Tales from today's commute....

[wafter]

Late this morning due to the last of yesterday's water main drama still being cleared up down the road, so I had to sit in traffic for 15-20 minutes.. got to watch a glorious sunrise with a Pink Floyd soundtrack however, so it wasn't all bad.

A lovely bright, clear morning with plenty of frost on the ground despite the forcast that it would be a tropical 1 degree..

A fantastic ride in although I encountered the school run traffic on the tow path, with a few inattentive parents / dog walkers spoiling the experience somewhat. Also had fun with some stupid woman in a car on Bridge Street who evidently identified as a cyclist - first parking squarely in the cycle bay at the traffic lights, then apparently pulling away when the cycle-only light turned green

As usual I feel a lot better for the ride; breakfast tasted fantastic so it might have embued me with somewhere near the regulation amount of seratonin for a change.

Fastest ride of the year so far despite an apparent headwind; heart rate still a bit concerningly high (relative to speed) but it's trending down since returning last week so hopefully that'll return to somewhere near normal soon. I wonder if it has anything to do with the cold / greater force required to push blood through cold, shrunken veins..

 

[neilrichardson55]

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

Think the tubes are pot luck, ive just tried to of the Schwalbe one rear work fine and is holding front seems to be leaking from the valve grrrrrr might take the valve to bits and clean and seat it.

 

[cyberknight]

2nd day commuting and 1 st puncture of the year

 

[wafter]

Think the tubes are pot luck, ive just tried to of the Schwalbe one rear work fine and is holding front seems to be leaking from the valve grrrrrr might take the valve to bits and clean and seat it.

Good work - leaking valve sounds like an easy win if it has a removable core; even if that's knackered you could potentially replace it with one from another dead tube


Today's commute was nice; much warmer but less aesthetically pleasant thanks to the overcast sky. Despite being knackered I had a (relatively) fast ride thanks to newfound energy / enthusiasm once in the saddle and renewed confidence in the absence of ice.

Had an especially happy last leg from the city centre after being unexpectedly ambushed by the hot tow-path redhead emerging from a side-street on her bike - with smiles all around and I even managed to blurt out a greeting

Mood further buoyed by the now obligatory sausage and egg sandwich upon arrival at the office; although things took a turn for the worst after finding last night's pragmatism at pre-packing my Postman Pat lunchbox means my flapjacks are now garlic-flavoured...

 

[Dadam]

First of the year. Ice all gone except for our drive which is still 60% covered in bumpy compacted slush so sketchy as hell. I literally had to scoot the bike to the road. Traffic queues were all over so quite a slow one, lots of slow filtering on narrow roads, and having to stop frequently to give way to oncoming traffic.

 

[cyberknight]

2nd day commuting and 1 st puncture of the year

Changed the tube before i left work and that started to go down , pumped it up and the valve core came out in the pump head , rear brake bolts came loose somehow so the brake was rubbing .
Tired , hungry and farked off !

 

[roubaixtuesday]

"Emergency road closed" on the way home, turns out it was a sinkhole appeared at the bottom of a hill. Very pleased it wasn't there this morning, it was about a metre or two across and I'd have done myself a proper mischief as it was on a bend, no notice at all before the road was closed.

Inevitable motorist at the other end complaining they wouldn't let her through and it was "miles" to go back.

(Spoiler: all of about one mile back and shed have disappeared if they'd let her try to go forwards)

 

[simongt]

A car with a what looked like a rectangular floral decoration of some sort about the size of an A4 sheet of paper hung from the interior mirror.
How the heck the driver could see round it is anybody's guess.

 

[simongt]

An elderly Dutch 'Inca' trike with an interesting transmission.
Single speed, but one chain went from the cranks to a sprocket mounted short of the rear axle, then a second set of sprockets & chain went from there to the rear axle, the latter being a distance of about 30cm.
A most interesting setup.

 

[united4ever]

Finally, first ride of the year. Journey home must be the mistiest ride I have done. Took it slow.

 

[cyberknight]

Just spent the best part of an hour trying to readjust the disk brake on the commuter as it was rubbing , no matter what i tried following the usual steps to set it up the dang thing was not playing nice so after nearly an hour of faffing about i have set up another bike for tomorrow .

 

[markharry66]

another great day seems to be a week of it didnt cycle in yesterday as alternator had gone on the car over the weekend seriously considering getting rid of the car cost £300 to fix great nice long wait till pay day and of course due its mot next week (cars the gift that never stops giving).
Nice cycle in damp but warm if thats possible for this time of year no idiots a joy to ride in. As with everything this week got to about three miles from work and hit either a pot hole or glass looked to be a pinch puncture at least it was on the front. Managed to find somewhere to fix usual grapple with tyre levers in the dark with a few walking spectators (perhaps stopping by a bus stop was not the best idea). Back on the bike after 20 minutes staying away from glass littered cycle lane only to be bibbed up by idiot all the way down the road. Apparently doing near 20 in a 20 zone on a push bike holds traffic up. God I wish I had stayed in bed.

 

[ianrauk]

On of those dark, damp mornings. No rain, just damp in the air. Not too cold though. 7° though felt warmer.
Bloody puncture this morning too, on the new bike. Rear wheel. Was a couple of miles from work. Seemed to be a slow puncture so pumped it up and got to work. Will work on it this afternoon before ride home.

 

[Arjimlad]

Damp mist, foggy specs, coughing due to the fluid in the air, had to gesture to get a Transit driver to back off tailgating me and a river bed has been washed onto the road on a single track country lane making for "interesting" riding. Just a bit "grismal" as we say in my house.

 

[wafter]

Match highlights:

IN: Man hand feeds triamverate of last year's swans on the canal bank
OUT: Bounced off the back off a chelsea tractor when it stopped and I didn't

Meh.