On the commute today

[her_welshness]

Loved the stats and description of your commute Gordy 

Blissful commute in today - noticed some rowers on the Thames just to the west of Vauxhall Bridge.

[RJ]

Nice one, Gordy

Friday morning means Dr RJ does the school run, so the last two Fridays I've left a little early and extended my route to start past Arthur's Seat and the parliament,  to add in a chunk of tarmac'd railway path that I used on a previous commute.  22km in 1 hour dead (bike moving) - a humungous proportion without having to put a foot down* 

New Friday routine, I think.

* - (I don't trackstand )

[mrcharly-YHT]

Hardly a commute - and I'm barely capable of riding around the corner atm - but on Friday I managed to get into a car-banging slanging match with a taxi driver in York. A summary of the situation goes like this; I slow behind bus that is indicating to pull out. Taxi attempt to overtake and pulls in on me (we are both moving). When he is within 2" of my handlebars and is still moving sideways, I slap his window. Forceably, several times. He stops pulling in on me, winds down window and slanging match ensues. End of match results in both of us calling each other dipshits. So intellectual.

[MackieHornet]

BlackNinjaBike had a lumpy tyre! Could feel a rhythmic thumping on the back wheel so guessed something was awry. Took it to a local LBS - fortunately open on Sunday - who said that the material had given up the ghost. New tyre purchased, LBS kindly fitted for nowt (I am a mechanical incompetent).

Start new job tomorrow: commute = 3.16km. Would go for a longer version but the traffic post-earthquake is so awful along the roads I'd be using that I need to do some investigation into quieter routes.

[Si_Co]

What a beautiful morning, the only problem with cycling to work is that I'd rather ride straight past and enjoy the sunshine

[tiermat]

Hardly a commute - and I'm barely capable of riding around the corner atm - but on Friday I managed to get into a car-banging slanging match with a taxi driver in York.

Nice to see that york taxi drivers are keeping up (!) the standards of their brothers-in-arms in our fair capital.  I had an incident yesterday as I was riding to the station in York, approaching from the town direction (so needing to turn right).  Car passes me and I look over my shoulder and see a gap.  Right arm goes out, pause, look over shoulder, sense car there but far enough back for it to be safe, so move.  Car carries on driving AT me, even though it is obvious, if he waits 2 seconds I will be out of his way (as I would have got to the filter lane), engine revving, so I am afraid I flipped him.

The irony is that 10 yards further on he came to a stop as traffic was backed up....

[CrinklyLion]

the whole bit around the station is a blinking nightmare for cycling - too many buses, taxis and too much general traffic, lots of lemming-like pedestrians and (it has to be said) too many numpty cyclists including a plenty of wannabe hipsters on fixies - not sure why they seem to cluster round the station.  and because everyone is squeezed into a narrow space between the equally immovable city walls and the station and the railway lines, there's always going to be an element of conflict.  interestingly i saw in the paper that they are working on improving pedestrian and cyclist access from the other side of the station - they seem to have put in something from by the side of the rm sorting office, which would possibly allow cyclist a traffic free route along the river then on to the station.  i haven't yet been to see if it's any good!

[mrcharly-YHT]

My run-in was on the Stonebow. If I'd been feeling well I'd have taken the road up in a bolshy assertive way and the taxi would have been unable to cut me up.
The new station route cuts straight through to Holbeck - i've not used it yet by my wife reckons it's good. Avoids a lot of traffic.

[citoyen]

That's funny, I thought, as I cycled to the station this morning. I don't remember my SPDs having so much float...



d.

[clarion]

Ooh.  Lucky escape*, I think.

I was back to the commute this morning after a while unwell.  Not the normal one - we grimped over the Col de St Reatham to Brixton where I left Butterfly and headed on into work.  As I was a bit early, I made a loop up Borough High Street, back down Cycle Superhighway Car Park 7 and returned to work.  Shame to have to stop, really.

I have to say that, despite the dreadful traffic on the A23, the ride was smoother than normal, being a reasonable speed but my maximum lower than I usually achieve.  Lots of traffic lights, but very few reds.  And space to get past most of the worst jams.

