This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Well that was an interesting one.
Approaching a red light near Lewisham police station and the lights change. A car stops and I filter through to the front into the ASL. The car then starts rolling into the ASL approaching my back wheel. I turn point and say “not for you”. I’m waiting for the light to change and I hear some chatter from the woman behind the wheel saying something a bit aggro so I turned around and she’s obviously not happy. I may at this point have sworn. She then pulls out what I think is police ID and flashes it telling me not to swear at her and I tell her not to roll into the ASL. Nothing else happened and when the lights changed I rolled away very slowly in primary. A bit childish, but I was annoyed. Annoyed that the people supposed to be enforcing these things are causing the problems in the first place and can’t handle being called out.

has anyone replaced the dire battery that comes with apeman cameras with something more reliable?

Is it just me, or has the smell of diesel and exhaust fumes been hanging very heavily in the air all morning?

Ok to commute on, unless you have to lock it up outside.

Did you tell them to wear a helmet in their cars?

Ok to commute on, unless you have to lock it up outside.

With all those aero fixing things it looks like a thief would need a pretty specialised toolkit to nick anything other than the saddle (and possibly pedals).

How long are you getting out of yours? I don't know what duration to expect from mine but it's a pretty small battery so I'm guessing not much.

Doesn't it every morning? #fuckingmotors

It's just a ball ache trying to get a D-Lock through anything..

Ha, you're right of course. It just felt like it was particularly pungent this morning. This, or my sense of smell has decided to wake up earlier today.

When this happens, I usually assume it's just my own smell.

That doesn't work so well for diesel smells.

Possibly just lower wind than normal so the air hung around?

Nope, I came utterly unprepared for that conversation.

The "i know somebody that got paralyzed..." didn't help, I basically explained helmets aren't made for crashes, so you can't draw any conclusions but then the conversation got changed as I wasn't budging.

Which is fair enough, we have a course to go through. But from a risk POV there is insufficient evidence (unless you want to recommend a helmet to everyone...) which is a big thing for First Aid.

Ah well. I don't want to get pissy with people that are genuinely concerned. A nice close pass on the way back by Mr Taxidriver made me wonder, again, if a flamethrower isn't better. Bit heavy though, when is the carbon model coming out?

Flame throwers will just scorch paint. You want missiles/rockets that disable the vehicle immediately and completely.

You've just never met me.

Yeah very possible. Or maybe I was following some particularly stinky vehicle for a while without noticing it specifically.

Porn fail for crank position...

Wow though

Might be arrangable in Belfast 😂

Horrid traffic yesterday to the extent I felt sorry for all drivers.

Got wet but the merino top from decathlon resisted water long enough. My socks was another story...

Went through the park, tried to go left of a pedestrian he then turned left, I braked. Instead of being annoyed he just laughed and said he forgot to put his indicator on :)

Finally ditched London Bridge this morning and did Southwark Bridge, Q11 instead.
Amazing. Wish I'd done it a year ago.

Woohoo!

Damp but not damp enough. Very easy commute in. Really warm for some reason. Maybe hangover from yesterday's turbo sesh. Probably pissing down tonight. #csb

I might do this tomorrow. I can't take London Bridge any more.

Southwark is soo much better. I say that as someone who broke his collar bone after being doored on the approach. Just watch the pinch point where you enter the segregated bit by the bridge. Peds cross there, mopeds park up there and most importantly taxis randomly let out passengers there just as you are passing. Ahem.