Tales from today's commute....

[skudupnorth]

Well my ride today was ok except I think the rain might have affected drivers standards.... or lack of them ! One guy passed me driving on a very flat tyre but he had his hazards on so it must be okay
Next was a blonde “ lady “ in a BMW 1 series who must have “ thought” the poor old dear abiding by the road rules in front was below her so overtook at speed whilst I was happily pootling along. Thankfully she did not kill me but I do hope she tries that manoeuvre again against something weighing around 40 tons is facing her !
Lastly even though it was raining, I extended my ride home to include a ride down the Bridgewater Way to collect a few treats for my farm critters in the shape of some juicy, free apples

 

[hennbell]

Someone replied to my tweeting that video to say how annoyed he was at disco man spoiling the peace & tranquillity. I said good evening but he seemed rather taciturn. The trailerboard was intriguing. So much weight on that back wheel as well !

Taciturn, good thing my wife took a year of Latin or I'd be confused

 

[Shut Up Legs]

After a so-called "renovation" of the end-of-trip facilities a few years ago, the management of the building where I work have progressively made changes to it to make it as impractical to use as possible. I stopped using those facilities after the "renovation" and now just change into/out of my working clothes in a toilet cubicle. Their latest effort is this:

A perfect example of discrimination based on peoples' mode of transport, except that our discrimination laws (as far as I can tell) say nothing about this kind of discrimination, so there's stuff-all I can do about it.

Of course, it's pointless telling them that if I can cycle 30km from home in rainy weather without any harm coming to me, then I can certainly manage to cycle through a basement-level car park in a building, regardless of what type of surface it has. That's the problem with prejudice: it's generally not mitigated by any common sense.

 

[MrGrumpy]

Gave a tow to an electric bike today but looking at the blokes complete ride on Strava , I think his bike has been derestricted!! Just under a 20mph average for his commute?

 

[icowden]

Of course, it's pointless telling them that if I can cycle 30km from home in rainy weather without any harm coming to me, then I can certainly manage to cycle through a basement-level car park in a building, regardless of what type of surface it has. That's the problem with prejudice: it's generally not mitigated by any common sense.

Just cycle as usual and if challenged ask them who has required cyclists to dismount and why. I suspect it may just be an "if you fall off we aren't responsible" sign.

 

[goo_mason]

I used to be able to cycle in via the barriers at my work car park, and cycle around to the bike racks. But a few years ago they decided that cyclists had to stop doing that and enter via a card-entry pedestrian gate. Of course, that's to the left of the barriers, so you get through it and immediately have to stop to let the cars coming in through the barrier turn left across you. Worse, when you leave, you have two gates-worth of cars exiting on your immediate left and turning right across you, as well as cars coming round the exit road to the left of that, and cars coming towards you on your right, which are obscured by an overgrown hedge that they're very reluctant to trim back. It couldn't be more awkward and bloody dangerous if it tried!

But not just that, we were also then forbidden to cycle in the car park.

I challenged them on this, and was told that:

(a) bikes are NOT traffic, so can't enter through the same barriers as the cars, and
(b) "you CAN'T expect drivers to look out for cyclists in the car park"

I was told that if I disobeyed these company rules, it'd be a disciplinary matter which might result in termination of employment. So I asked for the stats on the number of bike/car collisions in the car park which may have precipitated this over the last 5 years, and was ignored by H&S. I emailed again, and was ignored again.

The sign on the gate saying we had to walk in the car park vanished a year later, so I started riding in to the bike racks. Immediately, I was called over by security on entering the main building afterwards - they'd seen me cycling in the car park on the CCTV. I pointed out that there was no sign forbidding it any more, so I'd assumed the rule had been scrapped - but they insisted there was, so I went back out with one of them and proved the sign wasn't there.

It went back up by the end of that day.

My employer did have "Cycle Friendly" accreditation at the time, but now it doesn't.

Mind you, they did install a secure bike 'caged parking' area with two-tier parking racks in it last year after gangs were blatantly walking into the 'secure' car park with bolt-cutters and making off with three of four locked-up bikes within a minute, so I guess they're not all that bad, and just have a warped sense of what cycling actually is and why drivers should be looking where they're going in the car park!

 

[HarryTheDog]

@goo_mason your employer and security sound like right jobsworth Aholes. We at work have the seperate car barriers and cyclists door set up as well. Annoying as its a ruddy great kerb to get up and down to it. ( no drop kerb) . There's around 200+ cyclists in the underground garage there is no, no cycling rule. Our security ( shared facility with other companies) is great, they actually caught a bike thief last week, he cycled in on a piece of crap ducked under the car barrier and cycled out on something worth a lot more. ( not even locked up) . security saw him duck under on CCTV and watched him, caught him at the top of the ramp ( underground car park) . I dont know the rules on a private owned car park so maybe they can set any rules they like, it would annoy the hell out of me as well but a facility is better than none at all I suppose.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

The official minimum temperature was about 0.5°C during my ride to work just now, although my GPS computer showed -1.2°C.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Managed a little detour on the commute home last night, 75k and 1400m climbing

A little slower than normal on the way in today mind...

 

[MrGrumpy]

Well first full week of commuting by bike, not done this for a couple of years. Have had to drive 1 or 2 times a week due to the other commitments. Will see how next week goes. I can see me passing last years mileage. However still a long way off 2014`s total !

 

[palinurus]

'Cross bike canal commute this morning, nice- bit of mist, listened to a podcast.

I only do this when I happen to wake up earlier than my alarm (it's unusual), start out at 7 a.m. and there are a few joggers, dog walkers and other pedestrians about. Leave at 6:15 and there's almost no-one.

My hands were sort of numb and tingling when I got to work this morning, hope it's nothing serious.

 

[ianrauk]

Back to school day today... so back to the backed up traffic and gawd awful drivers as the 4x4's try to get as close to the school gates as possible.

 

[clippetydoodah]

Decent ride in this morning. This could be my last day of commuting this year due to a change of Dad taxi
duties. I have now managed to get over the 1000 mile mark for the year. Bit down on previous years.

 

[Sixmile]

Even the rain didn't deter me from getting on the bike on the normally hectic first Monday of September. Overshoes and full finger gloves kept the extremities dry. It was good to see the traffic back. I was starting to miss the smug feeling I got every morning by leaving hundreds of cars in my wake.

 

[Jenkins]

I needed lights, knee warmers & arm warmers for this morning's ride in. It's all downhill to winter from now on...