Author Topic: On the commute today  (Read 2461807 times)

Basil

  • Um....err......oh bugger!
  • Help me!
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #875 on: 16 March, 2010, 12:30:39 pm »
Actually, I've been thinking about this.

People actually getting out of cars to ask if I’m OK? – Check

Are people more likely to show friendly concern only when an "off" is obviously caused by a cyclist's own numptiness?
Certainly different to when I was sitting in the road after a high speed (downhill) left hook.  On that occasion I was hooted at for reclining in the road.  ???
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #876 on: 16 March, 2010, 12:35:40 pm »
I think so yes.
Getting there...

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #877 on: 16 March, 2010, 12:36:21 pm »
Worth £250 if you can get it on video.   :thumbsup:
Quote from: Marbeaux
Have given this a great deal of thought and decided not to contribute to any further Threads for the time being.
POTD. (decade) :thumbsup:

vorsprung

  • Opposites Attract
    • Audaxing
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #878 on: 16 March, 2010, 12:39:45 pm »
Oooh bummer Butterfly and vorsprung.

Vorsprung, I hope you got the reg and complained? 

No, i was too steamed up and pumped at catching the bus.  After I overtook it I couldn't be bothered stopping and trying to memorize it.

Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #879 on: 16 March, 2010, 06:26:55 pm »
The sofa is gone from the burn, but the path is strewn with dead Christmas trees. Well, there was only one, and I moved it. But still.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


clarion

  • Tyke
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #880 on: 17 March, 2010, 09:55:19 am »
First ride of the summer! :thumbsup:

Sunshine, dry roads, lots of cyclists. 

Very fast (for me) - 23.3kph average, and 53 mins door to door.  I spent a lot of time riding faster than 30kph, which hasn't been happening for months.

I can still feel it in my legs nearly 50mins after I stopped.

Yes, there were complete imbeciles behind steering wheels as usual, but they're going to get themselves killed or maimed soon anyway.  I just don't want to be part of their 'accident'.


Second summer ride!  24.8kph average and 51mins door to door. Riding bicycles is fun :thumbsup:

I wonder what I could manage if I wasn't riding a tourer with full racks?*




* Experience shows I do about the same times, whether on my tourer, my fixed or my road bike.  This morning, I wasn't carrying a lock, as I'd loaned that to Superstoker, and had a 6mph tailwind[/url]
Getting there...

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #881 on: 17 March, 2010, 10:41:47 am »
Actually, I've been thinking about this.

People actually getting out of cars to ask if I’m OK? – Check

Are people more likely to show friendly concern only when an "off" is obviously caused by a cyclist's own numptiness?


IME no. Both of my last two crashes have been skids, no one else involved. Both times following motorists stopped and asked if I was OK. My BOG crash in 07, a young chap took my mate and our two bikes to his friends house where he left them before delivering my mate to hospital where the ambulance took me. Immediately after my last crash, the third motorist to ask if I was OK offered me a lift.

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #882 on: 17 March, 2010, 11:57:00 am »
It was a nice commute for me, slightly marred by a couple of events.

At this junction, another cyclist shouted at a car driver for being in the advanced stop area (actually he was well over the more advanced stop line as well).  This caused him to turn into the classic apoplectic, "Come here and say that" raving driver.  I might have had some more sympathy for the cyclist, except that he was cycling across the pedestrian crossing part of the junction, and as guilty of breaking the law as the driver. :-\  Of course the driver continued to shout out the window, even when the lights had turned green, until the drivers behind him started using their horns.

Later on, crossing Clapham Common, I almost got hit by another cyclist who was so engrossed in his mobile phone, that he was making no effort to actually watch where he was going.  When I shouted out something like "Careful!" he almost came off, with a very alarming wobble and apologetic "Sorry".  If it's that important, why not stop and use the phone?  It wasn't as though he was belting across town to a meeting, he was bimbling across Clapham Common in jeans and t-shirt.  Stopping on the cycle path wouldn't have blocked anyone, and would have been a lot safer than the erratic wobble back and forth across the path.  This wasn't your typical teenager with a mobile phone stuck to the side of their head, this was a late 40s, early 50s bloke on a reasonable looking dropped handlebar bike.

All that aside, the weather was very pleasant this morning.  Mild and dry, with little wind.
Actually, it is rocket science.
 

Regulator

  • That's Councillor Regulator to you...
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #883 on: 17 March, 2010, 11:59:13 am »
Nice commute in this morning, despite an alarming rise in the number of frog corpses...
Quote from: clarion
I completely agree with Reg.

Green Party Councillor

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #884 on: 17 March, 2010, 12:00:35 pm »
Nice commute in this morning, despite an alarming rise in the number of frog corpses...

Agincourt?
Quote from: Marbeaux
Have given this a great deal of thought and decided not to contribute to any further Threads for the time being.
POTD. (decade) :thumbsup:

jogler

  • mojo operandi
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #885 on: 17 March, 2010, 01:17:22 pm »
Nice commute in this morning, despite an alarming rise in the number of frog corpses...

