ideal of TT was gone .." Turn up on your bike and race against yourself" had disappeared.
Super carbon space ships with wriggly bits where all there was to be seen.

In the "comic" this week is an article .. " Can road bike time trialling revive the TT scene." ... YES !

The Road Bike category would have me back in TT tomorrow ..
" Turn up on your bike and race against yourself."

Am the only one that feels that way ?

No.

It makes me laugh when lads go on about "winning a TT". Everyone who takes part and betters their previous best time in a winner, innit?

They don't get this. Of course, the competition now is not with yourself but with other people's wallets. And in the fashion-lists.

When I road raced, I entered TTs on the road bike as a means to galvanise myself at getting faster outside of the bunch. TTing is good for that - a sort of training-for-the-break-or-chase. Another source of mirth at the time was the near-suicidal TT-addict at the finish (the ones who began to buy [rude word removed] helmets, tribars, solid wheels and other cheating implements) utterly depressed because they went 10 seconds slower this week than last.

"It's just the weather", I'd suggest. Still they bubbled and greeted.

Cugel

[drossall]

I raced a lot around the age of 20. Less seriously a few years later when I got married, but I dabbled in club 10s for many seasons. I simply never adapted to low profiles. I bought one second-hand at one point, but wasn't flexible enough. From what I gather, you need to train just for the position, let alone for the effort.

So I mourn the days of turning up and riding. Also the fact that everyone now drives there and warms up, where many of us warmed up by riding out. I remember one or two events where I was the only person on a regular bike. But the point is to go as fast as possible, so I can see why those who (unlike me) actually possess some talent and ability would want to use bikes that let them do that.

I'll read the article with interest when I've collected my copy today.

[peetee]

I have been out of the TT scene for 20 years and if I dropped back in now I, like you, would turn up on a road bike. That's not to say that if I took to it again I wouldn't build a streamliner but one of the questions I would be asking myself after a lay-off would be "how much slower am I?" Not "how many of these guys can I beat?" And that's the point isn't it? I read the article in the comic too and was left scratching my head. Are people not riding TT s simply because they don't have a TT bike? Last time I competed, Tri bars were well established but only half the starters had adopted them. When I started using them my times were much better but the downside was that every event I had done up to that point was, from a performance perspective, null and void, incomparable. My TT logbook was irrelevant.
Back in the day I overheard a long standing member of my club bemoaning the rise of mountain bikes and how everyone who rode them was a pavement-hopping yob. Next week he was timekeeper on the 10 mile course so I rode it on my MTB. I have never seen someone so tight lipped. I think it's really sad that road bikes are not present any more. Or is that really the case? I am pretty sure there are many local events still frequented by all-rounders with one race bike. At least I hope so, I'm not done just yet!

[tatanab]

Many clubs have event that specifically exclude specialist TT bikes. I find it sad that so many people turn up to scrappy old evening 10 events riding super duper specialist machines, notably they do not ride there. I am aware that this is a sign of the aging time trial rider and their corresponding wealth. Where are the teenagers like me in the late 60s who start time trialling on their tatty old all steel equipped schoolboy "racer". In the late 70s we bemoaned the youth with "all the best because daddy bought it", but even they seem to be disappearing. These days it seems you are a hero if you can get inside evens (20 mph) without carbon wheels, tri-bars etc, the real entry rider seems to have been excluded due to perceived (not real) equipment needs.

[PH]

Maybe there's some regional variations, around here they've never gone away. It's not my thing, but I see plenty of club events where all sorts of bikes are used, from purpose built machines with disk wheels to winter trainers with mudguards. These are run on a turn up and ride basis, the only requirement is being in an appropriate club. The open events are more serious affairs and they do attract more dedicated riders with all the kit, but there's different tiers in all sports. If the OP, or anyone wants to get into it, I'd suggest it's about finding the right event rather than the right equipment.

[peetee]

Maybe there's some regional variations, around here they've never gone away.

That's what I suspect. I think there is a degree of southeast-centricity to the reporting. The same magazine mentioned or featured Box Hill every week for nearly a year. Yea verily, tis but a speed bump.

[landsurfer]

It makes me laugh when lads go on about "winning a TT". Everyone who takes part and betters their previous best time in a winner, innit?
They don't get this. Of course, the competition now is not with yourself but with other people's wallets. And in the fashion-lists.
Cugel

My point exactly, i would only be racing against myself. I have kept my distance as the time trials around us seem to be full of plastic flying machines ... I'm riding out to watch a bit of a TT tomorrow morning .... maybe time to have a chat with the timekeepers.

[Cyril Haearn]

I raced a lot around the age of 20. Less seriously a few years later when I got married, but I dabbled in club 10s for many seasons. I simply never adapted to low profiles. I bought one second-hand at one point, but wasn't flexible enough. From what I gather, you need to train just for the position, let alone for the effort.

So I mourn the days of turning up and riding. Also the fact that everyone now drives there and warms up, where many of us warmed up by riding out
..

-1
The ubiquitous tragedy of drive-cycling

[Lance Dopestrong]

In a sense, Strava and is segments have simp,y morphed time trialling from a live event with lots of people in the same place, to a 24/7 event with thousands of competitors. In that regard time trialling is very healthy, it's just the format has radically changed.

[drossall]

Next week he was timekeeper on the 10 mile course so I rode it on my MTB.

Back in the days when I was not completely unfit, a local club held a weekly sporting event. I remember being passed on that by one of their better riders, on an MTB. He'd decided to have a change of machine that week, for no particular reason that I ever found out, and just stuck some lighter wheels in it.

When I say passed, I mean going quite a lot faster.

[100%JR]

There seem to be plenty of "just turn up on what you ride" TTs near me.HCC,HSW,BRC etc all run them.From what I've seen there are those that turn up on TT machines but on the whole it's just Road bikes.
HCCs Moose TTs are very popular:-
http://www.holmfirthcc.com/moosett
As are BRCs
https://www.barnsleyroadclub.co.uk/time-trials

I believe you have to be a member of a CTT affiliated club to enter though.
TTing not being of interest to me i might be totally wrong in thinking this is what you want??

[peetee]

Next week he was timekeeper on the 10 mile course so I rode it on my MTB.

Back in the days when I was not completely unfit, a local club held a weekly sporting event. I remember being passed on that by one of their better riders, on an MTB. He'd decided to have a change of machine that week, for no particular reason that I ever found out, and just stuck some lighter wheels in it.

When I say passed, I mean going quite a lot faster.

Pretty sure that wasn't me. Passing someone was pretty rare for me. Even when I was on form.
(But if you want to make me feel better tell everyone it was the Folkestone 10 miler some time around 1993, ta.)

[RichK]

Several events I enter have a road-bike category.

[Vorpal]

There a few clubs in Essex that have weekly time trials where people show up on anything from touring bikes to TT bikes, mostly depending upon how serious they are about competing with others (as opposed to their own times),and whether they have a TT bike. Some people go to see their friends and have a cup of tea and a natter, as much as for the TT.