Tales from today's commute....

[Black Country Ste]

Completely incident-free today, as a 5K round trip should be.

Some late-night fettling in the week saw my rack fitted so this morning I put my panniers on. There's no heel clearance whatsoever. I rode bow-legged to the shop before deciding 'stuff this' and ran back inside as I passed my flat again to ditch the panniers. Riding home from work into a headwind and the carrier bag with my work clothes strapped up across my chest trying to shed its load was less pleasurable. Lane closures at the top of Alcester Road meant cones in the road. With a car patiently following and the bag itself now trying to do a runner and swinging like an oversized pair of, there was to be no slaloming.

 

[ianrauk]

Completely incident-free today, as a 5K round trip should be.

Some late-night fettling in the week saw my rack fitted so this morning I put my panniers on. There's no heel clearance whatsoever. I rode bow-legged to the shop before deciding 'stuff this' and ran back inside as I passed my flat again to ditch the panniers. Riding home from work into a headwind and the carrier bag with my work clothes strapped up across my chest trying to shed its load was less pleasurable. Lane closures at the top of Alcester Road meant cones in the road. With a car patiently following and the bag itself now trying to do a runner and swinging like an oversized pair of, there was to be no slaloming.

What pannier have you got.
You can usually move the hooks to push the pannier back.

 

[Black Country Ste]

What pannier have you got.
You can usually move the hooks to push the pannier back.

Those massive Dunlop things Sports Direct are peddling. Moving it further along the rack allows the back pockets to have a chat with the spokes and my feet still bash into them. They're fine on the hybrid but not the road bike.

 

[clarion]

[QUOTE 2362463, member: 1314"]Cyclists are mean on CS7. Brutal. Noone helps noone. Not like 'nam where nobody got left behind.[/quote]
Not so. Just last night I spied a chap with his bike upside down outside Lambeth College. I pulled over to check if he needed any tools, a tube or just general help. He was a young Spanish lad on a B'Twin Triban. He was trying to work out why pedalling was feeling hard at the time. He was in a decent gear, the wheel was pretty true, and the brakes weren't rubbing, so we put it down to a combination of headwind, the slight rise across the Common, and his being tired.

What I didn't check was whether his front brake was rubbing, I'm embarrassed to relate.

But I did stop. And I always try to.

 

[Andrew_P]

Nice tailwind home, great for a Friday afternoon blast. Legs were moaning but kept telling them they had two days off, I might have been lying to them..

 

[Supersuperleeds]

Headwind on the way home, legs feel like lead.

Coming out of the local park a bloke and his missus are removing her bike off a roof rack, she tells me she punctured so offered to help, but she was only taking the bike off the roof because the dozy buggers had forgot the height barrier across the park exit! Made me chuckle.

 

[potsy]

Got called a daffodil for remonstrating with a van driver who pulled out on me whilst using his mobile, called him a few things myself before leaving him stuck in the traffic jam

Then nearly got hit on a mini rab by a chav in a golf who pulled out without looking

Other than that it was quite pleasant.

 

[sheffgirl]

Headwind on the way home, legs feel like lead.

I know the feeling, I must had been riding against the wind this morning, even a few gears lower it was still hard work. I still managed it in 14 minutes (my PB so far), but I was knackered when I got to work. Ride home was tiring too, but I don't think I can blame the wind for that I've only done 27 miles this week, I think the more miles I do the easier it is, I need to get more practice in

 

[Mange-tout]

[quote

But I did stop. And I always try to.[/quote]

I've been asked to slow down to a stop by a horserider, which I did, who then said she'd asked me to stop to pick up her riding crop she had dropped!

I stopped for a guy pushing his bike who admitted he had a puncture and no repair kit, or a pump, and couldn't change an innertube even if he had! I gave him my spare inner, changed it for him, pumped it up and with a cheery thanks he rode off, throwing the old tube into a field!! I was so annoyed, and even climbed over a fence to retrieve it and take it home to a bin.

I once stopped for two young ladies struggling with a slipped chain. I slipped it back on in a trice, and promptly wiped my oily hands without thinking all over my brand new, first outing, purple jacket. Trying to show off gets you nowhere

 

[MisterStan]

Wet and windy, sometimes working for me, at other times not.
For some unknown reason, I decided to tuck my sleeves into my gloves, force of habit I guess from the recent cold weather. Cue puddles of water in my gloves.

 

[BSRU]

Those massive Dunlop things Sports Direct are peddling. Moving it further along the rack allows the back pockets to have a chat with the spokes and my feet still bash into them. They're fine on the hybrid but not the road bike.

Road bikes have a shorter wheelbase, I have cavernous Altura Orkney's on my main commuter but it is a tourer so it has a long wheelbase and so no problem with big panniers.

 

[HLaB]

A wee bit of a headwind on the way back, so I went a couple of miles past the flat for a tailwind back

Edit I really should get this Laptop Keyboards repaired

 

[biggs682]

mine was an experiment day as been using a nice Mercian last couple of days but found it to be very twitchy on it 700 x 20's Michelins so swapped them this morning for some 700 x 28 Vittoria Randaneur's a lot less twitchy and a fair bit slower but still nice to ride

 

[watchiekong]

The evenings cycle home seemd like hard work with the wind and rain on the CS7. just one of those days I suppose...

 

[clarion]

Either I moved house further away from work yesterday, or else there was a brutal wet headwind. After carrying my bike over the bridge at Eastfields, I was very tempted to bail to the train. But I didn't. I did, however, take a section of the Wandle Trail, so I didn't have to battle the wind and the shoot drivers at the same time.