Utilitarian Adventures

[ian]

I wouldn't bother. CS7 is no different other than the paint (actually I'd say far worse) than the A23 which is my standard route in and out of London (at least the A23 is wider and has fewer nasty junctions). I've no idea what the point of creating a cycle lane that doubles as parking is. As a regular London cyclist my expectations have been abraded to the point where it just passes me by, but yeah, as a non-regular cyclist she summed it up. It's not the kind of facility that would have neophytes hopping on their bikes for a ride. As a bonus at at commuter o'clock, it's full of lycra boys doing strava segments.

At least we got to bumble along the Wandle eating flies afterwards and stopped for a beer in Carshalton.

[hatler]

Out with Chris L to a pub in Clapham for the evening. Wot a great bike he has. Front wheel is a drum braked SA dynamo hub, and rear wheel is a back pedalling brake two speed SA where you change gear by pedalling slightly backwards.

[Si S]

Return from abandoning the car in Eccles since some **** has cross threaded the wheel nut

[Pancho]

Return from abandoning the car in Eccles since some **** has cross threaded the wheel nut

Do you always carry a bike, lifeboat-style?

[Si S]

Return from abandoning the car in Eccles since some **** has cross threaded the wheel nut

Do you always carry a bike, lifeboat-style?

That was the point of this journey but I'm actually struggling to remember when I last time I drove the car without a bike on the roof

[Pancho]

Nothing much to report this last couple of weeks. Just a couple of runs into the village for milk.

Am currently trying to persuade youngest daughter to cycle to her Cross Fit thing rather than expect Mrs P to drive her there. It's 5 miles away (and 50 meters of climbing) so should be easy. It's just a mind set thing.

[Jakob W]

Sell it as a nice gentle warm up/cool down?

Currently have not been doing any cycling because of twisted ankle, boo, but am hoping to take a load of cardboard etc to the tip this afternoon on the bakfiets. There are big signs at the entrance proclaiming no entry on foot, so am mildly curious what the reaction to a bike will be...

[Jakob W]

Last-minute request to play the hymns at the Methodist church, so I got the Dutch bike out of the shed and pumped up the tyres for the mile across town. My dodgy foot was fine, but with a couple of weeks off the bike the lack of fitness was noticeable. I've only ridden the bakfiets (with toddler load) recently, and the bike felt surprisingly twitchy; given it's a roadster with angles as slack as a slack thingy I can only imagine what the road bike's going to feel like when I get it built up again...

[mcshroom]

I couldn't find my Hay fever tablets this morning, so at lunch I just rode to the new Coop in Seascale. It's about 7 miles round trip, and the weather is glorious out there

I grabbed some lunch at the same time and ate sat on a bench looking towards Wasdale. I might need to do this more often

[Jakob W]

Finally got round to taking a bakfiets-load of cardboard and other junk to the recycling centre - a lovely day for it.

[Samuel D]

So how did they react to a bakfiets showing up?

I’m just back from a long weekend in Amsterdam, and those things were everywhere! As for the cycling infrastructure, wow. It takes the adventure clean out of utilitarian cycling. And now I want an opafiets badly.

[Jakob W]

Benign indifference, mainly - the staff looked liked they'd seen it all before, though there was the odd bemused look from the other punters.

[Pancho]

In there are my swimmers, towel, and a book. Overkill? Maybe - but I had some off road trailer fun.




Actually I'm on the beach right now. Got it all to myself due to falling in the intersect of the sets Not_At_Work, Don't_Need_Car_Access, and Disbelief_In_Forecasts_of_Rain.

[Jakob W]

My regular 25 miles in the bakfiets to twins club and back, and got a lot of love for the bike today. On the way back I parked up for groceries; returning to the bike I saw a bloke taking a close interest. Propped up next to him was a Dawes Ultra Galaxy with a Brooks and CTC/AUK mudguard stickers. Chatted a bit, then I headed back home. The name on the bike said Dave Frost - is he OTP? Waiting for a crossing close to home a guy on the other side of the road did a comical double-take and pulled out his phone for a photo. Pulled up and had a chat - turns out he'd never seen a box bike in the flesh, though he'd been a keen touring cyclist with a brace of Thorns in the shed. Nice day for a ride - warm but overcast enough I didn't have to worry about sun exposure.

[Pancho]

Edited the previous post so the picture now displays.

