This morning's commute and other commuting stories

So today's the day all the hybernating nodders came out their lairs.

ToyStoryC**tsEverywhere.jpg

what is the definition of nodders? - people who nod at you?

my morning;
go to leave the house, give back tyre a squeeze - soft.
inspect tyre - remove huge thorn.
look at spare bike - tubeless tyre on spare bike has gone flat due to lack of use.
roll eyes + make loud animal groaning noise.
put new tube in original bike.
tyre refuses to seat properly.
get increasingly grumpy and decide that cycling gods are against me today.
get changed out of cycling gear.
cycle to train station on beater.
train delayed due to broken down train.
45 mins late for work.
should have cycled.

#fuckyoumonday

"Nodder
A pitifully slow cyclist commuting in London. Usually seen decked out in a useless high-vis Altura Night vision jacket with matching fluro hump backpack cover. Often seen woefully weak lights that are reminiscent of a sickly glow worm, but its quite common for them to have none at all. They will clog up the roads in the every summer leading to the so called 'Noddergeddon'. They will barge in front of you at the lights only to set off like wobbly slow grandma forcing you to drop them instantaneously, at the next set of light they'll do the exact same thing again causing incredulous cry of frustration to be emitted by every other cyclist around them.

The term its self comes from their habit of nodding their heads up and down whilst they struggling along in the wrong gear often with a bike that's totally the wrong size for them. It was coined by a user of London's famous LFGSS cycling community."

forcing you to drop them instantaneously

You can't drop somebody who isn't trying to keep up with you.

¯ _(ツ)_/¯ I didn't write the Urban Dictionary definition

Back on the bike now the ice has cleared in Helsinki.

Commuting by bike in this city is shit. Too many tram tracks, cobbles, mixed use paths and utterly inconsistent cycling infrastructure.

Give me The Cunts of London over this.

harden the fuck up :D

That first paragraph is pure vintage bikeradar.

Friday eve. Waiting at light. for a large roundabout just up from Temple Meads on the road coming from the centre. There is pair of ambulances trying to get through on next road to my left blues and twos on and sirens howling, behind two lanes of traffic held by a red light. My light changes so I proceed and stop ahead of junction where the road the ambulances are on, the cars can get out of their way. I assumed all the other trafic would two.

Did they fuck, all of them just piled through completely ignoring the ambulances and prevented the traffic in front of the ambos coming through the red light. Not only that they all got held at the next set of lights and blocked the two lanes again. A taxi even beeped at me for stopping. Fuckers.

blues and twos on and sirens howling

The "twos" are the (two-tone) sirens.

Ah now I feel foolish, but am grateful for the intel

Another morning, another @edscoble sighting. This time, there was a proper ‘look like an idiot’ wave.

I only just about saw you on the black bike with chrome guard!

Its that annoying time of the year when the kit you need for the morning ride is too warm for the evening one. Last two mornings I have struggled with mitts.

On the other hand, those first few rides after the clocks go forward, where you get home before the sun fully sets are always glorious.

I always walk in on Wednesdays because I have a night class after work and don't like leaving my bike there. I've walked and cycled this route hundreds of times but today I suddenly realised I'd gone into a weird fugue, taken a wrong turn without noticing and had no idea where I was. Had to get my phone out and thankfully I had only walked in the wrong direction for about 5 minutes, but somehow even though it was a totally different street to the one I needed my legs had just grimly marched on and my brain hadn't registered what they were doing.

First commute in from Royston using the train today. Door to door in under an hour using the brompton.

Result.

Icy winds at 6am this morning. When I got in the shower afterwards, my whole lower half felt like one continuous chilblain. I guess spring is finally here.

Should have carried on, just to see if your legs would take you somewhere interesting.

Maybe my subconscious was rebelling against going to work and tried to derail me onto a path to somewhere better.
Was listening to this and I think it may have been the culprit as it's deeply hypnotic:

I'm glad the missus mentioned it was going to be 0degC.
I would've headed out in shorts, tee and mitts again.

Togged up this morning and was toasty.

Late rush hour is definitely the best time to transport your tanks through London, guys. It only takes up 1.5 lanes after all.

Also, good to see the no-deal preparations are going well...

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Doing a blair and it cost the uk tourist industry millions when the Americans stopped coming .