Tales from today's commute....

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Tom B

Guru
Location
Lancashire
One from last week...

Took the nipper to nursery, part of the route follows the NCN. Midway along a nice tarmac section which is used by dog walkers cars and vehicles accessing the houses (as wel as those following sat Nov to oblivion) a 60yr old dude on an eMTB just popped it out from a footpath at 90degrees to the road, didn't look just popped out and got on with his ride. Cutting me up and causing me to have to anchor on. Little lad shouted from the back. "DADDY, THATS A SILLY MAN" he gave a surprised look and wave of acknowledgement.

Deciding I'd rather have him in front and that he'd probably get away from me up the next hill with his ebike and lack of passenger, I sat behind. After about half a mile the track turns to half tarmac half lumpy bumpy stuff. I stayed on the tarmac and gathered a bit of speed. He stayed on teh bumpy stuff. After about a quarter of a mile there is a barrier to stop cars in the centre of the way. Bikes can freely go either side. I wrongly assumed he'd take the wide open muddy side and drew along side... But nope he decided he'd swing it left without looking and chop me off again.

He was given words of advice, mostly about looking and not being the only person in the world.

Dropped number 1 off then went to work. Just crossing a major X roads on a green filter for me approaching straightening up as I entered my road when some lycra clad loon presumably in a starve segment mission blasted up my inside having spanked the red light opposite. Apparently that was my fault.

On the up side the motorists have been great!

Damn cyclists.
 
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C R

Guru
Location
Worcester
Rode with our two younger to holiday club, short route mostly through cycle paths. Children quite enjoyed it. All good riding except for a car transporter who overtook us at a roundabout. I'm drafting an email to the company now.
 

palinurus

Velo, boulot, dodo
Location
Watford
Rear mech cable broke today so did the last part of the ride in the 11.

Quickly bodged for the way home to give me a better gear option.
IMG_20210804_091817118.jpg
 

StickyPTFE

Senior Member
Location
Birmingham
I was ready to ride home in the 11 (I have a triple so not awful), then I thought- I could cut the cable and tie it somewhere to tension it. I thought about tying it to the bottle cage and then I saw the bolts- perfect!
My rear cable snapped earlier this year, my solution was to wind up the cable and ride all the way home in "the hardest gear". I wish I had seen this post back then! At least I got in some good training.
 

palinurus

Velo, boulot, dodo
Location
Watford
3 x 1 works well as it goes. Would have been better if I'd used a smaller sprocket at the back. Off to dig out a new cable now.

Perhaps I could have got it in about the right gear just by using the limit screw to fix it.
 

palinurus

Velo, boulot, dodo
Location
Watford
Even more of the A4147 was closed this evening- I had to sneak around some barriers to get through (and past a standoff in the lane between a truck and a woman in an SUV)- anyway, on the newly-closed part there were quite a few young people riding and scooting around! it was excellent!
 

palinurus

Velo, boulot, dodo
Location
Watford
All done, also cleaned and replaced brake pads.

Was going to ride the fixed tomorrow because it'll probably rain but when cleaning the rims noticed what looked like a little split in the front tyre and when I poked at it the rubber started peeling away from the carcass. Got my money's worth out of that one.
 

Juan Kog

permanently grumpy
Even more of the A4147 was closed this evening- I had to sneak around some barriers to get through (and past a standoff in the lane between a truck and a woman in an SUV)- anyway, on the newly-closed part there were quite a few young people riding and scooting around! it was excellent!
Going by my daytime ride yesterday, a lot of drivers have discovered Westwick Row and Pancake lane .
 
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