Tales from today's commute....

[Shut Up Legs]

I found a hillier commute home! My 31km commute home from work normally has about 450m climbing, but I found a minor route variation that keeps the distance the same but increases the climbing to 535m.

Translation: 19 miles, 1475 feet, 1755 feet.

 

[Leaway2]

Wet. that's all.

 

[ianrauk]

Wet. that's all.

Got away with no wet in Londinium this morning, though it was a tad windy.

 

[J1888]

Some fantastically sh1te riding from some daft cow this evening; wait for lights to go green and turn on to main road...she's blithely gone through a red. I then go slow because there's a set of lights which it's hard to see if red Amber or green due to the grill over them (stops sun blocking?) and she undertakes in the cycle lane... Call her an idiot but she doesn't hear because she has headphones in. Then the best bit...car slows down to a crawl and indicating left well in advance, almost looked like it was beginning the turn, was she going to wait? No, of course not, ploughed straight up the inside and avoided a left hook by a matter of inches.

 

[summerdays]

Somehow I managed to avoid the rain.... when I looked at the map afterwards ... it suddenly changed direction and rotated around where I was - much appreciated!!!

Also met a guy with a golf club strapped to his top bar! Apparently he is having a golf lesson afterwork on his way home. It there went rather neatly!

 

[Arjimlad]

^can you take a more proactive position on the road? At 30mph, I'll often be in the middle of the lane.

I thought of your advice and hung out a bit more than usual whilst grinding my way up Trench Lane today, sure enough, no close passes. Thanks for the encouragement.

 

[tallliman]

@Arjimlad no worries, glad it helped. Only repeating what's been told to me over time!

In terms of yesterday's commute, painful, dull and slow. Still achey from Sundays ton. Day off the bike today but back on it tomorrow!

 

[martint235]

Quite a nice ride in this morning, roads just starting to dry out. Very little traffic on large part of my commute, not sure why.

One pillock at the Well Hall roundabout. He saw me, he saw the speed I was doing around the roundabout and pulled out anyway. A quick recap of his parentage and lone hobbies followed.

 

[400bhp]

I met a combination of Mr Pshychotic/Mr split personality yesterday. You make up your mind.

Cycling along a relatively quiet and wide country-ish road yesterday I was overtaken by a van. When I say overtaken, I really mean passed within 30cm, at about 50-60mph.

Of course I shouted.

He turns into a pub car park half a mile up the road. I go into the car park. Before I have time to say anything he jumps out of his van (builders van) and does the "10 men walk" towards me. He is effin and blindin incoherently but being extremely provocative with his words. He has two young workmen with him (he's probably in his 40's-relatively athletic. The lads are maybe 18. They look embarrassed). I can hear words like "loads of room/you were shouting at me"/I'll floor you if you want it". Blah blah.

I stay calm, count to 10. I explain (in a reasonably calm voice, albeit I wasn't quiet) assertively that I am the one who knows how close he passed. I then used a few words that I believe bring empathy in these situations. Feely words like "do you know how horrible it feels to be passed like that", "If i go under your wheels, that's it-game over" "i'd really like to see my 7 year old daughter again".

Then, he completely changes. Starts apologising. Sorry I was too close etc.

I rode off at this point.

 

[ianrauk]

Loads of cyclists on my commute this morning. Mainly through Lewisham and Deptford. I don't think I have ever seen so many before. Still a couple of them wearing full winter custard kit.
Traffic was relatively light too which made for a bonus.

 

[oldstrath]

Found another reason to avoid the appallingly crap cycle path yesterday evening - two poor lads coming the other way who'd suffered a puncture from tacks left on the cycle path. Given that most of the moaning from local unworthies is about 'nasty cyclists not using the cycle path' why in gods' names anyone would leave tacks down is beyond me.

 

[Arjimlad]

I met a combination of Mr Pshychotic/Mr split personality yesterday. You make up your mind.

Cycling along a relatively quiet and wide country-ish road yesterday I was overtaken by a van. When I say overtaken, I really mean passed within 30cm, at about 50-60mph.

Of course I shouted.

He turns into a pub car park half a mile up the road. I go into the car park. Before I have time to say anything he jumps out of his van (builders van) and does the "10 men walk" towards me. He is effin and blindin incoherently but being extremely provocative with his words. He has two young workmen with him (he's probably in his 40's-relatively athletic. The lads are maybe 18. They look embarrassed). I can hear words like "loads of room/you were shouting at me"/I'll floor you if you want it". Blah blah.

I stay calm, count to 10. I explain (in a reasonably calm voice, albeit I wasn't quiet) assertively that I am the one who knows how close he passed. I then used a few words that I believe bring empathy in these situations. Feely words like "do you know how horrible it feels to be passed like that", "If i go under your wheels, that's it-game over" "i'd really like to see my 7 year old daughter again".

Then, he completely changes. Starts apologising. Sorry I was too close etc.

I rode off at this point.

Well handled.

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

Thanks to the bloke with the rusty-chained BSO who'd just bought a can of WD-40 from Tesco and preceded to cover his bike - and mine - with the stuff at the bike stands. Didn't think of it too much until I was at one point looking at the box van heading towards me from the right and I was quickly running through best evasion scenarios like ramming the high kerb and going over the bars

Luckily the oily discs did just enough to bring me to a wobbly, foot-scuffing on floor stop. Lunch break spent cleaning the discs and in lieu of available new pads, shaving the top surface of the pads off. Hopefully I will now have some brakes on the way home

 

[HLaB]

Lol, I was on a recovery commute tonight. When I was out of town I spotted a father and his son on mtb's about 1/2mile ahead. They were there for a while as I was only going 13-14mph (keeping my hr to around 50%) and saving my legs for tomorrow night's TT. The lad kept on dramatically trying to make efforts as I got closer and tried one last effort when I was finally beside him. I had to maintain self control to just maintain the steady 14mph until he eventually blew

 

[martint235]

A pleasant sunny morning and again very little traffic. There is a marked increase in nobbers though, that's now 2 in 2 days. Van came out of a side street to my right without even looking this morning. Will be looking out for him in future to have a little chat.

Also more cyclists than I've ever seen on my commute, 8 I think. Unfortunately that means an increase in nobbers on bikes too. To the RLJing nobber, if only you could cycle quicker we could have avoided all that unpleasantness (I was still feeling aggrieved from the van driver in my defence). I fully respect your right to tell me to "f*** off and mind my own business" when I called you a f****** idiot for running two red lights in a row. However my admiration for your willingness to stand by your principles took a bit of a dive when you turned into a snivelling wreck when I overtook you and pulled you up about it. Nobber.