Tales from today's commute....

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wafter

I like steel bikes and I cannot lie..
Location
Oxford
On balance a pretty horrible ride home brought to me in association with exhaustion, existential dread, a big caffeine comedown and of course the usual assortment of dickheads.

The aperitif was served in the form of a vapid cyclist pulling out of a path in front of me without giving as much as a glance in my direction.

Things became more fun some miles later when attempting to pass a solitary car parked on the side of the road, into distant oncoming traffic. All would have been fine had the absolute tool in the parked car not suddenly pulled out at speed / without indicating as I was practically on top of him.

When it became clear I'd struggle to get past I pulled back in behind the knobhead; at least having the awareness to thank the driver of the oncoming vehicle who'd clocked what was going on and slowed to a crawl to avoid becoming involved in the melee.

I did at least get the satisfaction of loudly advising the muppet responsible to use his f*cking mirrors through his open window as he latterly turned into a side road; again without signalling. The look on his face apparently confirmed that he was likely absolutely as vacuous as the standard of his driving suggested..

A bit later I nearly got doored by a kid in a car failing to pay any attention to what was going on outside the vehicle he was attempting to exit.

Shortly after that I passed the body of a pigeon in the road. As I rode on I became fixated on the image of its crumpled little body left lifeless and alone on the tarmac and became overcome by profound sadness. I returned via a little loop; picking up its limp, still-warm corpse and depositing it beneath some bushes to at least spare it the further indignity of being turned to pate by the inevitable slew of uncaring drivers.

Things momentarily perked up a little after this with a few casual exchanges with folks on the top path and a dangle for some nice decompression and a few pops from the neck.

Finding a bit of a level I stopped at the shop for scant bargains, and upon leaving became acutely aware of the absence of my water bottle from my bike. I have no idea where it went and as as it may seem I can only assume some absolute waste of skin has nicked it.

I even back-tracked all the way through the park and to the last water stop on the tow path in case I'd left it behind, but no joy. Assuming this isn't due to some stupid oversight on my part (can't see how it can be as I look straight at the bottle when locking the bike up and would have spotted its absence before leaving the bike had I lost it en-route) what the actual f*ck is wrong with people?

More miles than usual (about 33 for the day IIRC) thanks to my fruitless efforts to recover the bottle; the last few on the tow path being particularly miserably enraging due to the amount of fly-strikes to my eyes and of course inhaled / swallowed with no way of washing my mouth out..

Very, very glad to be home and shut away from the sh*tshow that is the outside world tonight. Very much looking forward to being unconscious for the next however many hours - but of course even that respite will likely be ruined by waking ridiculously early.

B*llocks.
 
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markharry66

Legendary Member
Nice dark start this morning first time had lights on since March, usual tossers around. Parking prick decided to continue with his maneuver de despite on coming traffc. Usual close passes in the rush to sit in traffic at the round about. Just changed back from 28inch tyres to 25 inch which seem to be faster. Had plumb pull out on me at the round about as about to come off. Then drove past me and looked at me as if I had done somthing wrong so gave her the single south london hand single that is universally recognised everywhere sometimes you cant be the use of the single digit everyone understands it. Can tell people are going back to work as the dickhead count is starting to increase again.
 

wafter

I like steel bikes and I cannot lie..
Location
Oxford
Overcast with a bit of rain but it was novel / warm / light enough not to be an issue, and almost welcome given how humid it feels.

Few dickheads, pretty unremarkable ride with the exception of having to brake for a fisherman on the river exercising poor rod discipline.. at least he apologised.

Sausages magnificent; feeling better than after last night's commute although I'd still very much welcome my bottle thief's head on a stick.
 

rivers

How far can I go?
Location
Bristol
Unexpected early finish yesterday due to a large fire in a derelict warehouse a couple of doors up from my office. Fire service evacuated us around 3:30pm due to smoke, so I made my way through various fields and parks around Brislington to avoid the increased traffic in the area to get down to the A4 towards Totterdown. Whilst we are open today, all office staff have been told to work from home due to the fire service using our yard for their command centre. A bit of a shame, as I would looking forward to a ride in the drizzle this morning.
 

