This morning's commute and other commuting stories

"Les poissons, les poissons!!"

Your most heroic moment in a long career of heroic moments.

How we chuckled.

heroic = "wish we'd got that on camera"

Went monumentally off piste this morning; added 3 miles to the commute by taking a wrong turn at Askew Road (deliberately, owing to traffic, assuming I could easily pick up Goldhawk Road again) and ended up in bloody Wormwood Scrubs!

No screaming row with a random tonight. Makes a nice change.

Is Brick Lane Sunday Market still a thing for stolen bikes?

I see it mentioned regularly, but haven’t seen many bikes for years.

Used to see lots along Sclater St in the late 90’s early 2000’s. Along with various dogs and cats in cages.

Will have a good look at the weekend.

So much fucking mud on the roads home, had to stop and clear under the mudguards. Was like riding with a coaster brake on.

Seems as if your commute went a little askew.

You still occasionally hear about Brick Lane, but mostly it seems to have been about Nine Elms in recent years. There have also been mutterings about Kingsland Waste. I haven't been to either recently (I've never even been to Nine Elms at all), though, so that's all hearsay.

Giving way to bicycles coming from the right at roundabouts fallen out of fashion?

@Oliver Schick very good Sir

Yep,
since Chris Grayling disqualified cyclists as road users.

@Jimmy_Fingers

No screaming row with a random tonight. Makes a nice change.

What did you do differently, if anything? I'm constantly bemused by how I used to get into it with other road users being dicks, then I just let go at some point, generally, punctuated with the odd commute where I did lose it a bit. Can't see where/what/when things or I changed. But happier commuting for it.

Notably, I think using upright bars (and the slow AntiAero position they give me) means I'm so damn slow, my interactions seem to mostly be waving vaguely at motor drivers to gesture 'cheers for being a bit patient' at some right turn, narrowing or other mild conflict point.

Jimmy just knows how to finger them.

A freaking Messerschmitt pulled out from my left on Gordon Avenue and I wondered what on earth the driver was doing then realised he was sat looking at me, he'd reversed out:

Another article about Aldersbrook's mate's mugging:

http://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/crime-court/bike-jack-cycle-gang-strikes-again-in-latest-robbery-by-regent-s-canal-1-5307168

That looks like a classic car reunion judging by the old Peugeot behind?

(It's probably another adjective than 'classic'. I can never remember the time period to which each adjective applies.)

Also, strictly speaking, though not substantially, it's an FMR (see front badge):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_KR200

With you here, wheels came to a dead stop this morning.

Encountered by far the worst road user in my life today. In the space of 5 minutes, cycling on a 1 mile stretch of road (honestly, I've got a recording) he did the following:

1. got into an argument with a driver, not sure what for, but I assume his fault since he's clearly a fucking moron
   
2. got into an argument with me (also on my bike) for overtaking "too close" - he swerved out into the centre of the road to try to stop me - as if a normal car lane isn't wide enough for 2 bikes?
   
3. swerved into the opposite lane to scream at an innocent jogger who was running in the road, clearly attempting to cross
   
4. shouted at a driver in a parked car (!) for not having his lights on.
   
   

He also waved at every single car on the way presumably because he thought they were unaware of him.

I've seen bad drivers/cyclists before, but usually it's one incidence of extremely poor judgement; this guy seems like he's deliberately trying to get himself killed.

I'm tempted to report him to the police but the video's pretty poor as it was dark and obviously there's no way to actually figure out who he is. Should I do it anyway?

not that I don't want to be associated with him....but just for clarification he is not my mate!

Riding home yesterday into a horrible headwind & a bus pulls out of a stop up ahead. Manage to catch on to it for the most intense fixed gear bus drafting experience of my life at about 30mph through the centre of Leeds. Good stuff, made it to the pub earlier than I expected.

Edgy.

I like to use this road on my way in and out because it's a dead end for cars and has a couple of cutouts for bikes on the left and right so it's usually quiet. Last night while I was waiting in the left cutout for some cars to pass so I could be on my way some grizzled dude on a bike turned off without looking and almost smashed into me, then immediately tried to cop an attitude and said 'the fuck are you doing just sitting there mate?' I was pretty baffled and said 'what are YOU doing, just use the other one' and pointed to the other spot about 3 metres away. He still carried on sitting there in the middle of the road though glaring at me like he'd caught me throwing batteries at his kids so I had to follow up with 'go ON, dickhead!' He trundled off looking back at me and eventually came up with 'no you're the dickhead!' from some distance away.

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Watched two cyclist crash into each other at a junction, neither cyclist looked across as they made their respected moves so girl went from the kerb to the centre and the cyclist who was in the centre wanted to go left. Both had jumped the lights, queue loads of abuse from the van driver who almost ran over them.

That junction is not the cleverest bit of design. I assume the idea is to use the lanes as one would on the road (i.e. keep left) but I've seen load of people switching lane depending on which way they are turning in or out. Surely a two way lane in the middle would be much clearer.