increasing my Manchester commute

[Tharg2007]

Met up with sharky at 8am this morning to take the route Urms-Charlt-Fallow-Mcr , typically it had seemed like a nice day but dead on 8am it started to rain, luckily it wasnt heavy and it didnt last. Ride in was nice and relatively trouble free appart from the idiot in a white van who doesnt look before pulling out. Rest of the ride we made good time and got to the Uni by 8:30. Weather turned out quite nice too.

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

I concur with the above.

If only we could get rid of those pesky cars so we can cycle along and have a chat more easily!!

Not too many about on bikes, I was quite surprised... I'm wondering whether the studos are off at the moment as all the bike racks at work looked pretty empty too.

As for the guy in the White Van - what a muppet. Car in front of him joins the flow of traffic (which was actually stopped at that point) so we move to go round the back of his car only for Mr WVM to just start moving forwards (into no space) without even checking. Cue Tharg braking hard and just avoiding the front of his van - a harsh stare at the driver and a rather apologetic wave from him before we continued onwards.

All in all a nice reasonably brisk ride in to work.

 

[mattybain]

Sorry mate..have a meeting at 8.30 in town...usually go via A34 after Parrs Wood Rd...

I currently go up the A34 all the way from the Parrswood cinema into town.

Is Parrs Wood Rd a better road? what's the road surface like? I don't mind the A34 but there a number of lights and erratic buses. I know it would add some more distance but I am not too bothered about that.

 

[Tharg2007]

well the A34 is dual lane at the point it runs paralel to parrs wood road so you would have more space on the road going down there especially if you take a primary position. Lst time I went down parrs wood road i found the road surface was terrible, maybe fossy can tell us if its been fixed.
How is that route? is the kingsway roundabout a bit tricky for carrying on to the A34?

 

[mattybain]

well the A34 is dual lane at the point it runs paralel to parrs wood road so you would have more space on the road going down there especially if you take a primary position. Lst time I went down parrs wood road i found the road surface was terrible, maybe fossy can tell us if its been fixed.
How is that route? is the kingsway roundabout a bit tricky for carrying on to the A34?

I am actually going the reverse of rush hour traffic (i.e. I head South in the morning) so the traffic is never that bad. The kingsway roundabout is not too bad if you are confident, had one near clipless moment (didn't anticpate having to stop) but other than that not too bad.

I actually quite like the A34 as it's so wide, there is also a bit of a bus lane which isn't good. However I have had a number of incidents with buses so was considering Parrs Wood as an alternative.

The road surface is okay but then anything is smooth compared to the horrors of the inner ring road (nr ancoats) and Cheetham Hill Road/Bury Old Road!!!

The lights aren't too bad as they are so predictable you know when to speed up / slow down to minimise stopage. In fact I often make it through all the sets of lights without stopping.

 

[fossyant]

Parrs Wood Road - the surface is OK - a few dodgy bits but lots quieter. Although coming into town, the A34 can be pretty quick.

 

[Tharg2007]

I go down great ancoats street quite often from ardwick to tib street and it is really bad, still ive seen worse patches on willslow road with potholes you could leave a wheel with forks in quite easily.

 

[Tharg2007]

Today took the longer route down to chorlton edge lane and up barlowmoor road to didsbury and down palatine road, all the way down wilmslow road , withington, fallowfield, rusholme........

Then PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!

thought I avoided the glass, was doing really well riding at a good pace on the jackson, bloke in a hybrid also keeping a good pace, i dare say his marathons faired better through the glass than my race pro 3's

I new it was going to happen, i read a thread yesterday about p*****s and thought its bound to hapen to me now, so if you're reading this you are fooked!!

 

[fossyant]

At least Pro Races are easy to get on and off....!!!

 

[Tharg2007]

At least Pro Races are easy to get on and off....!!!

yes they are, the whole episode was a right pain in the arse actually and that was the least painful bit, I had some mks tensioners on the rear wheel and these were wedged in took me ages to just get the wheel off, then looked in my bag and found i had forgotten my tyre levers, anyway, checked the tyre and saw where the glass had cut through, managed to get part of the tyre off with my hands and decided to just pull the tube out and repair it, checked the area for glass but not 100% sure if glass had gone in nad was there somewhere, took the chance anyway and it paid off, popped the tyre back on with hands no probs.

 

[Tharg2007]

Met up with Sharky again this morning and took the longer route through didsbury narrowly avoiding Fossys hunting grounds.

Route works out to about 10 miles so a nice round number for the commute in. Was quite a nice clear run in without any particularly dodgy motorist intervention. The pothole on oxford road sharky avoided last time caught me on the rear wheel, luckily I lifted my weight off the saddle in time to avoid a pinch flat and the deep-v seemed to munch it with ease.

Return journey will probably be in the rain

 

[fossyant]

Ah you did - just..... I was down Parrs Wood Rd, then A34 into town. Think Dan_bo spotted me.... hope I was 'behaving' - I know at the junction when Dan spotted me that I'd just swung round a POB.....

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

We had quite a few POBs en-route. I was going to keep a track of score for scalps... but when we scalped someone on an MTB with jeans and a T-shirt it seemed rather pointless after that.

Still a few idiot RLJers... still, as long as they glance towards the traffic coming through the junction they are crossing I guess it makes it okay...

 

[Tharg2007]

was a nice ride in today via didsbury, scalped a lemond fixed who promptly picked up the pace to hang off our back wheels, then jibbed us at the lights, nice bike though.
Not much else to report, the usual amount of RLJers, glorious weather, some potholes missing too.
Average speed 22 ? according to sharkys temperamental fancy speedo

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

was a nice ride in today via didsbury, scalped a lemond fixed who promptly picked up the pace to hang off our back wheels, then jibbed us at the lights, nice bike though.
Not much else to report, the usual amount of RLJers, glorious weather, some potholes missing too.
Average speed 22 ? according to sharkys temperamental fancy speedo

After I reached 35mph+ whilst stopped at the lights, and just over 50mph heading up Palatine Road I decided to turn off/on my computer... this did the trick.... however, I forgot to restart the timer so it didn't record the last 2+ miles of the ride! Grrr.

I think our average speed whilst moving was about 20mph (bit of a headwind at some points!!), but with all the lights it dropped to about 17.

Lovely day for it though!