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How was your cycle commute?

I've noticed that one too. Had someone walking down the middle of a small segregated bit of path in the centre this morning, fortunately I was on the Pashley (because of the rain) which is equipped with a bell so I was able to warn of my approach. Also more dickheads ignoring the ASL than usual.
 
Feel a bit of a sniffle coming on today, all cued up for a 1-mile sprint on my commute (a facebook group I'm on has a weekly segment competition and for once this one's on my way) yet bailed out after 200m as there was no fire in the belly. Hoping it'll pass.

Looks like some strong winds later in the week, could be fun on the way in, 22mph tailwind on Thursday.
 
A fatality in Croydon (40yr old man) and another (46yr old man) seriously injured in SE London, both involving buses. A bad week.

Is it partly the time of year (and poor light) or just coincidence that there seems to be quite a lot of accidents at the moment? Reports of someone hospitalised up here in Leeds yesterday and a nasty fatal hit and run out in the sticks near here a few weeks ago. I don't know if it's getting worse or if I'm just more tuned in to this via cycling groups/campaigners on Twitter and Facebook.
 
How the hell in this day and age could one conduct a public information campaign on a par with drink driving and seat belts ?

What medium would you use ?

Meanwhile it's "OK" for idiot after idiot to publicly wish death on cyclists.
 
Nearly got taken down by a bike ninja tonight. I quickly caught and was overtaking some idiot with no lights and wearing a black jacket when he suddenly turned right as I was about to pass. :mad:

My planned "Where are your lights" ended up being yelled at full volume.
 
I admit to yelling "lights" at some cretin the other night.

This morning I saw someone with a red light on the front. Wonder if it was the same person.
 
I've been experimenting with a rear camera so am getting to witness the damage done by my DIY back light from hell.

I only use it on main roads where I'm prone to getting tailgated.

backlight.jpg
 
No it's Merkin so 10th Jan.
I've never had a camera running continuously for more than a week or two after 1st Jan 2008.
The rather curious thing is unintentionally I must have reset the camera near midnight.
 
I'm riding to York and back this weekend and quite a lot of the route is on main roads. That's never usually a problem for me but all this talk of cyclists getting killed left, right and centre is starting to play on my mind. So I've just changed the route to avoid riding a section of the A1. I might be going soft. :(
 
Dogsauce said:
A fatality in Croydon (40yr old man) and another (46yr old man) seriously injured in SE London, both involving buses. A bad week.

Is it partly the time of year (and poor light) or just coincidence that there seems to be quite a lot of accidents at the moment? Reports of someone hospitalised up here in Leeds yesterday and a nasty fatal hit and run out in the sticks near here a few weeks ago. I don't know if it's getting worse or if I'm just more tuned in to this via cycling groups/campaigners on Twitter and Facebook.
Click to expand...
Probably coincidence but pedestrian accidents don't get reported nearly as much because transport coverage is directly proportionate to how many middle class white men use a particular mode.
 
Not entirely sure about that - there is a bit more of a feeling of solidarity amongst cyclists as anyone who does it regularly faces the same problems and will tend to group to raise these concerns, whereas just about everyone is a pedestrian so there is less a feeling about being part of a particular 'group' or having made a choice. Cyclists will have a particular focus on things such as why lorries in particular are responsible for a disproportionate amount of deaths - are there similar factors in pedestrian deaths that need focusing on (I'd hope someone is researching this). I'd hope things like changes to lorry designs resulting from any campaign would also benefit pedestrians too - anything slowing down and removing the dominance of traffic from certain areas has to help. I don't think the media having got hold of this as an 'issue' is a bad thing.

Cyclists are quite a diverse group - a lot use it for transport just because it's affordable, especially up here (on my commute I see mostly a lot of guys riding back from all the distribution depots and warehouses on crap mountain bikes). But I'd agree those making the noise about it are more likely to be middle-class as with anything (and also London-focused - not heard much about the deaths in Bristol and Cheshire this week).
 
I finally serviced the grumbly bearings in my cheapo Wellgo pedals - amazingly I found all the necessary tools - and it wasn't even much of a problem doing it with them on the bike - since I couldn't find a suitable 15mm spanner.
I really don't like doing bearings where I have to make a decision about how tight to do them - and especially in a situation like this where you can't get two spanners in and instead have to back the cone nut off enough that when you do up the locknut it doesn't end up over-tight.
The inner race balls had lost their plating so I suspect I'll have to order new pedals anyway.
But at £10 or so a pair and 2 years' use I can't complain really.



I have some genuine V8s attached electrolytically to some other Deore cranks but I foolishly started sawing them out - instead of simply using the whole assemblies with new cogs ...so I will have to get the angle grinder out at some stage. (This was when I was even more mechanically inept than I am now and hadn't heard of copaslip grease)
 
Should I report this driver ?

Shocking bit of driving, but there would be no complaint mechanism for an unmarked lorry - and look at the car following. Perhaps they work at the same sorting office.

 
I tapped out a really good rhythm on a 2.5 mile stretch this morning. It was a slight incline and into a pretty strong headwind, but it's a beautiful bit of road and I was in the ideal gear.
 
Dogsauce said:
Not entirely sure about that - there is a bit more of a feeling of solidarity amongst cyclists as anyone who does it regularly faces the same problems and will tend to group to raise these concerns, whereas just about everyone is a pedestrian so there is less a feeling about being part of a particular 'group' or having made a choice. Cyclists will have a particular focus on things such as why lorries in particular are responsible for a disproportionate amount of deaths - are there similar factors in pedestrian deaths that need focusing on (I'd hope someone is researching this). I'd hope things like changes to lorry designs resulting from any campaign would also benefit pedestrians too - anything slowing down and removing the dominance of traffic from certain areas has to help. I don't think the media having got hold of this as an 'issue' is a bad thing.

Cyclists are quite a diverse group - a lot use it for transport just because it's affordable, especially up here (on my commute I see mostly a lot of guys riding back from all the distribution depots and warehouses on crap mountain bikes). But I'd agree those making the noise about it are more likely to be middle-class as with anything (and also London-focused - not heard much about the deaths in Bristol and Cheshire this week).
Click to expand...

There's more solidarity because it's more of a group, yes. No-one identifies with pedestrians as a group because everyone's a pedestrian so it's so broad as to be meaningless. I admit I'm being London-centric here but I imagine a lot of media types cycle and so they naturally give news items about cycling greater attention. Not that this is a bad thing in this case, of course. I just find it interesting that so much transport discussion is around cycling and rail.
 
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