Spring surge has started!

[Gandalf]

This ^

[Greenbank]

Blimey. I usually see one or two cyclists at the junction of LRR and Putney Bridge in the morning. There were 14 today.

I'm guessing most come out when you can just about get home before sunset, so only a need for 'be seen' lights.

Nodderpocalypse.

[De Sisti]

......- and almost everyone wearing helmets too these days which is obviously a good thing.  a personal choice. 

[Honest John]

......- and almost everyone wearing helmets too these days which is obviously a good thing. a personal choice.  

With the standard of cycling some exhibit, a helmet may well prove useful (although the way they ride is more likely to result in the fatal HGV left hook, which nothing can save you from, especially a helmet).

[SteveC]

I'm guessing most come out when you can just about get home before sunset, so only a need for 'be seen' lights

That's how I decided when to return to cycling.
S

[Tigerrr]

It is all about the battle of the roads.
New recruit cyclists are obviously good. That is a given - we need as much meat/troops out there in the legions of the cyclists as possible.
However the surge does have a downside, felt most keenly by the stalwart long serving veterans who have kept the banner raised through the winter months and not abandoned the roads to the enemy. Over time we veterans, through scars and breaks,  still surviving, have earned  invisible stripes.
The new troops are ill disciplined and a formless rabble rather than the ranks we might hope for - more like a barbarian horde of individual warriors on a looting raid. They are formless and anarchic in every way - no sense of dress, no road decorum, no sense of common cause (or even sense).
Blind to their ignorance, they ride inspired by their own lights.
It is great to see the horde but a nuisance when they bomb up the inside and RLJ or appear from nowhere in traffic without looking, or cut in at the lights etc

[Tigerrr]

......- and almost everyone wearing helmets too these days which is obviously a good thing. a personal choice.  

With the standard of cycling some exhibit, a helmet may well prove useful (although the way they ride is more likely to result in the fatal HGV left hook, which nothing can save you from, especially a helmet).

I think they should be forced to wear helmets for the first year at least.

[Honest John]

It is all about the battle of the roads.
New recruit cyclists are obviously good. That is a given - we need as much meat/troops out there in the legions of the cyclists as possible.
However the surge does have a downside, felt most keenly by the stalwart long serving veterans who have kept the banner raised through the winter months and not abandoned the roads to the enemy. Over time we veterans, through scars and breaks,  still surviving, have earned  invisible stripes.
The new troops are ill disciplined and a formless rabble rather than the ranks we might hope for - more like a barbarian horde of individual warriors on a looting raid. They are formless and anarchic in every way - no sense of dress, no road decorum, no sense of common cause (or even sense).
Blind to their ignorance, they ride inspired by their own lights.
It is great to see the horde but a nuisance when they bomb up the inside and RLJ or appear from nowhere in traffic without looking, or cut in at the lights etc

+1

[Honest John]

......- and almost everyone wearing helmets too these days which is obviously a good thing. a personal choice.  

With the standard of cycling some exhibit, a helmet may well prove useful (although the way they ride is more likely to result in the fatal HGV left hook, which nothing can save you from, especially a helmet).

I think they should be forced to wear helmets for the first year at least.

Noooooooo!!!!!

No one should ever be forced to wear a helmet. Advised, perhaps, but most cycling injuries, even the fatal ones, are not to the head.

Must stop now or I'll be sent to the Helmet Sin Bin.

[mattc]

I think they should be forced to wear helmets for the first year at least.

It would be hard to enforce, but as experienced, wiser riders we should feel obliged to always carry a spare lid, in case we come across an unprotected brother/sister on our travels.

In the same way, I keep a full water-bottle - for extinguishing lit cigarettes before they can do harm to their unfortunate victims.

[Julian]

Take no notice of Tigerrr, who is simply providing bait. 

Riding to work in civvies depends to an extent on your work dress code.  If you're a codemonkey and can wear t-shirts and cutoffs to work, then great.  Riding in wearing a suit and shirt would make me unpleasant to know by the time I got there.

[Kim]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/5W_wd9Qf0IE&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/5W_wd9Qf0IE&rel=1</a>

[Greenbank]

If I had to ride slow enough that I didn't sweat I'd need to leave for home the minute I got to work.

[Gandalf]

I have another motive to don all the gear to ride to work, well two actually.  Since my start location was changed last year, I only live just over a mile from work, therefore my commute is wholly manufactured. 

If I were to wear my work uniform to work I'd be too tempted to go straight home instead of getting a few miles in before or after work.

The other reason is that I can't abide wearing the company logo gear in my own time.  As soon as I've signed off I can't wait to get out of it.

[teethgrinder]

Riding to work in civvies depends to an extent on your work dress code.  If you're a codemonkey and can wear t-shirts and cutoffs to work, then great.  Riding in wearing a suit and shirt would make me unpleasant to know by the time I got there.

I used to cycle 16-17 miles to work and I don't think there was any occasion when I never had a huge sweat patch on my back, even in mid winter. I always wore my work clothes. But I did work in a factory/warehouse and I often worked up a sweat at work anyway. I'd have never cycled that far in a suit. I always end up getting carried away. Pride takes over and I can't let my speed drop into single figures on hills.
Even if I try to go slow and even manage it, I still get a bit sweaty. I am a sweat monster anyway and tend to sweat much more than most people. I reckon I do well if I can get 2.5 miles to Tesco without my forehead dripping when I arrive and it's not often that happens.
I can if I really put my mind to it and take it very slow.

[ian]

Well, I wouldn't cycle in my Saville Row (OK Nathan Road) finest, though I am tempted by the potential freewheeling eccentricity of cycling in tweeds. That said, I take issue that you need to buy a special uniform to ride a bike. Special uniforms are for skiing, BDSM and superheroic crime-fighting. I wouldn't strut to the shops in skin-tight leggings (even if were French, which I am not) so I'm not about to ride a bike in them. And the club tops. Holy lemon smoley, the colours can actually abrade normal people's retinas. No one should ever wear clothing where the colour scheme appears to have been devised by Rolf Harris on LSD. I shouldn't have to whisper you a confidence that your mirror will have already yelled at you through a megaphone.

In winter, trousers of suitably sturdy variety and a layers as stipulated by the weatherman are fine. In summer, shorts and a t-shirt. You'll look blissfully normal, it's cheap, comfortable, and you can change into something more formal as required by evil corporate overlords.