On the commute today

[FyPuNK]

Last night journey was tops, we finish our clinic at 7pm, by this time the roads were clear of metal boxes, been gritted (well upto Blackpool) and the road was clear of ice, it was the first time this year I have been able to clip in all the way and plod along at 24kph.
This morning and the prats are back out, inpatient as ever and normality has returned!

[cyclone]

What a difference a set of knobblies makes! Slow but super stable with loadsa traction - Now all I have to do is get used to the mtb riding position as everything was seizing up (not as fkexible as I was 15 years ago 

[clarion]

Cor, that was icy in places!

And slow.  A bitter headwind.  Not hard, but just a constant, freezing resistance like pushing a block of ice.  My legs are knackered after a longish lay-off over Christmas straight back into an icy Full House this week.

But I'm here.  I'm a wee bit late for work, cause I woke up late and over-faffed.  I realised as I got moving that this was all subconscious, and I was just avoidig setting off in the dark.

And I have the rare delight of London's extra maggoty warmth and high levels of gritting allowing me to creep temporarily into the club top 5 on Bikejournal.   

[matthew]

Trains suspended on the branch line to the office, and my normal route of A30 - A325 being singletrack in each direction through the snow I bottled it and dug out the car this morning. 

A30 - A322 - M3 all clear and flowwing well provided you remained in the wheel tracks.

[Wascally Weasel]

And I have the rare delight of London's extra maggoty warmth and high levels of gritting allowing me to creep temporarily into the club top 5 on Bikejournal.   

I hope you enjoyed your brief stint there 

I too am enjoying my brief sojourn at an unaccustomed place in the table.

[Jacomus]

Cor, that was icy in places!

And slow.  A bitter headwind.  Not hard, but just a constant, freezing resistance like pushing a block of ice.  My legs are knackered after a longish lay-off over Christmas straight back into an icy Full House this week.

But I'm here.  I'm a wee bit late for work, cause I woke up late and over-faffed.  I realised as I got moving that this was all subconscious, and I was just avoidig setting off in the dark.

And I have the rare delight of London's extra maggoty warmth and high levels of gritting allowing me to creep temporarily into the club top 5 on Bikejournal.   

That headwind was a killer, absolutely horrible to cycle into

Not to much driver idiocy this morning, which was pleasant.

Again though, I'm not looking forward to the ride home this evening - I was a nervous wreck last night. Hopefully tonight should be better, but I'm already on edge about it.

[clarion]

Not too much driver idiocy?

Your batch must have been diverted to the A3!  The first motorist I encountered came within a squeak of dooring me.  Fortunately, I was travelling very slowly.  Then there was a whole battalion of motons who think that squeezing past with oncoming traffic, leaving me just inches to spare, is a great idea in icy conditions.  Cabs swerving in front & U-turning, Police swerving into the Bus Lane without looking, and (different vehicle), abruptly swinging across the road for an unsignalled 3pt turn - neither responding to emergencies.  Oh crikey, there were so many more... Numpties, the lot of them.

[FyPuNK]

I have just spoke to Brian, he works at our other practice in Cleveleys, he was telling me up there he has had nothing but abuse from motons, verbal abuse, aggressive driving etc, bit different to the south of the Fylde coast.

[geoff]

here in Oxford, quiet roads, polite drivers and ice on all the lanes homewards. Zen


(In by MTB across the fields in 20 cm of snow yesterday...v. hard work but I only fell off once)

[domesticated ape]

I've had three snowy commutes this week, went in on Wednesday through deep snow, the only people who made it into work who don't live within walking distance were me and one other who also biked (both about 12 mile commutes).
Back from work on Wednesday I did half bike half train and only went on main roads so that wasn't too hard, had to wait ages for the train though.
Rode in again yesterday, tried to ride as much as possible despite being on country lanes that resembled ski runs for about half the journey! Then got a lift back with someone cos I was feeling knackered by the end of the day. Only had one unplanned dismount out of the three journeys, and I hopped off and stayed on my feet when the bike went down.
It's been hard but pretty fun, hopefully I'll manage to get back out on the bike this weekend for a bit more snow-riding!

[coll_coll]

Ipswich, outbound Woodbridge Road just past Kesgrave school - abuse from passing Galaxy - probably passenger. Caught up (!) with them moved alongside (nearside) whilst stationery at pedestrian lights to advise passenger that the highway code means I can use the gritted road rather than the 3+ inch snow covered cycle path (crossing multiple side roads with inherent crossing traffic hazard);

and galaxy pulls away and sharply to the left impacting me (slush ice snow dark)... I stay up, note number - now waiting for call back from a police officer (rather than the civilian assistant who just called asking if i wanted to see a police officer ?!)

ffs

[clarion]

Zoomed home.  Well, not quite, but it felt like it, with a bit of a tailwind, and the roads relatively clear.  One of those times when, though the legs are definitely feeling 'Friday', they just keep moving like a metronome, almost by themselves, and you're taken along for the ride, able to just enjoy gliding homeward.

