Tales from today's commute....

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Hacienda71

Mancunian in self imposed exile in leafy Cheshire
Been avoiding the back roads last few days. Went through Mottram St Andrew this morning. It was a ginger commute not much evidence of gritting with one or two areas of sheet ice where melting snow water had run across the road and frozen. I hope the Wills Wheels club run spotted it going down the hill in the opposite direction.
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
Off road route again. Surface nice and dry and frozen. Didn't get caught out by the big puddle of ice chunks this morning, dropped gear and crunched through.
 

Scotchlovingcylist

Formerly known as Speedfreak
Snow finally hit here yesterday so got the bus in which was a nice change however too expensive to keep up so cycled in today. Was surprisingly enjoyable, took some time owing and left at dinner time. Temperature was just right, snow melted enough and no idiot drivers
 

ChrisEyles

Guru
Location
Devon
We've just moved house, and I found out this morning that the roads around our new place are most definitely not gritted. At a fairly early point on the journey I ran across a frozen expanse of water run-off across the road... Slid quite an impressive distance after I lost the back end, but fortunately no harm done. Funny how my instinct was to regain balance by leaning into the slide a little and accelerate out - obviously this didn't help too much on the ice! Going to slink off early to make sure I get back home in the light, before the temperature drops again.

At least it serves as a good warning to be bloomin' careful before heading out on a Saturday ride along the back lanes!
 

robjh

Legendary Member
It was a beautiful morning today on my commute, some 15 miles into Coventry from the south east. The thermometer was showing -2, but I waited until 8 o’clock when the sun was up before setting out, and it had probably shot up to freezing by the time I got to work. The sky was pale blue and cloudless , I had a low golden sun behind me, and from each small rise on the route the frosted landscape seemed to stretch for miles with an exceptional clarity. The bike – or was it me – felt strangely sluggish, I don’t know why, and it wasn’t a fast ride, but as commutes go it was one of the best.

Last night was similarly good but in a different way, riding back at 8pm by the full moon. I was on tiny roads and must have done a few miles just by the moonlight alone.
 

summerdays

Cycling in the sun
Location
Bristol
It was definitely warmer today, we had lost the biting wind. This morning I saw a car almost take out a motorcyclist through not looking when changing lanes, the motorcyclist beeped ALOT and then the car driver tried to have another go this time on purpose!, pulling infront of him and then slamming on the brakes. But I was too far behind to get any details.

This evening, a nice guy told me my back wheel was looking soft, I'm hoping it wasn't due to the patch of glass I went through earlier, I've pumped it up anyway and we will see what it's like next time.
 

donnydave

Über Member
Location
Cambridge
bah, double puncture on the way home! I stopped under a streetlight and took a good deal of care about fitting my spare inner tube. Cleaned out the inside of the tyre with a sock from my bag and some water. Got barely half a mile and the rear wheel started to wander around a bit, jumped up and down and it was squidgy soft. Topped up the air in vain but I could hear it coming out so had to give up and ring for backup to come and collect me :sad:
 
Another day closer to summer!
 

Ganymede

Veteran
Location
Rural Kent
Very unpleasant ride home last night. First an audi driver pulled right in front of my reversing off his drive on Royle Green Road Northenden. I passed him and gesticulated so then he drove next to me with his hand on his horn shouting about road tax!! Yes that old chestnut. Beware if you have to use this road as he 's obviously a complete cycle hater
What a nasty man. And I bet he thinks he's a real gentleman in the rest of his miserable existence. I would take his number and report him to the police for harassment and dangerous driving - you probably won't get any immediate result but the report will be there if he does anything worse - or rather something similar which has worse results.

And then expunge him from your mind!
 

Ganymede

Veteran
Location
Rural Kent
Lovely commute today - 3 miles to the station in cold sunshine, then a trip between meetings in Folkestone and Sandgate, so I rode along the sea wall. This photo is a bit overexposed - it was full sun - but just to show how nice it was (That's Dungeness in the distance to the left). Also, as the breeze was off-shore, it was fairly sheltered.

Cycling to Sandgate.jpg


And went past the castle:

Sandgate castle.jpg
 
Top Bottom