kevin_cambs_uk
Guru
- Location
- Near Cambridge
got to do my bit, I am lazy without hanging at the back!
Tales from today's commute....
- Thread starter martint235
- Start date
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got to do my bit, I am lazy without hanging at the back!
Ollie W
Cycling pls
- Location
- Southampton
Commute to ballroom and back this evening reminded me that I'm a horrible newbie cyclist needing to learn what I'm doing. Ride there up the hill and through the common was horrendously slow and I turned up with the class already started. On the way home it decided to rain and I was hurtling through the leafy common. On MTB slicks, no mud flaps, shorts and windproof jacket. Amazed my phone wasn't liquid damaged. My inside left knee appears to be getting hurt by my pedalling style too which sucks. On the plus side I cycled bloody fast when I wanted to get home!
I think it's time to give the Rockhopper back to its owner and get a CX. Just got to choose between the Boardman Comp and A N Other...
I think it's time to give the Rockhopper back to its owner and get a CX. Just got to choose between the Boardman Comp and A N Other...
A N Other could be a CAADX (Tiagra or 105) or iof you want discs a Croix de Fer, (the CAADX Ultegra has discs but is almost £1.5k).
Supersuperleeds
Legendary Member
- Location
- Leicester
After really struggling yesterday, decided drastic action was needed. So I pumped up the tyres, nearly 1mph average speed faster today than yesterday.
HLaB
Marie Attoinette Fan
I've managed to pull something in the inside of my thigh probably from the off the other day but thankfully I don't feel it at all for regular riding (I'll just have to remember no out of the saddle sprinting stuff for a few days) and it didn't seem to harm my aveage speed which was back up at nearly 15.9mph despite being through town (the absence of school traffic helps though). The only event of any slight significance was a white car skimming by bars in Fengate only to park in a drive way a few hundred metres up the road. I don't think the muppet quite got the irony of a 'cr@p pass for that?' 
Frood42
I know where my towel is
- Location
- Magrathea, Horsehead Nebula
Last nights commute was nice until I got to Bow/Stratford again, yet another queue of traffic, thankfuly the new segregated cycle lane looks like it may be finished sometime soon, I won't hold my breath though... they have some blue paint/tarmac down, but the not all the bus bypass bits are completed...
The filtering was sort of fun, other than having to remind myself not to take wing mirrors off...
Anyone riding behind me might have been wondering why I was chanting "wing mirrors, wing mirrors..." to myself out loud
The filtering was sort of fun, other than having to remind myself not to take wing mirrors off...
Anyone riding behind me might have been wondering why I was chanting "wing mirrors, wing mirrors..." to myself out loud
Frood42
I know where my towel is
- Location
- Magrathea, Horsehead Nebula
A fairly uneventful commute this morning, the cycle lane from Stratford is still not yet completed, I did ride over a small part coming up to Bow roundabout, the tarmac felt nice and smooth, and it was so nice riding without worrying about some tailgating twonk.
However, I really do not like the ASL traffic lights at Bow roundabout, there is nowhere near enough of a delay, I reached the lights just as the front ones where changing, and about a second later the second set changed, which could have put me in conflict with vehicles, not nice...
http://ibikelondon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/londons-first-truly-super-cycle-highway.html
It's a start but still does not sort out Bow junction properly... I shall stop there
However, I really do not like the ASL traffic lights at Bow roundabout, there is nowhere near enough of a delay, I reached the lights just as the front ones where changing, and about a second later the second set changed, which could have put me in conflict with vehicles, not nice...
http://ibikelondon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/londons-first-truly-super-cycle-highway.html
It's a start but still does not sort out Bow junction properly... I shall stop there
stephenb
Guru
A fairly uneventful commute this morning, the cycle lane from Stratford is still not yet completed, I did ride over a small part coming up to Bow roundabout, the tarmac felt nice and smooth, and it was so nice riding without worrying about some tailgating twonk.
However, I really do not like the ASL traffic lights at Bow roundabout, there is nowhere near enough of a delay, I reached the lights just as the front ones where changing, and about a second later the second set changed, which could have put me in conflict with vehicles, not nice...
http://ibikelondon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/londons-first-truly-super-cycle-highway.html
It's a start but still does not sort out Bow junction properly... I shall stop there
So...if you follow the blue path you end up on the inside of 5 lanes of traffic? Or have I read that wrong?
