Should I still go ahead and risk them prosecuting me for my conduct, in the faint hope some punitive action could be taken against the driver?
Sticks and stones... Ultimately words are harmless, while getting run over by some vacuous tw*t in a rent-a-repmobile will definitely hurt. I'd get it submitted personally.
Yesterday morning's commute was all-change, having spent my first "proper" night in the flat masquerading as a functioning grown-up, now I finally have (most of) a bed...
Gone was the 7 O'clock start, 13 mile drive and 8 miles on the Brompton; replaced by a more relaxed, less complicated regime then straight out on the Fuji. As the crow flies work's less than two miles away; however as the wafter wafts via the necessarily convoluted route it's about double that.
Of course I don't want the mileage I've become "used" to covering to be lost now I'm closer, while I still very much value sausages so I set off along the cycle path into town for breakfast. The weather was initially lovely; bright and clear with a little morning haze, if bloody chilly.
I could see cloud over the city as I approached and by the time I got there it was grey and downright cold; compounded by my use of my old, thin, tatty, unflattering base layer since the necessary rucksack tends to eat them and I don't want to damage my nice woolens.
Sadly the sausage-led part of the commute seems inferior on the big-boy-bike since I can't really justify cheekily dragging it into the covered market as I could with the Brompton, so locking it up outside brings additional delay while stashing the spoils in the panniers is a bit more of a faff than in the B's front bag... while I no longer pass the smiling ladies of the flower shop
Once the Fuji was again free I headed up through the high st and Cowley rd to work, chalking up a not-too-dissimilar-to-the-previous-run 7-ish miles.. getting to work bloody freezing and devoid of the reduced out-of-date Waitrose sandwich and round of flapjack earmarked for lunch that had been left in the fridge..
The ride home was pretty decent; setting off in completely the wrong direction and getting in some work on the rings, a bit of a food shop and some general mincing to push the distance up to about 20 miles / 27ish for the day.
As much as the less-vile commute was one of the big reasons for moving, the change has thrown me off my routine and again highlighted how sadly imperfect the Fuji is for this task.
While I think that commuting on an old steel tourer is the gold standard of resourceful, understated style and the Fuji's great at comfortably eating up distance at constant speed, the shifters and to a lesser extent handling of the drop bars make it less great when having to negotiate the many obstacles an urban environment brings.
This makes me feel more vindicated about buying the flat bar Genesis for this job and bolsters my (admittedly so far limp) resolve to get it sorted and press it into action..
Anyway, whinging about less-than-ideal steeds aside - mustn't grumble
