Tales from today's commute....

[ianrauk]

They are editing the time table over the weekend, I hope they don't change anything 🙏

Same here with South Eastern Trains. I've already checked and there's no changes to the times of the trains I use thankfully.

Those carriages are very different to what we get - i.e. cattle class. We are stop 4 and the commuter trains in the morning are standing only -

It does depend on what train I get in the mornings. I can get a faster, direct train 10 minutes before or 10 minutes after. But much prefer the stopping service as it's much less busy. It's nice to sit in relative comfort next to the bike rather then battle with the great unwashed.

It was a tad milder this morning here in the South East, 11° and cloudy. The cloud making it a very dark 7am.
Thankfully the ride in to work was incident free.

 

[Spartak]

Yesterday's commute was from hotel back to Mechelen station.

 

[Mazz]

Strangely busy this morning but everyone was behaving themselves and my favourite rolling stock was back on today. Although its go no dedicated bike rack, it doesn't stop at every station so there's little standing to St'Evanage, and those that do can't stand in front of the bike or block me when I need to get off.

View attachment 795092 Technically I could have ran round for the earlier train on Platform 2 ( I was in time for it) but it does stop at every station and involves stairs.
View attachment 795093
They are editing the time table over the weekend, I hope they don't change anything 🙏

Do you ever need to tether the bike to the grabrail to secure it while train is in motion?

 

[Arjimlad]

What would you do?

I was stopped at lights on red. 3 cars in front of me, all of us waiting for right turn filter light to go green. Light turns green for us. First car goes, second car goes, but 3rd car doesn't budge. After some time I decided to go round it. I reckon the driver then saw my bike lights in the wing mirror, realised the lights were green and darted forward, made the right turn but left me now stuck on the red light again.

I was so tempted to tap on the back window to wake the driver up instead of trying to move in front of the car.

Had 2 like this on Wednesday morning. The first one was looking down at his phone rather than ahead at the traffic. The second one was looking at her laptop on the passenger seat.

 

[HLaB]

Do you ever need to tether the bike to the grabrail to secure it while train is in motion?

Nope. I've seen guards get tetchy with other folk who have done that on empty trains up north. There's hardly enough force anyway that you can't control with the front wheel between your knees.

 

[HLaB]

The exact opposite traffic wise. The train was packed (although it was the early one that stops at every station) and apart from a little congestion around the one way streets in the town centre, the normally busy area were well quiet.

Fortunately, on the train someone train had got on earlier with a folder and tied that up in the bike space. I thought there'd be no space to sit dow either as folk were standing but one bloke had spread himself out across two seats and no one squeezed in, I did. He made a bit of room when I did, and got off a few stops down the line anyway.

 

[simongt]

On the way into the city yesterday, negotiating a gentle l/h bend and some twat in a fancy sports saloon who was parked 'blind' i.e., on the left facing oncoming traffic decided to pull out , no indicator, so I had to swing a sharp right manoever to avoid hitting him.
Just as well there was now't directly behind me.

 

[ianrauk]

'twas dark skies for this mornings commute. Fairly dark out there. 7.57am sunrise. No rain, no wind, dry under rubber. 9° temperatures.

 

[wafter]

An absolute, unmitigated shitshow this morning.

Out the door only just on time because I ran out of cheese; thus making the usual packed lunch non-viable.

Two hundred yards down the road I'm struck by a violent hissing from the back tyre so turned around, went home, flipped the bike upside down out the front of the flat and changed the tube.

Oddly the damage was on the inside (rim side) of the tube but I could find absolutely no cause - no floating debris, nothing embedded in the rim tape, no punctures through the tape, no sharp edges on the tape itself.. Checked the inside of the tyre for glass in the same area too - nothing.

Ran my fingers over both areas repeatedly - which should have been cut to shreds by something given the ferocity of the puncture - again, absolutely nothing.

New tube in and back on my way I got about half a mile from home before the same happened again. Process repeated in-situ this time, again damage in the same place, again absolutely no cause evident. Spare tube already holed I had no option but to repair the one that came out, again checking for more debris but coming up empty-handed.

Managing some degree of thought I headed back to the flat - firstly to inflate the tyre properly with the track pump and secondly to give everything the opportunity to fail again, at least closer to home. Back, tyre inflated, back out towards town - f*cked again within 100 yards.

Walked it home, slung it inside disgraced and got in the car

So, that's something delightful to attend to when I get home - which will need sorting pretty sharpish as I really need to get to the shops for supplies for tomorrow's lunch. I did think afterwards that I could have taken the Routier, however that wouldn't have helped with the shop situation as my panniers won't really fit the rack.. I guess absolute worst-case I could take a rucksack but this would be less than ideal.

Looks like I'll be carefully stripping that wheel down to nothing and giving it a damned good clean tonight in the hope of finding the root of this issue, although I'm not holding my breath...

The only positive from the whole sorry ordeal was the sheer volume of folks who stopped and offered to help - a couple of pedestrians, one driver, one practicing cyclist (although they all offered tools / kit)... seems there's a lot of us in this area which really is unsurprising since a bike's pretty much the best way to get into town.