Frood42
I know where my towel is
- Location
- Magrathea, Horsehead Nebula
Used to be three lanes for cars, now it has become two lanes for cars (and one for pedal bikes), come towards Bow flyover and this for cars reduces down to one lane for the roundabout and one lane for the flyover. If you go towards Bow roundabout it then becomes two lanes for cars again.
My issues lies with the traffic lights at the roundabout, as you have a cycle lane that bypasses one set of lights and puts you into a box for a second set of lights.
The conflict here is that the lights are poorly designed and the first left turning off the roundabout is onto the A12, which is a very busy and very fast dual carriageway, so I can see left hooking cars as being a problem for those cyclists who come just as the lights are changing red to green at either sets of lights. Left hooks and casualties here have already been experienced on the opposite side of the roundabout.
I will see what my camera picked up on this mornings commute and post something (assuming I remember to...).
Glow worm
Legendary Member
- Location
- Near Newmarket
Nice ride in earlier. Stopped off at King's College Chapel in Cambridge on the way, not to thank the almighty for a safe ride, but to try and spot a couple of peregrine falcons that have been seen around there in recent days. Sadly, there was no sign. Still a bit blowy here - should be a fast ride home though. Loads of thorns on the cycle paths as it's hedge massacring season here.
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OP
OP
martint235
Dog on a bike
- Location
- Welling
Fastest commute on the SS so far. 43 mins for 12 miles. I've also now done 300 miles on the SS (and about 10 as a fixie) 
On odd feature of the roads here is the "give way to the right" rules that gives priority to people coming out of side roads on the right. It's a bit confusing because it doesn't apply to all side roads (the areas where it applies will be signposted and the side road will be missing the give-way line and signs) and there is generational difference in how it is observed with older people generally strongly asserting their right of way, younger people often being a bit more cautious and foreigners not having a clue it even exists.
The biggest problem seems to be that some drivers get used to pulling straight out and do the same when the rule doesn't apply. The "slow a bit, glance to the left, power on" approach to junctions is common. Now it's dark that's become "slow a bit, glance to the left, see no glow of headlights so there can't possibly be anything there, power on". Very much against the rules.
This is how it almost went horribly wrong for me last night. I'm pedalling merrily along a main road and see two cars approaching on a side road, there being great visibility across an open space to the side road. It is definitely a junction where they have to stop, properly stop, come to a complete halt before pulling out. The car wanting to turn left across my path does stop, which is nice, but that blocks the view of the car on his right who wants to turn right. The sensible thing for him to do would be to wait until his view was clear but I guess he thought the lack of car headlights meant no vehicles coming so it's okay to go. It's not as if I haven't got lights - I am pretty well lit but I obviously can't match a car's headlights for brightness.
It's a good thing I was in primary because if I'd been in the gutter I would have been straight into the back or side of him. Instead, a swift jerk to the left put me riding alongside the car with him waving "sorry" at me and me teaching him some new English words. Pure luck we met at a point where I could pull around the side and even more luck nothing was coming the opposite way.
I hate to think what would have happened if I had been a motorbike or even a car with bad lights. There would have been a better chance of being seen but the speed would have been higher.
The biggest problem seems to be that some drivers get used to pulling straight out and do the same when the rule doesn't apply. The "slow a bit, glance to the left, power on" approach to junctions is common. Now it's dark that's become "slow a bit, glance to the left, see no glow of headlights so there can't possibly be anything there, power on". Very much against the rules.
This is how it almost went horribly wrong for me last night. I'm pedalling merrily along a main road and see two cars approaching on a side road, there being great visibility across an open space to the side road. It is definitely a junction where they have to stop, properly stop, come to a complete halt before pulling out. The car wanting to turn left across my path does stop, which is nice, but that blocks the view of the car on his right who wants to turn right. The sensible thing for him to do would be to wait until his view was clear but I guess he thought the lack of car headlights meant no vehicles coming so it's okay to go. It's not as if I haven't got lights - I am pretty well lit but I obviously can't match a car's headlights for brightness.
It's a good thing I was in primary because if I'd been in the gutter I would have been straight into the back or side of him. Instead, a swift jerk to the left put me riding alongside the car with him waving "sorry" at me and me teaching him some new English words. Pure luck we met at a point where I could pull around the side and even more luck nothing was coming the opposite way.
I hate to think what would have happened if I had been a motorbike or even a car with bad lights. There would have been a better chance of being seen but the speed would have been higher.
