Tales from today's commute....

[Arjimlad]

Good job the oncoming VW driver was paying full attention to the road & not fiddling with her stereo or phone. The Corsa driver gave me a lovely wide pass right over onto the opposite carriageway, right into the path of the oncoming VW.

 

[straas]

Very few toys to play with in a T4 Transporter, and they take a little more concentration to drive.

I think all cars need to be made less comfortable.

 

[Sixmile]

Rode into work yesterday, leaving my car 7 miles away after dropping the kids off to school. It was only when i got into the office i realised I'd a site visit in the afternoon, around 10 miles away in the other direction. I was hoping to nab a lift with a colleague but since she was already out at another visit I had to sort my own way down. Ended up getting a train for the first 6 or so miles then it was a matter of trying to negotiate some busy roads, a mucky hard shoulder and trying to arrive at the meeting without being a sweaty mess. Not ideal by any means but doable and even with a little rain on the return leg, it was nothing a bag of crisps at the station couldn't sort it. Now how to log the split journey on my mileage form!

This morning was a little more straight forward and i even remembered to put my lights back on today after the Boardman had, what must've been it's 10th visit back to Halfords in a few months. Who says the Alfine is maintenance free?!

 

[straas]

A guy behind me came off his bike last night - pretty aggressive riding style on the oxford rd cycle lanes considering there's a fresh crop of students about.

Not sure what happened, assume someone stepped into the cycle lane and he swerved into the curb?

 

[sleuthey]

I think they do but as you may have read in the thread about reporting mobile phone users, A&S Police have stopped giving victims feedback on what happens to their reports. Bristol Cyclists Facebook group has a long thread about this & it is being looked into on a national level too.

Yep, heres what they have just sent me:

 

[Arjimlad]

Yep, heres what they have just sent me:

View attachment 488298

If you think the matter should be prosecuted, then please add your voice to those making an official complaint about this strange policy.

 

[rivers]

Traffic was hideous tonight. I actually got off my bike and walked down a pavement for 1/2 a mile as I couldn't safely filter down the road

 

[lazybloke]

Left work 90 mins early today so i'd get home before a v heavy band of rain came over; felt v pleased with my skills at extrapolating rainfall radar data.

Obviously i'm no meteorologist. Got absolutely soaked.

 

[skudupnorth]

"there's a cycle path over there" as I cycled past standing traffic in a jam, to a side road, right hand turn.
I wasn't wearing a helmet and don't pay road tax either

Rebel

 

[Bazzer]

Although travelling at my usual time, there were many more road users than I normally experience on pretty much every road used.
Mainly cars

 

[HarryTheDog]

Yesterdays commute home turned into a bit of a pain, after 4 miles the gear change started to turn very dodgy, oh dear I thought, this cable is on its way out so I tried not to change gear often. However it snapped nearly straight away. I screwed the derailluer limiter screw in as far as it would go to give me a 13 tooth on the back. So ended up with 2 gears. Annoying as my usual 18ph ish speed was not comfortable 36-13 was only comfortable below 16 and the 52-13 had to be 20mph or above.
Then my Garmin startinng showing 0mph, turned off and on etc still no sattelites. I gave up on it and just as I did at the 8 mile point @Heigue'r turned up asking if I was ok. @Heigue'r s speed is usually in the 20's so I just big ringed it. We cycled along chatting for the next 3 or 4 miles then parted ways. Amusingly as we chatted another cyclist overtook us but he looked to be struggling a bit so very soon afterwards we went past him still chatting side by side. Working from home for the next 2 days so time to fix the bike.

 

[ianrauk]

I got called a Twat today by a moton for no other reason that I was on a bike and I was in front of him and he couldn't pass me to get to the lights 100 yards down the road. He got a finger for his trouble. I hope that made him feel better, but I guess not.

Anyway, last nights commute home was a hoot. For the second evening in a row the heavens decided to open a few miles from home. I thought I was going to get away with a dry commute but alas not.

During the rain storm I was being tailed by another fellow cycling commuter. Doing a fair old lick on the flat, when suddenly I heard his tyre let go. A fair old noise it was too. Poor sod. Not a great time to have to change a tube.

Anyway, rain scores on the doors.
It's catching up with last years.

Rainy commute #37 for the year to date
Last year 38 rainy commutes, 53 over all for 2018

 

[KneesUp]

Seems like a lot of twunty driving going on now we've got darker mornings and rain!

Yesterday on the way home I was riding in the centre of a one way street as it passed a junction. I was doing this for the following reasons:

1) there were parked cars on the left and I was disinclined to cycle over them or through them
2) the bike lane peels off to the right just after the junction to take a track down the side of a gym so I needed to be that side of the road anyway

A nice lady waiting to turn right out of the junction into the queue of cars she could clearly see because it was literally 50 metres away shouted out her window that I ought to "get out the middle of the 'blinking' road"

I didn't hear her properly because it was windy - I genuinely didn't really hear - so I stopped to ask her what she said - that's how I know it was about getting out of the middle of the road. I had an issue with this because:

1) The whole parked car thing meant I had to be there
2) I was positioning for the right filter to the bike lane
3) If I was driving a car I would have been in exactly the same place and I very much doubt she would have said anything
4) Even if my positioning was totally wrong, I would simply have delayed her from getting in another queue for less than 10 seconds, which obviously would have zero impact on her journey time.

I made points 1 and 2 to her, and then she threatened to run me over.

When I caught up with her all of 20 seconds later I pointed out the large painted bicycle lane on the right hand side of the road and to giver her her due she apologised - angrily, but she did apologise. She said she was stressed. I told her I was also stressed because all I wanted to do was get home to my family and people are threatening to kill me by running me over and then cycled off.

I did feel a bit sorry for her because she did seem a bit frazzled, but I worry that 'a bit frazzled' spills over so easily into 'you've stopped me from joining that stationary traffic 50 metres away using a form of transport I object to on some level, and so the appropriate response is to swear at you from my car window and threaten to run you over'

I guess the moral is to be careful out there - you don't know what kind of day/week/month/year/life the people behind the wheel have had.

 

[rivers]

I overdressed today. As I am working quite late tonight, I opted for my bib tights and winter gloves as opposed to just leg warmers and medium weight long fingered gloves. I should have looked at the forecast... 15 degrees on the way home. I was covered I swear on the way in and will be much the same on the way home. Doh...

 

[Randombiker9]

Lol I hate Black Cabs had another call with one today. Unfortuantly failed to realise my cameras memory was full and turned itself off so didn’t catch it. Most of the time it’s Cabs in the day time and Tesco vans at night lol

Ps does anyone know any bike cameras that last longer then 2 hours with good audio . Because my 2 hour USB port broke and my spare one only lasts 1 hour and terrible audio and isn’t great recording at dark hours