Tales from today's commute....

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Randombiker9

Senior Member
Have you a witness or a bike camera recording of the incident? If not I would say put the incident behind you.
Car mirrors are designed to be pushed in, but if a sharp downward force is applied, oddly that doesn't happen. Plenty of videos on YouTube of motor cyclists demonstrating the technique..
Nope as are annoyingly i didn't have my camera on my bike as i it kept falling off before. But their was a bus behind me and a few shops around.
 

Slick

Guru
Pulled up to the side of a car and they had fish and chips which wafted thru the window

It was lovely!
I cycle pass a chip shop nearly every day, great smell that leaves me ready for my dinner when I get home.
 

Randombiker9

Senior Member
Have you a witness or a bike camera recording of the incident? If not I would say put the incident behind you.
Car mirrors are designed to be pushed in, but if a sharp downward force is applied, oddly that doesn't happen. Plenty of videos on YouTube of motor cyclists demonstrating the technique..
I actually just realised from this my bike has a lot of stratches and paint chips. Even though his mirror got pushed in (it sounded like it slammed into the door) so you would think a driver would actually stop to check and sort out the mirror and his car could of also gotten stratched. I should of stopped myself but at the time it wasn't safe to stop especially after what just happened. because to many drivers were in a rush. I dunno i know their was a convience store nearby and a bus behind me. Other drivers probs saw as well.
 

C R

Guru
Location
Worcester
Glorious sunshine, so shorts, t-shirt and fingerless gloves. A tad on the cool side coming in, but it is supposed to be quite warm this afternoon.
 

I like Skol

A Minging Manc...
Pulled up to the side of a car and they had fish and chips which wafted thru the window

It was lovely!
I cycle pass a chip shop nearly every day, great smell that leaves me ready for my dinner when I get home.
In Lewisham, on my commute, there used to be a bakers which emitted the most fabulous donut cooking smell. Loved it.
I can just about resist the fish, not so sure about the donuts.:shy:
5 x cycle commutes on the trot for me this week, which is odd as I only work four days..... I admit to cycling in the day before my first day for admin purposes. Only got wet on one direction of one trip so pretty good really.

My commute takes me past the Sunblest bakery at Bredbury, lovely fresh bread smell. Then I ride past all the curry take-aways and kebab shops in Denton :hungry: and finally just a mile or two before home is the Hills biscuit factory in Ashton, Nice.... (see what I did there :whistle:). Strangely I am always ravenous and trough everything in sight once I get home, despite usually setting off with the intention to only have a light meal :rolleyes:

Lovely sunny day ahead, perfect for a ride, except I have a mountain of urgent chores to do. Speaking of mountains, the MTB hasn't been out for a while......
 

Arjimlad

Tights of Cydonia
Location
South Glos
I actually just realised from this my bike has a lot of stratches and paint chips. Even though his mirror got pushed in (it sounded like it slammed into the door) so you would think a driver would actually stop to check and sort out the mirror and his car could of also gotten stratched. I should of stopped myself but at the time it wasn't safe to stop especially after what just happened. because to many drivers were in a rush. I dunno i know their was a convience store nearby and a bus behind me. Other drivers probs saw as well.

Sometimes a driver will have very good reasons not to stop, like no licence, no insurance, no MOT or driving under the influence etc. Bad luck - at least you were not injured !
 

Arjimlad

Tights of Cydonia
Location
South Glos
Filtering up on the inside of slow moving traffic when I decide it'd be better to filter on the outside of a large HGV.

However, the woman in the car behind is determined to get in front of me/cut off the gap between her bonnet and the lorry in front of us both to stop me getting over to the right. I kept looking back at her but she kept nudging forwards every time the lorry moved. I ended up sticking my arm out indicating right for some time before she relented.

If she's that envious of the freedom of cycling she should try it herself !
 

Sixmile

Guru
Location
N Ireland
Maybe I'm just more on edge but I've had two minor verbal exchanges over the last two days.

