Tales from today's commute....

[IntVic]

Last night's commute home was first 10 miles battling with crosswinds then last 8 accompanied by heavy downpour. This morning wasn't feeling it when Mrs alarm went off at 0415. But ride into work this morning was gloriously crisp, clear sky, moon and stars shining brightly and the occasional rabbits running scared on the verge. Last nights misery nearly all but forgotten :-)

 

[hoppym27]

Set off with sunshine so arm warmers and gilet was just the job...halfway in along the towpath the heavens opened..luckily in my panniers I had my waterproofs and I changed into them under a bridge like a troll....10 minutes later bright sunshine again and no rain...i cant win!

 

[ianrauk]

Nice ride in today. Apart from a complete and utter c0ckwomble on a motorbike who decided to take issue with me as I was in the road and not using a crappy pavement cycle lane. He would not have it that cyclists don't have to use them saying that it's in the highway code that we have to use them. I tried to tell him that he's wrong but he thought it best just to rev his silly little engine very loudly all the time. So he got the middle finger for his troubles.

 

[John_S]

Morning All,

Following the above at least I didn't punch myself when putting on my arm warmers but I did have an annoying moment on my commute to start my day.

So far this week I've been getting frustrated by a young lad on a moped with L plates. Yesterday they went past me before pulling onto the right-hand side of the road ahead of me in order to check their phone. Having put the phone back in their pocket they then looked around to check to see whether the road was clear, which it wasn't, and they then pulled out from the right-hand side of the road right in front of a car on their side of the road heading straight towards them which had to slam on their brakes and continued across the road right in front of me and I had to brake as well to avoid hitting them.

Then today I was riding along the road and I saw them to me left in a driveway and they looked straight at me before pulling out of their drive right in front of me. They went immediately into the middle of the road and I had to brake but ended up literally directly beside them because it was on a slight incline and their moped didn't really have any grunt to actually accelerate and pull away. I thought about tapping them on the shoulder to alert their attention to how close they'd been to hitting me but then thought better of it and I had to slow to almost a standstill just so they could start to pull away because at the time I could have easily cycled faster than they could accelerate up the hill. They then proceeded to absolutely smother me in a cloud of acrid blue smoke from their exhaust pipe as they struggled to get any momentum going up the hill.

After a little while I passed them when they were again stopped at the side of the road checking their mobile phone but fortunately this time they were obviously still occupied with their phone and didn't pull out on me this time.

What is frustrating is that, & not to excuse this, but I might at least understand if someone pulls out on you having not looked properly but this person seems to take a really thorough look about and then pull out in directly in front of people. What is even the point in looking? They may as well just go each time and just take their chances in the traffic.

Well that's got that off my chest and apologies for the negative post but rant over for now.

Other than that it was nice to ride into work in the sunshine having been caught in the rain on several of my recent commutes.#

John

 

[bikingdad90]

I didn't ride today I walked down the stairs, turned the laptop on and logged on from home via the web portal. The joys of Citrix - shame it is so slow!
Currently sat in the kitchen waiting for ICT to fix my account after it error-ed.

 

[TheJDog]

Riding down a quiet one lane and a bit side street when a lorry stopped, paused, then pulled out in front of me right when I was coming up to his left wing. Inches away from hitting me. Mustn't have looked at all.

 

[Sixmile]

Security alert in Belfast today so from mile 7 until mile 12 of my commute, the traffic was at a standstill. Fantastic, just whizzing by hundreds and hundreds of cars.

I even managed to stop and inform a scooter rider that he was allowed to use the bus lane too.

 

[iZaP]

Lots of traffic around London Bridge this morning! (more than usual)

 

[rivers]

Strong, gusty headwinds and crosswinds on the ride home made for a slow commute.

 

[Simontm]

Nice sunny ride in, busy but calm on the roads. Way back went via Wimbledon. Headwind all the way. Then after leaving pub, headwind and rain until, natch, I turned the corner home where it stopped
Numpty count: 1 this evening a BSM car did a bonkers overtake into a squeeze point causing me to brake for my own safety.

 

[subaqua]

Horrible headwind again . Ride home should be a record ....

 

[hoppym27]

Weather in Manchester is s****....bottled it and took the car.....I hang my head in shame!

 

[BurningLegs]

Nice ride in this morning - I live on the south coast and it is windy, but it was a tailwind this morning. I went hard on a short strava segment of 0.3 miles totally straight flat road and got fourth all time

I took the coastal cycle path and it was lovely, with the sun rising across the water I took my time and enjoyed the scenery.

I suspect the ride home will be a lot more challenging! I may ride back through the more built up town route to try and find some protection from the head wind.

 

[si_c]

Steady ride in this morning. So much for storm winds, was expecting a solid tailwind, in the end it was a bit of a headwind with what felt like a moderately gusty tail wind .

Took a detour as I left earlier than usual as well. Thought it might be a bit longer, but it added a whole half mile to my journey.

 

[HLaB]

I decided against my shortest route today, as I thought the A1 cycleway would be a bit exposed, and I didn't have time for a longer route on a recovery ride. So I opted for the second shortest route. I usually avoid that route mainly because its a cr@p surface and the traffic is a little too busy to avoid it but to my delight some parts had been resurfaced. Then I was reminded of another reason I avoid the route it goes through a horrible junction to a pinch point. The shortest route also goes through the junction but from another direction making it easy to take the primary but this route goes from a long pinch point, through the junction (not really appropriate to hold the primary on a recovery ride) through to the second pinch point. I'll edit the video when I get time but when not in the primary you can guess what happens. Although I am aware it will happen and ease off/brake slightly to avoid a collision. Its no real drama but I wish drivers were aware too.


View: https://youtu.be/kun7a1JfCEk