Tales from today's commute....

[stephenb]

Had the third of 3 horror evening commutes tonight. Monday a nob in a BMW tail jacks me and screams out the window he'll effing kill me if he sees me again. No idea why, I guess I was "in his way". Last night had a visit from the fairy and a slide on a man hole cover I didn't see when avoiding a tw@t that pulled out of a side road milimeters in front of me. And tonight had to pull an emergency stop so a 94 bus didn't push me up the kerb, which is quite bad because I was in primary! Taking the tube tomorrow.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

I just had to turn on my wall-mounted cooling fan, because it was about 27deg inside when I got home. Spring's finally sprung - took bloody long enough.

I also had a very near miss while riding home, and was surprised at how well I handled it. I was riding up the left side of a car that had no indicators on, because I (wrongly) assumed that it was waiting to merge into a line of traffic to its right. Instead, just as I got next to its left-hand side, it turned across my path. I had no time to think: I just abruptly swerved left, bunny-hopped a kerb, swerved right to bunny-hop it again, and then gave the motorist a dirty look as I rode off. I think the car's bumper missed me by the width of a gnat's you-know-what.
Yes, I shouldn't have tried to squeeze past, but then neither should the motorist have avoided using the indicator. Fortunately no harm done, but my adrenalin certainly got a boost.

 

[Ciar]

Ride in yesterday headwind and mild, ride home rain again two nights on the trot so far!

as for numpties, i have had at least 5 in the last two days, it seems rain and darkness causes drivers to turn in to idiots, today not riding tom back in the saddle.

 

[martint235]

My legs seem to have gone on holiday this week. Struggled all week

I'm also going back to my saddlebag. I used a backpack for years but never realised just how sweaty my back was getting until I went back to using one over the last few weeks. Going to start a new thread butt if anyone knows of a saddlebag with compartments for things like phones, ipad etc I'd appreciate a heads up. I have a large Carradice at the mo and the two outer pockets are tools and lock.

Also decided I quite like 20mph zones. I'm still against the fact that cyclists don't have to keep to the limit but while that exclusion is in place I can cycle in the middle of the lane and no one can beep me!

 

[Sixmile]

Personal record of witnessing 4 drivers in a row on their phones while coming in this morning.

 

[Arjimlad]

In front of the police car, there is a council school minibus. The driver of the minibus is holding a mobile phone to his ear having a conversation on it.

I have reported this to the council. If he can't notice the commotion behind him he is clearly distracted.

 

[RoubaixCube]

Very dull and overcast with a slight splash of rain. First time back on the bike in 5 days and rather enjoying being back on te bike

 

[mustang1]

I saw people approaching zebra crossing so I stopped. The people by now ere about to cross but started chatting to each other instead (the woman bounced into the guy so they started chatting). I waited while they chatted. Sonibthoight they aren't crossing so I started to move off and just then the people started crossing and the guy calls out to me "hey this is a zebra crossing".

Tale number 2.

Some tipper trucks wanted to come out of a building site so a worker stopped me. Now the trucks were coming out at 15-20mph from the building site and I told the worker who stopped me "you know those guys can't just vlock the road and come storming out like that" to which he replied he will lose his job if I get killed.

So we had a friendly chat for a couple of minutes while some other truck driver was reversing into the site.

Afterwards I was thinking that maybe the guy does have a right to come and stand in the middle of the road. I'm going to try this but first I will wear my luminous jacket.

 

[User10571]

So I was on the South Circular this morning and something didn't feel right. Took me ages to figure out what it was, I'd left my cap at home. I'm normally a bit iffy about forgetting things cos I still reckon my tangle with a truck was partly due to being distracted by a forgotten water bottle. But today I thought no, I will cycle bare headed a la @User10571 (although less suave and sophisticated obviously). It's quite a nice feeling, so nice in fact that I may keep it up until the cold makes it necessary to wear one again.

One numpty tried to squeeze through a pinch point alongside me, a harsh look from my bare and skin headed visage with some choice words left him suitably chastened.

Bare is best.
A bit like going commando.
But in this instance, everyone else knows.

 

[tallliman]

Avoided precipitation today even whilst walking!! Bit chilly toward the end of the ride home though over my shoulders....Might be getting near the time to move from heavy jersey and gilet to a full windproof jacket.

 

[RoubaixCube]

Black cabbie around the st pauls area decided he had a rectum packed full of 'i-must-get-in-front' syndrome. I switched lanes and happened to be right in front of him which earned me a 'honk of utter disgust'. He pulled past me and shouted "get a car!" and i told him to go fark himself. He sped off down the road but caught up in a queue of traffic a few yards away which was backed up all the way to my place of work. I stopped and shouted "oh diddums, did someone get stuck traffic??" through his open window before carrying on my journey.

What a twat

 

[jonny jeez]

Very unsure motorcyclist hesitating before "roaring" off to stop suddenly and hesitate all over again.

All along the old Kent road...annoying the feck out of me.

Roared up to a gap behind a bus, hesitated, slammed on the brakes causing the following cyclist to try and skid around him, into the gap before he accelerated again.

They both became jammed in the gap between the bus and the next vehicle..

Cyclist rode to close, motorcyclist rode without common sense.

It was only going to end one way.

 

[headcoat]

Bit of a hail storm this morning for me.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

Melbourne weather just makes me sometimes. My commute home on Monday will be hot, as the maximum is predicted to be 38, then on Tuesday it will apparently only reach 19.

 

[martint235]

My speeds drop off a cliff when it's dark and yukky. Gone from 16mph to struggling to get an average of 15mph.

No real numpties today and felt relatively strong considering I'd had 4 pints of Broadside last night