This morning's commute and other commuting stories

^ Perhaps there's another seattube crack...? :p

Uneventful commute bar a massive puddle under a bridge that all us cyclists went through gingerly trying to keep the socks dry (was about 4 inches deep)

But 70mph gusts predicted for this afternoon, so the way home may be...exciting.

Oh shit, I thought this mornings headwind was painful enough.

As long as it's behind me I'll be fine...

What's the problem dude??

Well it was windy for sure cycling back, but no scary cross winds, so all good.

Headset problem?

Brakes, BB, Chainring and Half-Link chain was fucked! So had to replace it all today and my silly boy side decided to upgrade the brakes from cable to hydraulics too! ;)

Initially that was what I thought the problem was, but after half a year of daily abuse and then the epic of epping forest, the bike needed a little overhaul.

I have a feeling you never notice it until it gotten really bad.

I once went to LMNH and complained about the indexing. Cue rotten outer cable.

Indeed, still a newbiejack shit with disc! :/

Fucking spokes. I need a stronger front wheel.

Only a couple of months since I replaced the last one.

Recommendations for a new one?

Proper dickhead commuting from me today. Sucked a lot of wheel. Brisk headwind and decently paced rider up ahead...it would have been rude not to right?

Much filtering again up the CS7.

Got beeped at by a driver with his two front wheels in the cycle box... for being in front of him in the cycle box. Drivers in this city confuse me sometimes.

@photoben Give us a clue - what kind of wheel are we talking about? Could you do with some triple butted spokes?

Hard to say without knowing what you are using now... :)

Halo Aerorage seem to be sturdy according to reviews, V-Sprint may be able to make you something too.

Not a problem I ever had, bar with a badly built factory wheel with cheap and nasty spokes...

Tailwind, yeooo, got the speed up to 26 mph.
No doubt a massive headwind and down to 16 on the way home then :P

Today I are mostly giving way to peds trying to cross while dayglo brigade ting ting ting them. #readthefuckinghighwaycode /cyclingClarkson

Probably. Standard SystemEx laced to Open Pro, and it's about five years old. I reckon it's the track standing that does it. What's the rim of choice these days for London's roads? Nothing too deep pls.

Get a tb14 or Archetype. Or what @JWestland said.

Or a fucking heavy arsed rigida rim like Sputnik if cash poor/camera body rich.

Respect to the bloke who might live by me and work near me who until yesterday I'd never seen. Last night going home along the Embankment I was going by some Cat 5 nodders when a missile flew by me (I thought it was an electric motorbike at first) eliciting cries from all of 'Fuck me!' He must have been doing close to 40mph on the flat, without a tow and managed to maintain it. Does he do it all the time? Well I saw him this morning near my house each of us at oppostite light (I was going left , he right along the same road). Lights went green and he shoots off I though I've got to see how fast he is so tried to get on his wheel. I managed about 45kph before spinning out (no it wasn't that I was knackered after 50m) and he was still pulling away. He must do a bit of a detour as he passed me a gain a couple of km down the road - he was flying. I've always wondered how big a gulf there would be between me and a pro - even more massive than I imagined.

Recommendations for a new one?

Trispok

That was me, nice dropping you. Next time I'll give it a proper effort, that was nothing. :)

Open Pro should be pretty good, do you maintain your wheels at all? If the wheel goes out of true, (sometimes due to spokes coming loose) it can mess up the rim.

I trued a set of factory wheels with ridiculously loose spokes.
Other than that what Skülly said :)