This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Blasted by on the pavement without having to slow at all.
Hopefully no one hurt

You should probably save your afterburners for less populated riding scenarios.

Some cunt on a Boris bike crashed into me whilst I was trackstanding.

Everyone on here read this as: I had embarrassing trackstand fail and was lucky not to painfully elbow a lovely Spanish tourist on nearby Boris Bike as I toppled onto them.

LOLs.

The "Uber Effect"?

Hope they got plates and reported cabbie for assault?

Shame he didn't get his number plate.

Oh.

Even if it's decaf?

@hippy @TW Yea he filed a police report, but without the number plate I doubt they will do anything. So luck that it was just warm, not boiling because that would have been a lot worse.

I wish. I've got to drop the kid off at nursery at the same time each day. I know the answer to this is of course 'don't have kids' but then that's the answer to so many things it's almost meaningless. Or too meaningful to confront, whichever way I guess.

"Don't have... oh... "

Get the kids to ride to nursery? :)

Get a box bike?

(budget and cycle lane width permitting...and kids weight) :)

Get a tag along thing and have them ride behind, unhook it at the nursery and get them to stash it somewhere then get it back after.

I think he already does the nursery run by bike.

He can't leave earlier (hippy's suggestion) because he's limited by the nursery times I guess.

Woodford may have a London postcode these days...

Or much, much later.

Took the day off work to use up some unused holiday, and ended up cycling through central London around 11.30. It was far worse than rush hour - lots and lots of lorries.

I came in to work after a doctor's appointment at a similar time not too long ago - was unexpectedly much worse in my case because the bus lanes up the CS7 are only bus lanes at certain times and much of the blue paint disappears under regular traffic.

Counter-intuitive, innit?

Yep, may as well just stay on the roads. When I previously had this commute it used to be a simple case of going through the bus tunnel (S. Lambeth Place, I think), not sure if that's still an option though...

Upside: by the time I'd made it onto Albert Embankment yesterday some bloke at the lights said my bike was a cool colour. Which I took as a win.

What, you stalking me @greenbank? :) But yeah exactly I've got the bike in one hand and the pram in another, drop off at 8ish. I just had a bad run of days, feeling better today.

On another note when I first showed up with my bike all the nursery assistants thought I was pedaling down the road and pushing the pram at the same time and kept like coming out the door to see what the hell I was up to. Seeing the relief spread across their faces when they saw me walking was amazing.

Reminds me of the regular occurrence I see when riding side streets, of parents just pushing the pram into the road without looking for traffic (or me). And then the following horror on their faces when I pop them a cheery "hello".

Got a puncture just around the corner from work. Forgot that just around the corner on a bike and just around the corner whilst walking are different things. 10 minute walk of shame in lycra. Might go fix it at lunch...

Oh sartorial mavens of the commute-o-thread!

Where do we stand on the jersey-jeans-propercyclingshoes combo?

Like the mullet, it says: "Yes I have a serious side, yes I put the
miles in, but my legs also enjoy the music of Scouting for Girls and
Embrace, so I have a fun side."

Foot retention? Check
Avoiding sweaty-backed work shirt? Check
Quicker to change than full Lycra? Check

Although if you don't wear cycling-specific jeans you end up with endless crotch blow-outs, I find.

Overpriced but comfortable and infinitely more durable cycling jeans? Check

endless crotch blow-outs

Snapped a tyre lever and cut my hand in about three places getting my Schwalbe One off to fix today's puncture. Went back on with just fingers, easy as pie. WTF tyres?

Levi commuters or something else?

OG commuters are good. You can still get the 511s on eBay. New ones are shit