hit a bike and a car at the same time and a nut and a nasty you know what

[Tynan]

what a morning, clattered a pothole by Black Horse Road tube, front goes flat, couldn't even inflate it enough to get a hiss, took the pump off to get the whole tube out and the valve stem drops off, snapped clean through, fortunately I had a spare tube

and later in Camden, coming down the very narrow bit going under the bridge past the markets, heading toward the Roundhouse (with a very considerate driver in attendance) I came rapidly up on two riders going very slowly, couldn't pass as the car is quite snug because of traffic turning right

but a moment later my chance comes (I think) start to move out and at that moment the car moves in (traffic on the right again I think) not much time or space to play with and as I brake and move back in the two creeping cyclists have managed to slow down a lot more and suddenly

so an emergency stop into the decreasing gap between the cyclist and the car

I let out an oath and jab him in the kidney with the left brake, my right elbow pops the car's wing mirror

I apologies profusely, the car driver is cool and asks if I'm ok (not their fault, not really anyway), the cyclist scowls at me and treats me like an peanut, which is fair enough

small scrape to inner upper calf (those ever hungry spd pedals) and almost skinned knuckle, so all good really

and yes, I'm going to buy one o dem mini track pumps, the one I have is good but clips directly to the valve and I think puts too much stress on the valve in the final drive for more pressure

and thankfully I wasn't wearing a helmet cam, I suspect the footage wouldn't have been pretty

ooo and last night the bolt holding the rear mudguard to the bottom stay(?) lost it's nut, I was sat at the side of the road in the badlands between Manor House and Seven Sisters wondering what to fix it with, my bewilderment clearly showed because a lady cyclist (with kit) slowed to ask if I was ok, bless her

I said yes and thank-you very much but it was an automatic man thing because I really did want some tape or a piece of string or something

but right at the bottom of the bag of bits was a zip tie that was a spare for the cadence magnet

hurrah! it started off as a solid patch and by the time I was finished was clearly an improvement on the nut and bolt, lighter and a damn sight more likely to stay solid

eventful 12 hours ..., here's to a dull rest of the week

 

[Maz]

Man, it sounds like you've had a really tough time of it. Makes my commute seem like a Sunday stroll.

I got a Pocket Rocket master blaster mini-pump effort which is pretty good. I thought that the little screw-on washer thing at the base of the valve thread would prevent you pushing the valve too far into the body of the tyre as you pump up...might be wrong about that, though.

 

[domtyler]

Tynan, you sure have your fair share of problems!

 

[Tynan]

hmm, lots of dull bits in between, I do ride 12.5 miles of London rush traffic pretty hard so no complaints from me at all, the bit that snapped was the valve stem, the inside bit with the nut on top

 

[Tetedelacourse]

Nae luck on the pot hole (although good your wheel's not taken a dunt) but good on you for 'fessing up to the other incident though.

I had kind of similar this morning. "Powering" (ha ha) away from lights in traffic and there's 3 of those big metal sheets that are sometimes used for temporary roadworks sticking out from the left side of the road coming up about 25 metres away. I'm moving with the traffic in primary at this point a few cars back from the front car, and glance round before I move out to round the end of the sheets. Glance because I've been overtaken at that point a few times recently, despite the conditions and taking primary.

While I glance round, the car in front slows right down for the sheets, so when I look back round I'm nearly saying hello in the gap between the driver's and passenger headrests! Aaaargh! Full brakes applied and skidded just enough to avoid the back of his car.

Totally my fault. Ooooooooooooooooooooooooops! Must try harder!

 

[Tynan]

there seems to be a lot of roadwork debris in the road of late

likewise serious potholes, I was in a narrow cycle lane, close behind a slower bike (theme?) so never saw it and didn't have anywhere much to go either for that matter, felt it touch the rim so might be worth a proper check now you mention that, looked ok at the time though

otherwise it's all about leaving the correct gap init, difficult on a bike though init, there's such a desire to keep your momentum

mine was coming I think, I've noticed my riding getting steadily more carefree as day passed day without and scares, natural cycle I think, a fright now and thenm is needed to keep me honest

 

[Tetedelacourse]

agreed, it's a good reality check (provided no-one gets hurt and it doesn't cost anything!).

 

[Tynan]

agreed, it's a good reality check (provided no-one gets hurt and it doesn't cost anything!).

amen to that, nice adding of cost there!

 

[Trillian]

to think, i just rode into the side of a foot bridge!

didn't break hard enough partly due to cable stretch and being on the hoods

partly due to trying to keep ahead of another biker

partly due to watching the guy riding away from the bottom of the ramp and wondering if it was one of my friends

so i just rode into the footbridge due to thinking i'd a bit more space than I had!

 

[Tynan]

tsk, sudden that cable stretch was it, I tweaked the brakes lovely last week and have made about three skidding wheels type stops since then that I suspect I wouldn't have managed with the pre tweak brakes, gots to have the stopping things in good order

 

[hackbike 6]

Started off monday quite well falling of in the aldgate one way system after pulling away from the lights.that will learn me to stop at them.must have been half of london seeing me do that on my 645 am commute.had a p@nct@re at stratford on the return journey.no problems on my 345am commutes yesterday and today.

 

[nilling]

I too use zip tie rather than nut and bolt for mudguards - does the job

 

[Trillian]

tsk, sudden that cable stretch was it, I tweaked the brakes lovely last week and have made about three skidding wheels type stops since then that I suspect I wouldn't have managed with the pre tweak brakes, gots to have the stopping things in good order

nah, progressive to the point that i can't get decent braking at slow speeds when on the hoods.

currently i'm still learning how to adjust centre pull brakes with only two hands

 

[Tynan]

tut tut

mine faded seemingly suddenly a few weeks ago, I realised that the back brakes were actually doing nothing, just kissing the rims and the front wasn't special, I caught the full lights at Nags Head and quickly and precisely (and luckily) adjusted them spot on (the fratello has the gear and brake adjusters all where you can get to from a seating position) sure enough a minute later I had a full emergency stop on where nothing other than fast and powerful braking would have saved me

kinda sorta taught me a lesson for the time being

 

[Tynan]

sad news on that ziptie from June 08, it failed yesterday although I only noticed this morning

fortunately I was at home and nipped out to the back garden and filched some garden wire off the newly pruned roses and made another full and complete repair