On the commute today

[LittleWheelsandBig]

The cold weather and general time off the bike since September is showing the expected effect. My commute is noticeably slower now. Oh well, at least resuming commuting means I won't be gaining too much weight over the next few months.

[matthew]

Me, the extra 10kg of ballast round my middle was too noticeable as was the 2 years of not regularly cycle commuting, however with the car OOS I was committed to cycling 11 miles to site. An hour of steady riding got me here though so all good.

[Joe.B]

I'm working away in Barrow-in-Furness this week and not being able to take another week in a Barrow hotel I've decided to stay 10 miles away in Ulverston and cycle in each day.  Unfortunatly I've picked the most stormy week so far this winter to do so. The ride in this morning zig-zagging along the country lanes was quite pleasent but on the return leg I've had one hek of a wet ride. Soaked doesn't really fully describe my condition on arrival back at the hotel, even my thus far reliable Seal Skinz gloves are completely water logged.

[mcshroom]

Yeah it's wet out there. An hour up the coast I've just swamped my radiator with wet cycling kit. Look after yourself tomorrow, it's forecast to be rather wild. There's always the train from Ulverston to Barrow and back if you're struggling. No reservations needed.

[markcjagar]

This morning; a dry, cold & mostly pleasant commute aside from 1 dickhead in a white van going straight from the right turn lane nearly taking me out in the process.

This evening; WET, cold & almost entirely filtering or drafting a bus up the bus lane for 2-3km. That and trying to move through junctions blocked by impatient idiots who don't seem to understand that by going when it turns green is a good idea if there's no where to go because all you do it clog the junction

[Joe.B]

Yeah it's wet out there. An hour up the coast I've just swamped my radiator with wet cycling kit. Look after yourself tomorrow, it's forecast to be rather wild. There's always the train from Ulverston to Barrow and back if you're struggling. No reservations needed.

I did consider bailing out onto the train as I cycled past the station but managed to stiffen my resolve and carry on.  Looking at the forecast though letting the train take the strain will probably be a sensible choice for tomorrow's return journey.

[DuncanM]

Rain and dark, seems to bring out the ninja cyclists (there ought to be an acronym like in the mortgage industry Ninja means No income, no job, (no) assets). One wearing black jacket and trousers, dark blue bike, no reflectors on the bike or lights of any kind, riding with his hood up. One, on a Brompton, which had reflectors but nothing else.
I'm not a hi-viz enthusiast, but the other cyclist/POB with no lights this morning was wearing something like an Altura Nevis, and they were much easier to spot than the other 2.

Obviously there were plenty of well lit cyclists, and the usual instances of idiotic driving as well... 

[Si S]

Yes I nearly collected a ninja this morning, although a stop at the lights revealed this one had lights, lots of them in fact, just none with any batteries in 

Now I have a bit of a reputation amongst my cycling workmates for what I term positive filtering but last night I encountered an e-biker on Kings Road, oh $deity that was scary stuff, in the space of a couple of hundred yards he bounced off the side of an estate car and WVM, dodged a little hatch crossing on the x-roads before disappearing off down the narrowest channel you've ever seen at warp factor R. Needless to say he was stuck at the lights outside Stretford Mall when I got there, lights changed and he underestimated the acceleration of the guy on a Boardman in front and nearly took his front wheel out after not quite completing the overtake before some more loony tunes filtering.

I'll be surprised if he's about to see Christmas.

The wind is making it hard work at the minute, although there's plenty of room in the bike shed.

[Feanor]

Tonight's ride home was proper Audax training, directly into the teeth of the Southerly wind and rain.

I've managed to use 3 pairs of socks on today's cycling, but I was prepared for that and had the requisite number to hand.

[rogerzilla]

It's gonna be mad tomorrow.  48mph gusts here and heavy rain.  Storm Diana.  I might take a bike with gears.

[ianrobo]

It's gonna be mad tomorrow.  48mph gusts here and heavy rain.  Storm Diana.  I might take a bike with gears.

ha ha I have been seeing that and fun may be an over used word but got to go to work right into the wind !!! I think it helps the fitness !!

[ianrobo]

Well this was a fun incident today on a major Island, I dread to think what would have happened if I had not anticipated what he was going to do

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6KppgzSK2I

[rogerzilla]

HGV drivers do that when I'm in the car.

[mcshroom]

Well the ride home was fun. I'll have a tailwind like that again

[ianrobo]

HGV drivers do that when I'm in the car.

yep so called professional drivers eh ?

