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How was your cycle commute?

Went by 59 bus today to South Bank as youngest had a school thing. Christ it's slow - took an hour from home (45m from Brixton centre) to get to Waterloo Bridge. Sat in bus mournfully looking at cyclists zipping past.
 
Bah, broke a spoke on the way to the childminder's this morning (7:55), so wheeled the bike to the shop, went home, showered, tried to get a thameslink, all cancelled and delayed till the 9:32, got that just before 20 to and just in the office. Should literally have been here two hours ago. :mad: Did a bit of work from home, but still.
 
Pulled out my cycling jacket for the first time in about 14 months today. Ditched it about 3 miles in as I was hot. Appreciated layering the gloves though.

Treated myself to some stuff in the sales; a new light (Cateye Rapid X3) is totally awesome, I feel really visible again!
Also got a new KASK lid, which is really nice, way more comfortable than my old one with its "'Up'n'Down Technology' (I shit you not), and I bought it in white/red whereas my old one was black. I'm all about visibility in 2016 :)
 
There were some roadworks on my route today with some piggies hid behind to nick anyone riding on the pavement. They could have stood in front of the works and just stopped people but they would rather let them break the law then collect the fine.
 
DEAR GOD it was cold today. Had gloves and several layers on but man that wind was cold. Could barely feel my fingers/toes when I got to work.
 
Yep - it was total FREEZING. I can't say I enjoyed it very much, was feeling a bit run down, and normally I warm up on a cold morning after a few miles but not today, I just got colder and colder. Brrrrrrr.
 
plurker said:
Also got a new KASK lid, which is really nice, way more comfortable than my old one with its "'Up'n'Down Technology' (I shit you not), and I bought it in white/red whereas my old one was black.
Click to expand...

I've got a KASK too - super comfortable I agree....

More importantly I've found it very good at protecting my head! I came off a few months ago and twatted my head really hard on the road - it didn't move at all. The helmet cracked - but my head didn't and they have a 50% off crash replacement policy - so good choice!
 
braindancer said:
Yep - it was total FREEZING. I can't say I enjoyed it very much, was feeling a bit run down, and normally I warm up on a cold morning after a few miles but not today, I just got colder and colder. Brrrrrrr.
Click to expand...

This./ All of this.
I was once given an Atura cycling jacket - softshell warm thing. I've worn it about ten times in the five years I've had it, and every time I've had to stop and take it off as I got too hot in it. Not today though; I struggled to keep warm right along the ride.
 
Unexpectedly starting back at college tomorrow rather than next week. Ice warning in place. I will likely struggle.
 
Dreadful journey back from work at 2.30pm to pick up kids from school. Beautiful weather but every fucker seemed to be out to get me - close passes galore and one cunt driving straight at me on the wrong side of the road cos he couldn't be bothered to queue for his RH turn. Anyway, driver of Sunlight Laundry van MX09 FFW who told me to fuck off when I told you you were twice too close - I've reported you to your bosses and Roadside you fucking turnip - I hope you lose your job :mad:
 
Think we're the only bit of the country with no frost this morning, a balmy 3 degrees at 7:20. Had a morale-boosting sub-30-minute commute, which hasn't happened for a while.

I've generally been setting off about half an hour later recently, but seemed to get my shit together fairly efficiently this morning (as I was on the road bike I wasn't struggling to get the overshoes on on my other shoes which seems to take about tem minutes). Later start = more traffic, particularly as it's a bit of a clusterfuck for the first two miles into town at the moment, ironically due to roadworks for the new cycle superhighway (and the amount of traffic rat running to avoid it).
 
I tried to stay with a couple of local hitters (NRS riders) up a climb today. It was very hot and windy so I was please to be pushing three hunge/three fiddy watts for nearly ten minutes then... bang... totally cracked. The next thing I remember was sitting on the side of the road sicking about a 1L of water down my maillot. I got about 0.5L of (different!) water back into me and had a wobbly ride back. About 1km from home I broke the chain which ripped the rear derailleur off and snapped the hanger.

All in all, a great day's cycling. I think I might buy a CAAD12.
 
Where do we stand with reporting stuff to the police?

A car buckled by back wheel last night when I stopped to make a right turn:
Me: What the fuck was that!?
Driver: You were in the middle of the road
Me: I was waiting to make a right turn! You were on your phone!

