Tales from today's commute....

[fossyant]

The flood is still there. Another youngster watching me cycle through. I said to him "it's good fun" Will have to wear the overshoes for the return as there is no other way of keeping dry through the water.

 

[LoftusRoadie]

Not strictly from today but from this week. I started commuting the 19.3 miles to work on Tuesday from Cheshunt to Bank station. 10 mins local streets, 65 mins towpath along the River Lea/Hertford Canal and through Victoria Park and then 20 mins on London streets. Would have started on Monday but I woke up at 1.30am and just couldn't get back to sleep! Tuesday wasn't a lot better (5 hours), Wed was rubbish (4 hours) and last night was 6 hours but was pretty deep - obviously I have some kind of psychological problem with this commuting that I need to get over! In fact i was so tired last night that I thought sod it and took the train home. Feeling better today though so will ride back.
Tuesday was tough - windy start! But I enjoyed this morning's ride in, no headwind helps! Not sure if I would be doing this if it was all on the road but the towpath is peaceful, relaxing and pretty empty as well.
Body is holding up OK - I am not the fastest of riders anyway, but am leaving 5-10% in the tank whilst mind and body get used to it.
Question for those of you who do longer towpath commutes - how often do you clean chain? Just on the weekend? Twice a week? Each day? (please God, no!)
Looking forward to the weekend - and happy that I have started this challenge

 

[Origamist]

Lovely ride back this evening...

 

[Supersuperleeds]

Lots of surface water this morning but it didn't rain and the wind has virtually disappeared. Tonight was dry, warm and calm, was still hard work though as the chain was very dirty after this morning and I can't remember the last time I pumped up the tyres. So when I got home mickled the chain and pumped the tyres up. No commuting for a week now as I am off until the 13th, hopefully the weather will be fine and I will get out on some leisure rides

 

[Simontm]

Took me 1.5 hrs to get home tonight. Seriously, I don't know why anyone would voluntarily drive to work in London and the environs. It's not personal freedom, it's a personal prison. One thing to be out on an empty road up some moors, it's another trudging through South London

 

[MickeyBlueEyes]

Do you know, I'm having a great holiday but there is part of me that is soooo looking forward to Sunday evening, getting the kit ready for rolling those wheels Monday morning. My legs are raring to go!

 

[Hacienda71]

I had an odd occurrence on the way home today. Coming down The Wizard in Alderley I caught up with a guy who I thought was on a bike. I was doing close to 40 at the time. The guy was on roller blades!

 

[400bhp]

I had an odd occurrence on the way home today. Coming down The Wizard in Alderley I caught up with a guy who I thought was on a bike. I was doing close to 40 at the time. The guy was on roller blades!

D..o..w..n the Wizard

 

[400bhp]

Good day for cycling today - little wind which made for a fast average there and back. Plenty in the tank too.

 

[HLaB]

Bit of a contrast in the commutes this morning was on puddled roads and into chilly headwind, tonight was mild and sunny. The only thing that was consistent was the headwind direction of the wind, sods law it had swapped direction but at least it had more than halved. Oh the impatient driving in the middle of nowhere was consistent, overtaking on blind bends on narrow twisty road when I was going a reasonable speed seemed to be the theme. I couldn't believe the muppet who decided to overtake as I was going nearly 35mph down Cliff Road . They were lucky it was clear, the next few muppets were also lucky, not that it was clear but the oncoming driver had better observation and braked.
That aside I thought Id share some pics from this morning.

Oh and it was the first time it was light enough at the end to see this place.

 

[Hacienda71]

D..o..w..n the Wizard

The surface has gone really sketchy since last time I rode down it as well.

 

[fossyant]

The surface has gone really sketchy since last time I rode down it as well.

Bloody hell. It's bad enough on a bike, never mind roller blades. Not keen on the Wizard, the surface is crap and there are enough side streets and driveways to cause squeeky bum moments.

 

[Simontm]

Absolute f*** of a ride home. My back mudguard decided to self destruct so I ended up having to jimmy the guard out of the way so to prevent the metal going straight into the wheel or mech as it had!
View attachment 84434
Emailed Specialized Kingston asking for stronger glue

Numpty count: 1 from earlier when some self-absorbed girl decided to cut me up and nearly onto the pavement when approaching a roundabout

So the lovely people at Specialized in Kingston are replacing the guard no quibble free of charge which is nice. However, the mechanic also says I need new chainset

 

[fossyant]

The flood was deaper last night. Axel deep - got wet feet ! Kids were there paddling in it.

 

[subaqua]

Not strictly from today but from this week. I started commuting the 19.3 miles to work on Tuesday from Cheshunt to Bank station. 10 mins local streets, 65 mins towpath along the River Lea/Hertford Canal and through Victoria Park and then 20 mins on London streets. Would have started on Monday but I woke up at 1.30am and just couldn't get back to sleep! Tuesday wasn't a lot better (5 hours), Wed was rubbish (4 hours) and last night was 6 hours but was pretty deep - obviously I have some kind of psychological problem with this commuting that I need to get over! In fact i was so tired last night that I thought sod it and took the train home. Feeling better today though so will ride back.
Tuesday was tough - windy start! But I enjoyed this morning's ride in, no headwind helps! Not sure if I would be doing this if it was all on the road but the towpath is peaceful, relaxing and pretty empty as well.
Body is holding up OK - I am not the fastest of riders anyway, but am leaving 5-10% in the tank whilst mind and body get used to it.
Question for those of you who do longer towpath commutes - how often do you clean chain? Just on the weekend? Twice a week? Each day? (please God, no!)
Looking forward to the weekend - and happy that I have started this challenge

Not sure of how you get from canal to Vicky park , but I followed advice from a fellow commuter here and used the lift / stairs at the Olympic park that takes you onto wallis road then into VP . I use the regents canal then into old street and use the cycle routes from there into bank area.

I will send you the gpx file ( opens in most web based routing apps) .


And chain gets cleaned properly once a week. If it's lucky. Usually fortnightly. A quick wipe when I get in of an evening.