How was your cycle commute?

[Orang Utan]

Nah, I'm only joshing.
I like reading about other hikes too.


btw, in reflection, there is one route I like to cycle on occasion, to clear the cobwebs of doom, and it is mostly offroad, though hardly rural. Loads of foliage and wildlife though - meadows, waterfowl n that. I even saw a jay and a couple of kingfishers once. And lots of those shimmery rainbow dragonflys and damsel flys.
It's a cycle path called the Waterlink Way:
http://www.sustrans.org.uk/ncn/map/route/waterlink-way
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lewishamcouncil/sets/72157627169077096/

I also regularly cycle on the Thames Path east to Erith quite a bit. I love the riverscape of old wharves in docklands and the shape of the river winding its way through built up areas, and it ends up in Erith Marshes, where there are loads of birds, rabbits, semi-wild furry ponies and even the odd lizard, snake and sloworm.
I bomb it back from there on the A road though!

 

[Orang Utan]

London from the Thames Path in the evening:

 

[Orang Utan]

Erith Marshes:

 

[ShiftyBagLady]

I also regularly cycle on the Thames Path east to Erith quite a bit. I love the riverscape of old wharves in docklands and the shape of the river winding its way through built up areas, and it ends up in Erith Marshes, where there are loads of birds, rabbits, semi-wild furry ponies and even the odd lizard, snake and sloworm.
I bomb it back from there on the A road though!

is this along the north bank? we do the souhtbank one but ive been wondering what the north bank would be like in terms of traffic as our rides avoid traffic as much as possible.

 

[Orang Utan]

is this along the north bank? we do the souhtbank one but ive been wondering what the north bank would be like in terms of traffic as our rides avoid traffic as much as possible.

No, the south bank one - from Deptford, through Greenwich, Charlton, Woolwich, then Thamesmead/Erith where the marshes are.
The north bank is harder to navigate as there are way more private developments hogging the riverside, but it's well worth it as there are some amazing old wharves and then there's the canals and actual docks. A lot more plaques and info displays showing you the history of the area too, esp round Trinity Buoy Wharf, with places like Faraday's Experimental Lighthouse. I love it round there!

 

[ShiftyBagLady]

No, the south bank one - from Deptford, through Greenwich, Charlton, Woolwich, then Thamesmead/Erith where the marshes are.
The north bank is harder to navigate as there are way more private developments hogging the riverside, but it's well worth it as there are some amazing old wharves and then there's the canals and actual docks. A lot more plaques and info displays showing you the history of the area too, esp round Trinity Buoy Wharf, with places like Faraday's Experimental Lighthouse. I love it round there!

we tend to go from waterloo down to greenwich, havent been past that point but its great to know theres lots more waiting for us! thanks for the tips

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

Ok not a commute but the second sunday in a row I have had bizarre mechanicals. Last week whilst on a ride with Chrisfilter my right shoe felt a bit weird for a few miles...then my right pedal (Time RXS) disintegrated just as we were nearing civilisation (my faith in composite materials further weakened there). Then today whilst pedalling furiously downhill on fixed gear at 2000 rpm I heard the heart sinking hiss of a new rear puncture. Thats ok, I'll just get to the corner and stop...fucking sidewall on the tyre exploded to leave me riding fixed gear on the bare rim slithering about trying to stop. Rider going the other way came over to tell me he couldn't believe I'd held it upright. Fortunately I had on old piece of tyre I'd cut up and put in my puncture kit, managed to limp 5 miles home. Tyre totalled, possibly rim too

 

[ChrisFilter]

Shit. Lucky escape. You don't want to be stacking it right now! Sorry I couldn't make it out this morning.

 

[gentlegreen]

Full-on skool crawl this morning .

Started out with someone tailgating me down a one way street with parked cars.
Since I'm going straight across, I place myself dead in the middle - leaving plenty of room either side.
But I literally had to point this out to the tailgater that they should position themselves to my right - which they eventually did, and when they pulled out, they did an impressive skid on the loose gravel...

I made a big show of congratulating the predictable red light piss-taker at the lights to the right of us who made it impossible to pull out before the second stream of traffic replaced the first.

Sadly he was some sort of cyclist ...




When I got to my one decent downhill, I decided to walk rather than risk an iffy overtake on a Monday morning on damp roads ... plus it's probably good for the calf muscles. 4 minutes of walking and I rejoined the traffic just behind the same van that I'd been behind at the start.

Sometimes "portage" is good for the soul - especially as it's a stretch of pavement where you get idiots cycling down at speed - sadly no opportunity arose to inconvenience one this morning, but I was able to demonstrate to the chap waiting at the bus stop that not all cyclists are selfish like that.

 

[Onket]

New Year's Day 5 years ago?!

 

[Orang Utan]

What did the car in the photo do this time, GG?

No commute for me today as I needed to bring my laundered shirts and keks in. I wish there was a way of bringing them in on my bike though.

 

[gentlegreen]

New Year's Day 5 years ago?!

I can't be arsed to fix the date and time stamp and I quite like having a running counter on the video.

 

[gentlegreen]

What did the car in the photo do this time, GG?

I only posted this particular red light jumper because they appear to be some sort of cyclist....

