This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Well, despite your and my best efforts I f*cked that one up royally. Twice!

Only three more times this week :)

@Sparky, great imagery.

In retaliation the security guard sort of flicked/stroked my penis during the pat down

Seems to me that wasn't retaliation, perhaps he likes the assertive type ...

Don't worry, queue-jumping is practically standard in Germany. However to do it properly you have to make it into a sort of dominance ritual.

Had an excellent commute this morning, in retrospect. So much snow I couldn't open the front door at first, lots of shoveling to get to bike shed, realise biking is not an option as no roads/paths have been properly cleared. Buses not running. Find a tram that runs into icy tracks after two stops and lets everyone off. No cabs about. Zombie apocalypse imminent. Decide to walk to work! Took 50 mins and was absolutely lovely. Best 'really late for work' experience evah /csb

Somewhat surprised tonight by the motorcyclist on my commute doing a track stand on the approach up onto London Bridge, completely pointless but somewhat impressive I guess

Pleased that a) my new bike works, and b) I can still trackstand with freewheel/gears.

Plus fucking laverly weather today. A proper winter day. Crisp, cold, and sunny. None of this windy rainy bollocks.

Forgot I was riding fixed on the way home from the train station tonight, and decided to coast along behind a car while standing on the pedals. Hit the deck hard. Doubly embarrassing as I was riding my Brompton at the time. The drivers of the cars in front of and behind me both stopped to check I was alright, which was nice, particularly the driver of the car in front who parked up and came running back down the road to check up on me. I now have a big hole in one knee and a small hole in one elbow, and an egg-sized lump on one hip. Ow ow ow ow ow. Still, could be worse.

-6° when I left the house this morning. Wore a transfer jacket and didn't overheat, though my ears were a bit chilly.

Epic snow falls for the last 5 days.

Roads super narrow, and drivers extra pissy.

Paths not cleared yet, nearly a foot of snow, loads of sludgy crap in heaps from the road, barely rideable on 4.8" studded tyres.

The only time I got over 10kph was on a steep downhill, on a foot path cutting through the hospital. Was greeted at the bottom suddenly by car headlights turning on. Snow walls either side. Much squeaking of bum and rotors. Didn't crash.

Turns out a couple cars had decided to park on the path after a little knock.

Last stretch to work was churned up by tractor tyres. Came off twice. Embarrassing.

Expectations on leaving flat 10/10
Actual commute 4/10.

Meh.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

Yikes :/

I guess you have studded tyres on already? They did a good job for me in the Big Snow in NI 4 years ago.

The studs aren't much use in the deep churned up crap. That's where the fat tyres do their bit. It's hard work and pretty tricky though.

It's been - 8C to - 2C and snowing around a foot a day. For nearly a week. Nice stable conditions.

Forcast is up to +6C over the weekend. Probably with freezing Temps periodically. That's when it'll get crazy.

Only for the brave conditions :)

Yeah, but we had A LIGHT DUSTING OF SNOW TWO DAYS AGO!

Knee is finally getting better, but I won't rush to get back on the bike yet!

#GoodThings

If we eat more red meat will the global warming be accelerated?

Snow in the UK is a different thing all together.

We're all on deep tread, metal carbide studded tyres up here. If we get a bit of snow early, and still have summer tyres on the car. We get the bus, walk, or get a lift with a better prepared colleague. Doesn't matter how many ploughs you have. You need the right tyres. Boils my blood when UK drivers blame the councils for not making it magically possible to drive on summer tyres on snow. If you don't want to buy and store a mad expensive second wheelset, for the one week of light dusting. I totally understand. But don't blame others when you can't get to work that week....

/rant.

4 years ago in Big Snow: Tcha the path I had to use was completely frozen over. NI weather is very good at that: Rain. Then Frost. Hi, black ice. For pedestrians and cyclists it wasn't nice at all... In the country it was worse, farmers having to push up a milk lorry so it could get out.

Today, no ice luckily, nice and sunny. My throat complaining a little from the cold air.
Still recovering from yet another MegaCold (tm)...

I've got a bit better at trackstands lately and often try to make it all the way to work without putting a foot down.

For some reason everyone else at lights now seems to feel the need to try to trackstand as well. Lots of people either:

a) wobbling then sheepishly putting a foot down after 5 seconds
b) slowly riding around in a tiny circle, invariably getting in everyone's way and ending up facing the wrong way when lights go green
c) rolling slowly forward until they're way past the ASL, past the lights and almost into traffic before they give up.

What causes this?

The cause? People practising race techniques on their commute.

The cause? People practising redundant race techniques on their commute.

FTFY.

But you pretty much nailed it.

Had a nice chat with a chap doing hi 12 mile commute on an e-bike. Tried to keep up off the line but could only manage it for the first few seconds. Still caught up at every set of lights.

Such a beautiful morning!! Too many clothes though.

I like trying to track stand, it's fun.

Obviously the circling/creeping beyond the asl etc is obnoxious (particularly if the asl is busy) but I don't see the harm in it in general.

redundant race techniques

It might be redundant in a race, but being able to stay clipped in and ready to go is pretty handy on a commute.

Only if you've forgotten where your feet are. I've never felt the need to stay clipped in at a stop and usually set off quicker than most of my fellow commuters. It's not hard, your feet are at the end of your legs, generally you're going to know where they are and the cleat is not likely to have changed position on the sole of your shoe so making that go into your pedal should be pretty easy. My other foot is clipped in so I have a good idea of where the opposite pedal is as it's more often than not 180degrees away and if one foot is on the way down, the other pedal is on the way up.

But then I don't get the joy of rocking back and forward like a bellend into other peoples wheels