How was your cycle commute?

[Dogsauce]

I've noticed on my recent daytime rides that drivers are no less of a dick to you even when you've got a loaded child seat on the back. Some absolute bellends out there.

 

[Winot]

Damn chain broke on way to work. At least it was when I was going slowly, and reasonably close to the office. Took bike to Evans (I don't like them but they were closest) and they are booked up for repairs until *29 July*! Apparently all their London shops are the same.

ETA Mobile Cycle Repairs London | On demand bike repairs claim to be able to come and fix it for £15 at my office this afternoon. Pretty good service if true.

 

[gentlegreen]

Get yourself a chain tool - or a quicklink

 

[Winot]

Get yourself a chain tool - or a quicklink

Yeah I have got one somewhere - but I have a full day's work to do so it's easier to pay someone.

Also I suspect I need a new chain - I had the rear cog changed to a bigger one recently due to granny legs (it's a single speed bike) and I think the chain has stretched.

 

[iamwithnail]

How much is a new bottom bracket and/or crank likely to set me back for a hybrid commuter bike? LBS said it'll need done by next service, and I forgot to ask prices.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

I posted this one last year :-

View attachment 111318

You should send that in to GCN, it'd be a shoe in for hack/bodge of the week

 

[gentlegreen]

I'm seriously peeved I failed to get a photo of the home-made wooden rack on a bike parked outside Aldi one time - I never saw it again

 

[gentlegreen]

I fitted my lovely new back wheel today, but since the chain isn't actually jumping off the sprockets yet, and because I have also managed to mislay the new middle chainring I bought a few months ago, I decided instead to give the whole transmission a wash in white spirit - for the first time ever ... the chain is so well worn, the two rollers at either end of the split link fell off - and when I used a magnet to fish one of them out of the wash bottle, it came out with an impressive amount of other material stuck to it

I bought new tyres and inner tubes from Holland and annoyingly I accidentally ordered inner tubes with 60mm valve stems.

 

[Winot]

First commute after 2 weeks holiday. Thanks a bunch YR64 HXC for the punishment pass. Reported via Met Police beta reporting service.

 

[BigTom]

First commute after 2 weeks holiday. Thanks a bunch YR64 HXC for the punishment pass. Reported via Met Police beta reporting service.

Now the met have started operation close pass you will hopefully see an improvement - the operation in the west mids made a huge, noticeable difference after a couple of months (helped I'm sure by the media reporting at the time which won't be anything like as plentiful for the start of the met operation).
Personally I have gone from daily close passes/weekly seriously dangerous ones to many days no close passes at all and seriously dangerous ones maybe monthly. Since I got a camera on my bike earlier this year I've only reported one incident (though there have been a couple of others I failed to have my cameras charged and wasn't filming).

 

[gentlegreen]

Yesterday on the way to work on a narrow section of a shared path, some barely-beyond-millenial did the usual twattish thing of not adjusting his speed and planning his overtake for a few seconds later, but instead cutting down the middle beween me (from behind) and an oncoming cyclist and when I informed him of his twattishness he muttered some accusation that I wasn't wearing a helmet.
When I expressed disbelief, he changed it to me being selfish for wearing headphones - as if it was alright to cut people up if they get a couple of seconds' auditory warning - no bell or vocalisation had been used.
I didn't get a chance to discuss his weird notions of moral equivalency or whether it was alright for deaf people to cycle - the irony that we were having this conversation in spite of my carefully chosen open headphones and ambient music apparently escaped him ...

This morning started out well. Several decent overtakes of me on the path, then later as I was negociating a steep downhill with challenging surface and camber at around 20MPH, some idiot cuts past me on the inside.
This hill used to regularly have cars flying off on the bend and crashing through the fence so now has a raised kerb to keep the idiots on the road - plus a 20MPH speed limit.
Fate sadly conspired to deprive me of shadenfreude and I got no satisfaction beyond aiming epithets in his direction. The younger, lighter rider got away before I could properly bend his ear.

 

[iamwithnail]

I pumped up my tyres after yesterday's utter grind of a commute. They were at about 25(psi?) rather than the usual 80 I cut about with on roads. Yesterday was nay great for a bunch of reasons, including the woman trying to undertake me on the left, from the wrong, left turning lane while turning right coming from Chadwick onto Lyndhurst. Bloody idiot, didn't even save her any time.

 

[iamwithnail]

Crikey. Cycling into the City is a bit harder than pootling along towards Victoria on all that segregated cycle route, eh? Had a couple of brilliant commutes in, flying over London Bridge with fog and mist lying on the water, sun in the sky early one morning was a particular highlight, and getting home in 23 minutes was also good. Also had some horrors - there are a bunch of closures on the main N/S routes (New Kent road crossing, back of the shard, round Tooley street, to name but a few.). LBG was jammed solid on Monday, literally not moving, and those new barriers are fucking awful and not helping. Ended up giving up, chucking my bike over the barrier and walking over the bridge, it was that bad.

 

[nick]

Just moved offices to the Wharf of lost souls (commuting from Tulse Hill).

Christ that CS3 is one narrow path.

Been doing it on a 20yr old Trek mountain bike that was languishing in the shed, because my real bike got nicked in August. Was hoping it would do me until I was able to sort a new bike, but the chain / cassette / front derailleur and chain rings are all fucked so I only have about 3 working ratios - all of which have me spinning at what feels like 200rpm.
Have bitten the bullet and booked it into Brixton Cycles for resuscitation in the hope it will see me through until the end of the year

 

[BigTom]

Undercover operation to catch drivers too close to cyclists praised

West Mids police say the close pass operation has cut cyclist KSIs by 20% - needs longer term numbers and there's a press / statistical release coming next week but my lived experience commuting in Birmingham says this is true. Quite a few other forces have started this and a bunch came to a training day a week or two ago. I would really suggest that everyone write to their PCC and ask them to get your local force to implement this operation. I have been genuinely surprised at the noticeable difference I've seen in close passing since the operation started last year.

