On the commute today

[Pingu]

Beautiful morning today. Took a longer route in to be in the sunshine for longer. Some icy patches.

Were you affected by the snowpocalypse earlier in the week?

[Si S]

First one this week due to lurgy, not held onto food for best part of 5 days, so very weak into the wind, over an hour to get in.

[clarion]

Will this wind be so mighty as to lay low the mountains of the earth?

Bit like riding into a brick wall for three quarters of an hour.  Legs kept begging for mercy.

[sg37409]

Beautiful morning today. Took a longer route in to be in the sunshine for longer. Some icy patches.

Were you affected by the snowpocalypse earlier in the week?

Only in as much as I chickened out and worked from home. Caught up on my quota of soakings later in the week.   Weather looks settled for the weekend, but my mums coming to stay for the weekend, so cant bvgger off the whole of sunday (mothers day) morning. Need to be back early for lunch.

[CrinklyLion]

On the way there.. spring!  Sunshine!  Daffodils! An knee that didn't really hurt much for the first time in weeks!  Hurrah.

Then on the way home that back end got suddenly suspiciously bumpy.  On a blind corner with nowhere to pull over - no pavement, not even a verge at that spot - and a load of vehicles right up behind.  Managed to get around one more bend in the road and scramble onto the muddy grass to check. A visitation.  Bah.  There then followed by a 3 mile tramp homewards, pushing a sturdy hybrid with two reasonably full panniers, while making phone calls to organise Cub stuff that I wasn't going to be back in time for.

And now my knee hurts again.

[Si S]

Dark again  When inspecting the front tyre on the commuter, they're not supposed to have right angles in them are they?, I managed to drop my rear light and it shattered, not the best start to the week.

[clarion]

Friday legs.

And headwind.

Well, Friday body, really :/

[TimO]

Dark again  ...

Me too!

Last Thursday	This morning

It'll be almost a month before sunrise is back to the same time as last week!

[Feanor]

We've got that 'clear skies' problem here in the Frozen North.
That means it's cold enough for frost before the sun comes up and so barely above freezing for the ride in, and then double figures tropical temperature on the ride home.

Check the temperature profile:
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1643249848

ETA:
I think with a bit of work, I could make my commute tracklog look like a Narwhal.

[Ham]

Not sure I like that cliff you ride off at 38:45, but if it's all in the name of art, that's OK.

[fuzzy]

First naked knees ride of the year on the way home last night

[Si S]

An armwarmers and gilet day, coupled with a nice tailwind blat up Chorlton Road meant a good commute. 

[clarion]

Good ride, marred only by a pass so close by a scaff lorry that the passenger had to look out of the window to call if they were 'clear'.

They were clear.  Waaaaay too close.  But they weren't actually touching.

[DuncanM]

Yesterday, on the commute home, I was just cruising because there was a headwind, so I thought I'd ride on the cycle path around Abingdon. First junction I came to there was nothing coming initially, so I didn't slow enough - then a car appeared and I had to emergency stop.  They stopped too, but it was clearly their right of way. The good news is that my brakes were very effective, and I've been reminded that riding on a cyclepath means you have to go slowly. The bad news is that it means that cyclepath is completely useless for me! And that I was a dope for trying to ride there in the first place without slowing at the junction. 

And then I got to Southfield Road in Oxford (what passes for a steep hill in those parts), I stopped to let a car coming the other way come through (parking as traffic calming). A Mk2 golf came straight past me and meant that the whole circumstance turned into a huge jam! And then he and the Golf in front of that proceeded up the hill really slowly, meaning I had to stop 3 times and breath his petrol fumes (need to adjust the carb a bit) all the way up.

[TheLurker]

Dunc.  Was that run on the new Cube?

Ugh.  Oil seed rape season has started.  From nought to a chokingly sweet emetic miasma in under a week.  Got weeks and weeks of it now.  Damned stuff should be napalmed into oblivion.

[andyoxon]

Nice and warm.  Headwind out, but... fastest ever on the way back, but there was a decent tailwind, and I had someone doing a fair old pace to draft for quite a bit.

[DuncanM]

Dunc.  Was that run on the new Cube?

Yes, I'm commuting on Wednesdays on the Cube. Keeping it all very lightweight - just carrying tools/tubes/waterproof and glasses. I think the Cube is the only bike I've been riding this year!
Cheers
Duncan

[Si S]

It appears to be left hook Friday, I'm still not quite sure how I managed to avoid the third one.

[caerau]

Sad but true, it seems that the terrible news on Friday has got me thinking proper about cycling again - at last - and although I have never stopped commuting - that's been about it for nearly a year now.  So I gave the bike a lovely clean at the weekend  - combined with wanting to find out why it's been behaving a bit oddly recently - I had dark thoughts of a frame crack as it's felt unstable at the back on the occasion.


So anyway, couldn't find anything obvious wrong - certainly not with the frame and so I took it out on a 12 mile commute this morning down the Ely trail in Cardiff and across the Bay.  Glorious weather.


All was excellent, except for my fitness level, until.... er.... the crank fell off just as I was approaching the Principality Stadium.   


Got it back on but I've lost the end cap for the Hollowtech II crank.  Splines seem OK so I guess it's just a case of getting a new one.  That explains the weird behaviour then.  Knew something was up.

[rogerzilla]

Rode the MTB (Kona Conder Cone) to work since I've fixed the brakes.  Rediscovered the pleasure of jumping off kerbs.  And some little kids said "look at the way that bike's going!" 

[Si S]

Got some legs today, must have been a tailwind

[Tim Hall]

Late start (tarried a while in my scratcher), but school holiday traffic levels and meant I got in on time.  Come to change into "normal" clothes and find I've forgotten my socks, so I'm sporting Altura Coolmax, in white, as I mince around the office.  Not too much of an issue.  Finding I left my shreddies at home as well was more of a bother.

[Nuncio]

I have my own new bike shed (for the time-being, at least)

[sg37409]

A lot of our bike parking is taken up with people using it as a garage. Annoying as more and more of the "good spaces" are taken by folks leaving their bikes there for months.

[Andrew Br]

Me, for a change.
A rare but welcome "office hours" start.
After my second in 3 weeks pot-hole induced puncture, I'd put a spare wheel and tyre on the Disco (baby). Royce hub, CXP33 rim and 35mm* Marathon Supreme.
The original 28mm Supreme is toast but, thankfully, the rim seems to have survived. I'm not sure whether to try and claim off Trafford Council.

Anyway, the commute.
Going in was pretty uneventful apart from a close pass from a van where its wing mirror nearly took my head off. Not waiting for a wider bit of road probably saved her/him a good 10 seconds.
Coming home was hard work. It was quite a headwind. That's "quite a f*cking headwind".
Working on the bike later, I discovered that the front wheel wasn't spinning as freely as it should ............
Quite a f*cking headwind though.

I'm intending to be on the bike again tomorrow; 07.30 start. Forget it for Friday and Sunday (Saturday off**): 05.30  .


*Yes. F*uck me how big on that narrow rim ? "Looks like a light bulb" doesn't do it justice.
** We're going to the pub on Friday night. Not sure which one but we're going.