How was your cycle commute?

[Dogsauce]

When it's dry, these autumn mornings are dead nice for riding in, the coolness in the mornings helps out. The hills are hurting me a bit this week (taking the bumpier but shorter route in to work) but I'm getting some reasonable times on them and hopefully burning off a bit of weight - when I weighed myself at the gfs last weekend I was 6kg up on what I was a week after my operation in July. That's a lot of extra lifting going on, there's 110m of climb on my commute.

I left a bit earlier this morning and the traffic was better, but I was getting a lot of bad luck with the lights, I even had a red on a set I'd never even noticed before, a ped crossing that must have always been on green in the past.
(I'd have been even earlier if I hadn't had to spend 15 mins cleaning up the remains of a deceased pigeon in my dining room, thanks cats).

 

[chriswill]

Puncture fixed and a very busy ride home. Something must have happened on the motorway which meant loads of extra traffic on the local roads.

You've got to love it when drivers give you loads of room

 

[iamwithnail]

I don't ever use the bottom gear on my front chainset (it's 48/38/24, I think) - how much is it likely to cost me to go up? I've never really done anything like that, but would like my bottom gears to be around the bottom of my current middle set, if that makes sense. I only ever use the bike to commute...

 

[dlx1]

Picked up a new GoPro this weekend

Edit: I scrolled down sliver 4

What one did you get?
If your looking at chest mount can get one on ebay or dealextreme for like 8 quid then gopro £30 [emoji50]

---
Tonight night ride woods & fields lots of surface water [emoji45] hard going in slop still did 16 miles off road.

 

[dlx1]

My Commute home was wet! (I know I need mudguards)

Shouldn't you be shouting every car that overtakes you [emoji1]

 

[stavros]

I now can't get onto my lowest chainset without dismounting and manually moving the chain. I took it into the shop this morning to see if they could do anything, but the front mech limit screws have set into the mech after six years of continuous use and can't be adjusted now.

In better news, I gave both tyres a slight pump this morning and felt beautifully smooth whilst riding.

 

[dlx1]

I now can't get onto my lowest chainset without dismounting and manually moving the chain. I took it into the shop this morning to see if they could do anything, but the front mech limit screws have set into the mech after six years of continuous use and can't be adjusted now.

What a turn at the barrel adjuster at top on shifter.

Blast with some gt85 spray or TF2.

 

[stavros]

Luckily, my top chainset is accessible and boy I used it this morning. I went out fairly casually round very quite country roads, saving myself for the home leg. I got back onto the main road into town, which is a slight aggregate downhill for about 6 miles on lovely smooth roads and I fucking bombed it. I don't know what my average speed was on that bit, but over the full 19.5 miles I averaged about 18mph, which cuffed me immensely.

 

[Dogsauce]

I now can't get onto my lowest chainset without dismounting and manually moving the chain. I took it into the shop this morning to see if they could do anything, but the front mech limit screws have set into the mech after six years of continuous use and can't be adjusted now.

Mine will automatically drop on to the smaller ring if I go below the fourth smallest cog on the back, due to the chain line. To get it back on the big one I have to stop and use whatever roadside debris I can find to loop it back on, a 500ml plastic coke bottle tends to be my favourite device as the ridge around the top hooks the chain quite nicely.

I am actually considering fitting a front changer now, there are the fitting points for a downtube one on the frame. If I lose the rack on the back at the same time there will be a net loss of weight.

 

[Dogsauce]

I like a nice tailwind.


Apart from a light shower on leaving the house I seemed to hit a nice dry spell, a good thing given my overshoes were still in the office drying out from yesterday. Rode the three miles downhill into town pretty steadily due to wetness and traffic, then on the comparatively empty roads going out of town the other way I could let rip a bit, although frustrated by red lights on too many occasions.

Tightened up my brakes this morning too, I had a feeling they might be needed.

Going home (when the winds are supposed to be stronger) might be a bit less fun...

 

[iamwithnail]

Nice! I got up to 47-48km/h coming down to Buckingham Palace one evening when it was quiet, thought the bike was going to shoogle to bits!

 

[girasol]

Yeah, ride this morning was really pleasant, and faster than usual due to tailwind. A while after I sat on my desk the rain came down very hard! Glad I missed that. Forecast is for rain later on so very likely I will get soaked today even though I escaped it this morning.

