This morning's commute and other commuting stories

You could easily pass for Sven.

So says Pabbie, ha.

Well yesterday on my way to the university to write an exam, a van turned across my cycle path while I had the green light.
I managed to avoid crashing into the van, by crashing into the ground. The van indifferently drove on.
Somehow I managed to get up cursing, wave at the driver who continued to ignore/not see me, and then whip my cellphone out to write down the numberplate.
I picked up my bicycle, continued to the university, wrote my exam with a bleeding knee and ruined pants, then went to the hospital to get myself checked. Afterwards on to the police and report the event.
Sadly didn't manage to get any witnesses, and theres no CCTV here.
Let's see where this one goes.

Y commuting on track gear?

Because fail of sensible sprocket purchase

Like a boss for doing that exam. Hope he gets fucked.

Is it sexist to assume it was a bloke?

It's Grand Pabbie.

A little moist, felt the back wheel whip out on a roundabout but controlled it and was all good. Not sure why but also 1/5 cars had a brake light out.

8/10 would skid roundabout again

Considering Andy's dancing skills, he is more like the Duke of Weselton

Perfect. No cars. Warm and in the daylight. A completely pointless commute as I was fed up of sitting in my room revising so rode to Derby for the hospital library/ free breakfast.

Free breakfast is worth commuting for! If I got a free breakfast at work it would save me aprox £1000 a year!

Nice commute this morning, decided I was bored of the Pompino so took the 1x1 and bumbled along at the very sedate pace dictated by the 32:21 gearing and soft 2.4" tyres.

Sunday (lack of) traffic, new route (felt like exploring) which I think I'll try out during the week as it seems like it's be quieter than my normal route and arrived at work not dripping in sweat for a change.

10/10, would bounce along again!

Took the road bike in early today to give it a service. Much traffic at Excel due to everybody and their gran driving to some cycle show or something. 7/10

Ride home on a fresh drivetrain with 5mm off the q-factor, back to Speedplays, new SIDIs. Fucking bliss. Bit cold out though. 9.2/10

Heaviest bike ever (14.5kg) yet smashed my commute time to under 33 minutes, awesome.

Big handlebar bag = much aeroness.

10/10 would aero again.

For some reason had so much stuff that I needed two rear panniers today. Very tank, much momentum, so shoddy brake setup WOW.

Left 10 minutes later due to faffying about - whole world of hi-viz, pedal smashing loons.

Will do again, but will leave earlier 6/10

After riding first a 1991 Batavus 8 Speed and then more recently my track bike for my commute, had an emergency swop to my Guerciotti 11 Speed. Fuck me I'd forgotten I could go that fast on a bike. Always fun to bounce from bike to bike, learning and then re-learning the individual joys each brings. But speed is always a winner

Sunscreen on, no cocky cabbies
10/10

Whole day in the office, swamped
-1/10

Got the train, arrived late 5/10. I find walking the 20 minutes from LB to my office more stressful that cycling through the London traffic.

I love South Africans. At the lights:

Him :"Hey buddy. How do you change gear on your bike?"

Me: "Erm. I don't"

"Ah it's a fixie eh?"

"Single speed" [demonstrates spinny backness]

"Ah cos I just got this new bike and it's stuck in the hardest gear. I can't shift gear."

I take a look and it's SRAM Apex. The paddles still have the stickers on. I've never used SRAM in my life. He was puling the paddles backwards like brake levers. The one on the right looked like it had already been snapped.

I told him to move the paddles inwards, not backwards but I think he's going to need a new shifter.

I just love how open he was about not knowing how to shift gear on his brand new bike. Shame he asked me really.

Lovely commute in this morning. Beautiful London sunrise. Only marginally spoiled by the whack-a-mole joggers popping out from in between stationary buses.

Dunno about apex but on force the paddles are hinged and flap back...

So you pull them towards you like the brake lever to change gear?

Answer, no.

No, they click inwards once for changing up and further inwards to go down - the hinge is just so you can hang onto them in the drops, if that's your thing.
This explains better:

Ah so it's that sprint mode which was confusing me. Hooray that it's not broken!! I thought he didn't deserve to have broken shifters on day 1.