This morning's commute and other commuting stories

This morning boom gates for Overground busted so had to walk over some stairs somewhere. Walk! I know, the horror.

Pile up on the greasy CS7 by Kennington Rd, hope everyone escaped without injury.

Don't understand the new junction at Court Lane/Dulwich Village/Turney Rd - Green for segregated cycle lane on Court Lane and simultaneously green for pedestrian crossing perpendicularly on Turney Rd. Probably my fault.

Also, police/ambulance attending cyclist by Stockwell - hope they're okay too.

...Biblical drenching last night and Windy McWindface making an unwelcome return this morning.

Forgot how easy it is to get changed when you take overshoes out of the equation.

Winter boots ftw

insane wind, difficult to even turn the pedals over at some points

Looks out window, puts bike back in cupboard, will try again tomorrow.

Very interesting going round Regents Park this morning. If I were a Strava user I would certainly have recorded one of the best times on the Camden side of the park up that slight incline but coming round the bottom once you get past the mosque, the wind was completely insane, at one point I was almost stopped in my tracks on the downhill bit. Very exciting cycle, must have burned 1000s of calories :)

I don't understand why people have to push past you if your waiting behind a vehicle at the lights just so they can get to the front. If they were such a cunt I would have said no cycle behind this truck its makes cycling in this wind a piece of cake.

Oh and last night I was listening to this guy tell a girl how he used to do alley cat and crit racing blah blah but doesn't do it now because he likes to stay in one piece. Everything he said was not long after he nearly got squashed by a bus which could have been avoided by not cycling like a cunt.

Virtual freewheel all the way in with epic tailwind. I love it when you're rolling along at 30kmh with no wind in your face - feels very surreal, like cycling in a vacuum (apart from being able to breathe and not having your eyeballs sucked out etc).
Not, however, looking forward to the journey home.

my weather app says the wind will drop this afternoon. it better be right

Despite the epic headwinds this morning had some fun with people drafting.

Had one lady drafting me for a couple of minutes then overtake, only to be instantly hit by the wind and almost move backwards, then the guy drafting both of us overtook for the same thing to happen, jumped on his wheel as he overtook and managed to slingshot myself past both and wasn't caught again. I felt like Cav for the briefest of brief moments.

My commute this morning has been from my bed to the toilet to puke. Still, probably better than riding a cargo bike all day in this weather.

About 4 miles into my commute I am riding between tooting bec and balham and a tipper lorry decides that sitting 2 metres off the back of my bike at 20mph rather than overtaking in the entirely clear second lane to our right was a safe thing to do when it's raining and the roads are wet.

There's a row of parking bays to my left so I swing into them and slow a little to allow Mr Important past but just as I'm about to pull back out behind him I run over something which had been totally invisible to my eyes which gets flipped up and stings the back of my leg.

My tyre goes immediately flat and I just about manage to stay upright long enough to come to a stop by the kerb.

flip the bike over so I can start fixing the puncture and find this (that's a gator hardshell btw)...

(green stuff is anti-puncture tyre sealant but sadly not quite cut out for this kind of thing)

I then check the back of my leg where I was "stung" and (very luckily) I only have a tiny 1cm nick just under the calf muscle but blood has run all the way down to my socks. tried to find what caused it in the road as if it can cut through a tyre like that it's super dangerous but couldn't see anything. Am very fortunate that it only just caught me or I'd be in A&E right now.

Is your tetanus up to date?

Bloody hell, that's brutal .. wonder what the hell it was .. big shard of glass?

Be fat.

Piece of piss :)

Didn't seem that extreme to me...anyway pushed off to the tennis caf for an espresso soon enough

Had my first red mist in many years over something in hindsight was really nothing and feel like an arse.

Last night a guy very slowly is pulling out some distance in front of me from a side street. I have plenty of time to slow and stop and he's really no threat, but I notice he's looking entirely the wrong way the whole time, so as I approach him I give him an "oi!".

He gives me the finger in response, and drives off.

For some reason this gets me mad, and I U-turn and go after him, with thoughts of taking off his wing mirror. Instead I pull alongside him and shout, bizarrely, "don't be a double cunt!" and ride off.

I really have no idea what I was doing.

#doublecunt

Rode this a few km to the police station today. (It was stolen and dumped on my road - second one in two weeks). Speed wobble, rubbing brakes, rubbing mudguards, loose headset, broken shifter and massive gusts of wind to top it all off. Pretty fun though, hoping the owner doesn't come forward so I can keep it

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Bloody hell, glad you're OK. Rotten luck.

Wow, can't imagine what caused that. Would have been pretty nasty if it had caught you properly, have you checked you still have all your legs? Have you counted them carefully?

How many is the right amount, I don't do numbers good.