On the commute today

[clarion]

Saw a photo in the Metro this morning of an artic blown over on the M6.

Glad you are OK, despite the idiots.

Quant a moi, I had Zero Mojo yesterday morning, and Butterfly gave me a lift all the way to work (then took my new frame to have the headset fitted at the Good Bike Shop - there's love for you! :* ).  Had a very good ride home, though, beating 19kph average for the rural section*, despite the lumps.  Managed the same again this morning, despite (or maybe because of) consciously riding 'within myself'.  In fact, I averaged 21.1kph up to the bottom of the last hill to the station, which is an underpass and a steep climb on a shared path.  In town, I passed hundreds of stationary cars to get to work in a very good time.

Incidentally, on my urban section of commute, there is a place with a shared path signposted.  It's a plain grass verge, with NO PATH AT ALL!!   Is the sign planted by anti-cycling provocateurs wanting to increase animosity on the roads?  Or Sandwell Council?**

* rather than the pretty consistent 18pointsomething averages I've been clocking

** I accept the difference between the two is somewhat slim

[matthew]

Me for the first time in weeks. 

Where was all the traffic? it's not half term here the kids were still walking and cycling to school but I can only assume the closure of Wokingham town center one way system for long term construction has shifted the rat runners else where as the traffic was summer holiday light.

For not having ridden in in ~8 weeks the ride was a remarkably swift one so I fear the return journey will be harder, the wind must be from the east.

[clarion]

Bit slower home last night, after looooong train delays*  And a partial chain unshipping**  Had to change my brake blocks last night, so was riding a bit gingerly this morning, but did OK.

* Not by Southern Rail standards
** Entirely my fault for aggressive changing down under tension, but I had to furtle about in my bag in the DARK to find my headtorch before I could discover it was easily sorted by a twitch of the crank, and I was on my way (as soon as I could set off uphill in a higher gear than was required for starting)

[hatler]

Had to tighten the rear brake mounting bolt this morning after I noticed a slight rubbing sound on the way home last night.

How/why on earth did that come loose?  It must be about 10,000 miles since I tightened that one up.

[SteveC]

Before setting off this morning, I removed the old light which was attached by a couple of cable-ties, replacing it with a new Cateye with one of those rubber band attachments.
A dream coming home. Tail wind and the bike running almost silently instead of the continuous rattle. Lovely. Even with the rain.

[Feanor]

Today, my homeward commute was not directly to home.
It was 27k out to Banchory, my former workplace, where I had the car in for some fettling at the garage which I continue to use.
As an added embuggerance, I had a large rucksack with a bunch of Wiggle deliveries and changes of clothes.

One of my cow-orkers lives in Banchory, and is a keen club cyclist.
I've never ridden with him.

So it was agreed we'd ride back to Banchory together.
Since we'd never ridden together before, we didn't really know each other's pace, so the usual stiffening of pace ensued.
When we were almost there, he said "Well, that was rather brisk!"
Me: "But I thought you were setting the pace, and you always rode your commute at this speed!"
Him: "Hell, No!"

We averaged over 31kph!

[The Family Cyclist]

Wife needed car so cycled into my soon to be former job for probably only the 10th or so time. Had planned to do it most days but shifts weren't really condusive for it. Very very warm as had bright waterproof on due to fog on way in and pretty much the same on way home. Traffic well behaved although had to properly dig in to get out the way of an shifting ambulance.

Same again tomorrow. Hope the winds on my back after work.

[sg37409]

Edinburgh's a pure mess with roadworks just now.
At the now 1-way Haymarket Terrace, I still can't decide whether its best to walk along the pavement or follow the diversion with added cobbles.
Done both, kind of favouring just walking a while even though it goes against the grain.

At Leith street, the temporary cycle way is a bit crap with plenty of cyclists going too fast in it, and loads of debris from the building site.  Saw some nails this morning, but didn't puncture.  The security guards (marshals ?)  in hi-viz are a puzzle, I thought they were there to make sure we all dismounted at the pinch points but don't seem to be.

Enjoyed my last 2 return commutes, was pressing on and had a couple of 2nd best times per strava on longer segments.

[Andrij]

A bit later than usual coming home, so got to see some impressive fireworks over LBNewham (rather than just hearing them.  ALL. EVENING. LONG.).

[matthew]

As expected the ride home was tougher than out this morning. The rider who passed me showed up my lack of fitness, I was able to jump onto his wheel but as soon as the road went even gently up I was dropped like a wet bar of soap. 

[TimO]

The ride in this morning was drier than I expected, the rain on the radar seeming to decide to just miss me.  There was some very slight drizzle, but barely enough to notice. 

The wind seemed to be mostly behind me, which was nice, but the roads were very wet, with a liberal dose of leaves and other wind borne debris.

Whilst I was away for a couple of days, on a work dismantling job, they appear to have done something to the dodgy corner on Totting Bec Common's cycle path, which has progressively had the parallel cracking getting worse and worse.  In the dark, I couldn't really see what they've done, aside from some resurfacing.  I should be able to see things better on the way home.  The gradual degradation has tended to mean that most cyclists take a path near to the middle of the path, in both directions on a fairly blind corner, which was a recipe for eventual disaster.  I hope they've removed the adverse camber, but I'm not very optimistic about that.

