Tales from today's commute....

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

Ciar

Veteran
Location
London
Took half term of and then back, so far it's not been bad dodged the rain most days first headwind riding in this morning, hopefully going to dodge the rain heading home tonight :smile: fingers xd!
 

Shut Up Legs

Down Under Member
After my ride to work, I briefly read The Herald Sun, one of Melbourne's local newspapers, and found this on the letters page:

20150227-HeraldSun-crash-test-dummy-bicycle.jpg


When they're not printing lies about how all cyclists are scofflaws, degenerates, etc., they're claiming that cycling is dangerous. If there's any danger in cycling, that's generally due to idiots, and these idiots use all forms of transport. However, this newspaper never lets the facts get in the way of sensationalism.
 

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
Another really nice wind assisted ride home this evening. It did threaten rain a couple of times but nothing more then a couple of drips. Which was good as it had been raining all day.

And still the traffic is a nightmare at the moment. Lewisham has some pretty huge amount of building work going on so will be traffic blocked for a while.. pain in the 'arris.
 

andyfraser

Über Member
Location
Bristol
It's all becoming a chore now. The weather's not as cold but it's still cold enough in the morning to wear my winter jacket so I'm getting too hot coming home. There seem to be more close passes and MGIF than ever this week. Everyone just seems to be in a rush. It's actually quite scary out there at the moment.

This morning there was an articulated lorry parked up on the opposite side of the road. I'd already had a couple of close passes and had moved out further. One car passed the lorry. They had time before I got there. The Transit sized van behind went to pass anyway, realised he didn't have time or room, stayed level with my back wheel as the car coming from the opposite direction got closer then aborted. I really thought I'd get a punishment pass when he finally got passed (the next bit of road was downhill and the van couldn't keep up with the twists in the road) but he actually gave me plenty of room. Unlike the coach that nearly knocked me off coming home. I wish I'd had a camera right then.

I might swap my winter tyres for my 32mm M+s this weekend to see that makes my hybrid easier.
 

hedder2212

Senior Member
Location
Walsall
04:00 start for my commute today. now have a 4 day weekend.
got the borrowed bike out, earphones in for the short and slow ride through local park before cutting across a old golf course and onto the canal for the rest of the way into Birmingham. just as the front wheel touched the towpath on the canal, chain snapped and I realised I had a flat rear tyre. forgot my tools. I just lost it and almost threw the bike into the canal. so rang my wonderful gf up (waking her up too) and asked her to bring her moped to me and push my bike home for me.. met her at the nearest road and rode her pink moped to work. I just couldn't be bothered at 4am.
 

John_S

Über Member
This mornings commute definitely felt like the warmest morning so far this year. I was lucky enough that where I am the pouring rain today came in the middle of the day so both the ride in and home were both in the dry. All in all todays commute, apart from a unseen pot hole which snuck up & caught me out in the dark on an unlit road, was pretty uneventful.

It was so uneventful that when I was nearly home my mind wandered back to the commute home last Thursday which was absolutely horrendous! Last week the commute home on Thursday was dreadful because it was absolutely bucketing down throughout the entire ride home plus I had a nasty headwind just to add to the rain.

The only thing that cheered me up (and this is the thing that I remembered on my way home today) was that as I was nearly home last week I passed a similarly soaked rider going in the opposite direction and having said evening to them I got a loud evening back which really cheered me up last week on what had been a blooming miserable ride home. It's not always that people say something back when you give a hello to another rider but on this occasion I think that it cheered both of us up seeing someone else gritting their teeth and getting on with it in the foul weather.

Hope that everyones commute tomorrow goes well and after that enjoy your weekend as long as you're not working!

John
 
Got up sharpish this morning so I could cycle in light rain rather the heavy stuff. It gave me enough time to do the 10miles route. A bit of a contrast weather wise tonight no more +10deg and wet, it had went to zero deg and dry and tbh I prefer that and with the daylight I extended the commute a bit and explored a 35miles route.
 

Spartak

Powered by M&M's
Location
Bristolian
Cold commute this morning at 4:30 all the cars had a thick layer of ice on them !
Roads were dry so luckily no surface ice took my MTB just in case, however it was slow going into a nagging headwind.
Cycle lane STILL shut at the M32 roundabout - when is that ever going to re-open ?

Hopefully I get home tonight before the forecast rain ?
 

summerdays

Cycling in the sun
Location
Bristol
Cold commute this morning at 4:30 all the cars had a thick layer of ice on them !
Roads were dry so luckily no surface ice took my MTB just in case, however it was slow going into a nagging headwind.
Cycle lane STILL shut at the M32 roundabout - when is that ever going to re-open ?

Hopefully I get home tonight before the forecast rain ?
No idea at least with the B&B path they put up incorrect estimations of when it would reopen. I assumed the lack of notices meant it was going to be days rather than the 2 months it has already been, and I wish they would put a camera car on the Filton road to catch all those motorists using it as a rat run especially when they have transferred all the cyclists onto there.
 

Panter

Just call me Chris...
Nice run in on my freshly polished steed.
It wasn't any faster, but it felt smoother, was quieter and just generally nicer to ride. So, I'm now a self confirmed member of the shinies and hereby solemnly declare never to let my bike get in such a state again.

Aside from that, the sun was shining, fresh and frosty with no wind :smile:
 

MisterStan

Label Required
Like @Panter I too had the cleanest bike ever this morning, as I took the summer bike, which has had a full new drive chain on it recently and whilst doing that I went to town on the cleaning. Despite feeling like death last night, my legs were OK this morning.
 
Top Bottom