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How was your cycle commute?

Great ride in, warm at last. Overtook someone without looking properly and realised too late someone else was overtaking me at the same time. I hate it when people do that to me, felt a bit of a tit.
 
ringo said:
Overtook someone without looking properly and realised too late someone else was overtaking me at the same time. I hate it when people do that to me, felt a bit of a tit.
Click to expand...
It can be six of one and more than half a dozen of the other when that happens.

I wish I'd been videoing yesterday on the way back from town on an almost-deserted shared path when I'd moved right over for a pedestrian and some young twat "ding-ding"ed me - almost as if he'd missed everything that had just happened.
Before I'd fully moved back to the left, he scraped past me too close then proceeded to skim past a pedestrian at speed at an even narrower point with restricted visibility.
I wish now I'd stayed where I was...

When it's busy, people need to anticipate what all the other people are likely to do - this guy was in some sort of fantasy race.
 
On a shared path, do you think pedestrians have responsibility to look out for bikes?

There have been a lot of abrupt direction changers recently.
 
yes, mutual responsibility, especially fucking dog walkers

had to ditch the big coat and hat today, was very nice
 
Saw an absolute deathtrap of a bike today. I could see the warped rear wheel from way away. I could see it wobbling the loose brake calipers from closer. I could see and hear the rusty transmission from closer still. Then he applied the brakes and I head a horrible grinding scratching sound and realised the bike had no brake pads whatsoever. Just rusty metal on rusty metal :eek:
 
Pgd said:
Grumpily taking the train this morning after getting through my THIRD rear wheel in as many years.

(Same each time, cassette becomes "disengaged" from wheel so transmission is lost, sorry don't know the right terms - pawls is it?).

LBS says sorry, just one of those things, but I'm not convinced anymore - surely either I'm doing something wrong, or they/the wheels are??
Click to expand...

Well, that was a saga. LBS persuaded me that the wheel itself is worth hanging on to, so I let them have a tinker. SIX WEEKS later, I'm finally back on the road. In the end they couldn't find anything mechanically wrong, and spraying shitloads of oil into it has apparently "freed it up". I'm in two minds now -- it really shouldn't have taken that long to do, but they've been thoroughly nice guys throughout (and sounds like the mechanic was called away on family business for part of the time, which is fair enough) and in the end agreed to waive all charges. I'll use them at least once more I think.

Anyway, back on the road, in the sun, feels awesome :D Chain was pretty manky from 6 weeks of disuse so I had a go with one of those Lidl chain-cleaners, which I hereby declare to be a Boon.
 
How much are you paying for these wheels ? :hmm:
I have never had a free-wheel fail in 25 years and 40,000 miles.
I've gone through wheel rims in little more than a year though ...

I was recently flabbergasted and dismayed when my colleague went off and paid £30 for a wheel including a screw on cassette/freewheel.
You should see that thing wobble about ...
 
joustmaster said:
I think that the highway code says that pedestrians have priority. Which kind of makes sense.
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I think it depends.
If it's a park where cycling is allowed, then it's all about respecting the pedestrians in all their randomness - and none of that "ding ding" business.
If it's something that was long established as a cycling route, then I feel they have more responsibility at busy times.
.. but then everyone knows how I feel ...
 
gentlegreen said:
I think it depends.
If it's a park where cycling is allowed, then it's all about respecting the pedestrians in all their randomness - and none of that "ding ding" business.
If it's something that was long established as a cycling route, then I feel they have more responsibility at busy times.
.. but then everyone knows how I feel ...
Click to expand...
Maybe it depends what the sign is..

This is quite different

cycle-and-pedestrian-route-sign.jpg

to this
TMT089.jpg
 
gentlegreen said:
When it's busy, people need to anticipate what all the other people are likely to do <snip>
Click to expand...
People just need to assume that the other people are idiots, and don't expect much... Sad, but true...
Twice this morning a stupid cow a lovely lady was in my way without a clue of where she is and what's going on..
different person each time! :D
Thanks God the sun is shining and I am unable to get too mad...
 
In London you get fined if you go on pavements, and my understanding is that on shared paths (the ones I go on are usually split into two, one side for cyclist another for pedestrian) cyclists must slow down and give priority to pedestrians. I always find it a little crazy and inconsiderate how some cyclists go at top speed through Tooting Common, there are lots of kids and dogs running around. Just slow the fuck down.

Never had any issues with pedestrians, but have seen a few near misses due to cyclists going too fast.
 
Fingerless gloves and gilet (instead of winter gloves and waterproof jacket) for the first time this year :)
 
Had to be in early so raced in while there was no traffic, beating previous record by 9 minutes :)

Since buying a road bike in January I've cut my best time from 46 to 31 minutes :cool:
 
ringo said:
Had to be in early so raced in while there was no traffic, beating previous record by 9 minutes :)

Since buying a road bike in January I've cut my best time from 46 to 31 minutes :cool:
Click to expand...

wow! I wonder how much faster I'd go if I swapped my heavy hybrid for a light road bike... I do like my comfy seat way too much though, and prefer riding on more upright position in traffic... And I guess it's more of a workout going on a hybrid, so I'm sticking with it!

Interesting discussion on the differences between the two... http://forums.bicycling.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3861017265/m/9371058667

Summer cyclists are definetely out. In Winter I barely overtake anyone, as only the hardcore are out there. Today I lost count, some were pretty strong looking, young men too. Did my ego a lot of good :D
 
In a normal year (no arctic winds, no 'flu), I would probably be in shorts by now and have my cyclist's tan, so would be smiling at all the pasty limbs ...

The early morning temps still seem a bit low for shorts - though I may break them out for Sunday..
 
girasol said:
wow! I wonder how much faster I'd go if I swapped my heavy hybrid for a light road bike... I do like my comfy seat way too much though, and prefer riding on more upright position in traffic...
Click to expand...

I'm sure it would make a huge difference. My early journeys were slow because moving from Loughborough Junction to West Norwood added 3 miles to my journey and the extra milage murdered me. Since then I've got used to it , given up smoking, and then changed my route slightly onto the main roads instead of the back roads through LJ to keep average speed up. All three have been major contributors to journey time.
 
I find the advantages in riding a (26 inch wheel) hybrid outweigh the disadvantages most of the time - in terms of comfort, robustness and safety (oops, was that a pothole ?) - but then I was never much into speed - even when I had a 750cc engine attached.
 
gentlegreen said:
I find the advantages in riding a (26 inch wheel) hybrid outweigh the disadvantages most of the time - in terms of comfort, robustness and safety (oops, was that a pothole ?) - but then I was never much into speed - even when I had a 750cc engine attached.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think if I was doing longer distances, outside of London, I might buy a road bike, but it's only 10km each way for me and it's never really even possible to build up speed for any considerable length of time in town, traffic lights everywhere.

So the best I can hope for is to carry more weight, making it more of a workout...
 
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