Tales from today's utility ride

[simon.r]

A bag of clothes to Oxfam, parcel to the P.O. and a child’s bike to my local not for profit bike workshop:

 

[mjr]

A view from a utility ride a few days ago, showing a fully-loaded saddlebag (tins, boxes and a couple of bags, plus tools), the locks, some fizzy drinks and a newspaper strapped to the rack and then the saddlebag "wearing" a folding backpack containing some soft fruit which then just has a bungee looped over it in between the fruit punnets to stop it falling off:

 

[Lonestar]

My first visit here and E 20 apart from in the "olden days" when this lot wasn't here...Impressive pic considering it was too sunny to see the screen and the phone works well with the updated operating system.Didn't expect the picture to look so good.

I've never been to Westfield before today either and felt a bit uncomfortable wheeling the bike through the shopping centre...Very impressive but obviously I have lost touch with E 20. over the last ten years..Coming back I got lost and ended up on Carpenters Road which sort of rang a bell but I couldn't think why...Yes years ago I used to cycle up and down there and it was a real shoot hole...I'm shocked how much it has changed with all the expensive apartments cropping up everywhere.

Forgot to add bike in picture.

Took fixie 1 as I wasn't sure of the area so thought I'd use the run down bike.(as I had to lock it up)

 

[simon.r]

I’m still getting the use out of my Pronto.

This:

Fits neatly onto this:

 

[The Bystander]

I last used my car in June (I'm getting rid of it tomorrow) so utility rides to the supermarket have become commonplace but today was a first outing for my recently acquired Rain Legs. I'm happy to report that I found them effective but most of all convenient. They only had to cope with a wintry shower, I imagine over trousers would still be a better option for a full-on deluge. Come to think of it, staying home with a nice cup of tea would be an even better option for a full-on deluge.

 

[simongt]

On the way home today at around 16.00h., city centre logjammed; only things moving were me and two other cyclists.
Result - !
Mind you, I do get a sadistic pleasure by deliberately going through the city centre at this time of day just to sneer at the misery of the drivers in a situation of their own making - !

 

[simon.r]

I last used my car in June (I'm getting rid of it tomorrow) so utility rides to the supermarket have become commonplace but today was a first outing for my recently acquired Rain Legs. I'm happy to report that I found them effective but most of all convenient. They only had to cope with a wintry shower, I imagine over trousers would still be a better option for a full-on deluge. Come to think of it, staying home with a nice cup of tea would be an even better option for a full-on deluge.

I wasn’t aware of Rainlegs until this post. Looks as if they would have been ideal for me today - one of those showery days where my thighs got quite wet on the way to the shops, bit full waterproof trousers would have been over kill.

Thanks for the heads up, I’ve just ordered some.

 

[Pale Rider]

I wasn’t aware of Rainlegs until this post. Looks as if they would have been ideal for me today - one of those showery days where my thighs got quite wet on the way to the shops, bit full waterproof trousers would have been over kill.

Thanks for the heads up, I’ve just ordered some.

I like Rainlegs because they are quick to deploy, standing up, in the rain.

Were I setting out in the rain, which I very rarely do, I would use overtrousers.

 

[mjr]

The first freeze of the winter here this morning so I went out a bit later under blue skies and warming sun... But they were all out today! This was the mildest of today's THREE problem incidents:

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ijrdET44NJ8


Plenty of good drivers and smiley walkers and cyclists too, of course, but at those three. Hopefully back to uneventful for another couple of months now.

 

[The Bystander]

In to town for 4 things:
New glasses from Specsavers, a haircut, cash from the ATM and a pack of Sainsburys cheese sauce mix.

50% success rate.

I now have new glasses and shorter hair. Unfortunately I entered the wrong PIN at the ATM (I maintain that it was the right PIN, just for a different card; by the time I realised the machine had lost patience with me and blocked my card) and Sainsburys had no cheese sauce mix.

I got to use my rain legs again on the way home - so much easier that hopping around at the road side trying to pull waterproofs on. Tried yours yet @simon.r ?

 

[simon.r]

In to town for 4 things:
New glasses from Specsavers, a haircut, cash from the ATM and a pack of Sainsburys cheese sauce mix.

50% success rate.

I now have new glasses and shorter hair. Unfortunately I entered the wrong PIN at the ATM (I maintain that it was the right PIN, just for a different card; by the time I realised the machine had lost patience with me and blocked my card) and Sainsburys had no cheese sauce mix.

I got to use my rain legs again on the way home - so much easier that hopping around at the road side trying to pull waterproofs on. Tried yours yet @simon.r ?

I’ve worn them as a belt a couple of times, but have managed to avoid anything but the lightest of showers in the last few days.

I had a 100% success rate from my trip to town to do 4 things today - sausage cob and a coffee at Greggs, collected some bar tape from Halfords, bought a tub of sweets from Asda and collected some earrings that MrsR had ordered from Argos

 

[DCBassman]

I think the last time I did utility riding was combining light shopping with Sunday paper runs with training for the 2016 London to Brighton...Before that, going to school by bike, which stopped in 1970 or so!

Today, with the tin box in dock, I have to go twice up to the garage and fill a bergen with Chrimbo decorations. It's a short but lumpy ride, so I'll devise the flattest possible route up there, and the shortest return!

 

[DCBassman]

I think the last time I did utility riding was combining light shopping with Sunday paper runs with training for the 2016 London to Brighton...Before that, going to school by bike, which stopped in 1970 or so!
Today, with the tin box in dock, I have to go twice up to the garage and fill a bergen with Chrimbo decorations. It's a short but lumpy ride, so I'll devise the flattest possible route up there, and the shortest return!

Was a reasonably moderate ride up to Tavistock Golf Club, then left and left and 30mph for a half mile or so, which bled off half the 330 feet elevation gain, in 2.75 miles. Having collected the decorations, and changed the saddle for one off the now-abandoned Norco project, I set off for the much shorter return journey, just one mile. Coming down off Greenlands estate, the one-way road joining Mount Tavy road loses 150 feet in less than that many yards, exceeding 1 in 3. Even with a big backpack on, I felt the need to go very slowly and hang my butt out the back, because it felt like I was going to tip over the bars. Almost certainly not the case, just felt like it! Just over 20 minutes to get there, about 5 to get back in the traffic through Tavistock town centre.

 

[DCBassman]

OK, today's utility ride is in direct support of my tin box.
The other day, the wondrous piece of silicon that is the main ECU detected the death of the two rear ABS sensors. In efficient German fashion, it decided the car was now completely unroadworthy (as opposed to the reality of being reduced to being a 'normal' cheaper vehicle), and shut the car down almost completely.
It did not put the engine into limp mode, but the transmission instead. This left me with a fourteen mile drive in 1st gear...
The quote for the work was £604, £220 of which was the two sensors. WTF? Found a reasonable quality pair on the bay of E for £36, and I'll be delivering them today, by bike.
The weather looks crap, it's not a bike I'm that happy with in slippy conditions, etc, etc. But if I used my bus pass, there's still 2 miles to walk, so I'd get just as wet.
Bike it is, then!

 

[Sixmile]

I was catching a supporters club bus to a football match last night so instead of leaving work early, riding home and driving back out, I stayed in work a little later, rode 3 miles up the hill and put my bike in my friends car who was also going to the game. I arrived a touch early and was sweatier and wetter than I would've liked so whilst waiting under a bus shelter, I did a quick change into dry clothes and headed onto the bus. Seamless!