fairly standard ride in, though my bike feels like it weighs a ton carrying a laptop, half of it I think is rubbing rear brakes which the weight shift on one side upsets and I cant really fix
but ride home, first in post clock change rush hour, since last week was half term when roads were quieter, that was an experience, firstly my front camera stopped working, as it turned out due to user error switching the wrong switches the wrong way, but when its dark you cant really troubleshoot it, so it was kaput for the ride. And of course it would have been the perfect day to have a front camera.
though actually it was on the cycle paths first, surprisingly since this time of year you have to be keen imo to want to cycle, but I was encountering what felt like a bunch of newbies on their ebikes, who could obviously go quicker than me, but the reason I was being cautious and slightly slower is the paths are wet, damp, covered in leaf mulch now and thats slippy as hell, but they were all trying to overtake me in really narrow bits with terrible sight lines ahead and there are pedestrians, and joggers (at least they had lights
) but like seriously why the rush just wait till theres space to make a safer pass if you really are that much quicker than me.
then it was on to the road, and had a taxi minibus pull alongside me in a turn left only lane at a set of traffic lights, who of course decided that meant overtake the cyclist and go straight on lane. without front camera I cant report it to the police, but Ill certainly drop the taxi firm a note about it.
and then I had an audi just a little further on, theyre already committed to an overtake and upto at least in line with my back pedal stroke, and yeah it was going to be close pass, but arguably no worse than a few had already given me, but they then slammed on the brakes and aborted.
ok thats nice, but now im concerned because what were they doing to be halfway through an overtake and then suddenly abort like that, were they on the phone, did they just misjudge the gap that badly, what are they doing next...
in the end they sat patiently behind me till I could escape into a bus lane, but that was concerning for a bit, and then Im on my least favourite roundabout at night, I can ride it hundreds of times in daylight and not be concerned, yet at night, and maybe because its happened far too often for close comfort, Im always worried about drivers just pulling out into me, and again without a front camera to record it.
