Tales from today's commute....

[apb]

Today i was doing my usual commute cycle through the meadows, the traffic was stationary as usual, when i sore a police van. The ones where the police can put a guard over the windscreen The ones you see outside football stadiums, in areas of low income/employment or at cycle campaign gatherings. I noticed something sticking out from the van next to the word safety and thought "that's not very safe!". I chuckled at this little irony, i couldn't help myself it felt like i was in an episode of Peep Show. Anyway as i passed the van i noticed it was the fuel cap cover was open and the fuel cap was dangling by the side of the van. I stopped in front of the van as traffic wasn't moving and let cyclist behind go past in the cycle lane and told the driver his fuel cap was open. so i reverse on my fixie (beep beep beep) and sort out his van. He says to me "Thanks mate, have a nice day".

True story, except the reversing on the fixie. I'm not that cool.

 

[Arjimlad]

Today i was doing my usual commute cycle through the meadows, the traffic was stationary as usual, when i sore a police van. The ones where the police can put a guard over the windscreen The ones you see outside football stadiums, in areas of low income/employment or at cycle campaign gatherings. I noticed something sticking out from the van next to the word safety and thought "that's not very safe!". I chuckled at this little irony, i couldn't help myself it felt like i was in an episode of Peep Show. Anyway as i passed the van i noticed it was the fuel cap cover was open and the fuel cap was dangling by the side of the van. I stopped in front of the van as traffic wasn't moving and let cyclist behind go past in the cycle lane and told the driver his fuel cap was open. so i reverse on my fixie (beep beep beep) and sort out his van. He says to me "Thanks mate, have a nice day".

True story, except the reversing on the fixie. I'm not that cool.

I now have this image of some enterprising urchin decanting fuel from a slow moving police van before you turned up... Who knows, it may be the truth ?!

 

[hennbell]

Do us a favour bud... keep all the snow your side of the pond if you don't mind... ta

Trust me the snow is not so much the issue as the temperature. -24C this morning, the GoPro lasted abouts 8 minutes and the Iphone made it 40 minutes before shutting down. GoPro is exposed to the wind and chill,and the iphone is in my back pocket.

 

[ianrauk]

Trust me the snow is not so much the issue as the temperature. -24C this morning, the GoPro lasted abouts 8 minutes and the Iphone made it 40 minutes before shutting down. GoPro is exposed to the wind and chill,and the iphone is in my back pocket.

Well you can keep those temps too... bbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr............chilly willy.......

 

[summerdays]

Trust me the snow is not so much the issue as the temperature. -24C this morning, the GoPro lasted abouts 8 minutes and the Iphone made it 40 minutes before shutting down. GoPro is exposed to the wind and chill,and the iphone is in my back pocket.

How long do you last?

 

[hennbell]

How long do you last?

-30C at this point the free hub stops working. You can pedal all you want but you will not go anywhere.
I once tried to warm the cassette with a lighter to get going again. Learned the little known fact that paraffin wax used to lube chains like to burn.

 

[summerdays]

I meant ... how long in those temperatures can you cycle for... I imagine it is a very difficult balance between keeping warm and too warm.

 

[ianrauk]

-30C at this point the free hub stops working. You can pedal all you want but you will not go anywhere.

This happened to me on a FNRttC, to Southend. Temps were showing -7° but with the wind chill, was much colder.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

Well you can keep those temps too... bbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr............chilly willy.......

At those temperatures I don't think mine would be chilly, it would have in all likelihood snapped off.

 

[13 rider]

2nd day in a row on the bike and after a delivery from Santa via Evans cycles I looked a proper commuter with a rack and pannier set up . All the way in kept thinking something was wrong as no rucksack on . Set of with same clothes as yesterday ,had to stop after two miles to take of Aldi raincoat as I was being to boil .Had plenty room to store in the panniers . Again took a direct to Quorn and then some laps around the village to up the milage up to 12 miles. Ride back today in a bit of drizzle so raincoat called into use took the route back through Bradgate Park which was really eerie in the dark .9.6 miles on the way back . Being to get the hang of this bike commuting

 

[cyberknight]

3rd day in a row i have had a wheelsucker getting a tow without offering to contribute , next time i am just going to slow down and sit on their wheel for a change !
Least i get to shout "Bye Wheelsucker ! "atm

 

[Jenkins]

Right - it's time for some positivity.

By some form of miracle I have now had two consecutive days of dry commutes with light winds and the traffic has been light and well behaved. There's also a leaving do tomorrow so I may not feel too much pain for tomorrow's evening's trip home.

 

[RichardB]

This happened to me on a FNRttC, to Southend. Temps were showing -7° but with the wind chill, was much colder.

Not wishing to be a pedant, but if it's -7°, the wind can't make it colder. Wind chill makes the temperature appear colder if you are warm-blooded, as the wind increases the rate of heat loss and we experience that as an apparently colder temperature. But to an inanimate object like a bike, the temperature is what it is.

You could have a temperature of +5° and a wind chill of -15°, for example. A person would experience that as an apparent temperature of -10°, but the water in your pond wouldn't freeze.

 

[MickeyBlueEyes]

3rd day in a row i have had a wheelsucker getting a tow without offering to contribute , next time i am just going to slow down and sit on their wheel for a change !
Least i get to shout "Bye Wheelsucker ! "atm

There's only one way to deal with wheel suckers CK...smoke 'em!


Had a shortened trip this morning, had to drop my wife's car key off at a mates garage so did one of my old routes. It was nice to see the stretches I used to ride when I started on the road which had me puffing a bit/a lot were now done with incredible ease.
Really mild out, just a couple of thin layers were enough. It's lookin like the wet stuff will be deployed to position just in time for the homeward leg.

 

[martint235]

Well I really enjoyed that. Murky, slightly yukky weather but it felt like a commute from the old days. No nobbers (well one woman muttered something about cyclists as I overtook her in traffic but that doesn't really count) and the time and space to consider my day, work through issues I'm likely to face today etc.

Yup really enjoyed that!!!