This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Oh boy, what a commute I had this morning:

Was riding along at my usual leisurely pace on my Tradesman. Some roadie did that thing roadies love doing and silently passed me on the left close enough that I could have elbowed him without taking my hands of the bars. The motorist lane next to the bike lane was completely empty - something we've all dealt with hundreds of times, but in a pandemic it makes him more than a bit of an asshole. I yelled at him to go into the street to pass people, didn't swear at him or anything, he did what they always do - ignored it. I tried to let it go like I have countless times before.

Then I spotted him stuck at the next red light.

Light changed just as I was rolling up. Ashamed to say I took this as an opportunity to dig into him as I rode past. What does he do in response? Starts hammering and tries to pass me again in the same manner as before, only this time the bike lane's on the left side of the road and he's trying to squeeze between me and the curb. I swerved to intentionally block him a couple times (an admittedly vindictive move on my part.) When he finally does get up next to me again, he yells at me, then grabs my fucking basket and tries to crash me and ends up crashing himself instead.

Admittedly, none of this would have happened if I hadn't escalated things at that red light, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't revel in the outcome for the rest of my commute and while I hope he's not injured, I do sincerely hope he fucked his bike up.

you cold bro ;)

grabs my fucking basket

Flexiest part of a total flex post.

Nice!

I quit "British cycling" and joined "cycling UK" instead. Feels good.

Don’t know if it was the hillier route, the headwind or the fact it was -7 a couple of weeks back but I was absolutely sweltering yesterday. Had to stop to remove my gilet. Could comfortably have been in short sleeves. Madness.

Heard of these? Like your own BrexitCunt Bike

https://buzzbike.cc/

I've seen a few of these around, but they were single-speed and with a massive fairing on the back wheel.

Would love to know how they've worked out that the package is worth £1,000. Presumably because the bike is so awful, it will require £100s worth of their 'on-demand maintenance'.

The £23.99 per month also only applies if you pay upfront for 12 months. At which point, surely it's just better to go and buy a bike?

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£25 a month means you'll start losing money in a year.

Could be good for those looking to take up riding and don't want to invest too heavily up front

I guess it's like a cycle2work scheme for people that don't want the bike or maintenance issues, big outlay. I assume they maintain the bikes for you or something?

Yeah I think that's what they're aiming for. But at least with C2W, you own the bike at the end of it all. This is like leasing a car, which I guess is very popular.

The monthly rolling contract might appeal if you were only going to be here for a short time - a foreign worker on a short contract for example.

Yeah, I'm clearly not their target case, it was just mentioned at work today and I'd not seen it mentioned.

Well you can also use their ride tracking service and be rewarded with 'Coffee, Cinema Tickets and much more' and their 'rider happiness team' are there for support every step of the way. These things don't pay for themselves do they.

I've noticed them around for a while now, used to see one of the older ones like the picture above locked up outside of Brixton Underground quite often. There's one of the newer ones locked up in my building's car park too.

£25 a month for a bike with no (well, less, you still need to get them to do it) maintenance hassle isn't a bad idea.

I can understand why it's an anathema on a cycling forum where people have all of the tools and expertise to build and maintain bikes.

If I wanted a simpler life for a commuting bike I'd definitely consider it.

Cheaper than a season ticket for most londoners.

And let’s not forget insurance. The buzz bike gets nicked and it’s no problem. All these benefits add up.

And you can call out a Bike Professor to torque your nuts. Should those need doing.

I’m sure I remember about 5 years ago when they were a startup they were lending the bikes out for free if you were a regular rider in London. You had to apply. And the bikes would all have the big fairing with their advertising on or they would pay £50 to put one on your bike if you had your own or something like that. Probably to get their name out there I suppose

I've got a couple of pals who work for Buzzbike, I did a few days work helping assemble a few bikes for them last summer (although they're all finished and checked over by a professional mechanic before they go out). They're definitely decent enough bikes to get non cyclists on the road and for £25 a month including all maintenance there's not much to lose by giving it a go.
The demand has gone absolutely mental since the 1st lockdown came into place. I guess more people on bikes and less people on busy public transport can only be a positive thing at the moment.

They have a similar, and v popular scheme in the Netherlands. Its a bit cheaper though

Facebook reminds me that this was the result of my commute this day 8 years ago. Yeah, it hurt.

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Good job you had that stuff strapped to your head or it could have been really bad.

Heh.

I had a date that evening too. I cancelled.

Did it buff out?

Reminded me of the "sorry for the radio silence, just a spot of emergency brain surgery" text I sent when the grrl and I first started dating.

It buffed out after six months with surgery for a broken nose and jaw. I also got £15k in damages from the cunt who took me out.

She was very understanding. Turned out she was a Finnish professor and concert pianist. I was a mechanic. It would never have worked, even without the scars.

Sounds grim. £15k is a nice little bonus though.

I survived the surgeries and she's since spent enough time with me that she also thinks riding 200k is a nice way to spend a day :)