Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

How was your cycle commute?

Orang Utan said:
Fuck that. All that tinkering and head scratching and getting covered in crappy oil that's really hard to wash off. I'm covered in smudges and so is the furniture. And the chain is still broke. I love bikes but HATE fiddling with them SOOOOOOOO MUCH.
Train for the rest of the week. Bah! Well skint this week too. :)
Click to expand...

People like you keep me in a job!

If you do get your hands covered in manky oil though, a squirt of washing up liquid and a teaspoonful of sugar gets it off pretty easily (you need something abrasive to shift black oil)
 
weepiper said:
People like you keep me in a job!

If you do get your hands covered in manky oil though, a squirt of washing up liquid and a teaspoonful of sugar gets it off pretty easily (you need something abrasive to shift black oil)
Click to expand...
Indeed! I am very happy to do so if it means keeping the black stuff off and not having to tinker. It's not my idea of fun.
Thanks for the tip about the sugar - I keep having to throw away sponge scourers after ruining them
 
Another way to keep hands clean when tinkering with the oily bits on the bike is to use cheap disposable vinyl or latex gloves. Prevention being better than cure and all that.
 
a_chap said:
Another way to keep hands clean when tinkering with the oily bits on the bike is to use cheap disposable vinyl or latex gloves. Prevention being better than cure and all that.
Click to expand...
I always start with good intentions, but chain-changing time is always a dermatological disaster.
 
Last edited:
Football shorts today in a 'if they get rained on they'll dry quicker' effort.

Perhaps I should check the weather or something as it was bone dry and cold.

Not too bad once I'd got going.
 
Yesterday, I was riding home, it was quite windy.

I ride pretty fast, and someone tucked in behind me along Clapham Road - fair enough, I do it occasionally. A bit further on a car's indicating to turn across in front of me, and starts to make his turn. He's 20m or so off, so I don't brake as it's on the hill just past Clapham North, but I stop pedalling. The muppet who's drafting me fails to spot this, and runs into the back of me, I keep it upright, as does he - just - and he's 'sorry mate sorry' at me. No harm done so we carry on.
We carry on, the road up to Clapham Common and he's so close on my back wheel again, like inches, so I have a few choice words and let him past. At the next set of lights he ignores me; I pull off fast, and next time I shouldercheck he's there again, inches away.

I just pulled a foot out into the road, upped on the pedals and lost him...but what a dick - what d'you do with numbnuts like that?
 
There was a discussion recently on the CTC forums with idiots failing to acknowledge just how wrong it is to draft commuter cyclists without being invited - as if merely daring to ride a bike is an invitation to others to play at racing with you.

http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=80472

I've had to move my commute to avoid the macho city boys who think it's OK to invent a middle lane for close, fast overtakes on the local railway path.

pathsplitter.jpg
 
I don't mind ppl drafting, as I say on occasion I do it myself, but always a couple of foot back - this was inches.
And after you've crashed into the guy in front once, you'd think that might be a little lesson to drop the fuck back a bit...
 
Shorts and tee shirt weather again, but the railway path section was ruined first by a bunch of clueless idiots weaving at speed between cyclists and pedestrians,

fastandclose.jpg

and finally by a thug who came and sat inches from my back wheel - sadly I didn't get his face.
 
People drafting me pisses me right off. It's just rude. I nearly had a go at someone who was doing it today actually but there wasn't a suitable opportunity to stop and shout at him because the road was too busy with traffic, which goes to show that it's dangerous - if someone had opened a car door in front of me and I had to stop suddenly he'd have crashed into me and one or both of us might have gone under a car.
 
Being a bulky and averagely fast cyclist, I get a few people doing it to me. They usually keep a sensible distance. And they don't stay there long, as I like to weave through and over take traffic a lot.
 
This evening's thug.
It was just like being tailgated by a car - shocking to be shouting "back off" to another cyclist.
I asked him to go in front so I could get him on video.

Sadly I didn't get his face.
wanker.jpg
 
51iZcEmR6JL.jpg

Fitted these on me bike today
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

TopCat
Ceramic coatings for new cycle
Replies
3
Views
339
TopCat
TopCat
A
First car / how do people afford cars when in low paid work?
2
Replies
59
Views
1K
Chz
Chz
TopCat
Brompton folding cycles
2 3
Replies
74
Views
2K
TopCat
TopCat
fucthest8
Hybrid e-bike for commuting
Replies
12
Views
544
newme
newme
kalidarkone
How much should I sell my van for?
2
Replies
33
Views
1K
kalidarkone
kalidarkone
Back
Top Bottom