On the commute today

[Riggers]

It's 21 degrees here, and looking at 'later on', isn't supposed to go below 19 degrees all night. Whassgoinon!!!?

[TJG]

A lovely tail wind made the trip in a joy.  Do they work like headwinds and flip 180 degrees through the course of the day?

[PaulF]

A lovely tail wind made the trip in a joy.  Do they work like headwinds and flip 180 degrees through the course of the day?

In my experience they just strengthen...

[mcshroom]

40mph (gusting 60mph) head wind forecast for me tomorrow! As much as I've enjoyed the last few days on the singlespeed, I think tomorrow calls for gears.

[Guy]

I had to bimble down the footpath along Priory Rd last night on account of the sodding great tree that was blocking the road. There were a number of enthusiastic-looking young men in hi-vis and hard hats playing with chainsaws on it.

Not a trace of it (or them) this morning.

[Jurek]

Last Friday, Canary Wharf Management (for I assume it was they) installed five or six barriers along here.
Chicanes, if you like. Each consisting of three 'gates', around 1200mm high, each leg being bolted to terra firma with a couple of M10 rawlbolts.
They cause the cyclists to slow right down as they zig-zag between the barriers.
I can see why CWM will have done this as it is a heavily pedestrianised path, and some cyclists pass along there at twuntish speeds.
I can't actually negotiate these barriers as I ride fixed, with a significant amount of toe-overlap.

Now, 1200mm of metalwork will yield a significant amount of leverage over 4 x M10 bolts.
I couldn't help but grin this morning, when I saw that each chicane was missing one of its barriers, rendering it useless.

I'll bet you can see the missing barriers at low tide. 

[Cudzoziemiec]

I'll bet you can see the missing barriers at low tide. 

What a waste! Think of the scrap value someone's missed out on... 

[Jurek]

I'll bet you can see the missing barriers at low tide. 

What a waste! Think of the scrap value someone's missed out on... 

Galvanized - which, as far as I'm aware, is of little value as scrap.

[Riggers]

5 minute cycle to work.

Unpack bag. Blast! Left glasses and phone at home.

Cycle there and back.

Quite a work out! 

[EllysH]

Poured it down this morning.

Was the ONLY cyclist on the road.

Sent from my PLK-L01 using Tapatalk

[Guy]

I'm so glad I don't have to stand out in the cold and scrape a windscreen* before I can go to work. Frosty again this morning.


* For about 90% of the cars I saw this morning, the windscreen (or, rather, part of the windscreen) was the only window they'd cleared

[Jurek]

Last Friday, Canary Wharf Management (for I assume it was they) installed five or six barriers along here.
Chicanes, if you like. Each consisting of three 'gates', around 1200mm high, each leg being bolted to terra firma with a couple of M10 rawlbolts.
They cause the cyclists to slow right down as they zig-zag between the barriers.
I can see why CWM will have done this as it is a heavily pedestrianised path, and some cyclists pass along there at twuntish speeds.
I can't actually negotiate these barriers as I ride fixed, with a significant amount of toe-overlap.

Now, 1200mm of metalwork will yield a significant amount of leverage over 4 x M10 bolts.
I couldn't help but grin this morning, when I saw that each chicane was missing one of its barriers, rendering it useless.

I'll bet you can see the missing barriers at low tide. 

Like so:


So, this evening the engineers (for that is how the warning sign identified them) are working on a solution.
What they've done is they've dug a hole, ~75mm deep.
Into this hole, they've rawl-bolted the flange, so that the top of the flange is level with terra -firma.
They've then attached the pipe work, and buried the flange under ~75mm of asphalt.
So plan B differs from plan A by adding ~75mm of asphalt on top of the flange.
I'm not convinced that they are actually engineers, or that their solution will be in any way effective - given the ~1200mm of leverage afforded by the pipe work.

[telstarbox]

Deployed lights for the first time tonight.

[Kim]

So, this evening the engineers (for that is how the warning sign identified them) are working on a solution.
What they've done is they've dug a hole, ~75mm deep.
Into this hole, they've rawl-bolted the flange, so that the top of the flange is level with terra -firma.
They've then attached the pipe work, and buried the flange under ~75mm of asphalt.
So plan B differs from plan A by adding ~75mm of asphalt on top of the flange.
I'm not convinced that they are actually engineers, or that their solution will be in any way effective - given the ~1200mm of leverage afforded by the pipe work.

I think I know these guys from the Mordor Central refurbishment works:  They'll be the ones who installed the bolt-on Sheffield stands - cycle parking, for the use of - by burying the flanges in several inches of concrete.  This, combined with a general lack of clearance, resulted in cycle parking that was inadvertently optimised for Bromptons.