 

[Dogsauce]

The rain will have cleared by home time, but I'll have a 26mph headwind to contend with (and it usually tends to be a bit windier than forecast as I come over the top of the valley here).

I'm half tempted to get the train home (which overshoots where I live by about two miles) then sail back home from the west, but then headwinds are just a character building exercise.

I also got my new SolarStorm light at the weekend (£18 on ebay) and have had that on the bike since yesterday, nice having the confidence that you can be seen again. Last night I turned it on full as I came down past the gap in the dual carraigeway where I nearly got taken out by a U-turner last week, but generally on 'low' is more than good enough.

My last cheap ebay light packed up in the spring, and I assumed it was the light part, as the battery would still show as charged when hooked up to the charger. Turns out it was the battery as the old light works fine with the new one. tbh I'd have rather had two working batteries and one working light! At least I now have two chargers so I can keep one at work.

 

[a_chap]

Walked the dogs at 6am and it was windy as hell

Rode to work at 8am and there was not a breath of windy. Spooky.

Rode home and the wind BLEW IN EVERY FUCKING DIRECTION AT ONCE!!!

I was almost blown off my bike (vertically) at one point. Brilliant

 

[fen_boy]

40km commute took me 30 minutes longer today due to 25mph headwind. Not much shelter in the fens.

e2a worse than that I'd left the car at work so had to drive home, so didn't even get the tailwind on the way back.

 

[iamwithnail]

You commute 25 miles to work on your bike??

 

[braindancer]

Ooooh chilly fingers this morning for the first time this year - might have to dig out some gloves....

 

[Dogsauce]

I wish there was still a recession on. Traffic's crap these days, don't think there's any chance of me breaking 30-minutes for my commute unless I get up an hour earlier. The heady days of 29 point something minutes for elapsed journey time are just a memory, I'm rarely much under 35. On one route they've also bolloxed up the traffic light sequence which means an extra sixty seconds waiting, just to make it harder.

 

[fen_boy]

You commute 25 miles to work on your bike??

I alternate between car and bike. At the moment each week I do 6 bike journeys and 4 by car, but it varies.

There is a quicker 25k route I could take, but it's busy and I like cycling across the fens instead.

The 40k route takes me about 1h 40minutes on a good day.

 

[fen_boy]

I should add I've not been doing this for all that long, so we'll see how it goes when the weather turns really shit. I used to do the 25k route every day a few years ago, but have only really just got back into it.

 

[fen_boy]

9 miles of it is this http://tourism.eastcambs.gov.uk/sites/default/files/The Lodes Way.pdf

 

[iamwithnail]

That does look really nice, tbf! (And flattish?) Funny how cycling changes perceptions of distance, though - I used to commute 2.5m on my bike and arrive a sweaty mess, now I bosh that in jeans and a jacket, don't even think about it, and happily cycle 10-15m out to see in-laws or whatever as well.

 

[fen_boy]

It's so flat that if you stare hard enough into the distance you can see the back of your own head.

 

[plurker]

it was too cold this morning for my choice of attire.

Stupidly i knew it was cold enough for my little ear-warming headband thing but neglected to wear more than a wicking-fabric teeshirt. I got pretty cold at 17mph, especially on the nips. Not looking forward to the ride home!

 

[8115]

Gonna get my bike it's winter service next week

 

[Dogsauce]

it was too cold this morning for my choice of attire.

Stupidly i knew it was cold enough for my little ear-warming headband thing but neglected to wear more than a wicking-fabric teeshirt. I got pretty cold at 17mph, especially on the nips. Not looking forward to the ride home!

I stupidly chose fingerless gloves yesterday, thinking it'd mean I could be quicker on the brakes given it was damp and very windy (but relatively mild). Fine for the ride in, but regretted it coming home into the chilling 22mph headwind!

 

[chriswill]

I baffles me why people still do things like this :-/

 

[Blagsta]

I see people do that loads in Birmingham. Idiots with a death wish

 

[weepiper]

I baffles me why people still do things like this :-/

nooooo OMG what an idiot!

 

[chriswill]

He'd attempted it at least 3 times before he went for it. On the approach to a roundabout too!