Author Topic: On the commute today  (Read 2462465 times)

telstarbox

  • Loving the lanes
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20800 on: 08 July, 2019, 07:19:10 pm »
Was ok except for some inconsiderate riders on Quietway 1, including one who rode up the grass verge to "undertake" a pedestrian.
2019 🏅 R1000 and B1000

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20801 on: 09 July, 2019, 09:53:36 am »
Wet today and none too warm either.

ian

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20802 on: 15 July, 2019, 06:17:22 pm »
Visiting Dutch person aboard the mothership, upon seeing one my colleagues arrive in his lycra and full kit, asked if he was in 'fancy dress' to celebrate the TdF.

He's apparently not. I took her to look at the lane on Blackfriars Road which she marvelled was 'almost' like the Netherlands.

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20803 on: 17 July, 2019, 08:36:51 am »
With bling new rear wheel from Als. The Hope hub helps on the canal path.  :thumbsup:

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20804 on: 17 July, 2019, 05:05:00 pm »
Got shouted at by a road captain on a red MTB for not indicating. That's because I was going straight on at a crossroads,.you nobend.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

spindrift

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20805 on: 19 July, 2019, 12:29:54 pm »
Saw a bloke on a sort of electric blue Galaxy, I think that was a model from around 2012 or something. A bright, light blue colour, you hardly ever see them.

ian

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20806 on: 24 July, 2019, 09:45:36 pm »
Delightful chap behind, as I slowed down to let someone cross the zebra on the super-cycle lane by St George's Circus, yelled 'look on your left, you cunt.'

I wished him a good day. Life is too short and the day too nice to waste time on that nonsense. That said, as the bloke next me said, 'miserable fucker, isn't he?' Anyway, if you're out there, I hope that shouting abuse at a random stranger somehow improved your day.

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20807 on: 26 July, 2019, 08:55:44 am »
Delightful chap behind, as I slowed down to let someone cross the zebra on the super-cycle lane by St George's Circus, yelled 'look on your left, you cunt.'

I wished him a good day. Life is too short and the day too nice to waste time on that nonsense. That said, as the bloke next me said, 'miserable fucker, isn't he?' Anyway, if you're out there, I hope that shouting abuse at a random stranger somehow improved your day.
Why was he on the left?

Sent from my COL-L29 using Tapatalk


ian

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20808 on: 26 July, 2019, 10:03:39 am »
So he could squeeze by me on the inside and get to the crossing a femtosecond earlier, I guess. He had to stop anyway as there were a good dozen people on the crossing. He wasn't even fast, he didn't get ahead of me as I coasted by the Imperial War Museum.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20809 on: 26 July, 2019, 12:08:28 pm »
That's the problem with London.  If you cycle in a sensible secondary position, someone (more likely several someones) will squeeze through on the left.  Especially if you behave erratically by doing things like stopping at red lights.

ian

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20810 on: 26 July, 2019, 01:39:55 pm »
It was at the bottom of the Blackfriars cycle lane where it goes around St George's Circus and joins Lambeth Road. There's a zebra crossing across Lambeth Road. There's really no place to over or undertake (as it's still a segregated lane), nor much point in trying. Once you're around the corner of and over the zebra, you have the entire width of Lambeth Road to over- or undertake at your pleasure.

Andrij

  • Андрій
  • Ερασιτεχνικός μισάνθρωπος
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20811 on: 27 July, 2019, 10:42:09 pm »
Six days of work, six sets of bicycle commutes.  :thumbsup:

Not done similar in ages, though hope to keep close to full house (+1) from now on.
;D  Andrij.  I pronounce you Complete and Utter GIT   :thumbsup:

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20812 on: 29 July, 2019, 06:01:32 pm »
Drivers REALLY don't give way to traffic from their right on mini-roundabouts any more.  I get it in the car too, and often have to stop when I have right of way.  It's worse on a bike though.  Why should I stop my 1.5 tonne vehicle for a mere bicycle, you can almost hear them think.  It's worse in the pikier areas due to the number of people driving unlicensed, or recently arrived in the UK and haven't experienced mini-roundabouts before.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Paul

  • L'enfer, c'est les autos.
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20813 on: 29 July, 2019, 08:06:56 pm »
I had a sidsy (no “mate”) this morning.

Driver pulled out of a side street right in front of me. I had time to stop because I could clearly see her not looking at me. Perhaps because I was using a lane for buses and bikes, and I wasn’t a bus.

