Arjimlad
Tights of Cydonia
- Location
- South Glos
Cracking pictures @skudupnorth !
Tales from today's commute....
- Thread starter martint235
- Start date
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skudupnorth
Cycling Skoda lover
- Location
- Astley,Manchester
Thankyou, it’s a great path up to a section near Bolton which is littered with glass and shopping trolleys
HarryTheDog
Guru
- Location
- Basildon Essex
The commute home had a couple of incidents, going through Rainham in the mid twenties staying with the car traffic and a squirrel tried to do a magic act by trying to run through my front wheel spinning and bouncing into the rear wheel as well. I kept the bike straight and did not slow down as I had visions of the traffic behind wiping me out. Car behind caught me at the next roundabout which was stuffed, pulled up beside me and and informed me he had nearly shat himself and had braked hard but fully expected to find me under his wheels.
Next incident was up a lane near a travellers site, a very young scrote ( 12-14) was coming the other way on a motorbike no helmet, saw me and decided it would be highly entertaining to wheelie straight at me. He veered away at the last moment but instead of having a big grin on his face he looked worried, I think he had got closer than intended.
Got home to take pictures off my camera ( Fly 12) computer told me disc corrupt, it had only recorded the first 30 minutes . Checked previous files all only 30 mins long. Had to format it, now works again.( filmed my living room for an hour) Dont know how long that's been faulty lucky the incidents did not have a un-happy ending.
Next incident was up a lane near a travellers site, a very young scrote ( 12-14) was coming the other way on a motorbike no helmet, saw me and decided it would be highly entertaining to wheelie straight at me. He veered away at the last moment but instead of having a big grin on his face he looked worried, I think he had got closer than intended.
Got home to take pictures off my camera ( Fly 12) computer told me disc corrupt, it had only recorded the first 30 minutes . Checked previous files all only 30 mins long. Had to format it, now works again.( filmed my living room for an hour) Dont know how long that's been faulty lucky the incidents did not have a un-happy ending.
HarryTheDog
Guru
- Location
- Basildon Essex
On the drive to park my car I passed a cyclist doing a good pace up a drag and wondered if I would run into him later. After I parked and was getting my bike ready he whizzed by, oh well I thought there is my target for the morning and whether he liked it or not he was in my private SCR. The headwind had me frustrated and my body was refusing to warm up quick enough, it was not until after 4 miles did my heart rate get to over 140. He looked younger than me and a bit of a racing snake so did not have high hopes of catching him. I made a mental note that if I did not catch him in 5 miles I would give up. I wondered if he had guessed I was after him and had kept the speed up.
After 5 miles I had not seen even a glimpse of him so decided he was probably miles away but kept the speed at tempo. Then at 6 miles I was saved by the traffic lights, there he was! In front was a taxi, when the lights went green we both went for the draft off the lights, I managed to stay with the taxi probably 5 seconds longer than him and now was unfortunately in front. I made inroads after that and got some interesting stats off Strava fly by afterwards.
The guy like me had heart rate and power meters so I could do a comparison.
He was on a 26 mile commute I was on a 17 so he already had around 9 miles in his legs when I went after him so maybe I had a small advantage.
First thing that struck me was after he went past me he had set 8 PR’s on Strava nearly straight away,( none before) maybe he had guessed what I was up to. He was older than I thought 35-44 but still at least 13 yrs younger. His avg heart rate was 20bpm higher( mine 133 his 153) though my last mile I had gone completely into cool down mode. he must have been heavier than I thought as my weighted avg power was 150 watts his 190.( yesterday on fresh legs not chasing anyone my avg power was higher at 156) When we both sprinted for the taxi I hit 825 he did 967 and even though I am short I am fairly heavy for my size at 72kg.( I should be something like 65) For me it was quite interesting that I had completely misjudged his weight and age, also just one days commuting had drained me as today felt a lot harder than yesterday for less power . Also showed us old fellas tend to tick over and have a more limited heart rate. ( I have noticed this before) my avg speed was only 0.2 mph higher.
After 5 miles I had not seen even a glimpse of him so decided he was probably miles away but kept the speed at tempo. Then at 6 miles I was saved by the traffic lights, there he was! In front was a taxi, when the lights went green we both went for the draft off the lights, I managed to stay with the taxi probably 5 seconds longer than him and now was unfortunately in front. I made inroads after that and got some interesting stats off Strava fly by afterwards.
The guy like me had heart rate and power meters so I could do a comparison.
He was on a 26 mile commute I was on a 17 so he already had around 9 miles in his legs when I went after him so maybe I had a small advantage.
