Tales from today's commute....

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Alex321

Guru
Location
South Wales
I decided not to cycle today. Just too windy to be safe.

And people parked in the office car park, rather than the Qpark have just been warned to move their cars, as there are tiles coming off the roof here. I think not cycling was the best decision this morning. Hopefully by Friday it will be Ok.
 

palinurus

Velo, boulot, dodo
Location
Watford
Sunset in London is 15:51 today- and was yesterday too. Although winter solstice isn't until the 21st, sunset doesn't get any earlier from now (sunrise keeps getting later until early in the new year though)

Nice ride today, left too late- got stuck behind the dustcart in Pancake Lane. On Thursdays need to be that bit earlier to overtake it before it gets to the narrow part- or at least to remember to go another way.
 
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Juan Kog

permanently grumpy
The price of barely-adequate cycle infrastructure is eternal vigilance.
621349


@palinurus I’ve been checking your vigilance today .:laugh::laugh::laugh: . There is some one at Dacorum council who dreads your next email or phone call.
 

GeekDadZoid

Über Member
Dry ride in yesterday and a wet one on the way home, but nothing to bad.

Cycling chinos where great, but they seem to get marks from my leather saddle in the wet :-(
 
Positively balmy this morning, thin gloves on and still my hands sweated.
4 miles in I spotted a winking light ahead on the canal path, I had to catch it of course but it was hard going. I had to average 18 to catch him. when I caught him he was on a 29er, young and fast averaging a steady 17 in a turbine like action, never letting off the rhythm. Couldnt draft him road bike style as gravely,muddy and puddles but it was a good test of whether I was getting any fitter by hanging onto him. After a couple of miles I felt I was taking the pee a bit so thought I should do my turn, so went to overtake . He was having none of it and just went a bit faster. After 4 miles he finally pulled to one side and waved me through. I was disappointed that just a couple of hundred yards later he pulled off.
He helped me do the full 20 miles 12 minutes faster and I got a age group KOM on a 7.5 mile Strava section by a good 3 minutes. I reckon going home will be a lot slower though I may have over done it a little, garmin is telling me to take 4 days off!
 

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
Another mild morning. mitts and a windcheater rather then a jacket.

After yesterday's 100 miler, I had to force the legs to work. What's the saying? Shut up legs. I had to give them both a virtual slap to get them moving quicker.
No difference to the car traffic despite people being asked to work from home. Just as busy as usual.
 
commute home was indeed slower than the morning in, mainly due to 2 puntures. The first at the 2 mile point. As I run tubeless this was fixed by locating the hole and sitting it in a pool of its own sealant. However when i blew it up even more it blew the sealant out again so i had to leave it again then pumped it up to probably only 30 psi so as not to blow it out again.
This peed me off as it happened on the muddiest part of my commute. Then at the 6 mile point there was a on your right from behind and a guy went past. I tried to hang onto him but had to admit defeat a soggy rear tyre and this mornings efforts had drained me. Then at the 11 mile point hit a tree root and got the feeling that the front tyre had met the rim. Indeed it was now flat. Could find no puncture so just blew it up. At the 18 mile point the front was defo nearly flat again. Blew it up again and limped itto the railway station..
 
After getting home and cleaning the wheels and inspecting them, my front wheel has a dented rim. Not too important on a tubed set up but on tubeless using it could be asking for trouble. Sorry for the poor focus but thats my camera phone.Luckily I have spare wheels . I dont know if a wheel bloke can straighten it, or it means a new rim.
621931
 
Another mild morning, a runner I past by thought it was summer as he was only wearing shorts, socks and trainers.
Got to work to the news another person had Covid. Only 8 of us working in the building ( not including security) and thats 2 this week. Made all the more mad by the security guard being a rabid ant-vaxer and overheard him trying to convince the security guard going off shift that he shouldnt get the booster.
 

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
Another mild morning, a runner I past by thought it was summer as he was only wearing shorts, socks and trainers.
Got to work to the news another person had Covid. Only 8 of us working in the building ( not including security) and thats 2 this week. Made all the more mad by the security guard being a rabid ant-vaxer and overheard him trying to convince the security guard going off shift that he shouldnt get the booster.
It did surprise me at how mild it was when I left home this morning at 7.30am. Warmer then yesterday despite the weather peeps saying it was going to be colder.
 

Alex321

Guru
Location
South Wales
Grrrr.

See my post Here. Not a good morning :sad:
Well, a colleague who I had a Teams meeting with in the morning who is also cyclist was coming to the office for the afternoon and kindly brought me a spare inner tube. So I popped that in, pumped it up (no problem), and the ride home was then pretty well completely uneventful.

Even had some good behaviour from car drivers :smile: One coming past me (I was in one of those painted cycle lanes) while indicating left for a junction about 10 yards away actually stopped until I was past him. And a couple of different cars waiting patiently behind me until a properly wide bit of road, rather than squeezing past where there was room but only just if they were going to leave the recommended space.

Altogether a much better trip home than the trip in :smile:
 

Alex321

Guru
Location
South Wales
Hmm.

Commuted in today, as usual for Wednesdays and Fridays.

THEN found out that in Wales, they introduced new regulations yesterday effective from last Monday, saying you can be fined £60 for working in the office when you could have worked from home - and the company can be fined up to £10,000 if they don't allow you to work from home.

So today will be my last commute until that regulation gets rescinded.
 
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