Ah, what a great, great day. Or, afternoon at least. The morning I spent finding a new computer (well, second hand refurbed) for my daughter as hers seems to have succumbed to an austere life in the jungle.

But, after lunch, I thought "sod it, I'm going swimming". And I thought I'd try the trailer out - I've switched the hitch to the tourer.

About 3, maybe 4 miles each way - 50% (in distance, more in time) of which is farm tracks or gravel paths. Some was a bit narrow:



On the way back, I managed to ride through - albeit very slowly!

And then I had the beach to myself:



Then I lounged, read a book, had a swim, and generally enjoyed the solitude and the sun. I know it's a Health and Safety no-no, but I love swimming alone.

Then back on the bike to ride home. I was still a bit damp so am hoping that I haven't damaged the Brooks with a combo of salt water and sun.



Trailer was ace. I'd forgotten how much clearance drivers give you when you've got an ungainly contraption of Chinese metalwork behind you. Maybe I should keep it on permanently! Trailer even coped with narrow tracks with vegetation to either side. No idea where the wheels tracked, though. Was expecting to be pulled up short at any moment.

Brilliant utilitarian ride to the beach! A proper utilitarian adventure.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Looks like you could do with a single-wheel trailer for those gates and narrow gaps. But I've no experience of them, so maybe it wouldn't make much difference.

[jsabine]

I'm not sure it counts as strictly utilitarian when you clearly took the trailer purely for the LOLs.

[Pancho]

I'm not sure it counts as strictly utilitarian when you clearly took the trailer purely for the LOLs.

I think, if you look at the Thread Rules (specifically, Subsection 18 (Luggage), Paragraph 18.2, Clause 9b), this ride qualifies under "panniers, barbags, and other luggage related accoutrements are permitted regardless of utilisation of potential capacity".

 

[tom_e]

I reckon it's the best way for utility - take a decent pannier/trailer, just throw in what you need.  If your plans change, you're ready. 

Some people take an entire car with them everywhere you know.

[Cudzoziemiec]

  at tom_e. But it's also a good point as well as being funny!

[Pancho]

To the beach again. Just me, my swimming trunks, and a book. No trailer this time!

Glorious ride with nothing much to report - except I possibly saw an adder slither across my path. But maybe it was just a shadow.

Slightly different route today - precisely 6 miles total. Which is perfect for a utility trip, IMO.

Had a super swim - just 20 minutes of up and down parallel with the water's edge. Pretty calm water but pretty chilly as well. But that's just me being unacclimatised - Bramblemet tells me it's 16.5 degrees today - which is higher than the seasonal average by a couple of degrees (but I don't know where averages are measured).

Didn't we have a thread about the stinking yuk that ships use as bunkers? Saw this en route which illustrates it rather well.

All, in all, another great utility ride.

[Jakob W]

Don't they have to use cleaner stuff in European waters?

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Yup but low sulphur fuel doesn't necessarily reduce exhaust smoke.

[Pancho]

(My sincere apologies to people without beaches and who's utility trips involve grim A roads rather than gravel tracks)

Sorry. Beach again. This time with Mrs P and a trailer full of beach stuff. Bit cooler today but still a nice day out and a nice ride.

Saw about six other cyclists - two on the beach and, on the road, only one lycra type.

[Mr Larrington]

Appointment at the retinopathy clinic this afternoon, which The Man has moved from On Top Of A Hill.  On the one hand, there is a bus from as near as makes no odds right outside Larrington Towers to within three minutes walk of the place.  TfL say it will take forty minutes.  This statement probably contains more than just trace quantities of Lie.

Or there are bicycles in the Sheds.  TfL say it will take eleven minutes.  Pump up tyres of Towpath Bike (unridden for nine months) and trundle off into the balmy oxides of nitrogen that pass for the atmostale in London Town Devine on a sunny day.  Palmerston Road is gridlocked.  Selborne Road is gridlocked.  Hoe Street, to no-one's great surprise, is gridlocked.  And, mirabile dictu, the Leyton High Road is, er, gridlocked.

And the same on the way back.  If I'd gone on the bus, which takes the same route, I'd have been about an hour late for the appointment.  OK, so it wouldn't have been a Proper Londonton Ride without the attempted left-hook by an indicator-free WVM, but I got to call him a fucknugget so honour was satisfied.