This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Where's that table from?

Undertaken on a right hand turn by a driver as a reward for just being in front of him. Caught up with her at the lights, she did offer an apology of sorts, 'sorry didn't see you' The 'I' was in front of you seemed lost on her.

In other news are having an annoying squeak for the last few weeks. I re lubed/greased everything on the bike last night. Silence is golden 9/10

http://www.xcweather.co.uk/forecast/sw15

Bit of a random number generator, but mostly ok. Only ever look ~24 hours ahead, no point looking further than that.

Got told I needed lights in daylight today....I'm sorry but if you're a driver and can't see me in daylight, you shouldn't be driving.

You were riding in Hi-Viz though, right? @Mancini

You know me.....thats something I never wear #fashionoversafety

I know what you mean about people seeming to think they can make up rules that they think are rules. I can't stand all that yellow fluoro clothing most cyclists seem to think is obligatory. I had a bus driver telling me I was supposed to wear it the other day, at about 7:45 am in Victoria. I'm on a really High Viz bike, really good lights on, reflector bits all over it, and on my shoes, and he's telling me I should be wearing 'reflctory stuff' up high because 'that's where I'm looking' according to him. Like you can only see on a plane at 5ft off the ground ... what?

I ride with lights on almost all the time. Certainly on grey days like this - basically only when I want to charge my phone do I not. Why would you not? But then, that's because I don't wear the flouro clothing, and I tend to be using dynamos more often than not.

Yeah...
I remember a black cab doing an emergency U turn without signalling and nearly taking me out at 1400 on a summers day, only for him to tell me it happened because I wasn't wearing hi viz.

Undertaken on a right hand turn by a driver as a reward for just being in front of him. Caught up with her at the lights, she did offer an apology of sorts, 'sorry didn't see you' The 'I' was in front of you seemed lost on her.

This is very confusing. :)

You guess correctly. Not a long commute, but most of it's on a 60mph A road, however hardly any of it is really narrow. There's always space to overtake safely. Which just galls me further when I get close passes. Perhaps drivers are just a bit more shite out here in the 'burbs.

Anyways, I'm well over it now and the commute home was an exercise in not getting blown over. So didn't have much time to worry about what anyone else was doing.

Early start for a meeting. Puncture in Brixton after 5 minutes. Pulled to side of road and bus starts beeping his horn because he can't move forward easily to the red light 5 metres further along the road and considers waiting for me to move out of the road is frankly an inconvenience too far (I believe those were his words, but I couldn't really hear him). Tit. Swift tube change and 15 mins late for meeting. Chap was from Isle of Man and told me the island is full of cyclists these days. Like a plague.

Today can only get better/10

Met a total pair of bellends last night. A lady driving and a man trying to justify her shit driving. I filtered past a BMW 4x4 thing at a red light on London Road, heading towards E&C. Pulled away in the right hand lane as there was a bus in the left.

The BMW took affront to me being ahead of them for the 50 yards before another red light and crossed the solid white line into the oncoming bus lane to get alongside me then realised there was a traffic island, so tried to force me left into the bus which was pulling from bus lane to middle lane.

I asked them what the fuck they were playing at, why they thought it sensible to try to push me into a bus and whether it was worth bothering to try to overtake me, considering we were now both sat at a red light again.

I was told that the problem was that I didn't have a registration plate on my bike so they couldn't report me for 'cutting them up'. I asked them to clarify - turns out they meant me filtering past them whilst they were sat at a red light. I told them that nothing I'd done was illegal but that by crossing a solid white line into an oncoming bus lane before trying to force me off the road they had indeed contravened the highway code.

They shouted something unintelligible, the lights changed, I called them total fucking morons and we went our separate ways.

An otherwise nice ride, made all the more enjoyable by being my first fixed gear ride for about 4 months.

Puncture here too, glass well in bedded in the tire, even with a pin it was a bitch to get out. Followed by a CO2 / conti removable core issue which resulted in a half inflated tire and a partly frozen figure.

It's mostly a wave, waves reflect...

It's mostly a wave, waves reflect...

It's made up of particles and particles bounce.

Typical urban 4x4 mentality right there.

An otherwise nice ride, made all the more enjoyable by being my first fixed gear ride for about 4 months.

You are doing 'winter bike' all wrong. Think of your expensive groupset drivetrain thingy.

btw whenever I read your forum moniker I always imagine you are from Hull, where the word Total is actually pronounced Turtle.

Cheers!

Can someone please fix the North Lift in the Greenwich Foot Tunnel before tomorrow morning.

It's been about two weeks now, I'm getting bored of heaving my bike up the stairs every morning.

I was slowly building up the bits for a new bike so decided to ride my poor old Ribble into the ground. Also, recently moved from a rented house to a rented flat so only had space for one bike. Recently made a space in the living room for another bike so brought the fixed back from my parents.

PS - definitely not from Hull, but did play a gig there once. It was like a dystopian nightmare place.

Water is made of particles and that waves.

Oh, will you lot stop talking such rot about particles. Particles particle, it's quite clear from the name, without anyone inventing waves or bounces.

True, but wind is more akin to a current, and you can't surf on a current.

Oh, will you lot stop talking such rot about particles. Particles particle, it's quite clear from the name, without anyone inventing waves or bounces.

Particle, wave, do you actually?

Boris bike as far as Stockwell on the way home. Two things:

1) The Boris bike network needs to extend further south. Is that going to happen?

2) Taking the commute slowly is an absolute revelation. Comfy upright position, nice low-effort spinny gear, not actually much slower overall due to red lights. No race mentality creeping in. Must stick a bigger cog on my commuter.

unlikely - too many labour wards / povos south of the river.