Tales from today's commute....

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wafter

I like steel bikes and I cannot lie..
Location
Oxford
Interesting building on t'other side of the river. What is / was it's original function - ? :whistle:

To the best of my knowledge they're all purpose-built boat houses for the uni... :smile:


In other news, a reasonable if unremarkable journey home last night. I spent most of my day on-site working on my feet so pretty knackered / legs aching by the end. Afterwards a couple of pints and a burger with a few folks then homeward. A bit cold to start but warmed up OK, as usual it was very pleasant wafting through the quiet city streets, just content to take in the ambient rumblings of the subdued city soundscape sans earphones.

The hero of last night's journey was the bloke pseudo-busking on cornmarket to Joy Division's Dead Souls; his rendition sketchy but I can't fault his excellent taste :smile:

Onward along the usual route; nothing much of note other than the somewhat elevated speed and increasingly-familiar contentment from the regular bike fix / smugness and relief at opting out of one particularly vile little piece of the rat race.

Back at the car nice and chilled; a steady 50mph roll home spoiled by the driver behind in one of those gastly Nissan soft roaders with all the lights, who seemed to lack the capacity to understand the basic concept of stopping distances. Even the slowing down game failed to change their behaviour and despite my uncharacteristically calm disposition thanks to the post-ride endorphines, a few more miles might have seen me coast to a halt in the middle of the road and have a word..


This morning; out into a crisp, pink dawn. Drive to Yarnton was OK with only minor irritation from the bloke behind me intent on using all of his lights. Unlike the cloud-diffiused light of yesterday, the bright, contrasty sunlight once more encouraged the use of the lights on the bike.

Again colder than yesterday (around 5 degrees apparently), really wore the wrong gloves and took a while to warm up. Stopped for sausages and other meats at the butchers.

Took the tow paths all the way again; the river section giving rise to today's notable mentions - a bloke punting with his greyhound and the nice morning greeting to Max on the path outside his / her boat :smile:

IMG_20240131_084952.jpg



A pleasant but largely unremarkable journey at bang-on long-term average speed and heartrate :smile:
 
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Arjimlad

Tights of Cydonia
Location
South Glos
I came off in a greasy underpass 5 minutes from home on my way to work today. My bike is okay, I'm rather sore. Quick call to my wife and my boss and now I'm working from home for the day. I had to re-arrange a site visit, which is a shame. Luckily it's a venue I know well, so even if another visit doesn't happen, there won't be any surprises.
Aw sorry to read this. Hope you are OK. My wife bashed her shoulder in last November falling off on wet leaves on the B2B near Warmley Waiting room & hasn't been able to get back on since. Rotator cuff issue.. Look after yourself!
 

rivers

How far can I go?
Location
Bristol
Aw sorry to read this. Hope you are OK. My wife bashed her shoulder in last November falling off on wet leaves on the B2B near Warmley Waiting room & hasn't been able to get back on since. Rotator cuff issue.. Look after yourself!

Thanks, I'm not too bad, just a little sore. Came off on the same side as last year when I hit some ice and about 7vyears ago when I came off my motorbike (which did injure my rotator cuff and took a out a year or so to heal).
I hope your wife is able to get back on her bike soon
 

biking_fox

Guru
Location
Manchester
Manchester weather is just nuts. yesterday morning, dry still light pleasant riding. Evening warm and chucking it down, not the grimmest ever, but not fun. This morning 10C colder touch of frost, very light, quite cold. If it had been a degree or so colder overnight the puddles would have iced up and that would have been interesting riding!
 

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
A beautiful sun shiny sunrise this morning made for a very nice ride in. Bit cold though. 7°. At least yesterday's wind has dropped. What made a nice change today was a nice small peloton of rides going on down the A21. 5 of us. No one being silly with crap moves or silly over takes. Just rolling along the road at a nice pace. Awesome.
 

Jenkins

Legendary Member
Location
Felixstowe
Still dark when leaving home at 7am, but it's brightening up much quicker - or so it seemed today as it was the first sunny commute day for a while. Even had an owl gliding alongside for a couple of hundred yards this morning.
Coming home and this afternoon was the first time I've not needed to have the lights on at any point even though I was running later than normal.
 

Alex321

Guru
Location
South Wales
Fairly heavy drizzle all the way in for me this morning, but not stupid windy, and relatively warm (about 7C for most of the ride), so not actually unpleasant.
 

captain nemo1701

Space cadet. Deck 42 Main Engineering.
Location
Bristol
WFH today but commuting home last night up the B2B railway path, I was overtaking a slower cyclist when I had some daft bloke on one of those long 'cargo' (?) bikes squeeze past at the same time. He was shouting 'On your right...' repeatedly as he came up behind. Must have been electric pedal assist a he was a going at a rate of knots and those bikes aint light. Anyway, not only was I a tad annoyed at him barging though...could have waited 10 seconds until I passed the other cyclist - he had an unleashed dog running alongside, the dog running around on the inside verge. Pillock:cursing:...dogs are supposed to be on leads on the path, Mr Arrogant clearly didn't understand....
 

Dadam

Über Member
Location
SW Leeds
Was going to drive in this morning as Fridays are much better for traffic but google maps said a stretch of the M621 was closed around Elland Road until 12.30 and, confidently predicting traffic carnage, decided on the bike. Confidently, but inaccurately, as it turned out. Traffic was pretty light. I think everyone unfortunate enough to be on the M621 was queueing on there and not able to get off quick enough to affect traffic elsewhere. At least the day was mild and dry, a bit windy but not as bad as last week.

MGIF with a youngish person in a DS3. It wasn't the worst pass I've had but it was potentially dangerous at the same time as being totally pointless and inefficient. They'd been behind me and positioned trying to pass but I was keeping pace with the traffic on a slight downhill, more or less in primary as there's a road repair (filled trench) for a good 300 yards right were you'd ride secondary. Then a few cars in front slowed to squeeze past a stopped bus so I took primary to avoid getting squeezed out and hung around the back of the car in front. We all got past and I stayed out a bit longer as there were upcoming parked cars and a bit steeper downhill meant I was now maintaining 25 or so. Past the obstructions I pulled back into secondary still keeping with the traffic, a bit slower now 15-20 as there were more pinch points coming, up but Mr/Ms Citroen had to get past, so they did, but had to pull in for an oncoming van. Not long after that they had to stop to get past cars turning right with a parked car on the left. Had they not passed I would have been away, but now I was blocked too, and had to pull up fairly sharp. Then the blockage cleared, DS3 and me start to move but then champ driver either stalls it or barely moves to try and make some sort of point to punish me for holding them up for (checks watch) roughly zero seconds. I hadn't said anything but maybe me glowering at them in the mirror put them off. So they rev off, only to turn right into a side road 200 yards later! :wacko:

Edit: I've since watched the Cycliq footage and still can't work out whether they really stalled or were just being an arse deliberately blocking me. Either way what a pillock.
 

Pat "5mph"

A kilogrammicaly challenged woman
Moderator
Location
Glasgow
I didn't commute to work today because I was off, but I cycled to my friend's for my birthday dinner :birthday:
On my way back home, just about an hour ago, a motorbike passed me, his rear luggage box came off the rack bouncing into the road!
Just as well I am slow, I was quite a bit behind or it would have hit me.
It was quite windy, but I had two panniers full of potatoes, onions, various food stuff to weight me down :laugh:
Going to my friend's, I had this is my pannier: arrived intact!
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