[quixoticgeek]

Commuting at 2am in the rain for the first time was an interesting experience. On the whole, there's a lot less cyclists on the road. But the number with lights was well under half. For the most part I could only see them because of their pedal reflectors being visible in the beam of my front light. One bike, which had a rider plus pillion, I only spotted because they went past a light and the brief obfuscation of the light showed them up.

Had mostly orange flashing lights for the journey, tho near Leidseplien, even tho I pressed the button, the junction went through 2 complete cycles before I concluded the button didn't work, so just decided to jump the red light when it was clear.

J

[Si S]

Well the ride home was fun. I'll have a tailwind like that again

In the nicest possible way - Git!

Yesterday morning SE=crosshead, last night SW=crosshead, this morning SE=crosshead, can you guess what tonight's forecast is?

Whatever it is I did or said Aeolus, I'm sorry.

[Paul]

Another hard grind (south) in today. Looking forward to another flight home again tonight.

[rogerzilla]

Grind in, not much of a tailwind home.  It eased off around lunchtime.

[hatler]

Is it ever thus ?

[Si S]

Woo, the wind failed to complete it's shift yesterday so pure cross and I got a tow most of the way off a very generous mate who took pity on the poor fat overdressed hippy.

Nice ride in today, cross tail and a lovely false dawn, I'm working tomorrow and may consider the cage given the forecast and total absence of trains all day  but I always feel guilty driving into the city 

[Paul]

Not me, and not today, but an interesting story.

Yesterday, my colleague was driving to work when she was involved in a collision.

She was on a country road just wide enough for two vehicles to pass each other. As she approached the brow of a hill a car coming from the other direction pulled out to overtake a cyclist.

There was no way that the manoeuvre could be completed safely without one or other party changing speed or direction.

My colleague braked hard, allowing the oncoming car to complete the overtake. The car behind my colleague’s didn’t stop in time and hit the back of her car.

Neither the oncoming car nor the cyclist stopped.

My colleague (who sometimes cycles but never to commute) seemed more surprised by the fact that the cyclist, as opposed to the driver, hadn’t stopped. So much so that I had to check with her that she held the driver to blame. She said that she did, but she couldn’t believe that the cyclist hadn’t stopped to check that she and the 3rd driver were okay.

I pointed out that the driver whose fault it seemed to be hadn’t stopped, and speculated that the cyclist (aside from having no duty to stop) might have been in a bit of a state about the whole thing. You know, having just dodged a bullet, and might not have been thinking about anyone else immediately, but she seemed focused on the cyclist. She mentioned that she often sees this cyclist, that she doesn’t have any lights on her bike (visibility wasn’t an issue: I checked), and rides with “her coat flapping around”.

I was very surprised. This colleague is a fantastic person and a friend. She might have been in shock. I did ask and she said she was fine, but you don’t know.

It might also be that she identified more with the cyclist than the driver, which might explain why she was more surprised by the cyclist’s ‘failure’ to behave as she would have done, than the other driver’s failure to do so.

But still, it has left me uneasy. If my otherwise reasonable friend is able, apparently, to find a degree of fault in the cyclist’s behaviour in this scenario, what hope for us as cyclists at large?

[pumpkin]

But did the cyclist have a helmet? But really the car that hit was to blame. she could have seen something in the road forcing her to brake suddenly. The person who went into her should (as we all do) left sufficient space to allow for such an incident

[Kim]

As a cyclist, I'm happy to stop at the scene of a collision if someone is injured, or to lend a hand pushing a broken-down car out of the way, I'm much less inclined to delay myself and/or hang around in the cold just for the benefit of drivers who've failed to control their cars properly.  Particularly if there's a risk that said drivers might blame me for their incident, because BloodyCyclists.

I can see how your colleague would see the cyclist as a strong independent witness to the event, thobut.  Hopefully a rear-end collision is unambiguous enough that it doesn't matter.

[ian]

As a cyclist, I'm happy to stop at the scene of a collision if someone is injured, or to lend a hand pushing a broken-down car out of the way, I'm much less inclined to delay myself and/or hang around in the cold just for the benefit of drivers who've failed to control their cars properly.  Particularly if there's a risk that said drivers might blame me for their incident, because BloodyCyclists.

I can see how your colleague would see the cyclist as a strong independent witness to the event, thobut.  Hopefully a rear-end collision is unambiguous enough that it doesn't matter.

This bit really, car drivers do have a habit of blaming the obstacle (as they see it) for their own stupidity. There's no value sticking around if it's a minor prang that the drivers can't sort out for themselves (they got themselves into the predicament in the first place).