First thing that struck me was after he went past me he had set 8 PR’s on Strava nearly straight away,( none before) maybe he had guessed what I was up to. He was older than I thought 35-44 but still at least 13 yrs younger. His avg heart rate was 20bpm higher( mine 133 his 153) though my last mile I had gone completely into cool down mode. he must have been heavier than I thought as my weighted avg power was 150 watts his 190.( yesterday on fresh legs not chasing anyone my avg power was higher at 156) When we both sprinted for the taxi I hit 825 he did 967 and even though I am short I am fairly heavy for my size at 72kg.( I should be something like 65) For me it was quite interesting that I had completely misjudged his weight and age, also just one days commuting had drained me as today felt a lot harder than yesterday for less power . Also showed us old fellas tend to tick over and have a more limited heart rate. ( I have noticed this before) my avg speed was only 0.2 mph higher.
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gaijintendo
Veteran
- Location
- Scotchland
I wouldn't normally log a driven commute here... but I was a bit shocked by a young kid on a fairly big disc brake mountain bike dismounting the kerb in front of my car today.
I have no idea how I managed to miss the fella. I swerved rather than braking. horrifying to think what could have happened. No helmet, and no obvious reason aside from thrill seeking?
What are you supposed to do? Email local schools? Obvious answer is probably to stop driving.
I have no idea how I managed to miss the fella. I swerved rather than braking. horrifying to think what could have happened. No helmet, and no obvious reason aside from thrill seeking?
What are you supposed to do? Email local schools? Obvious answer is probably to stop driving.
Arjimlad
Tights of Cydonia
- Location
- South Glos
I was pleased to see lots of kids riding to school one Friday, less pleased when one lad sat on his mate's handlebars aimed a kick at me as we negotiated the shared path. A swift upload of still images sent to the school soon produced an appropriate response. In your case .. not much to be done without pictures?
Just confirmation of the need to drive very carefully around youngsters.
skudupnorth
Cycling Skoda lover
- Location
- Astley,Manchester
Sent a request to Salford council to clear the glass, dog crap and general rubbish on a section of the NCN55 near Bolton the other day. Got a message saying the work has been completed and would I fill the satisfaction reply form out. So before I committed to their apparent amazing service I decided to ride down the offending part of the path and guess what ? Not one bit had been cleared even though I was very specific on the section of concern ! As you can guess they got a less than satisfactory reply
Back on the road again and nearly got slaughtered by a driver at the same spot a taxi driver killed my hybrid a couple of years ago
Luckily he saw me last moment and we all survived another day
Back on the road again and nearly got slaughtered by a driver at the same spot a taxi driver killed my hybrid a couple of years ago
Luckily he saw me last moment and we all survived another day
Shut Up Legs
Down Under Member
More motoring morons on the road during my ride to work this morning. I bloody hate Australia 
It has to be one of the most anti-cyclist countries in the world.
It has to be one of the most anti-cyclist countries in the world.Hi Shut Up Legs,
Sorry to hear that you had a bad commute and hopefully you have a better ride home!
Apologies for saying this but I had a good commute home and I'm really enjoying this nice late summer weather before we plunge into autumn.
Tonight I ended up riding home for a good 80% of my journey with someone who had a bike retrofitted with a ebike front hub and we chatted about all sorts of things ebike and cycle related from the local infrastructure to many other things and it was a really enjoyable ride home!
Sorry to hear that you had a bad commute and hopefully you have a better ride home!
Apologies for saying this but I had a good commute home and I'm really enjoying this nice late summer weather before we plunge into autumn.
Tonight I ended up riding home for a good 80% of my journey with someone who had a bike retrofitted with a ebike front hub and we chatted about all sorts of things ebike and cycle related from the local infrastructure to many other things and it was a really enjoyable ride home!
Alba Zeus
Über Member
You should never apologise for having an enjoyable commute home mate. After all its what each and every one of us want.
Amazing differences in weather.
Beautiful sunny, clear blue sky morning here. And being in London the drivers seem to behave more then anywhere else in the country by the looks of things. Mainly due to the sheer amount of cyclists and cycle awareness here.
Hi Alba Zeus & ianrauk and yes thinking about it you're right that I shouldn't apologise for having a good commute because it's what we all want everyday but having got home after a really enjoyable commute in good weather whilst having a nice chat with a stranger I just felt a bit bad saying how great it was straight after the post from Shut Up Legs saying what a bad commute he'd had.
Fingers crossed the sun keeps shining on the commutes for the rest of the week!
Fingers crossed the sun keeps shining on the commutes for the rest of the week!
