This morning's commute and other commuting stories

"It's about the EPO and blood transfusions, obv."

gah, new page ruined my punchline.

Woooaaarrrh the Eclipse thingy woke up up one male sport hormone, I did the 20 mile commute in 1Hr 21Mins. Whooosh!

Rear wheel seemed totally fucked somehow when I got home last night, loads of loose spokes and waaaay out of true so took the mtb today, feeling the drag of the fat nobbly wheels loads.

Out of work late. Crank creaking like a mofo. Saddle angle gone wrong. Unenjoyable ride home 2/10. Weekend strip down and rebuild planned to fix what ails her.

Surprisingly few cyclists on the road for such a lovely morning. Almost had the CS7 to myself for a good stretch between Stockwell and Kennington.

-3 points for car pulling out of a side road without looking.
+1 points because his window was down and he heard me yell "You didn't look there, did you mate?"

8/10 Would ride again.

*Edited because I can't do maths.

One landrover-type person at the Kennington Park roadworks objected to me being in the right-hand lane, therefore slowing him down by seconds, even though I was going straight on to E&C and he was turning left towards Lambeth North. Thank you to the cyclist in the blue top who rolled ahead of me and so I wasn't the only the target and other cyclists who shouted at the driver.

Love my cycling crew!

Thought I might get some hassle there this morning too, as I took the lane, but the driver behind was nice and patient.

Nice sunny day this morning plus managed to get from the fire station on upper thames st to the vaughan way (Wapping) crossroads on a wave of green lights. 9/10 but will not happen again for another 3 years.

Passed through Ludgate about 3.00pm, scene of a collision between a taxi and a van. One dazed driver propped up against a bollard and it looked like passengers in the back of the taxi were being treated as well. it didn't seem as if there were fatalities though.

I tingled with much schadenfreude upon noting that it was two of my road Nemesis that had buggered each other up.

Cycling from round Warren St to King's Cross today I had some minicab driver honking his horn at me as I was sat in primary on a one lane one-way street. I was turning right so thought I was in a fairly sensible position. I turned round to stare at him at the junction as he gesticulated at me more and more furiously.

I eventually turned right and got to another junction where I was turning left. Heard him honking his horn and he was now honking at a cyclist sat in primary in the ASL and telling him to get over to the left. Sometimes you just have to wonder what these drivers are thinking.

Nice uneventful cool commute in.

Would have been faster if I'd bothered to put some more air in the tyres. Forgot to do that at the weekend when I removed the front pannier low-riders and the childseat bracket. Commuting tank is still a tank.

9/10

Where are all the tales of Tower Bridge madness this morning, I expect epic sagas of woe. C'mon southies, entertain.

Well, the CS7 was a clusterfuck this morning.

yeah, so, what is going on off tower bridge road? Last night at Borough tube my ASL-mate told me they found an unexploded WWII bomb around Long Lane. This morning police with road closed tape at every road off the south/east side Tower Bridge Road from the bricklayers arms down to around [what I have just learned is] abbey street....

same bomb?

Same bomb

It's a biggun

^ @edscoble bait

Oops, well late! (was meant for Greenbank's post)

It's come to this: high viz copper wading into traffic at Trafalgar roundabout, holding up his hand to make cars stop for the red light on the roundabout because they'll ignore it otherwise. Can't complain I suppose.

Question: if the lollipop guy doesn't stick out but there is someone wanting to cross, am I supposed to stop anyway? I usually just look at the lollipop guy, if present, and only stop if he moves. This morning he didn't, but the two cyclists in front of me suddenly stopped as the pedestrian came to the island in the middle of the crossing, I couldn't forsee that, nor I had enough room to stop, so I just passed really closely and fast through them, feeling really rude. Please clarify.

3/10 would stop next time

this.

road works and bombs everywhere!

Entertaining ride in, pootling along the CS7 nothing much going on, until I come up along side the MTB grunter. Gently start to roll past him on the right when he suddenly swings across, I slow he moves back over to the left, I go wide right and again he comes over. Noticed he was doing it to everyone who wanted to overtake him.

Then the nobjockey in rugby socks who trying to track stand rode straight into the side of me. Customary to apologize rather than ride off you bogey flick.

Will do again 7/10

A very nice chap from Finsbury Park Club this morning suggested that I try doing some time trials. For some reason this has made me happy, mainly because I am fat and old.

same bomb?

It's a V2 rocket bomb one of the Nazi's secret terror weapons. Adolf wanted to wipe out the doss houses of Bermondsey.

I got up early to have a go at the TNRC 5-hills route on the way to work this morning.

Everything seemed fine for a while, then I noticed that my saddle wasn't straight so I stopped to make adjustments. The seatpost was twisting, so I made sure to do the clamp up good and tight this time, stripping the thread and leaving me with no functioning seatpost clamp.

So, option one: a 43km bike ride into work with no sitting down, fixed, 65GI. Option two: the unknown horrors that await me in Gomshall railway station.

I chose option one. Now my legs hurt. I got several strange looks from other cyclists while mashing vigorously along with sweat flying off me in order to achieve a slow pootle.

9/10 - docked 1 point because now I have to go to a bike shop at lunchtime.