This morning's commute and other commuting stories

I'd have to have these kind of encounters daily for that to be true ;)

new commuting low last night. was cycling down great eastern street, just near the shoreditch junction and there was red vauxhall in front of me. could see through the rear windscreen and the guy had a full sized ipad stuck on his windscreen and was watching TV as he was driving! didnt have time to get my phone out, but am going to keep it in my pocket from now on, and if i see him, gonna take some pics and call the police.

Brixton Road. Good old moan at the lights with motor cyclist about the buses and their bad road positioning.

half term? brexit? apocalypse? Why was it pleasant this morning? OKR esp .. I flipped a bird to an SUV driver who cut me off who then matched my "speed" to shout at me and I did the Queen wave, he got confused.

Noticed slow rear puncture this morning before commute and drop-off of Kid2 to nursery.
Pumped up tyre as no time to change it and was feeling "lucky".
It lasted till I got to the office but not before I had a large blowout on the front...

Almost got through my first two weeks of bike commuting again (been years) without having to call a taxi driver a cunt, but this cunt was coming from a side road on Milkwood road, saw me, proceeded to pull out anyway and had to stop because I carried on going, blared his horn at me.
I know it's the usual line but I honestly couldn't have held him up for more than 2 seconds at most. Cunt.

hadn't made it less than 400m out of morden before I'd had a white van and a black cab overtake me within the confines of the single width bus lane whilst I was already doing 20mph and riding away from the gutter. literally cm from their wing mirrors both times and they were going faster than the moving traffic on their right.

then the back roads cycle route by colliers wood saino's is out of action at the moment too which means pulling out of a side road across both lanes of traffic to turn right onto merton high st rather than use the shared use ped crossing a bit further up. nothing coming from my right except a bus just about to close its doors at a stop, fine and on the left a nice big gap before the next car. I start to pull out and as soon as I do, said car floors his accelerator so as I reach the middle of the road i have no choice but to turn right and ride along the line in the middle of the road or risk having him smash into me side on as he comes flying past to my left. Normally I might call myself out for not waiting for enough space but there was tons of space at first and I only had to cross to the cycle lane opposite and his aggression was clear as day because he going twice the speed of every other vehicle on the road and it was only once he saw me that he sped up.

I was running to work today and almost had to do a Strasky & Hutch slide over a Merc bonnet.
I fucking hate cunts who bomb it out of their driveway, treating the pavement like a road.

Yesterday on a narrow road a car veered over to my side as it came toward me. I noticed and covered the brakes, he didn't slow, then flicked his left indicator on, as if you say "Are you blind? I'm turning left!" as he drove toward me, on the wrong side of the road.

I had some utter bell almost take out my daughter on Saturday doing exactly this. She is 5 and we have just been to the coffee shop to pick up cake and baby chino's for park consumption, she is cycling along the pavement about 10m in front of me, Mr Saturday twat came streaming out from a shared drive and performed an emergency stop, Kitty (Daughter 2) performed an emergency stop next to his front wheel, then she looked up and carried off round the front of his mondeo to the park gates. Mr Saturday twat then had a go at me about not taking care of her, I kindly pointed out that he is crossing a pavement, he has a 10ft high hedge for the final 15m of the exit of the driveway blocking his view to the left, it may be an idea that he not drive at 30mph (may be a slight exaggeration). We then proceeded to discuss each others parenting abilities and driving abilities and went on our merry ways.

Kitty burst into tears and I had to carry a child, bike and coffee / cake all the way home....fuckwit

baby chinos doe...

did TS get a day job again?

chocolate baby chinos.....and flat whites, Milk is heavy

Back from a lovely relaxing week in the Lakes, feeling pretty great in the nice weather. Made it all the way to the City before a taxi driver tried to muscle me off the road as I was turning right onto the main carriageway on Upper Thames Street (i.e. he half-overtook me as we were both turning right).

I don't use the cycle lane there, because after about 200m I turn right onto Cousin Lane, and joining the traffic means I don't have to turn across it later.

"I'm driving here, you think I care where you want to go?"

Charming. Made a big deal of indicating and turning right later on to emphasise why I'd taken the lane, and gave him the finger for good measure.

It's good to be back/10

Belfast is deserted...end of term time? Zombies? Everyone moved to ROI after Brexit?

Took the child tandem in to check the gears...all OK it shifts but you have to fully back off pedalling. Now it's absolutely fecking down rain...return will be fun O_o

Decided against continuing past work and riding all the way out Windsor and drinking beer in the sunshine at the Fox and Hounds. Now at my desk wishing death on some of the the small minded petty individuals I work with.

Terrible decision / 10

The missus took my keys to work by accident, so I couldn't get my locked bike out of our incredibly secure locked underground car park, so I had to get the tube in on one of the most beautiful days of the year.

Ah fuck it, i'll wear shorts to the office today.

Awesome looking morning and I'm stuck at home with an arm in a sling. I would have preferred to deal with every type of fuckwit on the road just to be out in it.

lovely day to cycle in, but I am seriously considering giving it up. I am so tired of being nearly hit by cars and vans that refuse to acknowledge cyclists as a person when dangerously overtaking. They leave so little space between my shoulder and it's side that I probably couldn't fit a cigarette paper down there. If it weren't for the absurd price of the tube I'd use it in a heart beat; yes it's stressful but at least you don't regularly almost die.

I don't mean this in a joking way but have you considered cycling training?

If you regularly almost die whilst riding to work, you're probably doing something wrong. I agree with you that there are plenty of selfish and dangerous road users though.

no offense taken, and I was thinking the same to see if I am doing something wrong. I've driven for many years, and like to think I have a good handle on the road systems etc. My problem is I'm a pushover on the road, cos I'm always worried about slowing cars down and getting in their way, which means I regularly don't ride in primary position when I suppose I should. I guess it's not as bad as I think; just scares the shit out of me when vehicles are so close to you when passing.

Try different routes.

I used to go through Brixton and E&C and nearly died every few days. (Actually did get hit in the end)

Changed routes and changed my cycling style to defensive but calm and now it is much better, although most people are cunts, it's impossible to avoid altogether.

Trust me it's better than the tube.

@dirac replied to the wrong person oop

One day I'm really gonna catch a pigeon.............really............

That's a good idea on re-routing. I'm starting a new job soon, so will be doing Peckham to Blackfriars, which means no more Eccleston bridge clusterfuck through Victoria/Pimlico. I have started going a bit slower, and it has also helped. Cheers dude!

It's not just on commutess I nearly binned it twice on my pre-work ride this morning.

Once was my fault ... I was descending under the trees with sunnies on and didn't spot a tractor (I know) coming up the hill. Almost lost the back-end on that weird gravelly surface that is increasingly appearing on country roads.

The second time was a woman not understanding what 'give way to oncoming taffic means' and me again losing the back-end as she pulled out in front of me and I grabbed the brakes. I stopped with my front wheel touching her front bumper/number plate. I unfortunately really lost my shit with her too.