This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Wandle #sambrookslyf

First commute on the bike for a week, after the return of the virus that I can't shake. Where is everyone? Nearly empty roads apart from cars/lorrys/van/buses.

Near perfect commute until a van driver decided he could make his turn inches from me and with peds walking in the road didn't have much space to work with. Then the realisation that I forget to pack pants do matter how many times I went through my bag there was none.

Have client meetings for most of the day and it's meant to be a hot one......still does feel quite liberating.

8/10 will go commando again

Too many fucking motorbikes

Too many motorcyclists shaking their heads after performing a punishment pass on the bus lane.

Get fucked Boris.

Yup - the other annoying thing the scooter/moped brigade do is when there isn't a space for them (ie between bus lane and normal lane when there are busses stopped next to lorries/cars) they'll get as close to it so they can't fit through but neither can anyone else.

I need to get up earlier - too much shoaling and hi-viz in the post 8am nodderton

There was a load of horrendous motorcyclists on the OKR this morning. As we got nearer to Bricklayers roundabout the right hand lane is standing traffic, the bus lane is empty save for a bus picking up passengers. All four motorcyclists aim for a rapidly closing gap between a people carrier's rear left bumper and the front of the bus, last one doesn't make it and gets pinched between them. Last thing I saw was him stopping his bike in front of the bus and going round to the driver side window. I just know that he probably had a go at the driver when it was completely his own fault.

As fine a morning as hydrogen and helium atoms ever made. 10/10

.

This^ ^ from @t.b.

and this

they'll get as close to it so they can't fit through but neither can anyone else.

With a few exceptions - I've seen plenty of MBikes make sure they leave a bit of room for me to work around them and down the gaps, say on OKR or Waterloo Bridge. It's all about giving them the little look in their wing mirrors just as you're approaching the gap, and friendly wave after ...

Go peacefully out there! It's all gonna be fine, we're just going to work so we can sumptuously line the pockets of mortgage lenders, and collect the scraps of what's left foolishly believing that the housing market is gonna be our pension.

Or is that just me?

As fine a morning as hydrogen and helium atoms ever made. 10/10

Douglas Adams eat your heart out. You dead funny freemason.

Woke up when I usually leave the house. Big mistake. Traffic, nearly t boned by a yellow can turning left with no indicators. Decided to slow it down a little after that. Never leaving late again. 0/10

Girl on her motorbike doing 20mph(ish) her entire ride again, seen her a couple of times in the last week. That said she turned off towards what I guess is work using the A+E entrance so her choice to do 20mph might totally be seeing the results of motorbike crashes.

Dat weather. What a beautiful ride in.

my face is on fire!!!!!

I passed an accident this morning 'bout 9.10am. First time I've seen one in many years of riding about. A male cyclist down (he had brown curly hair, maybe late thirtes, black bike, blue taped bullhorns) by a zebra crossing on the corner of Arvon Road and Drayton Park. A very stupid junction that - seems like a lot going on. He looked to be well taken care of by passersby and the po po were on the scene. Obviously, hope he's going to be on the mend very soon.

20mph motorbike sounds like a fine derny.

In other news, left the house at about 9 and almost immediately saw a driver getting bollocked for jumping a red by a copper in an unmarked car. Enjoyed the silky silence of a freshly tensioned and lubed chain (finally found the wherewithal to sort it late last night) and gave a sigh of relief as a cyclist lady successfully squeezed between bus and tipper truck without dying.

Then the realisation that I forget to pack pants do matter how many times I went through my bag there was none.

I once got rained on really badly on my way into work, so badly that the rain soaked through my bag with my change of clothes so everything was drenched, right down to my underwear. Disaster. I had to go to the only shop that sold clothes near work (a fucking Marks and Spencer for fuck's sake) and buy a new set of clothes for the day at a personal cost of what felt like a million pounds.

At least I was dry, though.

I did thinking about going to M&S but then realised I'd have to go to client meeting carrying an M&S bag with pants in it. Not ideal.

Not strictly commuting but my wet clothes #csb is as follows:-

Cycled up to Cambridge with a mate for a friend's wedding (which was the next day). Mate's wife was driving up with our bags. Made the ride up into a DIY 100km Audax and so I needed to get receipts for proof-of-passage and the final control was the Tesco on Newmarket Road.

Ride up was ok, it pissed it down so we arrived at Tesco absolutely soaked through. Mate phoned his wife to find out if she had made it to the hotel yet (with our bags with nice dry clothes in them).
"Hi. Where are you? Are you at the hotel yet?"
"Driving, just crossing the bridge."
"Which bridge, Silver St or the one by the Leys?"
"London Bridge, and traffic doesn't look good so we'll be 2 hours probably."
"Oh"

I spent a massive total of ~£20 in Tesco on clothes (trousers, shoes, socks, t-shirt, jumper). Arrived at the semi-posh University Arms hotel, soaked and bedraggled, pushing bikes, with a Tesco bag of clothes hanging off the handle bars. The concierge tried to shoo us out until we told him we had reservations. We had a nice couple of hours in the bar before our proper clothes arrived.

Yeah, the other day one moved over on me without looking without indicating and them and then had a go with some shit about "you were behind me!", which obviously kicked off a shouting match because no motherfucker gets one over on me.
Ended when Scooter Man #2 comes up from behind and tells Scooter #1 "you were in the wrong, I saw everything, he (me) did everything right and you need to look".
So, cheers Scooter #2 for metaphorically shitting in Scotter #1 helmet. Made the rest of my commute La La Land.

jesus, do i have to think of everything for you people? just have your man follow you in the bentley with a dry set of togs. this is why i'm moving to the algarve.

On the Sambrooks theme, cycling home around 8:30 last night, it was a beautiful evening and I felt like a beer. Upped the ante to try and get to Richmond Park by sundown, swung by a fine off-licence on the upper Richmond Road and picked myself up a bottle of Battersea Ipa. Sipped whilst the sun slipped away, a perfect commute.

Sambrooks is a great little brewery. It's all good, bottled or draught.

It leaves me cold. Tastes like average old man bitter.

Compared to something like Neck Oil or pretty much anything Kernel might throw away as not quite good enough, it's pants.

I've noticed that there's a disproportionate amount of obese people riding scooters. Is this because they're the sort of person who'd ride a bike to work if they weren't lazy? I can't imagine it's all that much safer riding a scooter than a bike.