Tales from today's commute....

[Anders]

Wet getting into Lancaster and really felt twitchy on the bike after tuesdays fall - felt my tyres had no grip in the
Bit cold on the train but least dry at the other end and i soon warmed up..

 

[fossyant]

Nothing to report, slightly less traffic this morning (Friday). chain freshly oiled - smooth ! Filtered in behind a Pashley Gov'nor - he was making slow progress with his big fat bars. Said mornin at the lights and off we went.

 

[fossyant]

Wet getting into Lancaster .

Wet - gosh lovely and sunny in the next County !

 

[400bhp]

Crazy mentalist knobber in a volvo decided to try to overtake a Luton, which was travelling at the speed limit, on the B2115 at Plummers Plain. The road is not wide enough to accomodate Luton, Volvo and an oncoming cyclist.

Either he didn't look to see what was coming the other way, or he did look and utterly misjudged the speed of the van, his acceleration, and the on coming cyclist in primary, or he did look did see me and just thought "eff it it is only a bike I'm coming through".

Stood bike on its nose, and aimed for the gutter/verge, he bailed from his overtake with blue smoke from his tyres. Man in Luton looked like he was gonna pop. We all exchanged pleasantries and we went our separate ways.

Not good - I've highlighted the problem

We had one on the Manc 100 on Sunday - he overtook perhaps 30 cyclists on a blind bend - no chance he would have known the start of the peloton with me and DC Lane on the front.

 

[Teuchter]

Don't normally post in this thread but a slightly more interesting commute today...

While bombing down a hill early in my commute through Inchinnan, a cyclist on a road bike pulls out right in front of me. Saw him doing it so no risk but I did consider it a bit rude. He then proceeds to hang on my tail for the next 3 miles which bugs me a bit as to have caught me so quickly when I still had the speed from the descent he was clearly quicker than me... so why not just overtake me? I even slowed at one point just to give him this opportunity but no.

I left him behind in traffic going through Renfrew town centre but he caught me again at lights a mile further on. This proceeded to a few miles of leapfrog, during which I noticed he was actually on a fixed / single speed so gained some respect for the speed he was carrying at times.

This respect was then lost as we went our seperate ways, with him turning right at a roundabout in the left hand / outside lane, cutting right in front of a lorry that was also turning right. Darwinism is going to catch up with him sooner or later if this is the way he always does it.

Also not a single nod of recognition from him during the entire 8 mile encounter. Is it just me?

Self righteous tutting at other cyclists aside, I did really enjoy the ride in today and all the other road users were behaving themselves nicely.

 

[PJ79LIZARD]

Nice surprise this morning on the way in, I was running ten minutes late, I usually don't see many cyclists, but I saw a small group of three. Gave a nod, and thought that was nice seeing a few fellow cyclists, then a little further up the road I saw straggled groups of about twenty odd, I then realised they'd got numbers on the bikes, so presume there must be some audax or other organised ride on. I'm sure I saw one with ctc on. Well either way it was nice to see so many cyclists on the road, just a shame I was cycling in the opposite direction to them lol

 

[Lee_M]

got up went downstairs made coffee booted up laptop

working from home on a friday - got to be the way to go!

 

[Edwards80]

Awesome steam train passing over Stockport viaduct today as I was riding beneath it. Gave a big blast on its whistle too

Set off 20mins later than usual. Made a huge difference, far more traffic to filter through :S

 

[Guygreenwood]

What a twonk LOL. Now I do want to see that on vid

Now that's made please please please get him on video. Me and my mates are in bit's O what a magic moments lol

 

[Darren Jeffrey]

Day off work today so my kinda commute looked like this :-)

 

[400bhp]

Lost my rag tonight, for the first time in a very very long time.

Driver undertook me to go right on a gyratory (as I was going right too) & cut in at the last minute. Chased him down over a mile or so. He was clearly trying to outpace me as he went down some side roads and turned his car round at one point (which was the point I caught him up).

Cue expletives from me - i wanted to see my wife & daughter again etc. He was very quiet and actually pretended not to remember the incident. Must have been sh1tting himself.

Blood rush to the head that - not my finest moment, but sometimes it feels a bit close to home with the realisation that one "off" could be your last.

 

[ianrauk]

Lost my rag tonight, for the first time in a very very long time.

Driver undertook me to go right on a gyratory (as I was going right too) & cut in at the last minute. Chased him down over a mile or so. He was clearly trying to outpace me as he went down some side roads and turned his car round at one point (which was the point I caught him up).

Cue expletives from me - i wanted to see my wife & daughter again etc. He was very quiet and actually pretended not to remember the incident. Must have been sh1tting himself.

Blood rush to the head that - not my finest moment, but sometimes it feels a bit close to home with the realisation that one "off" could be your last.

Sometimes these things have to be done.

 

[potsy]

Better to have a positive experience rather than me pontificating.

Lost my rag tonight, for the first time in a very very long time.

I knew this new peace and love attitude wouldn't last

 

[Miquel In De Rain]

Close pass by Taxi last night near Tower Bridge,of which I don't understand the reason why.It was the car in front which was the pain in the ass,doing the crossword or whatever he was doing while I was waiting for him to p155 off.My SPD slipped on the pavement thingy as said tit was farting about and of course it made a noise causing them to look around.Caught cab driver up and showed I wasn't impressed with the pass but I think the wally was more surprised I caught him.I reckon he must have some beeswax missing off of his cab.Bet he wouldn't like it if I drove at a member of his family the way he drove at me last night.Health and Safety indeed.Possibly didn't know what he did wrong.Apart from that it was mainly ok coming back.

Hope for quieter commutes today.

 

[BSRU]

Strange Friday legs riding home yesterday, tried a new hill, nothing too bad, but it almost killed me. Luckily, there is traffic calming, when the gradient is about 13%, to give way to traffic coming down the hill, so I was able to get my breath back while waiting for some cars to pass. Will try it again, giving it a bit more respect.
Despite almost dying I managed a reasonable time, 28km in just an hour, which strangely turned out to be the quickest of the week, commuting 330km for the past five days..