On the commute today

[ian]

That needs reporting to Argos and to the police.
Argos won't have had that many lorries, in the Reigate area that they won't be able to identlfy who it was.

Plus, it's probably tracked for logistical purposes (and they stuff on them worth nicking, so they like to know where the lorry is and was).

[TimO]

A nice, and unusually clear view of The Shard, as I cycled along Klea Avenue near Clapham Common, today.

Click image for bigness

Unfortunately, the wide angle view from the camera doesn't even remotely do it justice.  It was much more impressive, than that dull blob!   It's is almost 4½ miles away though, so I shouldn't be surprised that it's hard to photograph.

The sun had risen about ten minutes earlier, so it was a sunny transit of the Thames, on Chelsea Bridge.

Click image for bigness

[cycleman]

Ooh !,nice empty road's in London  .

[TimO]

Ooh !,nice empty road's in London  .

Actually yes, today it was surprisingly quiet on the roads.  Normally the traffic starts to become noticeably worse at around 6am, but I think quite a few people were hit by the clocks changing, and found it hard to drag themselves out of bed!

[velosam]

Finally managed a ride in after an eternity (well 2 weeks I think). It was fun although my quads are killing me and I was overtook on the hill like I was standing still.

[Jurek]

Ooh !,nice empty road's in London  .

Actually yes, today it was surprisingly quiet on the roads.  Normally the traffic starts to become noticeably worse at around 6am, but I think quite a few people were hit by the clocks changing, and found it hard to drag themselves out of bed!

And, possibly, because the schools are on their holibobs 

[Jacomus]

Friday

Had a mostly pleasant ride all the way home, it was my first non-intermodal commute. Ugh, dragging myself up Knight's Hill and then Beulah Hill then South Norwood Hill wasn't overly fun. What is the deal with all the pedestrian refuges?!? Fortunately most drivers took pity on me struggling up the hill and didn't make a fuss, but of course there was a private hire taxi driver used his Pious to herd me into the gutter, before roaring off. Then another taxi driver who went for the overtake, ran out of room and screeched to a halt just in front of a ped refuge (as did I, in case he decided to sacrifice me to save his car). He wasn't very happy at all.


Sunday

Rode all the way to training, 15.7 miles in 1h 35m on Lady Bertie

I got rained on for most of it, but the Rainlegs and Altura jacket did their jobs. A very enjoyable ride indeed , even with the taxi driver who was unimpressed by my road positioning. He beeped and gesticulated a lot once past me, but didn't actually overtake dangerously.

Sunday night after training was another matter entirely

My objective was to ride all the way home. When I set out, the wind was very nasty - affecting bike handling kind of nasty - then the heavy rain started. Then driver after driver intimidated me, threatened my safety and the combination broke my nerve after about 2 miles. I slogged through the next 5 miles to London Bridge and made a safety call - get off the road. Caught the train home.

Why is the driving in Zone 1 so much better than everywhere else? Why do drivers drive so poorly in the rain?!


Monday

Train trouble started the day, but once I reached my stop and got on the bike, all was good. Bloody chilly though! My legs were a little heavy from Sunday still, and there was a stiff headwind, no biggie though especially as happenstance saw me in the wind shadow of a bus almost the whole way along the A2.

[TimO]

Ooh !,nice empty road's in London  .

Actually yes, today it was surprisingly quiet on the roads.  Normally the traffic starts to become noticeably worse at around 6am, but I think quite a few people were hit by the clocks changing, and found it hard to drag themselves out of bed!

And, possibly, because the schools are on their holibobs 

Ah, that too then.  I didn't realise it was that time.

[matthew]

Left site, rode down the hill and got to the station to find that the train had left ~5 minutes earlier. At that point I chose to ride the remaining 15 miles home as it would be quicker than waiting 26 minutes on a wet platform.

Overall the ride home was an hour and fifteen minutes. which was only about 10 slower than getting the train. 

One scary pass where there was just a lack of patience in the face of oncoming traffic that woke me out of my zen trance. 

[TimO]

After hearing the shipping forecast, and all of the dire warnings of gale force winds, it actually wasn't too bad for me.  Since the wind was predominantly from the west, and my route is essentially a north-south traversal, buildings protected me from the majority of the wind.  Clapham Common was interesting in that respect, since suddenly I was hit by wind strong enough to almost blow the bike off of the cyclepath!

The temporary traffic lights north of Chelsea Bridge appear to be broken, and permanently on red, so it takes drivers a while to realise this, and decide eventually to jump them.  This means that there's pretty solid stationary traffic back to Queenstown Circus, which isn't unusual at peak times, but is at 6-45am.  On a bike I was slowed down by an annoying 5 minutes or so, but some of those car drivers are probably looking at upwards of half an hour extra time, if they're lucky.  The passengers of the long queue of buses along the bus lane, where it's rare to see more than one or two at that time normally, were abandoning the buses and using shanks' pony to continue onward.

Aside from the solid traffic along Queenstown Road and Chelsea Bridge, the roads continued to be quiet, which was nice.

[Si_Co]

Well that was interesting, a positive gauntlet of fallen tree limbs, wheelie bins and contents, busted umbrella's and for sale signs. The noise that came off the front wheel every time the wind turned cross was truly eerie, the locks over the ship canal in full spate was impressive though.