Got left-hooked in the same place (Walworth Road Roundabout) for the third day running, though.

[peliroja]

Intimidated by a bully of a policeman today, sitting squarely in his car in an ASL box. Bloody Met. 

[longers]

Todays commute was lovely and quiet. Better than Fridays where two bits of driving had me in fear of my life    
a bit worried.

I left 10 minutes later than normal and the sun was on its way up by the time I got here  

And I was wearing the overgloves recommended upthread by MrCharly. Toasty! Thanks for that.

And it's snowing again.

[FyPuNK]

Really nice quiet ride in today, dusting of fresh snow on the ground.

[clarion]

Last night's snow barely evident on the roads today.  What there was was a whole towering scrapheap of cars with drivers who seem to have forgotten how to drive during their enforced lay-off.

But it was a good ride nonetheless.

[MattH]

Not a very nice ride in today  Our road has gone from hard packed snow - which was rideable with care - to moderately hard with uneven ice beneath. The tyres bite down into the snow, whihc is hard enough to be difficult to ride forwards through, hit the ice and divert you into random directions. It takes some bike-ninja skills to keep upright, but it'd take forever to push the bike down the footpath, which still has quite deep snow. Lots of like-a-bike style pushing it along.

The main road was reasonably clear, but only one lane all the way up the A30. Many more people were out today and driving much faster, so holding them up became more of an issue. A nice bit of wheel spinny black ice up to the big roundabout between the Basingstoke ring road and the A33 added to the fun.

Then, arriving at work, the car park had been cleared over the weekend by the business park landlord (on Friday they had only cleared the roads through the car park, meaning that as soon as anyone pulled into a parking space they were stuck). Of course all that snow has to go somewhere, so there are huge piles of it around the carpark, and a small pile that has to be crossed by bikes getting into the bike shed. None of the footpaths around the bike shed area have been cleared either.

It was still better than driving in 

[Wendy]

Gutted - I've got a chest lurgy that won't shift, and couldn't work yesterday anyway due to the snow.

[Russell]

Had to walk the bike to the road at the bottom of our road then the conditions were slushy but ridable (thin tyred folder) the long way round to the A325 which was fine but I kept out of the gutter by a long way.  Trains packed but running on time then roads through Surbtion, Kingston, RP and Kew were fine but the traffic was very heavy!

Got quite warm, overdressed I think!

[hatler]

My first ride to work since Dec 14th. (Lay-off was not weather induced.)

Roads between Raynes Park and Sunbury almost completely clear of slush/ice.

Too warm with skull cap, longs, two l/s jerseys and gloves.

Nice to know that a near one month lay off hasn't resulted in my becoming either too unfit or too porky.

[PaulF]

On the way home:

*     My spongegrip failed

*     Batteries ran out in both front lights

*     Yards from home I nearly skidded into a parked car. My car At least the experience I got from blasting along on the hardpacked snow on my mtb were put into practise

[clarion]

I've had two sets of batteries give out today   Can't believe that the Duracell rechargables didn't manage more than an hour

[mrcharly-YHT]

Roads mostly clear, York to Leeds. Verges and hard shoulders still covered with ice and snow, so I'm sticking to the back roads. That's nice, but it's 3 miles further. The icy drizzle ain't all that pleasant either.
Shedloads of people commuting in cars. Busiest I've seen it in years.

[Paul D]

I pass a young bloke on an old MTB most mornings (a surprising occurance for darkest Dorset). He's either pretty keen or, more likely, has to get to his job 6 miles away but doesn't have a car. Public transport is a bit like magic round here - it might exist but nobody has actually seen any to confirm or deny it.

This morning he hadn't got a (working) rear light, which after our usual "Morning" exchange I mentioned to him. I offered my clip-on light off the back of my bag. He declined. "I'm only going to Winterborne Kingston" he said. Yeah, at 7am, on a fast, dark A road. But no, he definately didn't want the light. I did the rest of my commute wondering how I'd feel if he got knocked off.  

[urban_biker]

I pass a young bloke on an old MTB most mornings (a surprising occurance for darkest Dorset). He's either pretty keen or, more likely, has to get to his job 6 miles away but doesn't have a car. Public transport is a bit like magic round here - it might exist but nobody has actually seen any to confirm or deny it.

This morning he hadn't got a (working) rear light, which after our usual "Morning" exchange I mentioned to him. I offered my clip-on light off the back of my bag. He declined. "I'm only going to Winterborne Kingston" he said. Yeah, at 7am, on a fast, dark A road. But no, he definately didn't want the light. I did the rest of my commute wondering how I'd feel if he got knocked off. 

You should have pushed him off and held him down forceably while you attached your spare rear light to his bike. Or , maybe not