On the commute today

[telstarbox]

Nice one.

Here in Kent a cyclist was killed by a falling tree - incredibly unlucky.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

No fallen trees for me today.  Went via Christmas Common, so I guess they've all got a few weeks to live.

[teamerchant]

Today's was a rage-fuelled extravaganza of wankers. Twats the lot of them.

[smileydave]

This morning's commute was slow, because I was going out for breakfast, so was an hour later than usual, and the streets of London were full of cars; also, my breakfast date didn't show up. Camera light is refusing to even switch on, although it teases me with the charging LEDs. However, I have three spare front lights and a head torch today, so I'm hoping that at least one of them might work

[chrisbainbridge]

Back to commuting yesterday and today. Beautiful day yesterday, pouring rain this am. Still made me happy though. Yesterday saw a raptor eating a dead squirrel and today a suicidal squirrel ran in front of me. So nice to be back.

[Pingu]

Today I commuted for the first time since 17/03/2020.

[sg37409]

👍

[smileydave]

Last night's commute was faster, despite heavier traffic. I seem to be getting fitter. My lighting strategy held out. The fly12 camera light now won't even switch on, the lezyne superdrive, though fully charged, lasted a whole half hour, instead of 6. My third light started the battery warning light after five minutes, but held out to the end. I didn't need the fourth, but put it on anyway, and the headtorch remained in my pocket.
Warmer, and much drier than last Wednesday, but did have a heavy shower half an hour from the end to put a dampener on things

[toontra]

Idiot Sainsbury's van driver pulled out right in front of me.  Had to brake hard to avoid a collision.  Either hadn't looked in the mirror or, more likely, had but thought fuck it - only a cyclist.

When I questioned him about the standard of his driving his opening gambit was the proverbial "you're not wearing a helmet or high-viz" (this was 11.30 am on a sunny clear road).  Things quickly degenerated into abuse so I took his reg but can't find any way of reporting this to Sainsbury's.  Just been on the phone for 20 minutes being messed about & then cut off.  Ideas?

[sg37409]

My garmin is now in night time display mode for most of my ride in.  A depressing wee reminder of the shortening daylight.   My shimano dynohub died and I’ve decided to go battery for this year.   

[teamerchant]

Our county council has gone a bit nuts with the double yellow lines lately, in advance of bringing in parking enforcement (assume this is a wheeze to raise revenue).

It has the bonus effect of radically improving one section of my commute, as cars can no longer obstruct an entire lane of traffic by parking. I emailed the council to say what a good job it was

I also didn't have to put my foot down once on the 7.5 mile commute.

[smileydave]

My garmin didn't go to daytime mode until I was halfway to the office, and I think went to nighttime mode twenty minutes earlier than last week. It was distinctly autumnal in the morning, but short sleeves all the way home. Slower than last week. traffic, not feeling great, but also felt stronger up the hills. If I hadn't had one light go red as I approached it, or got stuck behind a sketchy beer lorry I'd have hoovered up strava achievements all the way into the office. Frankly I should have got the train home, but as I'd have had to wait until 7 to take the full size bike back, I decided to just crack on - struggled to work hard enough to make my target heart rate on the flats, but was faster up the hills.
Only one traffic issue - two cars took the right fork at the green triangle, and indicated right. I thought about going up the left of them to turn right, but didn't like the attitude of the front car's wheels. Sure enough, despite indicating right, both cars turned left.
Lights held out - I had the bright idea of looking inside my big light and discovered that the sprung contact was bent sideways (because it's a terrible design) and periodically (due to the vibration) getting fouled by the plastic wrapper around the battery. trimmed it off and the flickering and inconsistency seems to have largely stopped. Hooray. Now I must dig out the spare battery and perform the appropriate surgery on that as well

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

it was a long time before dark - nautical twilight - civil twilight - Garmin telling me it was daylight today.  And some sod has put a 5.30 - 6 meeting in the calendar which means it will be dark for quite a bit of the way back too.  A reminder that cycling rules involving tan lines will soon be redundant can be confined to California.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

There was a lot of dark as I had a late meeting and decided to go back via Wantage so I could nudge the day's distance to a smidgen over 100 miles.  The smidgen was downhill so didn't matter.  There is a lot to be said for Lumicycle lights for assisting night speeds of excess of R1.