Not as many cyclists as I've seen before on the A23, though I admit I came through rather earlier than I have previously, but the A3 had plenty of us.

* Pun intended.

[vorsprung]

This morning the ground was wet so I took the winter bike.  I am fighting off a cold so I wasn't at full power.  The rear mudguard lost a cable tie and went a bit rattlely

On the plus side it was a loverly morning, bright, lots of blue sky.  I didn't have to walk a dog so I was back on my usual route up and over Culm Davy, much less traffic that way

[her_welshness]

Just before I got to the Oval I saw this lady and toddler in a child seat behind her (I've spotted her a few times now). She was trying to push off at the junction but was getting into difficulties. I moved past her at the Oval towards Vauxhall Bridge and then stopped at a red light. She sailed through said red light, into a lane of oncoming traffic 

I got up the pedestrianised bit near one of the tunnels and pointed out to her that she had just gone through a red light. She did a  at me and said 'have you ever walked across the road with a red man symbol at traffic lights'.  'Not the point' I said, 'as you have clearly a young child in tow and you cycled into a lane of oncoming traffic'. She continued to ask me the same question and I just thought she is too stupid to listen to sense so I cycled across the road. 'You've gone through a red traffic light' she shouts at me. 'No love, I am riding on a shared pedestrian-cycle route'.

After that Darwinesque behaviour witnessed, I sailed along the Chelsea Embankment and noticed that there was a large pink pig that was dangling over Battersea Power Station and that a LOT of people had stopped to take photographs. My boss in work explained that it was this:
http://www.batterseapowerstation.org.uk/floyd/floyd.html

[citoyen]

Had fun when I got to work. The remaining cleat bolt in my right shoe had worked itself quite loose, so it was impossible to separate shoe and pedal. I had to remove my foot from my shoe and walk in barefoot, the shoe hanging from the pedal inna triathlete stylee.

As a cycling colleague remarked, "That's not supposed to happen, is it?" 

d.

[Ham]

Wet enough to be fun going home last night, I couldn't wipe the grin off my face. Most seemed either off the road (yay!) or miserable. Then  I passed a gurl going the other way also smiling, and we saw each other. The grin grew wider.

[clarion]

As I left work and the rain started pelting down so hard the pedestrians ran for cover, I glanced up and noticed a small band of lighter grey beyond the lowering clouds.  I thought, "I'll just plough into this headwind in the rain for half an hour and I'll be fine".

I'm a cyclist.

[Redlight]

I sailed along the Chelsea Embankment and noticed that there was a large pink pig that was dangling over Battersea Power Station and that a LOT of people had stopped to take photographs. My boss in work explained that it was this:
http://www.batterseapowerstation.org.uk/floyd/floyd.html

Had you slipped through a time tunnel then?  Or was somebody trying to recreate the shot?

[PaulF]

I got held up by cyclists. Which was nice 

Then as I came up towards the Houses of Parliament another cyclist thanked me for letting him draft me.

[PaulF]

I sailed along the Chelsea Embankment and noticed that there was a large pink pig that was dangling over Battersea Power Station and that a LOT of people had stopped to take photographs. My boss in work explained that it was this:
http://www.batterseapowerstation.org.uk/floyd/floyd.html

Had you slipped through a time tunnel then?  Or was somebody trying to recreate the shot?

@Redlight it's part of the publicity surrounding the re-release of Pink Floyd's back catalogue

[Riggers]

On the commute yesterday:

Had to retrace my 'steps' on the bike when I saw my flip-flops had gone missing from my bag (I thought they were secured). Found them two roads away, and hadn't suffered being run over a couple of times.

[CommuteTooFar]

Yesterday morning was a strangely quiet commute must have been something on TV that fascinated the Welsh drivers. On the way home I passed a stokerless tandem.

