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    Lazy Llama

How was your cycle commute?

Any recommednations on pannier bags? I had one I got last year (just about this time actually), but it's completely fucked, was £70 as well, really annoyed. Has to be waterproof, obviously.

What Han said. Have used mine daily for 15 years. Never leaked or fallen off.
 
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Yeah same here. 15 years for mine too. They're definitely worth the investment. The range they have is much more extensive these days as well.
 
Pretty shit this morning. I only went a short distance because they were predicting rain, but I got caught in two traffic jams. The first I think was caused by the fact that the traffic lights at a major roundabout weren't working, meaning it was tailed back about 500m from where I was coming from. I jumped about half of that but then the lanes condensed so I had to wait. The second one was a result purely of people coming out of Tesco's car park and people ahead of me selfishly letting them out. If I do that bit of road again I will make sure I do it before Tesco opens on a Sunday.
 
Yesterday on my way to work I was honked at by a Merc and a white van man because I was taking the prime position on a stretch of road without a cycle lane, where previously I've had people overtaking me and getting too close.

On the way home, just before the same stretch of road there's a cycle path which has a tree in the middle of it, some people had parked a pickup truck on the cycle lane just beyond the tree. I had a minor collision with a cyclist coming the other way when we both tried to avoid the truck. When I pointed out to one of the chaps that they'd parked in the cycle lane they said that they were loading and would only be a minute. I said that they should get out of the way and that I had just bumped into another cyclist, at which point I was told that I should "watch where I'm going!" I didn't realise how cheeky this was until I had started to cycle off but shouted back "watch where you're parking!"

This all happened on London Road, Brighton just north of Preston Circus.

:mad: :mad: :mad:
 
Really not enjoying my new cycle commute. It's only a mile further but it feels way worse as I have to get to my old office and keep going, or take a really shitty route through teh city. :(
 
Commute much colder than expected. Wish I hadn't gone for the bare legs and Spring gloves.
 
Sunny! Warm and Sunny! And only a little bit of wind, none of which was a headwind apart from a short stretch - but even then I managed to keep my speed up at about 30km/h so all good.

Made forgetting my keys and having to come all the way home and back again a bit less of a ball ache :D.
 
Colder than planned - as per Winot's post - I went fingerless gloves and regretted it.

Also, the lane closures and roadworks around Kennington (separate thread) are starting to become a PITA, slowing me down as there's no room for me to safely pass slow-moving traffic which is held at the lights.
This will only worsen over the coming months, so I need to find an alternative that gets me from Oval to Blackfriars Bridge yet avoiding Elephant & castle. I prefer main roads to 'quiet-route' options, yet have the fear of E&C.
 
Also, the lane closures and roadworks around Kennington (separate thread) are starting to become a PITA, slowing me down as there's no room for me to safely pass slow-moving traffic which is held at the lights.
This will only worsen over the coming months, so I need to find an alternative that gets me from Oval to Blackfriars Bridge yet avoiding Elephant & castle. I prefer main roads to 'quiet-route' options, yet have the fear of E&C.

I'm in the same boat (although usually head over Waterloo Bridge via Baylis Rd).

BTW, has any one noticed the weird 20mph zone that's popped up around the Imperial War Museum? Starts at Grand Union pub (heading north) and stops 100m later at the junction. Odd.
 
It's not just that side, seems like every north/south cycle route is fucked atm. The route through Dunton Road, etc up towards Tower Bridge has been shut for weeks, was open for two days and it's shut again, have to dismount and go on the narrow pavement.
 
Continuing London centric rant theme......yeah Kennington is a mess (I come home that way) there are also really fucked up roadworks on the N side of Blackfriars bridge that mean gridlock in the evening from Clerkenwell Road all the way down to the river.
 
My bikes filthy.
Do you think I can take it to one of those handwash car places and pay them to give it a clean and degrease its cogs?

Is it a thing?
 
I did have a look round at the couple near my work and near my flat.
The cheapest service they offered was £50.
Yowch. We'll do the whole bike for £30 or just the drivetrain (chain/cassette/chainset/both derailleurs off and scrubbed in the parts washer) for £15.
You can do it with a jetwash but it's generally not advisable because it forces mucky water beyond the seals into the bearings and/or suspension and fucks them.
 
Yowch. We'll do the whole bike for £30 or just the drivetrain (chain/cassette/chainset/both derailleurs off and scrubbed in the parts washer) for £15.
You can do it with a jetwash but it's generally not advisable because it forces mucky water beyond the seals into the bearings and/or suspension and fucks them.
As much as I'd love to meet you, I'll be fucked if I have to cycle up to Scotland. :D

I can strip my bike and dry, oil, and grease it.
I just need it to be clean as I don't have an outside space.
 
Yeah I'm much the same. Think I'll just spring for it though as the bikes caked, and never been washed in the time I've had it (since June...)
 
Yeah I'm much the same. Think I'll just spring for it though as the bikes caked, and never been washed in the time I've had it (since June...)
I did a bit more googling, last night.
Theres a fancy car valet place in canary wharf that seems to offer a bicycle clean "from £5". Maybe they are more aware of how to clean a bike than the furious car park place at the top of my road.
http://www.carwashers.co.uk/public/index.php?p=tariff

Its just over the river from me, so i might give them a go.
 
Not bad for £399! I'm an XS frame, being a shortarse.

The 46cm steel/carbon frame I recently bought from Planet X (only 99 quid! ) I'm going to do a build with and take many months over it to spread the cost. That one will be more of a freak of nature with surly moustache-ish handlebars.

Very excited, anyway, about having a bike that is reasonably light for the first time ever. (Apart from my singlespeed which is light in comparison to my other tanks). Gears! Gears! Wonderful gears!
 
I did a bit more googling, last night.
Theres a fancy car valet place in canary wharf that seems to offer a bicycle clean "from £5". Maybe they are more aware of how to clean a bike than the furious car park place at the top of my road.
http://www.carwashers.co.uk/public/index.php?p=tariff

Its just over the river from me, so i might give them a go.
In all honesty, £5 sounds too good to be true. They'll probably just jet wash the hell out of it.

Cleaning a bike properly requires little brushes for the gears and the chain, and takes a good while.,doesn't it? Or maybe that's just me, in my slightly ocd-ish style of bike cleaning.
 
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In all honesty, £5 sounds too good to be true. They'll probably just jet wash the hell out of it.

Cleaning a bike properly requires little brushes for the gears and the chain, and takes a good while.,doesn't it? Or maybe that's just me, in my slightly ocd-ish style of bike cleaning.
It says from £5. So probably charge more for doing stuff. I'll see what they say.
If its just a normal washing, I will take it to the surly Polish guys at the top of the road instead.
 
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