How was your cycle commute?

[Dogsauce]

It's about now a lot of new bike for work schemes kick in from the new tax year, so probably a few displaced second-hand bikes starting to pop up on Gumtree & shop noticeboards. Sure you can find a good deal almost anytime.

 

[8115]

I was surprised by how good bus drivers were, compared to how i'd imagined they should be.

Bus drivers are uniformly great, I find, they indicate, respect priorities, check their mirrors, drive at an appropriate speed.

 

[DownwardDog]

so I suppose I'll need to look for a new 26 inch wheel bike.

Disc Trucker.

 

[a_chap]

Yeah, I'd say where the left chainstay joins the bottom bracket, or the right chainstay at the rear dropout.

edit, you do get some pretty random seeming ones though where the tube just goes in the middle, there's some cracking ( ) pictures here

http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/framefailure/Interesting

As some of you know I do Audax (long distance) rides. There's a classic Audax ride called the Bryan Chapman Memorial which at 600km and over 9,000m of climbing is waaaay too hard for me. The last thing anyone would want is a broken frame on a ride like that.

Allow me to present a rider known as Von Broad...

https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=43334.msg943411#msg943411

 

[joustmaster]

As some of you know I do Audax (long distance) rides. There's a classic Audax ride called the Bryan Chapman Memorial which at 600km and over 9,000m of climbing is waaaay too hard for me. The last thing anyone would want is a broken frame on a ride like that.

Allow me to present a rider known as Von Broad...

https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=43334.msg943411#msg943411

How long does it take to do 600km?

 

[a_chap]

There's a maximum time limit of 40 hours. Bear in mind the clock never stops. It keeps ticking by when you stop for food/drink, getting lost, repairs, sleep, etc.

 

[Rebelda]

Didn't commute yesterday, but did finally fit my first SPD pedals (egg beaters, fwiw). 3 hugely embarrassing falls in the park, but then made it home without accident. Am a bit nervous about a proper ride tomorrow *inspects knee scab*

 

[a_chap]

3 hugely embarrassing falls in the park, but then made it home without accident.

Didn't commute yesterday, but did finally fit my first SPD pedals (egg beaters, fwiw).

Welcome to the club

3 hugely embarrassing falls in the park

Don't worry - everyone falls off the first time they use clipless pedals

 

[ChrisFilter]

I'm the exception that proves the rule. Not one fall in 10 years.

 

[Rebelda]

Don't worry - everyone falls off the first time they use clipless pedals

I get that impression It's a marvellous conversation starter! Not looking forward to the inevitable time I collapse at a set of traffic lights though.

I'm the exception that proves the rule. Not one fall in 10 years.

That, or you've just jinxed yourself

 

[gentlegreen]

My ride to test the two tunnels south of Bath turned into the 50 mile ride from hell.
I got very lost and ended up finding horrible hilly A roads I would rather not know exist.
Even when I got back on the railway path at Bitton, I feared I wouldn't have the strength to get home.

The one good thing was I realised I need to tighten my steerer bearing star-fangled allen screw thing.
After adjusting my rear disc brake, I had to keep dabbing it to shut up the squeaking as the rear wheel moved from side to side due to the slack in the bearing.

 

[ChrisFilter]

That, or you've just jinxed yourself

Yeah, I thought that as I posted it.

 

[gentlegreen]

Disc Trucker.

A shame about the drop handlebars ...

 

[gentlegreen]

Yesterday's navigation disaster :-

 

[DownwardDog]

A shame about the drop handlebars ...

The drops on the DT are quite high if you don't cut the steerer down.

 

[a_chap]

Yesterday's navigation disaster :-

View attachment 33479

Having the route coloured like that looks pretty handy. How do you get the council to paint the roads like that for you GG?

 

[gentlegreen]

The Sustrans signage doesn't help much either. I've only just twigged that if I'd turned right at Burnett instead of left, the Avon Cycleway converges with the last bit of my planned route through Saltford.



I scribbled something on a cereal packet before I left, but never even referred to it.

 

[joustmaster]

gg - i bought one of those satnav things. it was 150 quid. Which is a lot. More than the cost of my bike, actually. But it has made long journeys a lot easier. i just occasionally glance down to see if I am still following the line I loaded on to the map before I set off.

 

[gentlegreen]

I was hoping to use my phone for that, but it hasn't happened ...
Even an old-fashioned paper map would help - but I don't have a printer at home ...

 

[gentlegreen]

Sort of cycle-related. I finally had to get my working area by the front door sorted as I keep losing tools and parts.
My "garage" is actually the downstairs front room which in an ideal world would have a ceiling and would also be my kitchen / diner - a sort of utilitarian "country kitchen" ...