 

[iamwithnail]

The temporary red light at Mawbey Road crossing the Old Kent Road is stuck on permanent red (going south) for anyone that commutes that way. Was like that last night cycling home (realised after literally 5 minutes of waiting there), and was still on this morning when I jogged in.

 

[Crispy]

Crikey. Cycling into the City is a bit harder than pootling along towards Victoria on all that segregated cycle route, eh? Had a couple of brilliant commutes in, flying over London Bridge with fog and mist lying on the water, sun in the sky early one morning was a particular highlight, and getting home in 23 minutes was also good. Also had some horrors - there are a bunch of closures on the main N/S routes (New Kent road crossing, back of the shard, round Tooley street, to name but a few.). LBG was jammed solid on Monday, literally not moving, and those new barriers are fucking awful and not helping. Ended up giving up, chucking my bike over the barrier and walking over the bridge, it was that bad.

Sod that bridge. Go a bit further west and cross Southwark Bridge. Much more pleasant.

 

[gentlegreen]

38 tooth 8 speed Shimano sprockets are like hen's teeth at the moment.

Having mislaid the one I bought back in the spring and with my chain drinking lube there was no tomorrow (I was getting close to trying grease ), I was about to cough up £20 including delivery from Germany when luckily I found one on Ebay for £8 delivered - so I should be able to replace the whole transmission next weekend - which I hate doing as we approach the rain and salt season - not that there's much salt in these days of mild winters .. I was going to add "grit", but there's always plenty of that on my rustic commute over red sandstone.

In spite of my chain beginning to resemble the ones on my hanging baskets, I've only had it jump off the teeth a couple of times, so my main fear is breakage. When I split it a few weeks back to give it a decent clean, the end links fell apart.

 

[DownwardDog]

38 tooth 8 speed Shimano sprockets are like hen's teeth at the moment.

Shimano have only made one 8 speed groupset (Claris) for the last ten years. They will be getting scarce...

 

[weepiper]

Shimano have only made one 8 speed groupset (Claris) for the last ten years. They will be getting scarce...

He rides a mountain bike. Even Altus is a 9 speed group now though and the only 8 speed group left is Tourney which doesn't have replaceable chainrings so it's a case of new old stock. Or a really expensive TA one.

 

[weepiper]

gentlegreen 8 speed chain will run fine on a 9 speed chainset so that might be the best way to go soon (or a whole new bike)

 

[gentlegreen]

(or a whole new bike)

My original plan was to leave it in the UK when I leave in a few years' time, and buy a couple of Decathlon bikes when I get there, but just lately I have realised that since I have big stuff to take anyway, I might as well take it.
It's only the frame that's original in any case.
I have about 4 cassettes and chains, so I will look out on ebay for more chainwheels.

My cycling in France will probably be a lot less, so I should be OK for a bit - perhaps I'll investigate switching to more speeds.

 

[DownwardDog]

My original plan was to leave it in the UK when I leave in a few years' time, and buy a couple of Decathlon bikes when I get there,

Leaving aside the sagesse or otherwise of buying a B'Twin in the first place. Why are you getting two?

 

[DownwardDog]

He rides a mountain bike. Even Altus is a 9 speed group now though and the only 8 speed group left is Tourney which doesn't have replaceable chainrings so it's a case of new old stock. Or a really expensive TA one.

Tourney is 7 speed. Maybe GG should downgrade!

 

[weepiper]

Tourney is 7 speed. Maybe GG should downgrade!

6/7/8. All uses the same chain.

 

[gentlegreen]

Leaving aside the sagesse or otherwise of buying a B'Twin in the first place. Why are you getting two?

I figured I would want reliable transport stuck out in the sticks - though I will actually have the time to fix them properly - plus I will have a car for the first year or two, and amazingly there are actually buses in the area I'm hoping to move to ... and in any case Carrefour deliver these days

 

[gentlegreen]

I have a duff foot so need to take it easy this weekend, and I have the wherewithal to replace my transmission, but my super-worn chain is refusing to snap or leap off the sprocket teeth every time I stomp on the pedals.

At the very least I have to fix a few lighting gremlins.

Having rather late in the day realised the efficacy of polythene milk cartons as light diffusers and fitted one to the front of the bike, I'm now planning to cut a circle for the rear light that is otherwise too bright to use apart from the few times a year when I have to ride in dense fog ...

 

[gentlegreen]

I tried and failed to flatten a sheet of milk carton plastic on my hotplate, but fortuitously a while back I acquired some serious margarine tubs - from the days when they were almost as well made as Tupperware and the lids have just about the right opacity.
So I hot-snotted my existing lamps inside and I still have the option of taking that off and going "naked"
The lamp above is my German-approved rear light and reflector which is all I tend to use on shared paths.

 

[gentlegreen]

I think I probably need to fit a new chain and cogs next weekend.
Today was the first time I have ever had to remove a link to stop the chain rubbing on the back of the tensioner on the small-small combo
It may help to explain why I have quite often recently found myself accidentally using big-bigish on the way home - a ratio that is only just possible with a new chain.

 

[gentlegreen]

Young woman cycling towards me this morning with a string of green LEDs up front.
When she got close enough I saw they were Xmas trees
Infinitely preferable to all the idiots lit up like lighthouses and burning my retinas of course.

Given I have a hefty 12 volt supply available, perhaps I should come up with some suitably ironic flashing lights ...