I also had encouragement from someone's golden retriever from behind the gates of a nearby property - which was very vocal until I actually turned around and waved to it; this seemingly being enough to allay its concerns for my wellbeing, after which it wondered off back inside

 

[cyberknight]

It was just starting to have the odd spot of rain as I left home but the forecast was for rain so I put the jacket on just in case and by the time I was a couple of miles from work it was properly raining. Roof is now leaking in places so it must be pretty heavy rain now .
I was determined to ride as I missed last week with the sniffles.

 

[mrushton]

4 weeks after an op and I'm back on the bike. Go half the distance in the car because I need to check I am ok and it's teeming down/dark. Get the bike out but only 1 rain glove(!!). Have some other gloves so off I go. Through the big park (Heaton Park) and whats this? My exit is locked. OK, follow the path to another exit - locked!!! Now have to decide to go all the way back or get to the other entrance. Decide on the latter course but there is no path so I'm on foot, pushing the bike and there is a quagmire underfoot. Overshoes are caked in mud and water has made ingress. Eventually (10+ mins)....I get to the way out and off I go into the rain and traffic melee. I retire on 31/1/26 and I WONT miss commuting in the dark/wet.

 

[wafter]

4 weeks after an op and I'm back on the bike. Go half the distance in the car because I need to check I am ok and it's teeming down/dark. Get the bike out but only 1 rain glove(!!). Have some other gloves so off I go. Through the big park (Heaton Park) and whats this? My exit is locked. OK, follow the path to another exit - locked!!! Now have to decide to go all the way back or get to the other entrance. Decide on the latter course but there is no path so I'm on foot, pushing the bike and there is a quagmire underfoot. Overshoes are caked in mud and water has made ingress. Eventually (10+ mins)....I get to the way out and off I go into the rain and traffic melee. I retire on 31/1/26 and I WONT miss commuting in the dark/wet.

Sounds like a complaint to the relevant party is in order - that would have been a cracking experience if you were being pursued by muggers, rapists etc..

 

[Mazz]

An absolute, unmitigated shitshow this morning.

Out the door only just on time because I ran out of cheese; thus making the usual packed lunch non-viable.

Two hundred yards down the road I'm struck by a violent hissing from the back tyre so turned around, went home, flipped the bike upside down out the front of the flat and changed the tube.

Oddly the damage was on the inside (rim side) of the tube but I could find absolutely no cause - no floating debris, nothing embedded in the rim tape, no punctures through the tape, no sharp edges on the tape itself.. Checked the inside of the tyre for glass in the same area too - nothing.

Ran my fingers over both areas repeatedly - which should have been cut to shreds by something given the ferocity of the puncture - again, absolutely nothing.

New tube in and back on my way I got about half a mile from home before the same happened again. Process repeated in-situ this time, again damage in the same place, again absolutely no cause evident. Spare tube already holed I had no option but to repair the one that came out, again checking for more debris but coming up empty-handed.

Managing some degree of thought I headed back to the flat - firstly to inflate the tyre properly with the track pump and secondly to give everything the opportunity to fail again, at least closer to home. Back, tyre inflated, back out towards town - f*cked again within 100 yards.

Walked it home, slung it inside disgraced and got in the car

So, that's something delightful to attend to when I get home - which will need sorting pretty sharpish as I really need to get to the shops for supplies for tomorrow's lunch. I did think afterwards that I could have taken the Routier, however that wouldn't have helped with the shop situation as my panniers won't really fit the rack.. I guess absolute worst-case I could take a rucksack but this would be less than ideal.

Looks like I'll be carefully stripping that wheel down to nothing and giving it a damned good clean tonight in the hope of finding the root of this issue, although I'm not holding my breath...

The only positive from the whole sorry ordeal was the sheer volume of folks who stopped and offered to help - a couple of pedestrians, one driver, one practicing cyclist (although they all offered tools / kit)... seems there's a lot of us in this area which really is unsurprising since a bike's pretty much the best way to get into town.

I also had encouragement from someone's golden retriever from behind the gates of a nearby property - which was very vocal until I actually turned around and waved to it; this seemingly being enough to allay its concerns for my wellbeing, after which it wondered off back inside

What tyres have you got? Maybe it's time for something more puncture resilient.

 

[fossyant]

I think I'm finished bike commuting for the year. I finish for Christmas on Friday, but was planning on cycling in on Wednesday as I've two meals out this week after work, so train.

But with the weather being naff, and Doctors on strike and my 'habit' of getting broken before an event (Christmas and New Year in hospital when I broke my spine, and a holiday in a wheelchair and crutches when I broke my pelvis).

MrsF has asked me to drive !

 

[Thorn Sherpa]

1st puncture on the Raleigh, snakebite from a pothole side of a grate. Not sure how the rim survived but bloody Nora did it go with a clunk. Gonna get a pic on the ride home and send to Barnsley council.