I have a problem on my commute.  It starts down a narrow country lane through Radyr golf course.  In the summer the hedges narrow the lane further so cars are forced into a fixed path.  So there is usually a clean  stripe either side of the mucky centre.  If another car comes one must reverse.  Now the hedges are no longer as thick as they were a month ago car drivers no longer fear the overhanging bushes and drive on the edge of the lane digging mud out from the bank. Result the road is covered in a thick coating of sticky mud.  So I have some cyclocross on my commute.  I will probably have to switch to my winter commute early this year.

[citoyen]

Last night, while making dinner, I trod on something hard and sharp on the kitchen floor. When I picked it up for closer inspection, I realised it was my missing cleat bolt. 

d.

[Ham]

Yesterday morning was a strangely quiet commute must have been something on TV that fascinated the Welsh drivers. On the way home I passed a stokerless tandem.

Isn't it obligatory to shout "Sorry mate, I think you've lost someone"?

[Si_Co]

Well don't know what went on last night, I flew home without seeming to make any extra effort, 9.7 mile in less than 30 mins door to door, paid for it this morning though seemed to take an awful lot of effort to do my usual averages 

[clarion]

Well, that's some compensation, I suppose

Last night, I put in a really strong ride home, despite the rain and the wind.  I had those moments of looking around me at the lights, deciding which line to take to keep ahead but not impede anyone if they needed to come past faster (they didn't), and assessing how far it would take me to overhaul the riders sat in front of the Stop line, so I could get a good position.

Up to Clapham, I stormed ahead, but I lost that group as I had to stop at the cashpoint.  Back on the road, I was riding with a very fast woman, who turned off, then there was a chap on a Giant who was spinning like mad away from stops, and a young lad on a Concorde older than he was.  I led them to Tooting Bec, where they edged ahead at the lights when I waited behind a row of cars.  But lights change, and I was away, down into Tooting, watching for the numpty drivers (and adjusting speed/direction to accommodate), and I just missed the lights at Broadway, so the other guys caught up.  Green light - go! - and off to Amen Corner.  Giant & Concorde pushed through next to a truck as I hung back.  Then caught their wheel again up the road.  But the Giant jumped the lights, so it was just me & the Concorde.  Powering past him at the Police Station, I held it into the wind and over the railway, and took the Giant just the other side.  All about me now, with the Concorde struggling to hold onto my wheel past Figges Marsh.  But I raised the tempo, and dropped him.  Caught by the lights again, I supped my water as I waited for them to catch up.  But they were headed to central Mitcham, and I was going the other way so, for once, I let them go from the lights so I didn't have to turn across their path, then off I went.

Further on, I saw a fastish rider on Carshalton Road, so I tried to get to him.  I saw he struggled over the railway at Mitcham Junction station, so the wind was obviously taking it out of him.  When I got there, I sat in for a few seconds before moving to the front.  But I was moving away as his speed was dropping.  I eased off to let him get back on, but I don't think it was going to happen, so I got a step on to get home.  I think he'd been putting on a burst to keep ahead of me, and couldn't sustain it.  Ah well, that's me on many other days.

Into the wind.  Through the rain.  In the gloom.  A great ride.

[MattH]

A very nice run in this morning *
I didn't need to be in first thing, so rather than aiming to leave the house at 7am I waited till the kids had gone to school and left about 8:15. Far more sociable having breakfast with the family than leaving as they wake up.
I was worried that the traffic would be heavy, but it was actually better than normal. A good reasonably fast run in (just over 2 hours for the 40 miles - fast until I get inside the M25, where road conditions and traffic lights slow me). Only two incidents - a lady cyclist coming towards me turned right across my path, causing us both to brake and swerve (I was doing about 20mph at the time). She did apologise, she'd not seen me as I was behind a bus and she just turned after it  without checking if anything was there.

I overtook a fixie rider coming in towards Hounslow on the A315 (heading east). He caught up at red lights just before the road does the 90 degree right hand bend to go around the High Street. He swerved to go around the car waiting next to me on the right, across the other lane of traffic, up onto the pavement, rode down to the bend in the road, hopped back onto the road, crossed both lanes and rode off down the pedestrianised High Street. I, for one, was impressed with his mad leet Alley-cat skillz 





* at least as nice as coming from laney, leafy Hampshire into the smoke can ever be.