Tales from today's commute....

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Alex321

Guru
Location
South Wales
WFH today. Must get the van packed at lunch to escape to the coast tomorrow. No bikes, but kayak and paddleboarding.

Also WFH today due to need to get the van ready, then leave in it for Evesham as early as possible. Also no bikes, Morris dancing all weekend at this event https://nationalmorrisweekend.co.uk/
 

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
Well that was a warm ride home this afternoon. High temps of 32.6°, lowest 27.9°. Took it easy most of the way. It's a rolling route so didn't want to work too hard otherwise I would have got home dehydrated probrably, even though I did drink a whole bottle of water en route.
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M25 at 2.45pm. 1.5 miles to the Dartford Crossing from here, it was queued way back further. A long old wait for these drivers.
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I got away whilst it was still light but by the time I got off the train it was twilight but it was so nice/ quiet and mild I looped round by Yaxley (doubling my short commute from 4 to 8 miles).
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I thought I'd loop by the country park footbridge to capture the setting sun and got photo bombed 📸💣

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Here's what it should have looked like.

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simongt

Guru
Location
Norwich
A couple of 'interesting' things today.
Whilst unlocking my bike, noticed a manny parked up in a ragtop Beemer with the engine running. Okay, but the top was down. :whistle:
On the way home, stopped at some lights behind a food courier riding a 'muscle' electric bike. Noticed that the back tyre had an interesting repair of duck tape & wee rubber strips wrapped round the wheel. :eek:
Apparently, the rider is having trouble sourcing a tyre of the correct dimensions so that's his temporary solution - ! :laugh:
 
On the way home, stopped at some lights behind a food courier riding a 'muscle' electric bike. Noticed that the back tyre had an interesting repair of duck tape & wee rubber strips wrapped round the wheel. :eek:
Apparently, the rider is having trouble sourcing a tyre of the correct dimensions so that's his temporary solution - ! :laugh:

This is an issue some of our customers have: these bikes are a mass of non-standard cheapo parts. If we can get replacements, they tend to cost more than the bikes are worth.
 

wafter

I like steel bikes and I cannot lie..
Location
Oxford
Fair play. What's the gradient of that road?

When commuting I'm usually on a legal ebike but I have 3 to choose from. Going home up the hill near me which tops out about 9% I've only been overtaken by the illegal ebikes (apart from the usual motor vehicles of course). On the Orbea Gain I'm usually going about 11-12mph up that bit depending on tiredness and headwind. On the Vado SL I'm going about 1mph slower (240w vs 250w and +2kg). On the Cube eMTB I'm bouncing off the limiter. On that bike steeper hills basically don't exist but it's a real effort getting past the limit on the flat or a slight uphill. It weighs a ton (25kg) and has heavy 29er rims shod in 2.6" knobbly tyres but has a lot of torque.

Don't take this as a challenge btw, I freely admit I'm no great shakes as a climber without motor assistance. I just find it interesting that's all.

It's not huge - maybe 3% on average starting fairly flat and ramping up a little towards to top. I'd have no chance of maintaining 16mph up a 9% grad :tongue:
 

Dadam

Über Member
Location
SW Leeds
It's not huge - maybe 3% on average starting fairly flat and ramping up a little towards to top. I'd have no chance of maintaining 16mph up a 9% grad :tongue:

Still good going averaging 3%. Not sure I could do that on a muscle powered road bike never mind a folder.
 

palinurus

Velo, boulot, dodo
Location
Watford
Crank came loose a couple of miles from home. Didn't think I had a hex key large enough but got out my old multitool and it has this one hex key with a sort of sliding sleeve type hex key attached to it which locks into place when you need it. Had that multitool for years but never used that bit before. Was going again in less than a minute. Thank fark for that part, whatever it's called.
 

wafter

I like steel bikes and I cannot lie..
Location
Oxford
This morning - out late after screwing over my GPS unit not even bothering to try and find a signal.. turns out it doesn't consider this important when quietly set to "indoor cycling"... This make a fitting sequal to yesterday's "why the f*ck won't you sync" episode, whilst trying to unite it with the laptop using a power-only / non-data cable :rolleyes:

A thrash and shorter route saw me arrive on time for a pretty miserable day at work. That mercifully out of the way saw an angry, caffeine-and-Alice-in-Chains fuelled thrash home the long way on the Brompton... as always the ride slowly working it all out of my system and my spirit buoyed by a nice, brief casual chat with a female fellow commuter heading out of the city.

I'd decided the homewares my clicks had committed me to collecting would struggle to fit in the Brompton's front bag so it was back to the flat for a swift change of bikes, base layer and other things then back across town to collect my nice new end-grain chopping board and second-because-the-colour-of-the-first-makes-me-anxious duvet cover set..

As usual the capacity of the Back Rollers exceeded my expectations with one convincingly swallowing both these items; while neccessity forced the discovery that with removal of the shoulder strap they can be rolled up like any other roll-top bag for more capacity than the strap will allow.. I also figured that if really pushed you could probably run each shoulder strap across to the mating clip on the opposite bag.. if that makes sense. I've had them maybe three years now and am still regularly struck by how great they are :smile:

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Household bits got it was on to Waitrose for a few reasonable bargains, including the cajun chicken pieces and coleslaw I'm currently smashing with a salad as I type; the whole latter excursion made to the soundtrack of Iron Maiden's best three albums :smile:

"Bellend of the day" goes to the jogger on the tow path who decided to do a blind 180 at the very moment I passed; nearly running into my front wheel - not sure how we both stayed out of the river tbh..

Finally, spotted an old Raleigh town bike abandoned on the Abingdon rd - would have loved to have given it a home but it looked too far gone; could be good for spares / someone of greater commitment than I however, so will post about that separately in case anyone fancies an adventure.

Anyway, just over 31 miles for the day; the 10th consecutive one I've managed to spend in the saddle. This also puts me on a bit over 630 miles for the rolling 30-days - just surpassing my previous best achieved during the halcyon days of the plague :becool:
 
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ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
Blimey, we had rain here in the SE of Londinium this morning. Not heavy and almost dried as soon as it touched the body, It was very nice and colling for the commute in from the station to work. The wind has dropped too. Great for the commute to the station yesterday evening, pushing me along at a rate of knots, but not great coming in.

So, rainy commute #14 for the year
Same period last year, 21 rainy commutes.
 
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