Tales from today's commute....

[roubaixtuesday]

Superlative view of the near conjunction of new moon and Venus in the evening sky illuminated the ride home. Particularly welcome following several foggy and drizzly ones in a row last week.

 

[hennbell]

Discovered at work that one of my (Brooks - 12yr old) saddle rails had snapped! Didn't feel that odd wasn't riding twisted, very surprised. (Went to move bike by lifting the saddle and it sagged!). Decided it was probably safe enough to ride home as it had got me that far. Came in today on the summer bike though, which doesn't like the mud so much.

Tomorrow? Should I stay on the summer bike? ride on the 1 rail? How long should a Brooks saddle last? I thought they were lifetime objects?

I'd be pretty happy with 12 years service from a saddle. There are spare parts available online but I'd use this opportunity to put a nice new one on my bicycle.

my Garmin 520 screen broke after 4 years of almost daily use odds are good i will step up to a 520 plus or 530 now.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

More evidence of how big Australia is: up north in Queensland, an entire half-metre (yes, that's 500mm) of rain is expected to fall in a day , while in the south of the country, it will top 40 degrees.

 

[confusedcyclist]

First real wintry showers and plenty of black ice formed on the pavements and roads here in Birstall & Bradford this AM. Hope none of you had a tumble, very nearly went down 4 times on my 1km walk from the car to the office.

Weather is looking up rest of the week, itching to get back in the saddle. Notably one bicycle already in the shed at work, no spiked tyres either. Must be an utter crazy person!

 

[roubaixtuesday]

So *finally* we get a day bad enough for me to ride the spiked tyres in to work... and I've booked the car in for a service so driving.

It's looking increasingly like they won't get a single outing this winter.

 

[Arjimlad]

An oncoming mini driver looked carefully at the narrow lane with passing spaces to check for cars then drove at me this morning, rather than wait five seconds for me to clear the lane.

As she squeezed her car past me her car's wing mirror became folded in to make more space & it seems the glass fell out of her passenger side mirror as well!

Seeing her stop I turned around, and she was (nicely) very apologetic & said she would wait in future. So it ended well, thankfully.

 

[ianrauk]

What an absolutely beautiful morning for a cycle commute. Once the sun came up it was lovely sunny blue skies. A little chilly but not too bad.

The horrific traffic that blighted the roads last week seemed to have cleared up a bit so was a nicer, clearer ride in today.
A bonus is I will have a little tailwind for the uphill ride home.

 

[Sixmile]

I expected the car to be frozen and the roads to be slippery but neither was the case. I took a late decision to put the bike on the car and part cycle commute this morning opposed to fully driving in. I'd heard the motorway was backed up so I'd much prefer doddling along 7 miles on the fat bike than first gearing the final 4 miles into work. My toes were cold as were the hands for the first few miles but it's amazing how a warm shower at work soon sorts all that out.

 

[Randombiker9]

i thought ambulance drivers would know better than overtake too closely but overtook to closely
At
least the fire engine didn’t
(None had their sirens on)

Also a car over took me too closely too the point my wheel touched the curb and caused my water bottle to fall off at least I was able to stay on
though

so now I have no water bottle and no drink for work at least i can make one though

 

[Arjimlad]

I expected the car to be frozen and the roads to be slippery but neither was the case. I took a late decision to put the bike on the car and part cycle commute this morning opposed to fully driving in. I'd heard the motorway was backed up so I'd much prefer doddling along 7 miles on the fat bike than first gearing the final 4 miles into work. My toes were cold as were the hands for the first few miles but it's amazing how a warm shower at work soon sorts all that out.

Watch out for vasovagal reactions - I hopped in the shower once with painfully cold hands after a below-freezing commute, and the rush of blood to my warming extremities caused me to pass out !

I came round with my feet in the shower, 2 bleeding elbows and my head nestling on my bag of socks (rather than banged on the tiled floor!). Now I always sit down for a few minutes after a cold ride to let my body get used to being in the warm.

 

[Clanghead]

I'm somehow managing to dodge the showers on my last few commutes!☺

Glad I'm not sitting next to you all day then...

 

[Jenkins]

Starting to see a little bit of lighter coloured skies over the North Sea on the way in for 7am starts.

 

[Twizit]

I do worry for the health of some car drivers that the mere sight of a cyclist on the road can get them so riled up as so warrant a load of abuse out of their passenger window.... by 6am.

Smile. Breath. Ignore and carry on as you were.

 

[StickyPTFE]

I do worry for the health of some car drivers that the mere sight of a cyclist on the road can get them so riled up as so warrant a load of abuse out of their passenger window.... by 6am.

Smile. Breath. Ignore and carry on as you were.

Let me guess, did they shout "Get a car!"?

 

[Twizit]

Let me guess, did they shout "Get a car!"?

Couldn't actually make out much of it, but the gist seemed to be that I just shouldn't be on "their" road on a bike. Took great delight giving it the slow headshake as I passed them seconds later as they were queued in traffic.