Tales from today's commute....

[HarryTheDog]

After a weeks holiday it was back to it today.
On the ride to the Station my rear brake was squeaking annoyingly. Got off the train and now the brake wasn't squeaking it was binding and I felt like pedaling through treacle. On closer inspection after taking the wheel off found one piston semi siezed and one pad with meat on it and the other bare and grinding through the spring. Opened the pad gap with my multi tool and squeezed and opened the pistons multiple times. Put it all back together. ( did this while talking to another cyclist who had stopped and I was showing him what I was up to, he had never tried disc brakes and after watching me he assured me he wasnt going to bother trying them) and found a few miles later it was binding again. Stopped opened the pads and decided just not to use the rear brake for the rest of the journey.
Then another ruddy puncture, I could see where it was by the sealant seeping out. No foreign object, let it sit in the sealant blew it up carried on, few miles later soft tyre again. this time seemed to be seeping around the valve seat. bounced the wheel to get sealant into the leak. It stayed up for the last 13 miles . I am now officially getting gripped off with these ruddy tyres seemingly puncturing every other commute.
Got to work to find they had been busy re-branding the office and now every wall was covered in trite posters with those silly statements , stronger , longer , higher etc. Humf !

 

[Arjimlad]

Dude emerges from side road then proceeds to drift out of his lane as I'm trying to filter. Sure enough he's distracted by his handheld mobile phone.

Polite chat but I reckon I'm doing him a favour reporting this today, rather than seeing it again next week when he'd get six points rather than a mere warning.

 

[HarryTheDog]

Fine commute home only slightly marred by some middle class whinger shouting my light was too bright and not angled down. Now one of my pet hates is people with flashing or stupidly bright lights so I was a bit put out as when there are other cyclists about I have my exposure on minimum and pointed down. I stopped and stood in front of my bike. Nope it wasnt dazzling and was pointed at a spot on the floor 6 foot in front of the bike.
There was no seat on the train so sat on the floor by my bike which seemed to upset a middle aged woman immensely and she kept scowling at me. I smiled back, just to annoy her a bit more.

 

[hennbell]

We are at a a point where you can talk about spring without sounding like an idiot or indeed tempting fate. The snow is melting very quickly, I can actually see patches of grass in my back yard. We did have a snow fall warning for the last 24 hours but luckily no new snow today.

 

[rivers]

I got the legs out for the first time this year on my way home. It felt good.
Weather was lush. However, someone was hit by a train somewhere between Bristol and Taunton, so all services were terminating at Temple Meads. But that meant a sort of extended ride home. My wife decided she wanted me home quicker than I could ride, so she met me halfway. Still had an additional 5 miles on the bike today.

 

[ianrauk]

What a lovely morning for a cycle commute. Just above the 10° cut off point where I don't have to waer a jacket or windcheater. So short sleeves all the way today. For the first time this year.

I got my arse handed to me on a plate by a baggy tracky, trainer wearing big young lad on a dodgy bent rear wheel mtb. Over took me at speed at the lights. I caught him ok but knew if I overtook I couldn't make it stick and pull away. He had me working hard. In the end as he was a big lad I just tucked in behind him before he turned off. Fair play to him.

 

[Thorn Sherpa]

What a lovely morning for a cycle commute. Just above the 10° cut off point where I don't have to waer a jacket or windcheater. So short sleeves all the way today. For the first time this year.

I got my arse handed to me on a plate by a baggy tracky, trainer wearing big young lad on a dodgy bent rear wheel mtb. Over took me at speed at the lights. I caught him ok but knew if I overtook I couldn't make it stick and pull away. He had me working hard. In the end as he was a big lad I just tucked in behind him before he turned off. Fair play to him.

I remember a good 4 years back when I still did night shifts a guy used to pull out of Polypipe round the corner from my work a set of lights in front of me. Tried my best each morning to close the gap and failed miserabley. At a distance I'd put him as early 60's full hiviz work gear standard looking hybrid bike and puzzled me why I couldn't for the life of me catch him. One night shift managed to get off early and low and behold who pulls up at the lights next to me the guy in question on his Electric bike! Managed to have a quick chat and laugh about my attempts to catch him and off he went like a rocket. Needless to say didn't even try to keep up this time, made me feel better as well lol!

 

[fossyant]

Lovely ride in this morning - the 'big' lights are now off the bike. Bit nippy, but I recon it's legs out on the way home given the forecast. The mag lock has been fixed on the bike shelter, so it's now not open to the street !

The canal back to being dry, although it's getting busier. Nearly hit another cyclist as he was riding head down, fortunately I'd stopped.

