This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Why - you vegetarian now?

He's trying to not B Negative.

If your, young, fit and keen sure.

I'm sure she's been mentioned before (maybe by me) but the crazy lady cyclist who pretends to take pics of drivers with a phone with no camera on it was back in action as Waterloo Station this morning.

Compounded the stupidity of antagonising the driver of a tipper lorry who had rolled about 6 inches into an ASL by deliberately riding in front of him really slowly when lights go green whilst he's shouting "what is wrong with you".

a phone with no camera on it

No wonder she has to pretend

Fuck me, hitherto unknown levels of cuntery experienced from a fellow cyclist on my way home just now.

Some bloke who wants to turn left overtakes and immediately swings left right in front of me almost taking my front wheel out. His response after me exclaiming a understandable "whoah!"?

Giving me the finger.

Of course didn't make myself look much better when I impolitely informed him that he should both learn to ride a bicycle and that he was, as they say, a 'fucking cunt', but there was the chance that his extended turning back to throw additional insults at me with one hand off the bars to continue to flip the birds might have caused him to crash, but sadly it didn't.

What kind of shit makes a man turn into such a horrible prick?

On this mornings comute i had seen a mountain biker skip a red and be followed then stopped by two police motorcycles, admittedly im a light skipper aswell but im cautious of the popo and noticed them, anyway the catch of this stop off; the mountain biker was just stopped and spoken to, btw this light was one at the mall towards buckingham palace where there were no pedestrians or junctions, it was just a random light for road crossing, anyway after he got stopped, the motorcycling popo went well above the speed limit the whole way down the mall probably going about 60 mph and then again a couple of straight roads down....... was amusing to watch but hard to resist shouting at them, my only motive not to being the bright yellow tazer hiden under his fat ass...

Ah and now the adrenaline of righteous anger subsides to be replaced by the pangs of embarassed regret.

Had some kid pretend to throw a punch at me while him and two mates walked across old st in the middle of heavy traffic. I looked back and he started saying "what what" with raised hands. If I wasn't worried about what would happen to my bike I would have gladly stopped to see what would have happened after another "what". 3 against 1 could have been fun especially since I haven't had any form of nicotine apart from crappy patches in a few days and getting rather toey because of it.

In Belfast cyclist that pedal, then stop, then pedal, then stop is now a thing. Er, gear down if you aren't fit enough (that's OK)? Else, please don't go at 8 miles an hour please...

Guy on a track orange lo-pro with black deep wheels, many hip, much wow. Nice biek though, French brand. Cycling is definitely taking off here, big increase since last year :)

Woman this morning plonks into my back wheel because she's busy 'getting aero' holding onto her hybrid/mtb bars in the middle, where she conveniently doesn't have any brake levers. I was cruising to a stop by the curb as I didn't fancy taking off the car in front's wing mirror and it was uphill so the speed was low but still - wake up dopey!

You sure it wasn't a chat up approach to get your phone number :)

THIS ^

Hmm. So that's what the lady in the car was after when she gave me a flirty nudge with her bonnet on CS2.

I really can't express enough how much I'm loathing CS2 right now. All the pedestrians near it, all the leaves on it, all the drivers adjacent to it and a vast majority of the bells riding on it. What a narrow, slippery, poorly conceived, anxiety inducing length of greasy blue shite.

I honestly think that racing rush hour cars along the narrowing Cassland Rd is safer and less stress.

Anyone else get a bit wet then?

Just missed that downpour - flatmate was suitably soaked, but happy.

7/10 by proxy.

After any crash you should exchange details.

Hideous ride home last night, down Bishopsgate to cross London Bridge. Just missed the heaviest of the rain, but the road was still wet enough for slipping on manhole covers, and the drizzle enough to bother. Mainly filtering to the right of the commuter cars crawling South, wary of the oncoming traffic, light as it was, anxiety building just by being in proximity to so many frustrated drivers, feeling their pain. It's almost impossible to get from the bottom of King William St and onto the bridge without waiting at two sets of lights, all the while with motorists revving their engines behind you. Then over the bridge only for a cyclist to try to slip down the inside of me as I turned left (after indicating) to go down Tooley St.

It's scary when you realise they'd have done the same even if you were driving an HGV.

I've ridden the train all this week, but rode in today. Left a bit late and ended up filtering from Waltham Cross all the way into town. Looking forward to getting the Brompton and only having to filter from Tottenham Hale to Victoria...

Also, what's with all the bellend roadies mounting the pavement and running reds? Seeing way more of them than usual.

PS - had a nice experience with a tipper truck driver. I let him pull out, then as I filtered past him on the right, he pulled over a bit to give me extra room, gave me a cheery wave and a 'thanks mate'. My cockles were warmer than ever.

PPS - Didn't put a foot down at all this commute, 27 miles and trackstood everywhere. Might be a new record.

Yes, although if I were driving an HGV I would probably expect it more. I had a great experience with an HGV driver the other day as I was belting down Great Eastern St. I was in the left of the two lanes heading East, car ahead of me stopped for some reason, I looked over my right shoulder to see if I could change lanes in time to avoid getting stuck but there's a car there who's gaining on me and he's not slowing down for anyone, least of all me. Behind him is a huge truck that I've been conscious of for half a mile, in a primal fear of death sense. The car blocks my lane change hopes and I do get stuck but the HGV sees this and actually stops to let me change lane. I nearly fall of my bike clipping back in I'm so surprised.

I'd assume his vehicle had either a FORS or CLOCS sticker. Though this may just be me being a self congratulatory smug cunt.

We have now trained thousands of drivers about vulnerable road users, and I am finding more and more lorry drivers views and behaviour around cyclists has completely changed.

I've noticed the same. I always give them a 'thumbs up, thanks bro' in return.

I had to filter on the inside of a traffic queue last night due to a central reservation ruling out filtering on the outside.

I was going at sensible speed and looking out for sudden left turners. Two cars ahead signaled their intention to turn left at the next junction. I was able to sneak past the first safely but decided to hang back for the leading car. They clocked me, moved right to make it clear they were letting me though first and then moved further right when they saw there was a hug puddle in my way.

Amazing. I waved my thanks (not a euph).

I didn't spot the sticker but I wasn't looking for one, to be fair. The whole experience lifted me from a funk, so if you did have a hand in it, thank you. In fact, even if you didn't in that case, thank you, because in general, as others have said, HGVs seem to be that bit nicer.