It's a shame they haven't decided to resurface the entire path, since whilst that corner is easily the worst bit, the rest of the path is far from being in good condition (partly due to them trashing bits of it, removing the white cyclist - pedestrian separating line).

[ian]

Why did they remove the dividing line? OK, every pedestrian ignored it (which might be my answer, I suppose).

[TimO]

Why did they remove the dividing line? OK, every pedestrian ignored it (which might be my answer, I suppose).

That was my best guess, but I don't know exactly why.

Essentially, they drove a machine along, which ground off the white line, but in the process left a rutted, broken-up area.  It seemed like a very random, and ill thought out procedure.

[Kim]

Why did they remove the dividing line? OK, every pedestrian ignored it (which might be my answer, I suppose).

That was my best guess, but I don't know exactly why.

Essentially, they drove a machine along, which ground off the white line, but in the process left a rutted, broken-up area.  It seemed like a very random, and ill thought out procedure.

That's what they did in Canon Hill Park.  For those who aren't familiar, the park has a wide, high-quality service road, some of which has NCN5 (Birmingham's one useful cycle route) running on it.  A few years ago, someone had the bright idea of painting a ~1.5m cycle lane along one side of it, along with a selection of (5) roundels.  (There was much confusion as to whether this implied a 5mph speed limit, or was simply marking the route.)  Nevertheless, it was ignored by pedestrians as these things always are, so actively increased conflict with cyclists who tried to comply with it.

After protests from Pushbikes and other interested parties, this was, thankfully, changed.  They scraped up (or pressure-blasted or something) the lane marking and roundels, and installed some "Share with care" signs urging cyclists to ring their bell^[1] and dog-emptiers to keep them on a lead.  Cyclists may now use the full width of the road to pass pedestrians.

The tarmac is now beginning to suffer where the surface was compromised by the removal of the markings, of course.


_{[1] I'm in favour of such signs.  Pedestrians get much less offended by bell-use in their presence.}

[Pingu]

Cycled past this earlier. "Sorry, not in service" - no shit, Sherlock!

[The Family Cyclist]

Rather gutted that the wind had died down. Hoped to be rewarded for the head wind battle on way to work with a sail home.

[Paul]

Cycled past this earlier. "Sorry, not in service" - no shit, Sherlock!

Please put this in the caption it thread.

[TimO]

That's what they did in Canon Hill Park. ... with a selection of (5) roundels.  (There was much confusion as to whether this implied a 5mph speed limit, or was simply marking the route.) ...

I'm fairly sure, although I can't find any quotes, that there was a case a few years ago, where a "No Cycling" sign painted on a path in a Royal Park (I think Hyde Park) was found to be inadequate by a court.  To be enforceable, they needed it to be on an actual upright sign.  I would imagine exactly the same thing would apply to a speed limit painted on the read, although it also sounds like this wasn't the case in that park.

[Kim]

There is a sign at the gate (which is normally locked, and opened to allow access to event lorries etc) instructing "vehicles" to keep to 5mph.  Cyclists quite reasonably ignore it.

[TimO]

There is a sign at the gate (which is normally locked, and opened to allow access to event lorries etc) instructing "vehicles" to keep to 5mph.  Cyclists quite reasonably ignore it.

If it's a "proper" red circle round speed limit sign, it doesn't apply to cyclists, only motor vehicles.  If it's some other form of sign, then it's not legally enforceable against anyone.

(Although, park are generally covered by boiler-plate by-laws, so pretty much anything probably goes!)

[Kim]

TBH, a more important issue is the recent installation of some of those evil bolt-on speed bumps (of a profile I wouldn't even consider riding over on anything but a suspended mountain bike) at one of the side entrances.  They've left a metre or so of gap at one side so we're back to the problem of creating conflict with pedestrians.

I can only assume they had trouble with speeding teletubbies.

[Steph]

This morning. Moist. Windy. First day in longs since last winter, and ditto for gloves as opposed to mitts. The leaves are making a nice mess around all the fallen branches on my 'Riverside' park route, and the bit where I have to pump my legs slightly up a little rise sees my back tyre squirming.

I also wore a Magic Plastic Hat this morning, partly for the airborne-but-not-for-long debris, but mostly because it has a waterproof cover.

[clarion]

Reasonable ride to the station this morning, despite the half-hearted drizzle, and about a minute of proper rain.  Then zoomed from the station to work. 

Felt really old and stiff off the bike, but comfortable on it, which I can handle

[SteveC]

Lovely ride in this morning despite the wind, rain and tired legs.
Recently spent £400 at the LBS getting the bike serviced and fettled. MrsC commented that I could have bought a new bike for that. It feels as if I have. 

[Socks]

A commute to my former work[place for the first time since I left six months ago.  Six miles each way, cretin count 2.  First one down to incompetence (a close pass overtake).  Second one aggression / ignorance - a shout of 'get on the path' after I had taken the lane to go straight on at a mini roundabout.  Ironically half a mile later I saw two cyclists riding on the path. 

Maybe not surprising given this sort of driver behaviour, and people on bikes feeling intimidated by drivers.  But at the same time it seems to me that this just re-inforces that sort of ignorance and aggression when we do use the roads.