Tales from today's commute....

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LoftusRoadie

LoftusRoadie

Well-Known Member
Location
Herts
Got the bike out this morning and before I could even start riding ... puncture! Not only that but there was an actual cut across the tyre (Schwalbe Land Cruiser) and a little hole that you could see through. No spare tyre so I had to take the train in. My bike commute is usually around 90 minutes but I actually felt more tired today after taking the train in than I do after riding in!
 
D

Deleted member 1258

Guest
Tonight 36 years of cycle commuting came to a close, :sad: tomorrow I'm in the car then I ride off into retirement .^_^
 
13 rider

13 rider

Guru
Location
leicester
Nice ride in this morning 13.8 miles in lovely conditions and quiet roads . Tonight commute home was wet :rain: short route home 8.1 miles had an a rider attempt to wheel suck going through Mountsorrel was catching two bikes very quickly as I passed the guy on the road bike who was drafting a MTB started to accelerate so I put the hammer down and dropped him in a hundred yards ^_^ never seen again and he had lost his draft from the MTB ,silly but I enjoyed it got me home in the rain a bit quicker
 
kevin_cambs_uk

kevin_cambs_uk

Guru
Location
Near Cambridge
Structural Integrity of the Falcon Explorer rear wheel was compromised coming home.

Some spokes twanged out........Oh well, spanner out adjusted it as much as possible to stop it rubbing the frame them limped home.

TBH I am amazed it has lasted as long as it has, about 1,000 miles of rain and I would think at least 950 miles more than anyone at Falcon would ever imagine it would do in its life time until I got my hands on it!!

Tomorrows dilemma, cycle in on the trek which is beautifully shiny in the dining room, or get the bus in.
 
summerdays

summerdays

Cycling in the sun
Location
Bristol
kevin_cambs_uk said:
Structural Integrity of the Falcon Explorer rear wheel was compromised coming home.

Some spokes twanged out........Oh well, spanner out adjusted it as much as possible to stop it rubbing the frame them limped home.

TBH I am amazed it has lasted as long as it has, about 1,000 miles of rain and I would think at least 950 miles more than anyone at Falcon would ever imagine it would do in its life time until I got my hands on it!!

Tomorrows dilemma, cycle in on the trek which is beautifully shiny in the dining room, or get the bus in.
Click to expand...
Last Friday before Christmas I might be tempted to give it a miss depending on the time and place you will be commuting. I always get a little more wary at this time of year as the office parties are in full flow!
 
Arjimlad

Arjimlad

Tights of Cydonia
Location
South Glos
My office is doing a Christmas jumper day today, but I don't have one :sad:

I do, however have a full Santa outfit I got for £4 from amaz-on. :snowball:^_^:snowball:^_^

So, I wore this to work on a 6-mile commute from Winterbourne, through Bradley Stoke. It was great fun waving to the kids on their way to school and to the bus drivers. I got loads of smiles and waves from otherwise miserable commuters stuck in traffic, Mums and kids on the school run and bus/lorry drivers. :hello:

I had to tuck the cotton-wool beard under the helmet chinstrap, and the seat of the felt trousers is almost worn out already, but overall it seemed to go very well and has left me with a happy buzz at the start of the day.

A trial run for a "Santa Cruise" on Sunday all around central Bristol from 11am with a bunch of cruiser bikes.
 
Tin Pot

Tin Pot

Guru
Got a flat in Dorking. <facepalm>

Tyre would not come off. <facepalm>

New tube - the valve unscrewed instead of the cap coming off. <facepalm>

Finally got it back together, put it in, put the tyre on, inflated with a CO2 cartridge... :smile:

Tyre failed.

FOR F SAKE! <FACEPALM>
 
HarryTheDog

HarryTheDog

Legendary Member
Location
Basildon Essex
I apologise in advance for maybe a too long narrative this morning

Very much a ride of 2 half’s this morning. Going down Noak hill I heard a lot of beeping behind me, a massive articulated scrap lorry was coming down behind me. He was a 100yds back so assumed it was not me he was beeping at. However on the next rise he was a foot off my rear wheel. I got the impression he wanted to overtake. I turned down Harold Hill which is a large housing Estate, lots of parked cars etc, and he made an abortive attempt at a overtake , I was doing 30 downhill and keeping up with traffic so waste of time really. At the next roundabout I gapped him by 200yds but a while later he was again a foot off my wheel. Even a pedestrian looked horrified and shouted at him to back off. Then luckily traffic was building up for the traffic lights so I scythed through and left him behind.

2nd half was a giggle. Going through Dagenham I started to close on a rider going at a good pace. Never come across him before, on a carbon disc cannondale road bike with Trek factory racing shorts on. looked a bit like Merhawi Kudus of MTN Qhubeka, mid twenties , medium height, skinny, all bone muscle and sinew. I still went past just for fun. He immediately responded and was past in an instant and kept the pace high.

Then we traded places for the next four miles. Silly of me as the guy was obviously going to drop me at some time and did, exactly where I expected him to, on the hill out of Barking. I made him work for it and he had to stamp on the pedals all the way to the top to drop me. I went back to cruising speed. The thing that struck me was we were opposite ends of the spectrum on age, colour and build but we both used similar cadence, shortcuts, times when we were in and out of the saddle, caution at obstacles and lines through traffic.

That was nearly the end of the story but he got even further ahead when he got a light phase over me. He shot along the cycleway which is on a very wide pavement and disappeared out of sight. As I went along the cycleway I came around a slight bend and there was a large family (6) strewn across the pavement and cycleway. Woman was consoling a crying 4-5 yr old in the cycleway blocking it, so I slowed to a stop. The dad went mental at me about crazy cyclists frightening the crap out of little kids. I had not seen what happened so can only guess at what happened, from what I had seen of the other rider I would have expected him to slow as I did. Seems a 50/50 incident, the pavement is nearly 12 foot wide so why the family could not have contained themselves to that instead of using the cycleway as well is beyond me.
 
Siclo

Siclo

Veteran
Pulled in behind a Trafford council wagon at Stretford lights and a guy wound his window down and shouted me over.
Driver:"You cycle past the shell garage at Urmston, don't you?"
Me (somewhat cautiously expecting some sort of altercation): "Yes"
Driver : "Have you lost some keys?"
Me: "Don't think so"
Driver "I saw a cyclist drop some and I picked them up the other day"
Me: "Ah, not me, but thanks"

Sort of restores your faith in humanity, only down side is I didn't get my draft off the wagon.
So if you ride thorough Urmston and have lost your keys, a very nice bloke in a silver micra has them and is trying to find you :smile:
 
Arjimlad

Arjimlad

Tights of Cydonia
Location
South Glos
Arjimlad said:
My office is doing a Christmas jumper day today, but I don't have one :sad:

I do, however have a full Santa outfit I got for £4 from amaz-on. :snowball:^_^:snowball:^_^

So, I wore this to work on a 6-mile commute from Winterbourne, through Bradley Stoke. It was great fun waving to the kids on their way to school and to the bus drivers. I got loads of smiles and waves from otherwise miserable commuters stuck in traffic, Mums and kids on the school run and bus/lorry drivers. :hello:

I had to tuck the cotton-wool beard under the helmet chinstrap, and the seat of the felt trousers is almost worn out already, but overall it seemed to go very well and has left me with a happy buzz at the start of the day.

A trial run for a "Santa Cruise" on Sunday all around central Bristol from 11am with a bunch of cruiser bikes.
Click to expand...
FB_IMG_1450442944612.jpg
 
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