This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Treated myself to a double commute this morning. Rode to work, immediately realised I'd left my phone (which I need for work) at home so had to pop back. Still, a good warm up for when my work moves in a few weeks time and my commute is doubled.

a few edited highlights of last Friday's chilly commute. Nothing special just a cold day in SW London following CS7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuTic_M4Nec

Balham: “can’t stop there mate”

I thought that that bit was a designated scooter parking spot?
Usually a bunch of delivery riders are parked there. It’s one of the parts of CS7 I really don’t miss!

Yes you are correct and I realised that when editing it but I left it in cos its a stupid spot to have it as the bikes, cars, vans and buses accelerate away from the traffic lights the cyclists get forced out into the traffic.
Top marks for paying attention...

I see now that it's a little chilly the Decathlon special forces have been dispatched onto the mean streets of London.

Three hours of cycling in the rain today.
Was rain forecast?
Was it fuck.
Weatherpeople, come on…

A dry commute in but my desk is on the 15th floor of our building in Canary Wharf and you can really see the weather fronts rolling in from that height. Me and another cycling colleague were both cursing the weather all through the day.

I jumped ship early when I saw a brief break and was on the bike at 4pm for a damp surface but no rain ride home

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Being able to see the weather coming in is a damn handy way of avoiding getting wet.

Rain today.co.uk
Until it dies, but there are others

It might have been happy chance but the app used to be so dependable for me. Proved useless the last few times it bucketed down.

Doesn’t anyone use the Dark Sky app? It was recommended on here years ago when it was free and before they sold to Google, it’s still very reliable.

Dark Sky sold to Apple; it is good.

"Hyperlocal Weather" is the Android equivalent, using Dark Sky data

Turns out my first Friday commute during half term was pretty quiet and last Friday was a bit more like it.

I also got the Langster off the turbo trainer and found it was a lot faster than the gravel bike although I had to watch out more for the potholes on a 23c versus 35c tyre

A few edited highlights

https://youtu.be/0kkTYnNb434

I've always thought about videoing my commutes, often seem quite eventful!

Yeah I like to do it every now and then although super keen ATM cos it's new and fresh as I haven't cycle commuted since March 202o.

You do get a lot of footage though that needs sorting. For example the above 90 seconds was taken from a 75 minute commute and about 12gb of footage

very good point, perhaps a gopro remote on the handlebar or similar could be worth a go!

Thanks. I've missed Dark Sky since it stopped working on android.

I use Windy instead... it's pretty good.

WX charts.

For full geekery. (no app though, sorry).

First commute since march last year. A lot more bollards...

Not sure I like them.

3 shitty interactions yesterday, cycling with my son. One guy beeping us from behind, saw one car in front and a about a cars space with slow moving traffic so didn’t move out the way, cue him accelerating past and wedging himself in that space. Utterly pointless.

Then when we were cycling down court lane there was a driver doing between 40/50mph in the other direction. just crazy.

Then a little along the journey we had someone else beeping at us to move out the way again. No one in the opposing lane so could have used that to overtake. I stopped and asked him what his problem is exactly and he complained that I was blocking him, and should be in line with my son towards the curb. Lost my temper slightly and told him to stop chatting shit, and that we can use the lane as we see fit. He was turning off a couple of metres later so was literally, again, utterly pointless that he lost his patience.

I do despair. Now he’s a bit older and we cycle faster together it’s not as bad but when he was little we would get grief on almost every single ride, at least once. He doesn’t like cycling on his own because of how aggressive drivers are around here, it’s pretty sad, and makes me angry.

As an aside my mum and dad don’t particularly enjoy cycling on the road because they’re quite slow and get bullied constantly 😕. Still vainly hoping that things will get better with the uptake of cycling but not holding my breath.

Yeah that's really sad.

You'd think when drivers saw there's a child there they would back off at least a bit, as they would in pretty much any other situation where there's a child involved. But I guess the all-consuming need to be in front trumps everything else.

I also find it really hard to see a cultural shift that ends this behaviour.

Literally could have written this myself a couple of years ago (kid is now cycling to school 4 miles on his own, built his own dyno wheel during lockdown, runs decent lights, panniers, upright bike and he's a really observant rider in every sense) - but have faith.

On the subjest of old folk - my mum who's 80 soon rides in our home town, always being bullied. One twat in a car crusied alongside her, wound down window, shouted 'get a helmet'. She asked me what she should have said ... even though I sort of know why the helmet hegemony is bollocks, I didn't know what to tell her (not that she'd have retained any pithy retort I may have recommended).

This is what new infrastructure needs to be judged on. Is it good enough for small children/grandparents to cycle on without being worried?