Boopop

Legendary Member
Yesterday, riding in to Leighton Buzzard, I clocked a big queue, decided to count the number of overtakes. 41, but there probably more later:
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Then I went to pick up my Morrisons Too Good to Go bag:
20Bp1XZVM3JKHVgJPsGJMB141E385CTslfH8Xfcs-2048x1536.jpg

Pet the cat (You have to pet the cat):
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Got home, pet my cat:
bAY0QzvuziGi2dN44M5vglKVrzV0WZ2d7qaOlRS8-1536x2048.jpg


Admired my cheap eats. Needed some sandwich fillings so for £3.33, all of this will do nicely. My local Morrisons fill whatever bag you give them, and my Ortliebs aren't small!
PCBWBOdnRxgT0slb_Yd_ND9EUl-mLGhoOPBwU3PA-2048x1536.jpg
 

Mazz

Über Member
Location
Leicester
Yesterday, riding in to Leighton Buzzard, I clocked a big queue, decided to count the number of overtakes. 41, but there probably more later:
View attachment 820479
Then I went to pick up my Morrisons Too Good to Go bag:
View attachment 820480
Pet the cat (You have to pet the cat):
View attachment 820481
Got home, pet my cat:
View attachment 820482

Admired my cheap eats. Needed some sandwich fillings so for £3.33, all of this will do nicely. My local Morrisons fill whatever bag you give them, and my Ortliebs aren't small!
View attachment 820483

Brilliant - I'd never even heard of "Too good to go" before. What a great idea.
p.s. The cats are cute 🐈
 

Boopop

Legendary Member
Brilliant - I'd never even heard of "Too good to go" before. What a great idea.
p.s. The cats are cute 🐈

TGTG is great, although it is a bit of a gamble. You'll usually get something useful. Think of it like a carboot sale or charity shop where you're not allowed to see what you're about to buy, except chances are you'll find some/all of it useful (you can eat it!). I like the novelty factor. I've got a whole chicken among other things before, still for <£4. Impromptu roast dinner is fun!
 

cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
Bad start
the new rotor i put on is slightly warped on fitting and was rubbing as soon as i started riding so i had to turn around and dig out the spare bike but the front tyre was flat so i had to pump it up and transfer the bits over before setting off again :sad: .It might be as its a cheap clarks rotor so the quality control is not great, i contacted amazon and i have been given a refund .
 

wafter

I like steel bikes and I cannot lie..
Location
Oxford
Escaping onto the ring road from work felt like welcome freedom.

Some time later I realised I'd got a flat on the rear; turned out to be glass (probably from where some degenerate has smashed a bottle on the ring-road part of my way in...) I'd tried to avoid it and resolved several times to check the tyres but inevitably forgot.

Flipping the bike revealed what a sorry state the rear tyre is in (I knew it was on its way out and has given good service) and I was of half a mind to rotate the tyres while the back was off in preparation for its replacement, but thought better of it given the impending rain. A job for tomorrow.

Once going again had a few nice interactions.. had a dangle in the park with some good pops then did the shops.

Got cut up approaching one of the the roundabouts by the station by some dickhead in a car who just had to get there first; causing me to brake. I was very happy to return the favour once we got to the station.

Got caught in the rain but it wasn't terrible.

Bit of trimming on the tow path and had to stop for the geese that were comically attempting to eat some small windfall apples; not an easy task when you only have a beak that opens to about one apple's diameter.

Watching them chase their defiant dinner around seemed like a fitting analogy for the futility of life... to their credit through seemingly endless attempts to crush them - only for them to escape - they finally did enough damage to the apples to get purchase and dig in. Perhaps also a life lesson to consider.

As usual they were quite aggy and I thought it might be interesting to see how this manifested if I became a source of food, so I chopped up some apples into bite-size chunks and chucked them onto the floor.. These went down well if affording me no more respect as the hissing continued..

A tangibly less crap ride than yesterday (low bar that it is) , still glad to get home.
 
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markharry66

Legendary Member
Nice ride in this morning, dark and gloomy but nice tailwind for a change so shot into work for once. Quiet this morning, didnt really encounter much in the way of traffic I leave early enough to avoid it. Went up the hill this moring round the round about and into a small road with cars either side of it prick behind decides must over take cyclist and gets stuck as other car tries to pass, we then reach a mexican stand off as neither dickhead is going to give way sat there for a few minutes wondering why there is such a big rush to get into work at 6am in the morning.
Further down the road the prat got stuck in the width restriction by this time I was keeping my distance and had dropped my speed.
watched him them poweroff 40 in a 20 nice work twat.
 

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
The schools are back in full force this morning here in SE London. Which meant lot's of kids all over the place and the traffic that comes with it.
Very muggy this morning also, got a bit of a sweat on with a nice bit of SCR with a single speed rider. Even though he was quick out of the blocks he just didn't have that extra needed gear to go just that little bit faster. Jolly good fun.
 
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