 

[Ted Striker]

fucking sidewall on the tyre exploded to leave me riding fixed gear on the bare rim slithering about trying to stop. Rider going the other way came over to tell me he couldn't believe I'd held it upright

2 mins in

 

[Onket]

I can't be arsed to fix the date and time stamp and I quite like having a running counter on the video.

Useless as evidence then, if you ever actually needed to use the footage properly.

 

[gentlegreen]

Useless as evidence then, if you ever actually needed to use the footage properly.

There's no easy way to report such things where I live - and I doubt it would hold up in court no matter how the date was set - I would have to rely on it capturing other references that could be verified.

It seems to have the desired effect when I have reported stuff - like the bus that cut me up a few months back - and I've now had one employer commenting on a video and on another occasion I assume it was the driver himself.

 

[Onket]

What are the comments, generally?

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

2 mins in

Yeah, I deserve that

 

[gentlegreen]

What are the comments, generally?

The van driver who cut me up appeared under a couple of aliases and threatened me with undefined legal action if I didn't remove the video.

First Bus assured me the driver would be spoken to.

The driving school tried to blame it on a non-existent pupil.

As I said, in Bristol we have no equivalent of "Roadsafe", though there are rumours.

I just want bad behaviour on some sort of record.
Mostly cycle cam videos are used between cammers to compare notes and work out how to avoid things happening in future.

 

[Onket]

The van driver who cut me up appeared under a couple of aliases and threatened me with undefined legal action if I didn't remove the video.

First Bus assured me the driver would be spoken to.

The driving school tried to blame it on a non-existent pupil.

As I said, in Bristol we have no equivalent of "Roadsafe", though there are rumours.

I just want bad behaviour on some sort of record.

Utterly pointless exercise, then.

At least set the bloody date on it, and then if you do happen to be able to provide footage of a serious incident at any stage then you can. You can still carry on with your pointless and silly attempts to wind people up in the meantime.

 

[gentlegreen]

It's a huge pain on cheap cameras - you have to edit and copy over a text file every time you format the card.
Hopefully the video footage will stand for something - as I said - other witnesses could be identified from registrations etc ...

And fuck off about the "winding up".
If anything the camera has made me more restrained.

 

[Onket]

It's a huge pain on cheap cameras - you have to edit and copy over a text file every time you format the card.
Hopefully the video footage will stand for something - as I said - other witnesses could be identified from registrations etc ...

And fuck off about the "winding up".
If anything the camera has made me more restrained.

LOL

The posting of the footage on the internet is the 'winding up' that you seem to love so much. And you have just admitted as much as without the correct date it's useless for anything else.

 

[gentlegreen]

So all the dozens of cycle-cammers out there are just "winding people up" ?
Or is it just me ?

 

[Geri]

It was cold. I was not happy.

 

[gentlegreen]

cold ?

I have to confess I almost put my coat on this morning - or at least a second tee shirt, but I was glad I didn't.

 

[gentlegreen]

I chose a mix to listen to on the way home that was quite disconcerting at one point - seemed to be someone saying random things quite loudly just behind my right shoulder.
I'm damned if I can work out which bit it was ...

https://soundcloud.com/dima-deepmix/dima-max-serpantin

 

[BigTom]

It's a huge pain on cheap cameras - you have to edit and copy over a text file every time you format the card.
Hopefully the video footage will stand for something - as I said - other witnesses could be identified from registrations etc ...

And fuck off about the "winding up".
If anything the camera has made me more restrained.

How come do you have to format the card? Can't you just delete the previous recordings and carry on?

I liked the return of the school run, loads of drivers stacked up behind red lights all the way in with me sailing past at my usual 10/15mph. There's little I enjoy more about a cycle commute than filtering past drivers

 

[gentlegreen]

My card tends to get corrupted if I allow it to fill up - I suppose deleting the files is an option - I probably did in the past, but I've just got into the habit of formatting it.
Recording several GBYtes of video a day is a nightmare for a hoarder - I have two 2 TB drives in my PC that were supposed to go into a mirrored network box, but they're nearly full and I reckon I'm going to have to buy another two for that so I can get myself organised.

I'm probably on the cusp of ordering a better camera - there's a 1080 pixel one for £63 that's had a very good review.

 

[Onket]

So all the dozens of cycle-cammers out there are just "winding people up" ?
Or is it just me ?

I'm talking to you, about your footage which cannot be used as evidence as it's got the wrong date on.

You are the one who isn't arsed about putting the correct date on.

As always, it's like talking to a brick wall.

 

[BigTom]

My card tends to get corrupted if I allow it to fill up - I suppose deleting the files is an option - I probably did in the past, but I've just got into the habit of formatting it.
Recording several GBYtes of video a day is a nightmare for a hoarder - I have two 2 TB drives in my PC that were supposed to go into a mirrored network box, but they're nearly full and I reckon I'm going to have to buy another two for that so I can get myself organised.

I'm probably on the cusp of ordering a better camera - there's a 1080 pixel one for £63 that's had a very good review.

Fair enough, I've never had a problem with sd cards needing formatting, just copying files over to an hdd and deleting them from the sd card. I've not had a full card become corrupted either.