Tales from today's commute....

[John_S]

There wasn't much wind today which was good but it was dark, misty and miserable.

However somewhat predictably having put my Schwalbe Winter spiked tyres on yesterday for the first time ever it was about 5 degrees Celsius today and so no need at all for the spikes.

Following Arjimlad's message about I found the noise interesting and whilst riding I thought of this as the Rice Krispy effect because you get a sort of snap, crackle and pop sound coming from the tyre studs as you ride along.

I'm going to take a look at the weather forecast in a minute but with my spiked tyres on the bike it'll probably be about +10 degrees celsius or so by the end of the week.

John

 

[Arjimlad]

There wasn't much wind today which was good but it was dark, misty and miserable.

However somewhat predictably having put my Schwalbe Winter spiked tyres on yesterday for the first time ever it was about 5 degrees Celsius today and so no need at all for the spikes.

Following Arjimlad's message about I found the noise interesting and whilst riding I thought of this as the Rice Krispy effect because you get a sort of snap, crackle and pop sound coming from the tyre studs as you ride along.

I'm going to take a look at the weather forecast in a minute but with my spiked tyres on the bike it'll probably be about +10 degrees celsius or so by the end of the week.

John

Be careful where you lean the tyre if you ever have to take a wheel off to put your bike in the car. In fact keep the tyres well away from paintwork. DAMHIKT.

 

[cyberknight]

Drizzle and very foggy this morning, roads very quiet at 5am though luckily. No wind which was nice

Yup pissing it down but at least it was "warm " didnt bother with the coat as by the time i get it on then boil in the bag i reckon im not much drier

 

[cyberknight]

Hope you and bike are ok . Starting 2018 like 2017 was stay safe

Dont go there , just dont !
Planning to get back to where i was 12 months ago and i do not need any jinx.

 

[John_S]

Hi Arjimlad,

Thanks for the tip and yes I think I'll definitely have to be very aware of the spikes and keep them away from as much as possible!

Oh and back to todays commute for some completely unknown reason my Garmin decided that today it would do away with two of my chosen data fields and instead show the sunrise time in two separate fields. Only the Garmin knows why it suddenly chose to do this all of its own doing and I certainly have no idea why but I had no excuse for not knowing what time the sun should rise. Not that I could see any sign of the sun due to it being so overcast and miserable.

 

[Randombiker9]

This morning was fine afternoon.
With filtering your only allowed to filter when white lines are dashed right not continous, asking this as i see cyclists filter down when lines are continous which i thought are not allowed?.
Anyway on the way back:
1. A black van was just stopped for no reason in the middle of the road. (had to filter around him to get past which i don't ussually do as it's a clear lane ussually.
2. Oncoming Driver said your in wrong lane. There was no lane marking and it wasn't a one way street and i was clearly on the left side. So perhaps that driver thought it was one way when it wasn't. So that's no one's fault just whoever marks the road there should be a road marking there.
3. No ones fault as here as dogs have no sense of moving objects but a dog (a pug) almost ran into me. But his owner called him back Just in time. but hey dogs are dogs

 

[mgs315]

Had an odd one today. Cycled in fine this morning but I’m working somewhere else tomorrow so had to drive the van home (white van man for a living!) Random cyclist clipped my passenger side mirror as they filtered past a stationary me. (there was about 1.5m from the kerb too). Oopsie daisy. Hope they were ok. Made navigating the next gyratory a bit more interesting having a completely blind left hand side.

The other job site means I’ll actually be home early enough to go for a little jolly instead so whilst not getting the miles in on the commute at least I get to choose where I go tomorrow!

 

[ianrauk]

Gave it some real good beans this evening to get the early train. I think I lost both lungs with the effort. I got to the station with a couple of minutes to spare. The bloody train was running late. If anyone on the A21 sees My lungs, please put in a bag and let me have them back. Ta.

It was a tad cold but with the effort I was putting in I got a full sweat on.

 

[Slick]

For whatever reason, my fitness/energy levels fell off a cliff just before Christmas, which really annoyed me as it came right at the moment I started to really feel I was getting somewhere. Anyway, 3 weeks have passed with a couple of false starts and I ventured out this morning in really thick mist to see how I would fare. As is usual for me now, I always think I've made a mistake coming out in the first mile, not sure why. I just tried to concentrate on a steady rhythm, but could already feel my thighs stiffen slightly in the cold air. Still struggled a bit to get up to speed so I was glad to arrive at work to get a hot shower. On the way home there was a definite improvement. I was planning a similar run home as I had on the way in but once the legs were warmed up I felt quite strong in a number of sections which enabled me to put the hammer down and get the heart pumping. An uneventful trip, home and away, but great to get back in the saddle and get my first miles of the year on the clock.

 

[Arjimlad]

This dude passed me quite close yesterday, he didn't have much of a choice as he had decided to overtake on a blind bend only for an oncoming car to spoil his plans.

I reported it online & uploaded footage and later that day the Police got in touch to say that they intend to send a NIP and offer a fixed penalty ticket for driving without care & consideration.

 

[straas]

That's uncomfortably close.

I had one last night, squeezing between me and a pedestrian island, joy.

shorter route this morning due to the frost.

 

[C R]

Part of my rather short commute is a downhill section of unlit shared path, parallel to a busy dual carriageway. Last night was rather misty, with very poor visibility. Three or four joggers all in black with no reflectives or lights were coming uphill, I only saw them in silhouette against the lights of the oncoming traffic. They were taking the whole path, made no effort to leave any space for me, and forced me to stop in the grass verge next to the carriageway, otherwise I would have hit them. When I said it is supposed to be a shared path they just laughed and carried on.

I thought it was furious cycling that was the problem, we maybe need an offence of furious jogging.

 

[si_c]

Very nice run home last night, took the greenway out to the marshes and then extended it out a bit further again. Easy in this morning, but my speed is going up from the beginning of the week, so I think I've adjusted back to the commuting after two weeks off.

Pictures of the dynamo please!

Apologies for the really poor second photo, it looked better when I took it, but it still gives a reasonable-ish idea of the illumination - it actually throws quite a bit of light down the road, but that's not particularly evident here. I've got the light mounted to the handlebars (goddamn you disc braked bike with no fork crown mount!) and it's angled downwards slightly to avoid dazzling oncoming traffic.

 

[Ciar]

An uneventful ride in this morning, apart from the rain that's not rain! tedious

@Slick i feel just like you, it seems i managed to put on 6lb over xmas, even though this has been the driest ever due to gout, so i am also getting back into it painfully

 

[Leaway2]

Nice one @si_c it looks very neat.