Yesterday morning I was riding up a multi use path which has 9 chicane type gates. Up ahead at the last gate there are 3 runners together and ahead of them one of those mini council sweeper trucks. My speed is low anyway because of the 8th gate but I see the council worker opening the gates ahead to get his truck through. I manoeuvre around the 3 runners, up the side of his truck and up the side of the path through the open gate. He was bending down opening the padlock on the second gate to the left side. Once past he shouts something at me. I turn my head as I couldn't hear it over the din of his running engine which was loud. He then shouts that I should ring my bell. Again, he's shouting loud to be heard over the engine. I didn't turn but shouted 'how the heck would you've heard it over that?' and again he shouts about ringing my bell. Perhaps I should have but I can guarantee an 80db ding isn't going to be heard over the 100db engine. I will say, the noise of these sweeper engines is much louder than a regular car engine, it's almost like a hoover sound which I suppose is what the sweeper is.

Then this morning. On a pretty main 30mph stretch of road. There wasn't much traffic either side. About 400 yards ahead I can see a Renault Scenic reversing slowly out of a driveway, past some pretty big pillars. Obviously they're going slow as they can see nothing. I'm on the road at around 20mph so look behind me, no cars immediately behind, so I pulled into the middle of the lane from the left so that if the Scenic kept coming, at least I'd be out of the way. As I'm approaching the Scenic, a car now behind me blares his horn at me. I gesticulated towards the reversing car to show that's why I'm taking the lane and pulled left again about 5 seconds afterwards. The driver overtook without even a glance.
 

ukoldschool

Senior Member
I think i've accidentally walked under a ladder...

Commute home, front wheel puncture.... luckily only a few hundred metres from home so walked the last bit then put the spare tube I carry on the front.
This morning, same wheel another puncture... I am sure I checked the tyre over for whatever caused the first one but maybe not? Anyways had a good crowd on the train out of blackfriers to watch me find and mend the puncture with my new super dooper brompton tooolkit... I even got a little clap at the end from my train cohorts :smile:

IMG_7861.JPG
 

Arjimlad

Tights of Cydonia
Location
South Glos
Maybe I'm just more on edge but I've had two minor verbal exchanges over the last two days.

Yesterday morning I was riding up a multi use path which has 9 chicane type gates. Up ahead at the last gate there are 3 runners together and ahead of them one of those mini council sweeper trucks. My speed is low anyway because of the 8th gate but I see the council worker opening the gates ahead to get his truck through. I manoeuvre around the 3 runners, up the side of his truck and up the side of the path through the open gate. He was bending down opening the padlock on the second gate to the left side. Once past he shouts something at me. I turn my head as I couldn't hear it over the din of his running engine which was loud. He then shouts that I should ring my bell. Again, he's shouting loud to be heard over the engine. I didn't turn but shouted 'how the heck would you've heard it over that?' and again he shouts about ringing my bell. Perhaps I should have but I can guarantee an 80db ding isn't going to be heard over the 100db engine. I will say, the noise of these sweeper engines is much louder than a regular car engine, it's almost like a hoover sound which I suppose is what the sweeper is.

Then this morning. On a pretty main 30mph stretch of road. There wasn't much traffic either side. About 400 yards ahead I can see a Renault Scenic reversing slowly out of a driveway, past some pretty big pillars. Obviously they're going slow as they can see nothing. I'm on the road at around 20mph so look behind me, no cars immediately behind, so I pulled into the middle of the lane from the left so that if the Scenic kept coming, at least I'd be out of the way. As I'm approaching the Scenic, a car now behind me blares his horn at me. I gesticulated towards the reversing car to show that's why I'm taking the lane and pulled left again about 5 seconds afterwards. The driver overtook without even a glance.


I find myself paying close attention to manoeuvring cars as a lot of them don't clear their windows properly on these cold mornings, and can't see out of the side windows.
 

Arjimlad

Tights of Cydonia
Location
South Glos
This really grinds my gears. There's no reason not to clear a windscreen. It's just pure lazyness not to do so, and downright dangerous.
I very politely asked a chap to clear his icy windows as he drove along streets thronged with schoolchildren, and got a massive mouthful of abuse & threats to punch my teeth in last year.

Made for a great video & he was extremely embarrassed when the Police visited him about it. I'll call it out when I see it, in self-defence.
 
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