[Jurek]

Yesterday, on the way home, crossing Walthamstow Marshes.
Someone flying a fairly substantial quad-copter.
Around 50 metres away from a pylon carrying 400kv powerlines.
What could possibly go wrong?

[TJG]

Nearly got knocked off by a jeep today on the only part of my commute that is on a cycle path. (Read shared use pavement).  Numpty decided to use it to undercut a lorry that was turning right without bothering to check for pedestrians. All so he could join the queue again saving himself 0 time and giving me a fright!

[Tim Hall]

Yesterday, on the way home, crossing Walthamstow Marshes.
Someone flying a fairly substantial quad-copter.
Around 50 metres away from a pylon carrying 400kv powerlines.
What could possibly go wrong?

Being free flying, rather than tethered inna Benjamin Franklin style, it should be OK I imagine.  Don't National Grid use drones for their own survey purposes anyway?

[Tim Hall]

A meeting in London Town today had me get all multi-modal. Five minute spin to the station on the Bendy Bike then a brief wait for a very empty train which rattled its way to Victoria. There's more motor traffic in London mid morning than there is on the way to a FNRTTC.  Slightly delayed by smart marching and mounted soldiers (plus many many tourists)  around Buck House, I whizzed along the Mall, round Trafalgar Square and up TCR to my destination. Locked the bendy bike with a frankly non London standard lock, did my thing and returned to find the bike was still there. Phew.


For the return I nipped (FSVO nipped) along Oxford Street then down through Hyde Park and along Buckingham Palace Road. I heard singing. This was coming from a quite beautiful young woman, cycling with purpose, aplomb and a set of head phones. Then she jumped a red light and I stopped loving her.

Get to VIC to find a return train in five minutes, so leap aboard. All was well until Epsom where the driver disappeared in a puff of end of shift and the new one was stuck on a train somewhere, so after some minutes we were told the train was terminated. Arse. The next one was in 45 minutes, so I escaped the station to find coffee and CAIK.  Finally back to the start, IYSWIM, then five minutes trundle home, dicing with death to cross the traffic moving at R17 as I crossed the A24.

[Jurek]

Yesterday, on the way home, crossing Walthamstow Marshes.
Someone flying a fairly substantial quad-copter.
Around 50 metres away from a pylon carrying 400kv powerlines.
What could possibly go wrong?

Being free flying, rather than tethered inna Benjamin Franklin style, it should be OK I imagine.  Don't National Grid use drones for their own survey purposes anyway?

Indeed.
I'm reminded of swallows (other bird types are available) which will park (moor? perch?) themselves comfortably on the wires which say 'Zzzzzztttttt!!'

[TheLurker]

LED Streetlights.  Another drawback.  Now the streetlamps no longer cast the odd orange glow it has become difficult to be certain whether that pool of light that you can see just around the not quite blind bend is a streetlight or a car parked on a driveway about to come flying out into your path. 

I've had colder morning trips than today's in midsummer. 

[SteveC]

Back in shorts and a short sleeved top this morning.

[mcshroom]

I realised this evening was probably the last chance I'd get to see Wastwater in the light after work this year, so I decided to make the trip. I just about made it, 5 mins before sunset



I spent the whole loop back to Gosforth chasing two roadies. If it wasn't for having to dodge a kamikaze sheep I'd have caught them.

[TJG]

For some reason I am all of a sudden fed up with cycling.
 I still prefer not being in the car for the commute which is good as my wife needs it 3 days a week but I just cannot be bothered to pedal hard which is problematic with all the hills around here.     

[TheLurker]

For some reason I am all of a sudden fed up with cycling.

Ach, we all get that from time to time.  Take a break, don't worry about it, and come back to it mentally refreshed in your own good time.

... chasing two roadies. If it wasn't for having to dodge a kamikaze sheep I'd have caught them

I on the other hand was comprehensively left for dead by one* on the way home.

*Roadie, not sheep.  It's the deer you have to watch out for hereabouts.  They come barrelling out of the hedgerow, usually when it's pitch dark, occasioning a great swearing and expenditure of brake pads followed by the inevitable delayed shock.

[mcshroom]

The problem with the sheep is that if there's a wall slightly too close to the road for their liking (which may be quite a way off the road) on the side they've run off to, they will just dart straight back across the road to the other side, often coming very close to you (the cyclist they are running away from). How this has evolved as a survival tactic I don't know.

The other hazard tends to be pheasants exiting roadside hedges at head height