[caerau]

Tree down across the bridge that crosses the Canal just by the Music building in Bute Park in Cardiff this morning.  Made for a brief detour.  Positive coterie of paparazzi taking pictures of it.
I can understand, never seen a dead tree before myself     No doubt Facebook is now ablaze with this phenomenon

[Jacomus]

Last night

Wet and windy. I was having a great ride though. At one point, I ran over something that I didn't see - but it made a very 'you're going to get a puncture from that' kind of sound. Sure enough, it was a slow puncture - 10mins later I had to pull over. I was close to the station, so just took the bus and sorted it at home... where I discovered that there was no grease at all on the axle threads.

That caused me to have a nose around the hub, where I discovered the bearings were 'lightly dusted' with grease I know some people get very excitable about not over-packing bearings, but this was taking the piss. Out comes the LM2 and now my bearings are nicely packed. I'll probably get to work on the rear on Friday, and expect I'll find the same thing. Looks like I'll have to have the pedals off too, as I bet their threads haven't been done either.


This morning

Hmm, that wind wasn't fun - added 12 minutes to my journey time (although some of that came from stopping on London Bridge to remove a metal sign that had blown into the road).

Spotted a cyclist have a low speed crash going in the opposite direction. She was gutter-hugging and it looked as though a big gust of wind pushed her just enough to strike her pedal on the kerb. She got straight up, so fingers crossed she and her bike are fine.

Spotted a lorry with a Brompton sticker on the driver's door Got shaved (within an arm's length) by a different lorry, too dirty to catch either the company name or numberplate

[TimO]

... Spotted a lorry with a Brompton sticker on the driver's door ...

Are you sure that means the driver is pro-Bromptons, and not just an indication of how many Bromptons have been taken out by that lorry?

[Jacomus]

... Spotted a lorry with a Brompton sticker on the driver's door ...

Are you sure that means the driver is pro-Bromptons, and not just an indication of how many Bromptons have been taken out by that lorry?

 

[mcshroom]

Site Pager Message -Strong winds expected with gusts of up to 60mph

Looks like tonight's ride home could be 'interesting'.

[spindrift]

Dodging those food scraps recycling tubs, they're freaking everywhere!

(saw one)

[mcshroom]

Site Pager Message -Strong winds expected with gusts of up to 60mph

Looks like tonight's ride home could be 'interesting'.

Oww. My core muscles are rather upset after the battering I just got riding home into the wind. Should've taken gears and a more stable bike.

[ian]

Good god, it was like being in Twister. I think that's the same cow! I bailed out early so I could plan-b the train if necessary, but what the hell, it's only twenty miles of uphill gradient into the wind. What doesn't kill you merely results in a guano-like accretion of character. The wind explains my arrival in Mitcham as I pursued the mythical tailwind into terra incognita. A couple of times I was stopped dead by a gust and on one occasion I was sure I was either going backwards or someone was fast-forwarding the world around me. With the tailwind I did manage to fly through mysterious suburban hinterlands, vast deserts of pebbledash. Sadly, none of those tailwinds were going the way I wanted to go.

Heading in earlier, I saw a wheelie bin suicidally shuffle into the road like a depressed Dalek. A BMW X5 approaches it and slows right down but doesn't entirely stop. Seeing no way around it, he drives into it really slowly and then stops. It was a like of battle of wills between driver and dustbin as they sat there and stared at one another. I think the bin probably won, I scooted by. I did contemplate doing a good deed and moving the bin. For about a femtosecond. For all I know they're still there now mano-a-wheelie bin.

Oh, and fellow cyclist passing through Brixton. Please don't ride through across the crossing screeching 'WATCH OUT'. I know it's green for traffic, but the traffic wasn't moving, and pedestrians will take the opportunity to thread between the stuck cars. It happens. Slow down and be gracious. Some poor old lady who looked about a hundred not only got the fright of her life, she got you screaming into her face as a bonus. Poor thing nearly dropped there and then. Stop and apologise, oh no, off you scoot while I ask if she's OK. That, my friend, is why I may have pointed out that you're a bit of a cunt so don't give me the prissy 'well, it was green'. Jeez, you wonder why people hate cyclists.

[Kim]

Thing is, if the weather's bad enough that it's difficult to cycle in, you know the train is going to be having worse problems.

[Basil]

^^  That.

I've long ago given up the notion that the train may be a weather related alternative.  Just battle on, it won't last for ever, and no matter how rubbish it is, it won't be as rubbish as it is for those poor sods on the train.

[Jurek]

Blowy as f*ck out there tonight!
My journey north to south was punctuated by side-swipes from my right as the 51mph westerly gusts had their fun.
Tall buildings in Docklands for the win - I cannot remember the last time I clenched as much as I did this evening.
As  a bonus, my front brake cable snapped as I exited the Greenwich foot tunnel.
I've been expecting it.
Over the last week or so, each day I've given the front brake an eye-watering squeeze, I could feel / hear another strand saying sayonara.
At least this occurred in the leafy suburbs of Londres Sud. And not the badlands of Walthamstow.
Regardless of which, it serves to focus ones mind on how effective the front brake actually is.
Left with just the rear brake, and leg-braking (fixie, y'see) it still requires that you need to make an appointment if you want to stop - as opposed to just slow down.
Glad to be home.

[spindrift]

76mph at Weybourne. Mate's chicken laid the same egg four times, poor thing.

[Si_Co]

Last night was tough, nearly got dumped into the verge near the ship canal, missed the kerb by an inch or two and I'm not a gutter cyclist, despite only doing about 10mph it was still disconcerting.

This morning I was flying, shame there were all these blasted metal boxes littering the road and getting in the way 

[sg37409]

Pretty crap ride in today, couldnt get into the flow at all, found myself in wrong place loads of times.
Slow. Least it was dry.
Strong headwind,driving sleet and 2.5C  last night, caught out in my 3/4's.