Tales from today's commute....

[HLaB]

Just a slow 5.5 miles for me this morning, after yesterday I fancied getting into work for 8:30am so I could leave about 4.30pm. Nothing spectacular happened, infact it was a quite relaxed commute as I got away half an hour before the main rush (only saw the start of it when I got to town).

 

[BSRU]

What a great morning for a commute, sunny warm and no wind whatsoever, 30 miles of joy.

 

[Andrew_P]

This weird liquid started coming out of my skin. All over my body. Salty. Yuck. Am I going to die?

I was only bragging to the wife last week "do you remember last year I used to come home soaking with sweat, look at me now. I must be so much fitter" T'was dripping off of me last night. This morning was the first sweaty morning ride for over a year.

 

[lejogger]

Nice commute this morning. My ride circled along a crescent route which turned the initial headwind into a sidewind, and then a very slight tailwind to finish

There was a matter for concern however...

I don't shower at my place of work. It's a building over the road so I lock the bike outside the entrance on the toaster rack. It's the entrance to a fairly busy hospital so I'm never hugely concerned about thieves - but as I emerged this morning, what can only be described as 'a scrote of a man' passing time while waiting for the pharmacy to open (probably to get his methodone) was stood over Carole (that's my bike) giving her a thorough eyeballing.

Now obviously I greeted him with a cheery 'good morning', while he countered that he was just 'checking out my bike'. He then proceeded to state 'I bet that cost a bit didn't it?' and also 'I was just admiring your levers' while pointing at the SRAM Red.

Now while it may be perfectly possible that he was just killing time, or was in fact generally interested in taking a peek, it's not the nicest area in the north-west; and while I will always give the benefit of the doubt, I'd also be silly not to perhaps think about upgrading the security I have, as my meagre combination chain suddenly looks very vulnerable.

 

[Andrew_P]

Awful, just plain awful driving this morning. More or less from start to finish, by the end of it I was a nervous wreck expecting every car was going to wipe me out. A record for squeeze passes on a country road by the end I was more or less riding in the middle of the roa trying to fend them off from passing me in to oncoming traffic

 

[thefollen]

Shocking cyclist on the road last night, was on a similar route to him from Vauxhall down to Balham. He was on a Boardman road bike which sported unnervingly high handlebars above the height of the seat. He was really wobbly and ran every red he came to (including one where he swerved a ped or two). Kept overtaking him since I was cycling clean. He didn't have a clue. Bit of an older gent (40s maybe 50s). Gormless expression. Can only hope the terrible display and poor bike fit indicated he'd bought the bike as a gift for someone and was riding it home!

Considered a word in his ear. Hope he got home safe and never cycles again

 

[GrasB]

I got on my bike... I rode to work. Successfully completed a bland & uninteresting 2 hour commute

 

[Christopher]

Not much to report. Had to dodge giant schoolbus carrying Future Leaders of Britain aka skoolkids. Free breakfast at work thanks to it being Green Transport Week or something.

 

[Frood42]

Alot of closs passes today, more than usual, not sure why...
The rain stayed away, which was good, and it looks like it should be a warm (even if a bit gray) day.

Met Office suggests that the rest of the week might be a bit wet... and Sat and Sun are looking gusty...
I am not planning on being on the bike this weekend, going to take a rest due to the additional mileage I am doing in the week on the commute.

Depsite the close passing, there was not as much traffic around today, so I managed to get going and keep my average speed up at 14mph for the 21 mile ride (on my hybrid).

I did have one numpty though, I was going down a hill at 28-30 mph (kept to the speed limit, but could go quicker), and I go down in primary as it is a narrow road with no place to pass (due to oncoming traffic), and a junction about half way down (where I have had the odd idiot turn out across me late - cue grabbing brakes and a lot of swearing - so I stay out where I am very visible).
Guy toots his horn once at me as we are coming to said junction on the left, I am doing the speed limit, and I ignore him as I am in a defensive position to stop such idiocy as he wants to perform.
I look back after the junction and see he is then attempting an overtake, he then has to hit his brakes due to oncoming traffic, thankfully he wasn't too far out or too near me.
Not sure why nearly causing an accident brings him to his senses, but he then does the sensible thing and sits behind me and waits for a safe place to pass. Clearly not reading the road properly, not watching his speed and clearly has a blinkered view that I must be going slow and not doing the speed limit as I am on a bike... :facepalm:

http://goo.gl/maps/kOb1S
http://goo.gl/maps/AWbwa

 

[Frood42]

Alot of closs passes today, more than usual, not sure why...
The rain stayed away, which was good, and it looks like it should be a warm (even if a bit gray) day.

TL;DR

 

[Bill-H]

To the cyclist who right royally scalped me today thanks for reality check! The comment of (come on put the effort in ) I thought I was doing really well think i was on for a pb on my commute lol. However could you please slow down to allow me to draft you next time. :-)

 

[benb]

This weird liquid started coming out of my skin. All over my body. Salty. Yuck. Am I going to die?

Almost certainly, at some point.

 

[benb]

Considered a word in his ear. Hope he got home safe and never cycles again learns how to cycle properly

FTFY

 

[benb]

Not sure why nearly causing an accident brings him to his senses, but he then does the sensible thing and sits behind me and waits for a safe place to pass. Clearly not reading the road properly, not watching his speed and clearly has a blinkered view that I must be going slow and not doing the speed limit as I am on a bike... :facepalm:

This, I think. The (possibly subconscious) thought process goes:

"Oh look, someone on a bike. Bikes are slow, therefore he cannot be doing even close to the speed limit, I'd better overtake.
Oops"

 

[Leodis]

Its been a nice week of commuting so far, two PB's and really enjoying riding. Today, I mostly took a breather and not much happened.