This morning's commute and other commuting stories

The Tale of London Roadies is as old as time...

rage
"You ruined my Strava KOM!"
slap fight
fails to clip in three times
runs next five red lights
...
hippy rolls past roadie on his singlespeed whistling In the Summertime

not all head to toe lycra riders

Yesterday, found someone collapsed and in need of CPR

A friendly lycra cyclist went and got me a defibrillator (although ambulance thankfully arrived quickly)

Early defibrillation doubles someone's chances of surviving a cardiac arrest out of hospital.

If ever you see someone doing CPR out and about and someone else is already on the phone to 999, please try and bring them a defibrillator - you can find them on this website https://www.defibfinder.uk/ - and as a cyclist in London you may well get to them faster than an ambulance can

Good tip, thanks for highlighting. Now bookmarked.

Good work!

I did a first aid course to boost the numbers at my daughter's cricket club - really hope I never have to put any of what I learned into action.

But it's good to have hands on experience with a defibrillator and, like you say, the priorities (CPR, speakerphone to 999) and getting the next person who turns up to go find a defib.

Well done, that is an amazing thing to do. I’ve had the training for CPR but fortunately never had to put it into practice.

Another top tip is to download what three words to your phone.

My mate had a bad crash while I was out riding gravel with him and he was out cold for three or four minutes. Didn’t need CPR but when we called the ambulance there was a lot of faffing around as being off-road meant it wasn’t easy to pinpoint a location and the emergency services suggested what three words. This took a while as there wasn’t any phone service in the area to download the app.

Had to move my car through Hackney this morning so ended up joining the commuter rush. It is really sobering just how hard it is to spot cyclists in your mirrors when there is even the slightest bit of drizzle. I've always told myself "assume drivers can't see you" but I am definitely going to put my lights on in future when it is wet out.

some good tips today.
webpage bookmarked and lights on charge.
(already got w3w)

Yeah, ever since cars now have always on lights during the day and how much better it is to see other cars, I've just started riding with lights on all the time. I've got one of those Monkey Lectric disco lights too. I love them, drivers def notice them. Get a few good compliments too.

Yeah that was me. Sorry, you know how it is with the Campag playing up and all that.

Good stuff.
Any idea how they are please?

This mornings ride to work was interesting.
Going round a roundabout and there’s a big Merc pinning it towards me. There’s nowhere for me to go and I’m sure the driver isn’t looking for me. They enter the roundabout and I brace sure that’s it for me. But the hazard lights come on, the horn sounds and it stops dead. I mean dead! It was almost as if it had hit a wall. It stopped a little way behind me tbh, but the slowing meant it missed me. The tawt driving was sat there looking around in shock as was I. I didn’t feel right until I’d got to work changed and had a coffee. Scared the shit out of me. I’m guessing new Mercs had some clever tech in them?

Lots of new cars have "intelligent" collision avoidance systems now that can kick in very aggressively.

Of course they have to be turned on :(

Active Brake Assist. Thank your lucky stars.

It is great when technology saves your life.

Can these collision avoidance systems be installed into a bike?

Asking for a friend, obvs

a bit deeper than expected...

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Praying for your EBB

it's pretty well packed with grease, but I'll take it out and service it at the weekend. got another commute to do on it tomorrow.

Some terrific sunrises this week.

Also discovered how good helmet lights are. Mounted my exposure on my helmet due to front luggage, and it's really nice with light where you're looking!

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Back with the bats this evening, sorry about the picture quality. There were around 8 of them at one point. Bats and owls on my rides never fail to lift my spirits.

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nice ombré.

caught a couple of nice sunsets this week and a good kingfisher spot on Wednesday morning.
no pics though so you'll have to use your imagination.

Fuck. Squealing brakes from the maintenance-challenged all morning.