Tales from today's commute....

[fossyant]

Wimped out and took the tram, yesterday was a bit sketchy although fine in the evening. This morning it was snowing quite hard, and I though better of it. All the roads in the city centre looked fine and probably could have ridden ok.

That explains why we had an extra sprinkle - didn't move off the settee till 8:30am then emailed into work etc, fired up Teams. Called in sick, but need to do a couple of things before I go on holiday. My retired colleagues have sent photos from Northwich and Warrington which shows extra snow. No wonder the airport shut for a couple of hours at 8am.

 

[wafter]

Last night's ride home was pretty nice again - extended a little down the high St, out to Marston and back in along the cycle path... which I'd not anticipated flooding as it regularly does. Made my way through with only slightly damp feet as the water level peaked at about bottom-dead-centre pedal height and tipping heel-down managed to avoid a bow-wave over my toes.

Looks better out there today but I'm glad I don't have to go out in it. That said I might venture to the farm shop later, once I've replaced yet another perished tube on the Brompton

 

[neilrichardson55]

Last night's ride home was pretty nice again - extended a little down the high St, out to Marston and back in along the cycle path... which I'd not anticipated flooding as it regularly does. Made my way through with only slightly damp feet as the water level peaked at about bottom-dead-centre pedal height and tipping heel-down managed to avoid a bow-wave over my toes.

Looks better out there today but I'm glad I don't have to go out in it. That said I might venture to the farm shop later, once I've replaced yet another perished tube on the Brompton

What was going on with the tube ? i got a few Halfords tubes. they are really bad they just don't hold AIR very long

 

[wafter]

What was going on with the tube ? i got a few Halfords tubes. they are really bad they just don't hold AIR very long

Yet another folly of my own making, it seems... I bought 5 Schwalbe AV4s from ebay a while ago and have had three fail due to apparently perishing around their outer circumference. Short of it is that this seems to be due to prolonged contact with (nearly..?) dried tyre sealant remaining inside the tyre from my aborted tubeless efforts.

Ironically this latest one appears to have failed as a result of abrasion from the plastic layer I'd put between the tyre and tube to try to ascertain whether the cause was the sealant or the tyre itself... although at least there appears to be no other damage so the sealant seems to be responsible.

I'm currently sat at the kitchen table trying to scrape remnants of sealant from the inside of the tyre with a scalpel...

Since you seem to be having no luck with the Halfords jobs, my own stupidity notwithstanding I've generally found the Schwalbe tubes to be decent and they can be had for a fiver a piece give or take if you shop around

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Somewhere between brassic and nithering tonight. Nice for the weather to throw in some freezing fog to mix things up a bit too.

 

[simongt]

A couple of 'unusual' things today;
A RHD BMW with French reg. plates.
What at first glance appeared to be a dog driving a Land Rover until I sussed it was an LHD with British reg. plates - !

 

[skudupnorth]

Crashed and burned this morning on a sneaky ice patch near the Manchester Ship canal. Bike fine but the twisting lump riding it ended up activating his sciatica which was truly painful.
Luckily I have an amazing work wife who supplies me with cake/biscuits and drugs to ease the pain. 😆
Ride home was uneventful even with the extra snow that had fallen around Manchester

 

[skudupnorth]

Bloody critters at work were determined to help me recover

 

[wafter]

Crashed and burned this morning on a sneaky ice patch near the Manchester Ship canal. Bike fine but the twisting lump riding it ended up activating his sciatica which was truly painful.
Luckily I have an amazing work wife who supplies me with cake/biscuits and drugs to ease the pain. 😆
Ride home was uneventful even with the extra snow that had fallen around Manchester

View attachment 758399

View attachment 758400

View attachment 758401

Bugger - another casualty! At least you got some sympathy and nice atmospheric pics out of it..

Do you stretch for your sciatica? I get what sound like commensurate symptoms and find stretching really helps