[chrisbainbridge]

commuted in gentle rain to the hospital for my covid and flu vaccinations and then onto the office for a meeting and paperwork.  Thankfully meeting by Teams as I sit here in a pair of lightweight running shorts and a T-shirt with bare feet.
Home again this pm but by a longer route hopefully

[chrisbainbridge]

commuted in again this morning then at lunchtime came home the long way of another 30km.  Windy but very warm

[smileydave]

Knocked ten minutes off for the same heart rate. In a breakthrough of sports science it seems that all those hill repeats at weekends seem to be translating into leg strength.
Enlivened by somebody reversing out of their driveway into the road in front of me somewhere in St Albans, and more ridiculously a large leaf falling from a tree, looming large in the cone of my front light and then hitting me in the face.
Otherwise it was like a summer's night. probably the last one of the year

[rogerzilla]

Shit got real today with my first bad weather commute for 3.5 years.  Needed lights both ways and got a bit damp.  Even more peds and drivers smoking cannabis than ever.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

Santa Claus' evil twin has been out and pulled that giant lever that makes all the hills steeper.

I know it's the fact that it is cold and dark and I'm wearing bib tights rather than shorts, but everywhere takes a bit longer to get to.  Freshened the route back from Oxford with a trip up Sulham Hill.  Short, steep and sheltered from a brisk Easterly that got brisker with all the gusto of a promotion happy manager with a new broom.

[The Family Cyclist]

Due to finally getting a locker in my new job was able to cycle in yesterday. Knew would suffer on way home when was flying on way to work and sure enough was a battle into a head wind all way home. Looks like todays going to be the same.

Wearing less today as judged my gear on Mondays temp which was cold and yesterday was so much milder was sweating pretty soon

[smileydave]

...Short, steep and sheltered from a brisk Easterly that got brisker with all the gusto of a promotion happy manager with a new broom.

Fairly certain I was going into the teeth of a westerly on the way across the Chilterns last night. It wasn't strong enough to account for my slowness - put that down to bad luck with the lights and an incipient cold.
Layered up, but not as significantly as that - base layer and sleeves, no need for the no-longer-waterproof over the top. Toes were chilly though. It's that annoying time of year when it's too warm at the beginning of the ride and too cold at the end, but too short a ride to actually be worth stopping to do anything about it.
Second commute in a row without putting my foot down, which required some significant track standing, and one loop in the Keep Clear bit at some lights in St Albans
Lights lasted - rear shouted a low battery warning at me, but my fault for putting it on solid and bright, instead of flashing and dim (which is still pretty bright, but doesn't burn the eyes)- until nearly home when a road closure forced me onto a less familiar route and I hit some unexpected bumps and they disconnected. Concerned flashing from motorists, as if I didn't know I didn't have any lights, until I whacked it and it switched on again...
More concerned flashing from motorists earlier was met with the Vs, as I was well lit. Aggressive honking from another, who was upset that the learner driver in front of him was rightly cautious at overtaking me on a 50mph single carriageway.

[Paul]

Poor anticipation by me this morning. I was approaching a small roundabout with 4 (including my approach) exits. It's often a bit Good, Bad, Ugly at this one, with everyone watching the entrance to their right, not realising that's what everyone else is doing, so that sometimes no-one is moving.

Anyway, this morning, the car stopped opposite me was waiting for the car to my left, which had just joined the roundabout. That usually means that I have enough time to get across before the car opposite can get on (it's a very small roundabout).

But not this morning! The car to my left was using the roundabout to do a u-turn, and had to brake not to drive into me. In my defence, the car was moving quite fast and performing an unexpected manouvere, but the danger arose because I was watching the car that I thought might be the risk, and not the car that was actually on the roundabout.

I gave a 'my fault' wave and lived to ride on.

[The Family Cyclist]

2nd commute today. Pretty much same as yesterday except with the added joy of it being wet on way home as well as even stronger wind which meant was pushing down hills to do around 22kph which I'd normally be doing 30+ with no effort

Having seen the forecast for next few days going to take the car. Do need to invest in some better waterproofs

[teamerchant]

I wish the weather would sort itself out. Really quite warm on the way in today - too warm for waterproofs, and it was only mildly damp. I might have to time my ride home to avoid getting soaked though.

[fd3]

Yeah, after killer cold the last two days I was sweating and shedding clothes all the way to work.

I was helped by a tree that snagged my hat off!