Tales from today's commute....

[DrLex]

Arm warmers this morning; primarily for deflecting the nettles, but happy with their thermal benefit too.

 

[Tin Pot]

Nice ride in and out yesterday, some tension in the drivers in the evening, more traffic and more queues. Next week is unlikely to be fun with the mums back on the road.

 

[Simontm]

No commute yesterday as I had a meeting in the evening.
I guess people are slowly heading back to work as there was a marked upturn in commuters of all classes. The four-wheeled kind were mainly Ok and well behaved compared with the two-wheeled variety...never seen so much red light jumping, must-get-aheadery, SCR and general idiocy. Amazing. Good fun ride in mind.
Numpty count: 1 a lorry decided it was going to enter the inside lane about 300yrds before the bus lane ends. Only just saw me in time.

 

[HarryTheDog]

The rider in front of me going through Barking had a bit of a shock when a rat went through his front wheel, it got thrown a good 5 ft in the air but hit the deck and legged it.
Met a regular and his mate so did the last 7 miles in company talking nonsense about racing and power meters. ( Nairo Quintana's comments on Chris Froome from yesterdays Vuelta sparked it off).
Then at work went for a cooked breakfast in the subsidised cafe, the bacon was actually crispy so had 3 bits, but the cashier only charged me for 2 as I looked like I deserved them apparently ( I was still in lycra)

 

[subaqua]

22miles on the clock! Almost lost my balance and went into the river at one stage but i manage to regain my balance. Nobody was there to see me go almost arse over tit into the river like a Scottish winter salmon. One worrying thing is how narrow some of the shared towpaths are. around the limehouse cut & bromley-by-bow area -- along that stretch is where i almost went off.

Time for a shower food then checking the gopro footage for good stills for 'your ride today' I dont think they are going to be any good as i had the gopro mounted 'out front' on my bar just below my garmin. we shall see

they are only a problem if you don't ride sensibly. I used towpath from Fish Island all way to Limehouse for years . never had a problem . biggest issue was one year when some pikey stole all the aluminium inserts on the floating towpath on a friday and I rode early saturday . was a bit scary.

 

[subaqua]

hazy this morning looking towards tower bridge from london Bridge at 05.45 would have been a great picture but left new decent camera at home.

foggy and misty in Winchester at 07.30 and made my lungs burn in the chilly air.

1st September and weather early doors knows how to show you "Autumn Is Coming"

 

[si_c]

Lovely ride in this morning. Took the slightly nicer 10mile route in, although it does drop me at the ferry terminal through birkenhead docks. No numpty drivers today either, all hung back until safe to overtake, even the skip lorry driver.

This leads me to believe that I must have been riding like a complete tool and everyone was worried what I'd do next.

 

[rivers]

Ride into work was a bit on the chilly side this morning. I think I need to get some arm warmer and gloves. Legs were okay though. Although, I did have my fastest time in yet at 1:08 and just shy of 14mph average speed. I don't think it will be too long until I'm averaging 16mph and doing the commute in an hour, which is my long term goal.

 

[summerdays]

Ride into work was a bit on the chilly side this morning. I think I need to get some arm warmer and gloves. Legs were okay though. Although, I did have my fastest time in yet at 1:08 and just shy of 14mph average speed. I don't think it will be too long until I'm averaging 16mph and doing the commute in an hour, which is my long term goal.

I find my commute slows as I head into winter. Not sure why, but some combination of taking it easier for ice/wet surfaces, carrying more luggage (spare clothes), and being bundled up more. And in the depths of winter somehow your joints seem to need to warm up more on the bike!

 

[Simontm]

Well this is going to take some getting some used to. After over a year of basically being by myself on the commute, all these cyclists. It's like my area on a Sunday at some parts of the route home.
This SCR is going to get old quickly tho' I naturally get up to 18-20mph (early doors) and cruise so it's kinda tiring when you become the target
Think I like my commute in but am undecided on the root back yet. Today did Richmond and Bushy Park from Putney.
Numpty count: 0

 

[galaxy]

Ride in tonight was good, so much traffic, glad i was on the bike, the road through Shinfield is closed, but still open to cyclists and pedestrians. Still ha;f a dozen cars passed me and had to turn round. Stopped on the cycle path fly over on the M4 A 33 roundabout to watch the traffic, sometimes you have to just love commuting to work.

 

[Simontm]

Quick ride in knocking 5 mins of yesterday. More traffic, less cycles go figure. More red light jumpers though. Dunno why they do it as I soon get ahead of them
Getting a bit colder but I am not submitting yet. Long arms before October.. Nevah!!!!
Numpty count: 2
Van coming upto Chiswick roundabout started to turn to take the left lane but didn't notice me coming up the bus lane. No great drama, just glad I had my wits about me to swerve and he did see me...eventually.
The other is noted for pure amusement value. A cyclist objected to me overtaking him on the way to Kensington and pushed himself to keep up with me. At some lights he sidled slightly ahead of me but made such a hash of clipping in, he was swerving all over the place as I headed off

 

[rivers]

I had a lovely ride in this morning, knocking another 4 minutes off to bring the commute time to 1:04, and an average speed just shy of 14.5mph. I'm getting there. I had one of my mates meet me at the bottom of the drive to pace me up the hill. It worked.
I'm really enjoying my rides in to work lately, and I think the group riding has been helping me.

 

[Leaway2]

Well this is going to take some getting some used to. After over a year of basically being by myself on the commute, all these cyclists. It's like my area on a Sunday at some parts of the route home.
This SCR is going to get old quickly tho' I naturally get up to 18-20mph (early doors) and cruise so it's kinda tiring when you become the target
Think I like my commute in but am undecided on the root back yet. Today did Richmond and Bushy Park from Putney.
Numpty count: 0

Strange everyone else on that route had a numpty count of 1

 

[Supersuperleeds]

Our lass asked me last night if I could drop the car off at the garage this morning for its MOT.

I hate driving to work with a passion, so I got up at normal time went out for a 24 mile ride, chucked the bike in the boot, drove to the garage then cycled another 7 miles to work