Tales from today's commute....

[simongt]

On the way back from the shops today, stopped at a red light in the city. A cyclist decided to ignore said red light and carried on. Nothing surprising about that. However, the car following the cyclist also ran the red light - !
Two thoughts crossed my tiny mind -
Did the driver of said car assume it was green without looking as the cyclist had just run the light, or did they think, 'If he can get away with it, I'm going to do the same.'
Thoughts - ?

 

[Scotchlovingcylist]

Lovely ride in tonight, first in shorts which I may regret at 7 in morning.
Forgot my lock so into the changing room for the bike, no one uses it and is lovely and secure.
One incident with a Saturday night yob, drunk crossing the road causing cars to brake then decided to have a kick at my bike as I passed in the cycle lane. Completely missed and nearly fell as I rode off laughing listening to his unintelligible abuse 😁

 

[gzoom]

Due to a housing extension, there is a 26 weeks road closure in place along my main commute. In the car its an extra 3 mile diversion, but on the pedal bike adds about 15 second extra to hop on/off the pavement .

 

[HarryTheDog]

Another road closed story. I had a fine chilled ride in till I nearly got to Broxbourne and there was a Police road closed sign and blue tape everywhere. I thought flip I dont know this area how do I get around it, also what has happened, a attack etc etc. just then a dog walker appeared from the closed path so I asked him if he knew what the path was closed for. He told me it was just safety as they had been cutting down trees etc and it was ok to go through, they were not working there now.
So I went through with a nagging thought I shouldnt be doing this but it was evident that they had been chopping down trees and digging the path up etc. I thought bit of a misuse of signs.
When I got to work just to be sure I searched for any news on incidents etc around that area, came up with this story from last year.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1548939/indecent-assault-police-attacker-caught-Hertfordshire

So If I meet nervous women in this area I now know why. The guy had targeted 13 women on the tow path, 17 incidents.

 

[hennbell]

We got blowing snow here today, so I will zwift to make up millage.

 

[HLaB]

It was a typical east of England weather forecast for me last night. I was going to get soaked! So it turned out to be bone dry. With the schools being off it would have been my fastest commute despite a 98% headwind according to myWindSock.com but I p'tured somewhere in town (maybe when I bypassed a bus stuck in traffic, stuck in road works) and by the bottom of the last roundabout at the bottom of the 1/4 mile 5.6% average hill it had got pretty flat but I decided I'd be better off fixing it at lunch. At night with that wind behind me I did indeed do my fastest PM commute. It helps that for the last few commutes I've used my Kinesis T2 rather than the Triban, there's not actually much in it on the flat but even though the T2 is fully mudguarded its just that we bit smoother over hills.

 

[HarryTheDog]

Fine weather and a bit of a tailwind had me in good spirits. Then I came across a cyclist on the canal path who was trying to cycle one handed whilst swigging from a can with the other, zig zaging all over the place. I rang my bell 3 times , coughed, loudly said excuse me, then as he persisted to swerve I just gave him a " I am coming past on your right" and rode the verge around him still givinng him plenty of room. He promptly fell off with a load of swearing. We had a brief conversation on who's fault it was, it was obvious he was drunk at 07:30 in the morning so waste of my breath and I tootled off.
Got to work found the hot water turned off due to work in the kitchen and had a shower out of a can, also seems no coffee machines or anything to drink apart from cold water for the rest of the day.

 

[Jenkins]

It may be a lovely sunny bank holiday a few miles inland, but here on the Felixstowe coast where my office is, it is about 9°C, fairly thick sea mist and a cold breeze coming in off the North Sea. Having done an inland loop in short sleeves as part of the commute, I had to stop and put on a jacket when I got into town it was that cold.

 

[MichaelW2]

Coming back home at midnight I saw a large and very active hedgehog cross the road. They can run fast.

 

[HarryTheDog]

A mixed commute, my work colleague rang last night, he has been off with Covid , he rang to tell me his MIL had just died so we had a quick chat, which gave me a disturbed night thinking about mortality . This morning I get up, boiler wont come on so no hot shower. So tonight as soon as I get in , its into the loft to sort that if possible.
However once on the commute all was fine though a chilly 8mph headwind.
Only incident this morning was coming up to a narrowing point under a bridge , a guy about my age coming the other way , similarly dressed ie ready to race the Strada Bianche. I was much closer to the narrow than him so I was expecting him to slow so just one of us goes through ie me, but he shouts and sprints towards it which I thought wierd and a bit arrogant so we met in the narrow, he was canal side, he wasnt happy but his own stupid fault and I felt like shouldering him into the canal.

 

[HarryTheDog]

Got to work, water leak, no hot water here either!

 

[C R]

Working at the office today, I braved the 10 minutes each way bike commute . Beautiful day to ride, it would have been nice to have a longer distance to ride.

I haven't used my commuter much in the last two years, and it feels strange to ride in flat pedals. I find myself trying to pull back at the bottom of the stroke, and my feet nearly come off the pedal. Hadn't really expected that my pedalling technique would change that much.

 

[hennbell]

springtime snow storm last night, zwift session to make up missed kilometers.

 

[HarryTheDog]

Commute home was frustarating and a bit surreal. Front tyre flat when I went to ride off. I was still at work so blew it up and investigated, tubeless valve leaking around the base shook the wheel and it slowly sealed but anything above 40 psi it leaked again so just accepted it. Then got 3 miles from work at Broxbourne and found myself surrounded by Orthodox Jews, scads of them. Picnicing, cycling , rowing , paddling canoes and on narrow boats, all in traditional gear, lots in those huge oversized bowler hats trimmed with fur , was a bit surreal. Must be a traditional holiday for them. Most of them seem to have never shared a canal path before as very slow to move, or in some cases not move at all, I was very patient though as I understood they were on a fun day out, I was on a mission. Time was ticking for me to catch the fast train from West Ham. I continued to bump into groups of them for the next few miles and then nearer Westham some more who are used to cyclists( they are usually in that area though) .
My front tyre went down again, stopped , blew it up, made the train with 5 minutes to spare. Sometimes tubeless is a boon other times a right royal pain in the arse.
Got home fixed the boiler in 30 seconds. Low water pressure in the radiator system stopping the boiler coming on. A shower at last!

 

[Thorn Sherpa]

Steady scenic ride through Shaw Wood again much nicer than the usual route to and from work