 

[palinurus]

Nippy in the morning so still went with mostly winterwear. Shirtsheeves weather this lunchtime. Going to be a bit overdressed later.

Love spring on the industrial estate, lunchtime walk to see what wildflowers are growing on the verges, then off to pick up one of those big pretzels from Tesco Metro to dunk in my coffee.

 

[GeekDadZoid]

I didn't leave the house until 8am this morning so it was think cycling jacket and jersey weather, however half way though the ride to my mates which is only 10km I hit a patch of glass, I saw it late and couldn't avoid it, unfortunately got a puncture from a horrible shard of glass. Nice weather to change a tube and it went smoothly. This was using the halfords commute folding tyres that they have on offer for £5.

Rest of the commute was fine and the ride home was shorts and thirt weather, both ways where disturbed by numerous phone calls though.

 

[HLaB]

Today was a beautiful day to commute 🌞 In the morning I had summer kit on with arm warmers and knee warmers. At night they came off for my fastest commute.

Bizarrely when I was wheeling the bike around the platform I must of p'tured but I was only 1.75miles from home from the station so I decided to fix it in the light. I removed the tube and pumped it up 2.5hours ago to find the hole and it's still solid and I can't find anything in the tyre or rim bed. I'll probably put the tube back in and pump it up to 90psi and if it goes down overnight try the sink or simply replace.

 

[Seevio]

Sadly since changing to a field based job I don't get to cycle to work anymore. Today, however, I was in Oxford. For those that don't know Oxford, there is nowhere obvious near the centre that you can park all day for anything less than an exorbitant price. The park and rides are dirt cheap though so one bike loaded into the back of the van and I was ready to go.

Park up at Redbridge P&R, unload the bike and set off. Weather is glorious, route is flat (apart from a small slope by the museum) and the car drivers have resigned themselves to the fact that they can't go very fast and are used to lots of cyclists. Sadly the other aspects of the site mean that I wouldn't want to do this every day.

 

[HarryTheDog]

A really nice commute today and a bit of a truce between me and another cyclist I had kind of fallen out with.
A few commutes ago ( I put it in a post in this thread) a oiky looking guy had been smoking on the platform with his bike and then tried to push on in front of me, but failed. When we got off he gave me a very close pass ( probably for not letting him push in front of me on the train) and when I chased him he only got away by nearly getting himself killed crossing a dual carriageway.
Well he was on the platform this morning before me so no problem. He refused to make eye contact and kept his back to me, so I thought ok so he remembers me and still bears a grudge. When we got on there were already 2 e-scooters and another bike so nowhere for our bikes. I left mine in the door way and sat on the floor with it. He pushed himself onto a seat and held his bike.
A guy in his fifties started gobbing off about all the bikes and e-scooters in the way, so my fella just says well thats tough shoot mate what do you expect us to do?
I nearly pissed myself laughing, my fella catches me smiling and grins back, we are now comrades in arms.

 

[HLaB]

Today was a beautiful day to commute 🌞 In the morning I had summer kit on with arm warmers and knee warmers. At night they came off for my fastest commute.

Bizarrely when I was wheeling the bike around the platform I must of p'tured but I was only 1.75miles from home from the station so I decided to fix it in the light. I removed the tube and pumped it up 2.5hours ago to find the hole and it's still solid and I can't find anything in the tyre or rim bed. I'll probably put the tube back in and pump it up to 90psi and if it goes down overnight try the sink or simply replace.

Well that gets more bizarre. I waited 4hours and the tube never went down. So I put it back in the tyre and pumped it up solid with a track pump. It's still solid this morning. It was solid all the way to Stevenage station and as far as I recall was fine when I got on and off the train. But after wheeling it around Peterborough station when I got on the bike for the 1.75miles home, the tyre was as flat as a pancake. No one could have let the tyre down without me noticing as I was standing on the train with the bike and then wheeling it around the station, and all the time it had a valve cap on 🤔🤔🤔

 

[Andy in Germany]

Well that gets more bizarre. I waited 4hours and the tube never went down. So I put it back in the tyre and pumped it up solid with a track pump. It's still solid this morning. It was solid all the way to Stevenage station and as far as I recall was fine when I got on and off the train. But after wheeling it around Peterborough station when I got on the bike for the 1.75miles home, the tyre was as flat as a pancake. No one could have let the tyre down without me noticing as I was standing on the train with the bike and then wheeling it around the station, and all the time it had a valve cap on 🤔🤔🤔

I had a similar experience with the Xtracycle a couple of weeks ago: flat tire, pumped up inner tube and left it; all well. Checked tyre, no problems, back in tyre, pfffffft...