This morning's commute and other commuting stories

I thought you were calling for a cunt so came to the fray, but misread the notification.

Optimum braking has the rear just off the ground. They done a study n shit.

In dry conditions maybe, but with all of that braking force through the front only you'll be near the limit of traction, and you don't want to have the front lose traction when nearly all of the weight is on it.

In damp/wet conditions front-only braking will mean you lose traction and lowside well before the rear is completely unloaded; that means braking with the rear is relevant.

In an emergency you don't want to be thinking "is the ground dry or damp? Should I use 100% front or a bit less of front and use the rear? Why am I thinking about these questions and not applying any brakes yet?". You just want to be doing what you've been taught to do instinctively - hence front and rear.

This is why they teach you (on motorbike training at least) to use ~75% front and ~25% rear. I'm sure dj can advise on what the current cycle training idea is.

A forensic discussion of braking technique was not how I wanted this to end!

Taught instinctively?

True.

s/instinctively/without thinking/g

Of course you can teach/train people to react a certain way without thinking.

Polo. I can stop well quick.

Even quicker when I fit this tomorrow.

The cushion or the brake?

Both.

That was a fucked up ride home. Everything seemed a hazard. Traffic and tons of peds being dicks. Commercial road was a hazard. Passed a taxi with a scooter wedged under the front of it. Both drivers scratching their heads About how to get it out. Even motorbikes being cunts today and undertaking. Glad to be home.

Emergency stops were part of cycling proficiency, I'd have thought they still are in Bikeability.

Id have thought wet roads mean you need more weight over the front to stop quicker, not less. You need more skill not to have the front wash out sideways but better traction and grip comes from more weight. The point at which you have too much weight over the front is the point of endo, that comes later on wet roads.

yep

I'd have thought wet roads mean you need more weight over the front to stop quicker.

On wet road, you just need to ride slower than you usually ride at, thus emergency stop distance will remain the same.

This ^ - riding to the conditions as I was this evening down Jamaica Road where the motor traffic was heavy congested/gridlock at a 4 road traffic light and pedestrian crossing opportunity way junction.
I have one foot unclipped and moving slow - brakes covered in preparation for the stray pedestrian that I collide with.
He is apologising to me while I am unclipping the last foot on my back sprawled across the pavement.
No damage.
Could have been worse if I had been going faster and not riding to the conditions .

Pub!!!!

Total mayhem out there this morning from beginning to end. Anybody else notice this?

Mixed results but I thought it was more chilled than not. Busy roads seemed quiet and quiet ones were busy though.

Saw a well skinny bloke dressed as Evel Knievel swerving his way to an early death down Kennington Rd...I sarcastically wolf whistled him which he either thought was funny or pissed him off. Couldn't tell.

Commute was pretty uneventful thankfully.

the same depressingly predictable 9 and a half mile long shower of single occupancy, selfish, inattentive, phone using cunts. i don't foresee this changing anytime soon.

hmm mine was shit. Almost like all the fuckwits had decided to come out at the same time. An 'amusing' moment at the corner of Islington High Street and City Road/St John Street. A selfish bastard in a monster 4x4/truck thingie had decided to take up the whole ASL, cue loads of annoyed cyclists surrounding him and looking at him, shaking their heads etc.

Absolute chaos, usually it's completely uneventful but this morning was like a live action game of Frogger. I haven't had a commute in this bad in about 2 months, to the point where I got into work and a colleague just looked at me and said "what's happened?".

The main two events being a cyclist cutting up a bus right in front on me on London Road at the CS7 junction, he was fine but the bike was a write off.

Just after that on the approach to Waterloo Bridge from IMAX a cyclist dived off of the central reservation into the path of fast oncoming traffic.

All of that mixed up with multiple suicide peds, many bricks were shat.

Yep the frogger peds. I thought I was in a bad dream at one point, people literally throwing themselves in front of cyclists. I'd not had a commute like it in many years. Maybe something in the water

I had two peds do stupid things on Friday within a 100 metres of me leaving the house.

#1 Guy crossing the road just I turned the corner, gave a friendly shout he then stopped died in the road and do a starfish pose apologising profusely but not moving. Had to stop and ask the guy to move out of the road.
#2 Again about 20 meters further down the road a guy was running up towards the train station he run across the road I slowed down only for him but he then continue run up the road but not on the pavement as I expected but towards me in the road.

Must be the weather.