This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Absolutely shat myself when thunder cracked right over my head in Richmond Park. More welcome was the rain that followed 10 seconds later. Two types of wet and brown bibs on my commute.

That was ok until I reached the hills. Phew. Respect to climbers who are immune to heat, was gasping.
Still, karma-rescued a roadie with a flat and nothing to fix it with and donated a tube, as his was proper split and he had no patches.
#spreadbikelove

Lovely chilled ride in today in the rain. A few c%&ts around but this is London, c%&ts gonna c%&t.

Have been waiting / saving for over 7 months to get a nice new set of wheels, fitted them last night only for it to rain during the first roll on them this morning.

simultaneouslychuffed&miffed/10

Had a dream last night that my tyre and inner tube both exploded off my rear wheel in one piece. Maybe I shouldn't cycle today

... first time commuting on a geared bike in years and years. Looks like I have to relearn the whole shifting thing again - for example the idea of shifting down before you come to a stop...

Also, I still need to dial in the shifting better, there's one or two gears where it's not happening like it should and I'm not entirely sure why. I hate fiddling with gears.

That new layout at Lambeth North is confusing eh.

What happens if a pigeon flies into your front wheel?

I ride in fear of this happening. Pigeons don't seem to hear me coming, then when they eventually realise that I'm bearing down on them, they flap off almost randomly. It's a matter of time before one jumps straight into my front wheel.

But then what happens? Any experiences?

If you are unlucky it's messy but the pigeon kinda just breaks a wing. If you are lucky the pigeon was carrying a flux capacitor and as you get flung over the handlebars accelerating violently to 88mph you then land in the future, happens all the time I'm sure just we haven't caught up with those people yet.

I had a cat run into my front wheel on the way to work once. I will never forget coming to an abrupt stop, wondering why and then looking down to see a cat caught between spokes in my front wheel. It then ran under a parked car and disappeared (a passer by and I looked for it to make sure it was ok). Wheel was fine.

4/10 wouldn’t ride through a cat again.

Squirrels, it's squirrels you need to be cautious of. They have an unhealthy desire to dart back across the path of danger, even after initially avoiding it.

I've got a decent patch of pretty visible scar tissue on my left hand from where I broke my fall on gravel after a badger decided to dart across the forest path right in front of me. I had 0 warning, that thing was going at top speed and it felt as if I had cycled into a big log. It seemed to have survived the impact somehow and sped off while I was still doubled over with blood everywhere.

TL,DR: fuck badgers.

truth. especially in autumn.

This is what happens when a goose flies into your wheel.

The goose's wing get trapped between the spokes
You go over the handlebars and bruise your self in many places
Goose is freed by random Polish guys and flaps away
Spend £50 on replacement rear derailleur and truing front wheel

HTH

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My worry isn't actually hitting a pigeon, it's injuring it so badly that it needs to be dealt with, and having to deal with it whilst being watched by all the onlookers

Hey everyone, this is what happens when a squirrel tries to jump through your wheel.

Saw an old boy on a beautiful Klein with what looked like 650 wheels and a sick red fade paint jobby. made my morning

What's the top speed of a badger?

also, don't fuck badgers pls.
In all seriousness, that's unlucky. Glad it wasn't much worse.

What do you mean, African or European badger?

Yeah it really was unlucky, never had anything remotely like that happen again since. Just the 'perfect timing', in a really bad way.

that's what you get for having silly spoke patterns with big gaps.

The safest thing for animals would of course be monospoks, but tynan still hasn't started production.

Is there a large population of African badgers in the UK?

(it’s a monty python joke)

sick red fade paint jobby

#roadkill

It was a reference to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uio1J2PKzLI

But also now I got curious and looked up whether badgers even exist in Africa. Yes, they do: e.g. the famous 'honey badger':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3WjnLn9p3U

Probably good if they can't be found in the UK, sounds like the type of animal that would enjoy jumping through wheels.