Agincourt?

PMSL

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #886 on: 17 March, 2010, 01:20:53 pm »
More likely Cressy.
Getting there...

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #887 on: 17 March, 2010, 02:37:55 pm »
My first ever train assisted folder commute today :D. It was lovely, but I don't fancy carrying the Dahon down station steps regularly. The ticket guard at the staion was mightily impressed though 'A bike in a bag, I've never seen anything like it - that's amazing!' :D
Quote from: Kim
^ This woman knows what she's talking about.

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #888 on: 17 March, 2010, 02:40:46 pm »
My first ever train assisted folder commute today :D. It was lovely, but I don't fancy carrying the Dahon down station steps regularly. The ticket guard at the staion was mightily impressed though 'A bike in a bag, I've never seen anything like it - that's amazing!' :D

Long may it stay that way.  :thumbsup:
Quote from: Marbeaux
Have given this a great deal of thought and decided not to contribute to any further Threads for the time being.
POTD. (decade) :thumbsup:

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #889 on: 17 March, 2010, 02:41:11 pm »
:thumbsup: Best to plan your stations carefully for flat ones, eh? :)
Getting there...

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #890 on: 17 March, 2010, 02:42:52 pm »
:thumbsup: Best to plan your stations carefully for flat ones, eh? :)
If you could just have a word with Southern then - it's easier said than done ;D.
Quote from: Kim
^ This woman knows what she's talking about.

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #891 on: 17 March, 2010, 02:48:03 pm »
I'm sure they'd be happy to co-operate.  You know their customer service policy - Nothing's too much trouble (except running trains on time, or at all, or informing passengers, or keeping their stations up to date).
Getting there...

Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #892 on: 17 March, 2010, 08:41:24 pm »
The Christmas tree I threw across the park last night was this evening upright by the side of the path. I really hope someone put it there and it's not that it's come alive. And there was a lone bagpiper piping at the bottom of the tunnel.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


CrinklyLion

  • The one with devious, cake-pushing ways....
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #893 on: 17 March, 2010, 10:05:46 pm »
I had a lovely commute today.  Around 10 miles round trip, nice weather, reasonably nice routes, sensible dog-walkers bringing their dogs to heel when they saw me coming on the shared use path, bit if pleasant country lane, most of the pot holes have been temporarily patched and I spotted the remainder in plenty of time, bike ran really sweetly and (with the exception on a knobinnavan who tried to reverse out over me) lots of smily happy people in steel boxes who mostly gave me space.  I even got a few 'thank you' waves; one was when I indicated really early so that the person in the car knew I was turning left and they could get out of the side street - it was nice to see a driver giving someone on a bike a big grin and a thumbs up.  I even had a reasonably productive day at work too!  I need to ride my bike more - it makes for a much happier CrinklyLion.

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #894 on: 17 March, 2010, 10:40:40 pm »
A spoke broke on the way in. The cones unwound themselves, despite tightening to within a whisker of thread-shearing (maybe the bent axle has something do with it?).

So I road home very gently.  ::-)
<i>Marmite slave</i>

rower40

  • Not my boat. Now sold.
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #895 on: 17 March, 2010, 11:07:00 pm »
Side-road entering from the left, about 4 car-lengths back from a set of traffic lights.  3rd vehicle back in queue at lights is a bus.  Cars turning right out of side road cannot look to their left, as all they can see is the back of the bus.

So I stopped just before the side-road junction, where I could see the (lack of) traffic hidden by the bus, and waved 1 car into, and about 5 cars out of, the side road while the lights were still red.  I got one or two thank-you waves.
Be Naughty; save Santa a trip

Gandalf

  • Each snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #896 on: 18 March, 2010, 06:32:20 am »
I don't think I'll be going home via the park again. 

Despite the signs clearly stating that the paths are for shared use and would everyone please be nice the twuntery, mostly from dog walkers, is too much.  A couple of times I've actualy come to a complete stop to see if they'd take the hint.

Steve GT

  • Crediamo in te, bici!
Re: On the commute today
« Reply #897 on: 18 March, 2010, 07:16:10 am »
After 2 months of commuting in sub zero temperatures, last nights ride back to the apartment with the temperature at +3c felt almost tropical!

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #898 on: 18 March, 2010, 08:27:59 am »
Nice commute in this morning, despite an alarming rise in the number of frog corpses...

Re: On the commute today
« Reply #899 on: 18 March, 2010, 09:15:36 am »
Taxi drivers being very nice at the moment; pulling over so I can filter down the middle easily, and an oncoming one stopping and giving way to me when there wasn't enough room due to parked cars. They got a smile and a wave. Must be the weather.

It just about cancels out the incident that had me chasing the bus driver down, placing myself and the bike in front on the bus and kindly informing him (albeit in a loud screeching tone - those who have been offroading with me will know it) exactly why what he had done was wrong while he tried to pretend I wasn't there. But I'm trying not to rant about that any more, because most bus drivers are ok on my route.