This morning's commute and other commuting stories

In the car for my Bristol>Bath commute this week, which is a pain.

Glad I didn't try and over take a cyclist on a steep downhill: he ended up outpacing me by a clear 10mph I reckon :-)
Noticed he had a big grin when i met him at the roundabout so gave him a jealous thumbs up.

Some nice folks out there...................

Riding along Bishopsgate on the way back from Herne Hill last night was like that scene from American Beauty, except with the many copies of the evening standard.

Today I got a train to a weird hospital appointment in Canterbury of all places.

Afterwards rode to a place to get a coffee and scrounge some phone charge before setting off cross country back towards London, figuring I'd probably make use of my return ticket somewhere on the way like Chatham.

Rode to Chatham in a lovely sunny day but with mostly the headwind in my face. 35 or 40 miles feels like 70 right now. Took ages. Was trying out riding with a phone as satnav. Kept having to get it to re-route as it wanted to get me on A-roads or the Pilgrims' Way which in that area is a fucking stony muddy track. On 66" fixed 700x28? No thanks.

Ended up riding some fucking deserted countryside. I mean ghostly quiet. It was so fucking beautiful and bleak and lovely.

Then got proper intimidated by a scary smackhead gang at Chatham station, ended up literally getting my wallet out and saying: 'Yeah, sure, how much would you like?'. At one point, my seething surfaced as I said, squaring up to this scary cunt, 'Just say it, go on, say "give me some money", and then I'll give you this money, yeah?'. I ended the conversation with 'don't worry about spending it on that train fare [which you obviously totally made up needing], just buy some beer!'.

Would have a fucking weird east Kent adventure again, just with less money in my wallet/10

You can see why Dickens wrote about it.

So bad that you can not even look up from the front wheel as shards of ice puncture your lungs . Then a taxi cut me up !

Camberwell drag from Lewisham to Victoria, via Oval/Vauxhall Bridge segregated path...
Icey headwind.

Does that mean warm tailwind for the return leg?

Second day back after a hefty dose of the flu.

Where have all the idiots on bicycles come from?

Its the 'New Year new me' thing...they'll all give up by march.

Two things happened:

A div on a wide-bar MTB tried to squeeze through a gap and ended up bending someone's wing mirror. He just gave the driver a sheepish thumbs up.

I can't remember the other thing.

It's only gonna get worse (or better depending on your view).

Bikeageddon is nigh!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-35475318

Doubt it, they'll get bored sooner or later or wont be able to deal with the weather, about 5 of my housemates got bikes to ride to work. One road up the road to the station, about 1/2 mile away, and the others bikes don't move.

Well at least one of them tried.

Spotted on Norbury Hill: driver flossing while steering with his knees.

Passing through Tufnell Park this morning, I saw someone with what looked like a homemade disc rear wheel on a rickety road bike. Looked like he had stuck it over the spokes and coloured it in using a felt-tipped pen.

Seen that guy a ton of times - all black everything bike and headphones right? He hops on the pavement whenever a red light or slight traffic jam appears. I call him out, he doesn't give a damn, repeat every week or so.

Nope, red bike. Headphones and woolly hat. Maybe he's got homemade discs on all his bikes. Doesn't give a damn sounds right. I actually asked about the wheel but he didn't hear me, too busy rocking out.

If they are two different guys then we should set them against each other up Holloway Road and see who wins. I always crush Mr Whatever on the black bike/disc wheel up the hill (and stop at lights) #boastpost

No contest, everyone knows red bikes are faster.

Cold and windy lunchtime leg stretch, pretty uneventful until a smiley young mum with little blonde baby in a baby seat (that's how close she was), decided that despite the fact I was in primary and that I was only 10 yards from a roundabout and five from a raised kerb she was going to overtake.

I heard the tell tale revs and past she came, cutting hard left in order to avoid smashing into the raised kerb on the right with the illuminated sign on it. I swung hard left as she came past and then had to brake hard as her dirty silver Ford Focus was now occupying the section of road I was supposed to be on.

When she drove off I made eye contact in her side mirror and she was all happy happy smiley, so I guess she thinks that's a perfectly sensible way to drive. Not sure what she will think when she finally manages to knock someone off their bike... assuming she hasn't done it already.

Reg noted and report filed on line with A&S Popo. Not expecting a response.

That's incidents on each of my last three rides... if I were paranoid I would think they are out to get me.. but in truth there are just an awful lot of fuckwits out there, and sooner or later one or two..or five will pass through my sphere of existence.

I'd wish a cancer AIDs combow on her.... and her spawn (Sorry, I went to see Frankie Boyle last night, it might have effected me)

Euph?

I really don't take this sort of thing personally, the offending drivers have nothing against me as an individual, more the form of transport I am using.

This in itself is pretty odd, but I see all sorts of nonsense on the roads when I am driving so I just regard these people as accidents waiting to happen and just hope I am not there when the inevitable occurs.

Spotted this on Essex road. Who's putting these around?

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Admittedly, not a story of my commute, but an outline of the general consensus of non-cyclists towards cyclists: the couple sitting next to me in the pub, had a row, made up, then spotted two serious looking types in full lycra gear. They laughed for a bit (after said cyclists had departed) about their funny shoes, then moved on to the classic rhetoric - a danger to motorists, no tax, jumping red lights etc. I feel this ties-in quite nicely with the above pic, but further outlines the beef that is aimed at the cycling community. Brilliant! ps: a pleasant trip sur le velo to the boozer...

I could say the same about a bus earlier (being a danger)..
Stopped at a red, just as it had changed, by Angel and this bus just flies through, not sure how close to me, but he was close.
I'd dare say if I had been 6 inches to right, this message wouldn't have been here right now.