The irony of his response is that as I approached the turn there was a queue of a few cars so I planned to pull in behind and then turn, but as I approached, the other cars moved off and he just sat there in the middle of the road, so I pulled up behind but after a moment I passed on the inside (a bus was coming up the other side of the road) which is where I saw he was using his phone in his lap, moved across for the turn and stopped to wait for oncoming traffic to clear and he ran into my back wheel

He said he'd pull over but when I moved out of the road he did a runner,
Me: "Camera!, Bitch!"
:oops:

So, it's on camera, but I guess I don't look too good with quite a bit of swearing, and I don't think the police really investigate minor bumps with no injuries, although DVLA says he doesn't have an MOT either, so no valid insurance?
 
Almor said:
Where do we stand with reporting stuff to the police?

A car buckled by back wheel last night when I stopped to make a right turn:
Me: What the fuck was that!?
Driver: You were in the middle of the road
Me: I was waiting to make a right turn! You were on your phone!

The irony of his response is that as I approached the turn there was a queue of a few cars so I planned to pull in behind and then turn, but as I approached, the other cars moved off and he just sat there in the middle of the road, so I pulled up behind but after a moment I passed on the inside (a bus was coming up the other side of the road) which is where I saw he was using his phone in his lap, moved across for the turn and stopped to wait for oncoming traffic to clear and he ran into my back wheel

He said he'd pull over but when I moved out of the road he did a runner,
Me: "Camera!, Bitch!"
:oops:

So, it's on camera, but I guess I don't look too good with quite a bit of swearing, and I don't think the police really investigate minor bumps with no injuries, although DVLA says he doesn't have an MOT either, so no valid insurance?
Click to expand...
He damaged your bike, was on his phone? I would report that.
 
Yeah, absolutely. Leaving the scene of an accident, big deal:

If an accident takes place, and either damage or personal injury is caused, then the driver of the vehicle at the time is required to stop at the scene of the accident and hand over their details and their insurance policy number to others present who may wish to have that information. Failing to stop at the scene of an accident is an offence under Section 170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988.
Click to expand...
You can take 'driving off without providing details after stopping momentarily to argue' to be much the same.

Being on the phone: 3 points automatically.

In summary, screw that guy.
 
Police tend to be more interested if someone has left the scene of a collision, you should definitely report it.
 
I'd like to think that the police would take leaving the scene of a collision involving a motor vehicle seriously but anecdotal evidence on the internet suggests that Cambridgeshire police don't care much

They're apparently not likely to act without independent witnesses

The camera is on my shoulder strap so it didn't record the actual collision (except jerking when hit), or even the driver, or the phone use, Cambridge police website says mobile phone using drivers will be reported for further action...

A woman where I used to work told me about her son getting caught driving without insurance and the police seemed to come down pretty hard on him, he ended up on remand when he skipped out on his tag, I thought there might have been more to it though

I suppose I should find out for myself how the police deal with this sort of thing, but I've been ill this weekend and I need to fix the bike so I can get to work Monday
 
Front light fell off this morning and the front lense part rolled down the road and disappeared through some dimensional door into nowhere. Light still functions but it's a bare LED chip poking out the front with no cover, which won't be much good in the rain.

Last week the battery for my Cree front light packed up (only bought in October and I got a supposedly better unit from a UK seller), the week before my two-month old Lezyne Zecto rear light stopped working on my commute. Both these have been returned for replacement, but it'll be a couple of weeks before I have them back.

I also lost two lights at the end of last year (one fell off, one probably stolen after being left on the bike or dropped near it).

Think I'm carrying some kind of curse.

(my rear light also fell off twice last week too, but I retrieved it both times and have since tightened up the bracket)
 
Lights are just shit. I've had years of trouble. These days I've settled on 2 x Lezyne Microdrives at the back (two for redundancy) and a Cat Eye 600 thing at the front. They've all lasted a couple of years now.
 
I had no problems from my previous Zecto, so disappointed this one failed so quickly (think water might have got in through a seal somewhere). I wasn't getting the same runtime as the previous one I had either, perhaps as little as half, so think it was a dud.

I'm coming round to the idea of something like an Exposure, but given my habit of losing lights it's probably best sticking with cheaper options.

The Cree one pisses me off because the cable from the battery pack to the light is stupidly long, given I sling the battery off the stem (and on my old bike I had it directly behind the headset). I need about 10cm, but it must be about a metre between both parts, putting it on the bike involves lots of winding.
 
30+mph block headwind. 50+mph gusts.

I finish school in about half an hour though and the wind is still blowing. Barely need to turn a pedal in anger all the way home :thumbs:
 
I seem to have recently moved to the estate with the shittest road quality in the known Universe. It's almost as if they've intentionally made as cracked and holey as possible.

Still, a decent 15 miles this morning, the first half of which was into a horrendous headwind, meaning the route home I absolutely flew.
 
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