When she sidsy-ed me I said that was because she hadn’t looked. She half-heartedly maintained she had, but she apologised again quite sincerely and said she’d be more careful in future.

Which, frankly, felt like a win.
What's so funny about peace, love and understanding?

spindrift

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20814 on: 30 July, 2019, 08:58:39 am »
1st pxxxxxxx for two years since I swapped to Michelin Pro Tecs, Andy fixed a new inner for a tenner and showed me the drawing pin that caused it. Not a normal cheap pin, a bit longer and thinner.

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20815 on: 31 July, 2019, 10:07:38 am »
Trying out new more open sandals but they were very cheap and they felt it this morn.

caerau

  • SR x 3 - PBP fail but 1090 km - hey - not too bad
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20816 on: 31 July, 2019, 03:13:41 pm »
Today, as I cycled down a residential street right near my house on the initial part of my normal commute - a road with parked cars on one side where I can just zoom through most of the time even with a car coming the other way - unless it's a very wide vehicle..... I encountered a.... (and this *is* rare on this road) - a BUS!  :jurek: :jurek: :jurek:


Darn it - I'll just have to slow down and let it through - harrumph.  Not the end of the world I suppose.


Only to find it slow down and flash to let me through first.  :D   As I gave him the thumbs up and a visible thank you - I received a cheery wave in return.




As I arrived at a traffic light later, the world returned to normal as a car overtook me only to immediately stop at the red light - but hey - I will not let the rarity and pleasure of the above event go unsaid!
It's a reverse Elvis thing.

Paul

  • L'enfer, c'est les autos.
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20817 on: 31 July, 2019, 10:36:09 pm »
Today I had an oncoming driver turn right across my path so precipitously that my braking resulted in a rear wheel skid. Better than a front wheel skid, I suppose.

Although it's the second one this week, for the sake of perspective, it's also only the second or third this year.

Rough week.
What's so funny about peace, love and understanding?

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20818 on: 06 August, 2019, 08:37:32 am »
After a long stretch of dry commutes (though there may have been 1 partly drizzly one last week), I found myself, already drenched, having to swerve sightly to avoid an empty can of Heineken and coke bottle bobbing towards me down the hill, atop an impromptu stream.

telstarbox

  • Loving the lanes
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20819 on: 19 August, 2019, 08:57:31 am »
When I got to the bottom of my road this morning a waiting police moto directed me to stop, and shortly afterwards one prime minister swept past in a blur of Land Rovers and blue lights.
2019 🏅 R1000 and B1000

ian

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20820 on: 19 August, 2019, 10:05:41 am »
Last week was mostly wet. So much for August.

Mostly amused watching the cars ignore no fewer than four ROAD CLOSED signs on the last section of my journey. Up the hill they go. A minute later, down they come. That's because ROAD CLOSED means just that.

ian

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20821 on: 21 August, 2019, 08:36:30 pm »
Bah, road no longer closed. It was quite nice. Kids on bikes. People on horses. Now back to rat-running cars and fly-tippers.

Saw an off on Kennington Road, chap beavering away into the ubiquitous south London headwind, speedy boy does the usual overtake with a millimetre to spare because he's in competing in the TdF dickhead edition or something. He clipped the guy's front wheel and sent him sprawling.

Anyway, other than cuts and bruises and one smashed phone, he seemed OK. Plenty of other cyclists stopped with the notable exception of the guy who knocked him off, who glanced over his shoulder and kept going. Nice.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20822 on: 21 August, 2019, 09:43:45 pm »
Ha, saw ian's post above and for a milisecond thought "I didn't know the Bath Road was closed." Then I realised that if it had been, ian wouldn't have been there anyway, and if he had been, it wouldn't have been the same Bath Road. Okay, you can all forget about that now.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

ian

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20823 on: 21 August, 2019, 10:18:21 pm »
I've no idea where Bath Road is. Somewhere near Bath would be my guess.

Anyway, I was talking about Old Lodge Lane, which is in fartherest parts of the London Borough of Croydon, where the inadequately socialised squirrels take over. The signs claimed it would be closed for 'approximately 4 weeks' from the 5th August. Approximately, indeed. It's a bit of a uphill clamber and there's a pub at the top (sadly, never the sort of artisan beer made by hipsters that I crave) or you can ride up and down the runaway of Kenley waiting for the MoD to arrest you. Which they never, ever do.

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #20824 on: 21 August, 2019, 10:23:31 pm »
I've no idea where Bath Road is. Somewhere near Bath would be my guess.


And you call yourself a londoner! Bath Rd = A4 through west london e.g Hounslow.