So I've been meaning for some time to buy some steel/chipboard shelving units to organise my bike repair stuff and tools generally. Half decent ones are 50 quid or so, but without a car it's a faff to get them home on the bus from Machine Mart.
But then my local Aldi had some. Initially they were £40, but I could see they weren't up to scratch, but I grabbed a set at £20 and wheeled them home on my sack truck.

They're a thing of wonder - an ingenious confection of the thinnest practicable pressed and perforated steel.
They must have taken two hours to assemble - and they finally beat me when it came to squeezing in the chipboard shelves - but maybe in tidying up, I'll find a bastard file to shave just enough off the corners.
The instructions were definitely not sufficient for the non-mechanically minded - a certain rhythm is needed.

They claim to take 175KG per shelf,. but I'm not about to try.
As I tapped the thing together I was amazed at how solid they feel considering how thin everything is.

I sort of wish I'd bought another to use as a wine rack.




(they aren't actually falling apart /leaning already - it's an optical illusion)

 

[plurker]

nearly taken out this morning by a flatbed driver of which decided he didn't want to wait behind me going round the left-hander off clapham road onto south lambeth road at kennington post office, so accelerated past me then left hooked across, completely covering the bike lane and forcing me to slam on the anchors. When he was at the next set of lights he wound his window down and said 'sorry about that mate, didn't realise you were that fast'

given i'd been ahead of him all the way since acre lane you'd think he'd have realised! Was going to make a call to the company but he was well apologetic so hope he's learnt the lesson...

 

[gentlegreen]

I would still send a discrete message to the company just not identifying the driver.

 

[plurker]

yeah, good call I guess - i didn' t give the reg no to them, everyone makes mistakes!

Thanks you very much for your e-mail, I am sorry that you have experienced this unfortunate incident with one of our vehicles.

Can I reassure you that as part of our Freight Operators Recognition Scheme membership & best practice, all of our drivers do and have attended the TFL ‘Sharing London’s roads’ course.

I'm happy to think that he was apologising for his mistake, unfortunately three of our trucks have been on/or close to the route you mentioned earlier today, it will therefore be difficult to single out one without more info, however as a reminder I will have a word with all of them.

 

[Dogsauce]

I've been carrying a cough for the last two weeks, chatting to my dad on the phone on Sunday night and he reckons cycling won't help and that I have to rest my lungs to shift it (anyone know if this is correct?). I have generally been turning up at the office in the morning coughing myself inside out after flooring it for nine miles.

I did my outward commute yesterday partly on the train (the uphill bit), and homeward commute very leisurely, letting gravity do a lot of the work and taking the canal for part of it - 48 minutes for what is usually a 30 minute ride. It's really hard riding slow - kept getting overtaken & having people pull away at lights and the slightly competitive part of my brain was just craving a bit of speed to keep up.

I'm actually worse today - crazy fever during the night, currently tucked in bed with a headache, might do a little working from home later if I'm up to it.

 

[gentlegreen]

What sort of a cough ? Any pouring phlegm when you cycle ?
I always get grief on Urban for carrying on, but I literally only stop cycling when I'm weak enough to be confined to bed.
My commute is 3.5 miles there and 5.5 miles back ...

 

[Dogsauce]

Not much phlegm. Picked up the cough on a brief holiday to Spain, probably on the plane out there (recirculated air). My dad said that when you have a cough your lungs are bleeding, and exercising just makes them bleed more. Possibly over dramatising it, though he's an asthmatic and marathon runner so probably knows what he is on about. I often find riding helps clear out my lungs a bit, I have a commute of just short of nine miles which takes 30-35 minutes depending on what the wind is up to, and I'm constantly pushing for a faster time, working hard on the hills, and arriving at the office a physical wreck. Taking it easier isn't instinctive!

 

[gentlegreen]

9 miles in 35 minutes is twice as far / fast as me.

 

[weepiper]

I'm actually worse today - crazy fever during the night, currently tucked in bed with a headache, might do a little working from home later if I'm up to it.

Sounds like you should get checked out by a doctor in case it's a chest infection.

 

[gentlegreen]

What sort of headache. generalised or acute ?

 

[girasol]

Not much phlegm. Picked up the cough on a brief holiday to Spain, probably on the plane out there (recirculated air). My dad said that when you have a cough your lungs are bleeding, and exercising just makes them bleed more. Possibly over dramatising it, though he's an asthmatic and marathon runner so probably knows what he is on about. I often find riding helps clear out my lungs a bit, I have a commute of just short of nine miles which takes 30-35 minutes depending on what the wind is up to, and I'm constantly pushing for a faster time, working hard on the hills, and arriving at the office a physical wreck. Taking it easier isn't instinctive!

The general consensus for exercise is that if you have a cold above neck its OK to exercise, and if its below, ie chesty cough, then you shouldn't... Have a little research on internet and see what you think...