This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Thursday AM. Saw this guy AGAIN jumping every red light and ped crossing including going through contra moving traffic around Kennington. Catch up with him as he is actually slow AF and asked him why he rides like a tool bag. His excuse was he had "been tested by my psychiatrist and I have excellent spacial awareness so if anything happens it would be the other persons fault"

I backed off at that point as imo something isn't quite right with him

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A missed opportunity to Potatoshop some speed blur lines and change the light to a red. 2/10 poor effort.

That definitely sounds like something an extremely sane person would say. Otoh, if he’s as bad at cycling as you say he probably won’t be on your route for long

Waterloo station dead this morning and so were the roads. Fleet street is a ghost town.

Didn't deploy seasonal sausages of the frozen variety?

Much fun. Zero stress.

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The other day on CS3 E London, I encounter a moped with 2 people on it coming towards me.

Wasn't intimidated because I was on my post-theft bucket of bolts, but I was wondering, is this a modus operandi for bike thefts or innocuous/targeting something else?

Genuinely scared of getting a nice replacement now as if my new bike were to be taken like this I'm not sure even insurance would cover me.

Worth checking with your insurance? My reading of my household insurance is that theft by force when out and about is covered; the exclusions all relate to leaving it locked up without sufficient security. (Obviously there may be an excess.)

I’m with Velosure and theft by force is covered. I just got myself a Trek ebike and was out the other night in Norwood, went to take a short cut through a park at about 8pm and saw a gang of yoots and ne’er-do-wells ahead and thought better of it.

Today was a glorious day to commute by bike. The A10 was super quiet and north of the Great Cambridge Roundabout was actually closed completely.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Br5sQ1cBn6I/
Nice and warm too. Bib shorts, short sleeved jersey and fingerless gloves were fine.

north of the Great Cambridge Roundabout was actually closed completely

Sorry to hear you had to find another way around that bit. :)

It wasn't warm like that down in Leyton, and even less so outside of the south circular and then the M25.

Decent amount of fog on Hackney Marshes on my way back too.

Left home at 7.20am, left work at 4pm.

Base layer, bib shorts and tights, three pairs of gloves, windtex jacket and skull cap.

I was still cold at either end

Nice and warm too.

It was only 4° when I left this morning, and 3° when I got to work! Was stress free and quick though.

Generally when @rhowe says...

Nice and warm too. Bib shorts, short sleeved jersey and fingerless gloves were fine.

it indicates that it is currently not possible to go ice-skating on the Thames.

exactly!

Lovely ride into work today, hardly any traffic and even exchanged a nod and smile with a ped crossing at the lights. Hopefully it will stay like this for the rest of the week and the hordes won't return to work until Monday.

Should have ridden in today. That said, I actually should have booked today off.

rear light fell off the back of my bike and got run over by a lorry but it still works! Other then that, good ride in.

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Was cold. Maybe it was the sleep deprived first day back feeling but it felt minus 50 today. Not looking forward to going home.

Yesterday was the first commute of the year. Yesterday was the first time a cunt almost hit me with their car. It was extremely quiet on the road and still this happens. He had to slam on the brakes quite hard and stood there for a few seconds not doing anything so I really hope he was shocked at least.

Cycled in in thermal tights under wool/cashmere trousers so my legs stayed warm, but all my wool socks were in the wash so my feet stayed cold af. Got them propped up on an oil heater now. Also forgot the key for the frame lock so got to my bike hangar and couldn't go anywhere; had to run home and call my wife to bring it to the front door. I put a new shiny keyring on it so that I would find it harder to forget but that didn't seem to work and has the added annoyance of making a 'TING... TING... TING' for the whole ride.
Still, the roads were pretty quiet. Guess that's going to change on Monday when the schools go back and parents all start parking in the middle of the road again.

Rode in on the road bike for a change - was the deepest in the bike pile. Remembered how fast it is & that I've neglected to clean it since touring the Alps in September, oops.

Get to work & colleagues have decided to WFH, grr. Could've done the same myself.

I think only cunts have gone back to work. People are driving like idiots.

I think only cunts have gone back to work.

Well I'm at work so...

Perhaps the road being quieter than usual lulls people into a false sense of security and they just switch off a bit.

Would appear many are using the quiet roads to practice high speed driving ‘skills’ with full beam for good measure. Those drivers would definitely qualify as the “cunts” around here.