Tales from today's commute....

[Supersuperleeds]

Bumped into a lad this morning who I hadn't seen for ages, he extended his route and we had a good natter for about 12 miles, made a nice change to riding solo. Good job it was dark, the bike is filthier than the filithiest person from the planet filth, I know what I'm doing tomorrow morning

 

[Supersuperleeds]

Nothing of interest to report this morning... especially given it was completed on the train... which was delayed as usual

I did see my first live badger cycling through Richmond Park last night though. Looked as surprised to see me as I was to see it!

Did he look like this?

or this?

 

[Simontm]

So there was no fog despite what the Beeb app said and no rain despite what AccuWeather said so an easier ride in than I thought except for my front brake. At an absolute loss as to what to do. It just keeps rubbing. I've reset the calipers, reset the wheel, checked the rotor and it still rubs
Numpty count:0

 

[prawny]

Today was national maneuver - mirror - signal day.

Twice I had drivers cut across me then start indicating afterwards, like that was a suitable alternative to stopping.

 

[Simontm]

So the drizzle arrived leaving a greasy, nasty mush in certain places. Seemed to be drive like a dick day again but all the action was ahead of me in town so I could see the idiocy from a safe range. Couldn't work out why it was fairly quiet my side of London then remembered private schools must have broken up this week. Lastly getting a bit annoyed at SCRs. 1) dickheads, that red thing ahead of you. That's called a red light you stop at it. Or if you've actually managed to stop (perhaps an artic is going through) it is traditional to wait for the lights to change before going through the junction. 2) again, if you had a car passing you so close you'd be screaming blue murder. Three times I saw you slice other cyclists once, me! Space for cyclists includes your actions.
Numpty count: 1 me!! For some reason, I completely forgot to tether on the. Panniers which promptly went flying once we hit the London potholes. Kudos to the driver who slammed his brakes on rather than run over them

 

[Bazzer]

A bit chilly in places with the freezing fog this morning, but 'kin'ell, both to and from work more cyclists than I have ever seen. This morning 10, (bearing in mind I leave home at 5.20am), numpty count of riders without lights 3. This evening way more, but the numpty county well into the teens. Stopped counting at 15. I mean WTF! It's dark and just to make viz worse, it's drizzling. Jeez, motorists piss me off sometimes, but some people really should nominate themselves for the Darwin awards.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

I have summer weather so far this week. Yesterday on my 90 minute commute home, it was 32 when I left and 30 at home, and today it was 36 and 33.

 

[Simontm]

Because of Christmas dos I have limited rides in this week so took the opportunity to ditch the panniers this morning. I was hoping to ease pressure on my shin but didn't expect to be as fast as I was! Shows how much drag is on them things but will be put back on for Monday and pick up gear.
Numpty count: 3 2 vans thought it would be funny to block the cycle lane as I was coming up to them. And finally, a SCR in Castilli get up who got annoyed at me for impugning his manhood by overtaking him yesterday (panniers on natch) decided to block me in today at Hammersmith. Heading towards Kensington he blocked me so I couldn't move out and around the turning cars ahead, as soon as I slowed down, he kicked down and bombed ahead. Told him to give cyclists space when I caught up with him at Olympia

 

[Sixmile]

I got an angry blast of a horn on the way home yesterday as a car coming towards me was having to overtake a stationary car on his side of the road and therefore needed a few metres of my side. I was exacting the same manoeuvre at the very same time on my side of the road as I was overtaking a stationary car on my side, that happened to be parallel with the other parked car. I though, didn't need to infringe of the oncoming lane but this young chap must've felt I should've grinded to a halt to let him have the right of way and use both sides of the road as he wished. I was raging at myself for not swinging around and confronting the wee nutjob with his illegally sized number plates and coilovers which *may* not have been disclosed on his insurance. As it was I rode on home but it was far too warm yesterday, I'm going to have to drop a layer or two.

Dropped a top and bottom layer this morning, swapped my skull cap for a headband, went down to just one pair of socks and it was a far better run in this morning!

 

[Simontm]

Well that was nice. Absolutely fine until Ham Common when some A-hole in a Volvo estate objected to me taking primary to get past some parked cars heading into the parade. First he was up me arse revving away and then when overtaking turned into me, luckily had space to move and had some choice words with him as he sat in the q at the lights. Then, just before Evans at Kingston, I saw a van waiting to turn right so moved out of bus lane to say 'Hi, I know conditions are poor so I'm here!' To which he started to go causing the anchors to be slammed.
Needless to say Numpty count: 2

 

[tallliman]

Hot ride in this morning, really warm sticky damp ride home. Decided winter jersey plus waterproof the best option for the latter but it wasn't pleasant.

 

[Reynard]

It couldn't quite decide whether to rain or not this morning, so was more of a scotch mist than anything else. Pretty mild though. Uneventful ride to Ely station, arrive just in time to bagsy the very last empty bike rack. Yes, it was one on the top deck of the two-tier racks - someone had left it in the down position. Anyways, I got my bike on, locked it up and then struggled to push it back into place.

Fast forward to tonight, get back to Ely, can't pull the rack down to release bike. Now I know *why* it was the last rack left... Anyways, two kind (and significantly taller) gentlemen cyclists who had come in on the same train as me responded to a short female in distress and managed to manhandle the rack down. And they admired my bike, which was kind of nice.

Again, a mild evening and the waterproof stayed in my backpack for a very enjoyable ride home.

 

[slowmotion]

West London traffic was a bit thick tonight. A rail strike, and then an accident that closed the main west-bound artery between Earl's Court and Baron's Court. It didn't make much difference to someone on two wheels, but I felt their pain. Outside Olympia, a smart car in a side road was trying to edge out back into town across the outbound, clogged flow. As I nodded and made eye contact, he wound down the window, grinned, thanked me and wished me a Happy Christmas. Fun.

 

[Smithbat]

My short commute was very pleasant this morning, trundled along quite happily, I even got given lots of space by a biffa lorry. The only numpty was me, I raised my saddle slightly a few days ago and evidently I didn't tighten it sufficiently. Today when sat at a junction, I turned to see what was coming from my left and my whole saddle turned too. Cue a wobble and a somewhat more careful ride the rest of the way. Luckily from the many bits of advice I have been given on here, I have my multitool with me, so it can be sorted quickly. Beautiful sky this morning as well.

 

[ianrauk]

A very mild morning's commute. Away with the Nightvision jacket and back to the windcheater. The road's seem very quiet as well. And where are all the other cycle commuters? It felt like 28 Days Later today.