One of "those" days.

Left work a little early yesterday as my daughter had texted that she had a "free" lesson so could leave school early (we commute together). Weather was standard November: Freezing cold drizzle.
Toodled across the centre of town towards my kids school.
Approached a pelican crossing with hoards of peds waiting and as I got close the lights changed. So I stopped, as you do. Next thing I know I'm on laying on the road having had something shunt my rear wheel.
I sat up and found that I had been rear ended by a blue rinse granny in a Micra who was out of her car and shouting at me.
The thrust of her attack was "why did you stop suddenly"???????????????????

I picked myself up and considered lamping the old witch, but that would have been uncivilised. I checked the bike (and myself) and all was OK bar a slight wobble in the rear wheel and a bit of a sore back.
BRG was still going at me and now there was an almightly traffic jam.
What to do? Get details and go through the whole weary RTA process of call her a blind, stupid, haggerd old witch and forget about it.
It was now pissing down and I really wasn't in the mood so i told her exactly what I thought of her and rode off.

Met up with my lass and started the 14 miles to home in a freezing monsoon.
Got 3 miles and she had a rear puncture. Bugger. Bunged in a new tube and off we went.
Got a further 200m and she had front puncture. Double bugger. Bunged in my second spare tube and off we went again.
Got 3 miles and I had a rear puncture. This was getting silly. Bunged in our 3rd and last spare tube and off we went again.
By now all this warming up then getting cold has made colder then I can remember (and I have a long memory), my girl was shivering as well so we set off at a brisk pace to warm up.
Got another 4 mile and I had a front puncture.........
Spent 1/2 an hour coaxing a patch to work in freezing pissing rain. My finger were so cold that I had trouble reseating the tyre.
Finally got going and made it home only to find that there was no one in (we had finished early) and neither of us had a key.
Sat outside huddled together for another 1/2 hour till Mrs. J got home.

Could it get any worse? Oh yes. I just woke up and my back is killing me after its brief but sudden meeting with the road so i can't go to work.

Oh to be a cyclist.

Sorry to hear that, Mark, that sounds like a rash of misfortune. How is it even possible to get so many punctures in a row? And that key thing at the end ... ouch.

Very impressed that you two commute 14 miles--is that 14 miles each way, then? Through Kent, I presume?

Hope that back heals up. I think I'd always take details. Lots of stories on here about only noticing damage to bodies/bikes the morning after...

how frustrating. heal up soon. you are in the house now right?

sounds like yesterday was the day to be rear ended by idiots when stopped

heal up fast

On the upside, Karmic forces clearly owe you a clear run for the rest of '09 & well into '10

sounds like yesterday was the day to be rear ended by idiots when stopped

+1

The girl roadie next to me at a set of Camberwell New Road lights got shunted by another cyclist. She looked very Stoic and said that she had already behind bumped by a motorbike that morning. She had a 'it's going to be one of those days' look on her face.

Anyway - hope your back heals soon Mr J.

Still at least you had november rain in december that's got to be a good thing!

Oh and not mention of D-locking yet?

Sorry to hear that, Mark, that sounds like a rash of misfortune. How is it even possible to get so many punctures in a row? And that key thing at the end ... ouch.

Very impressed that you two commute 14 miles--is that 14 miles each way, then? Through Kent, I presume?

Thanks for the forum love, I feel all warm and fuzzy (apart from my back).

It's 14 miles each way, normally a nice ride but I have had a number of really bad moments over the last month. I must have built up some bad karma.

wow that is impressive. that story reads like a comedy sketch......

you are clearly a cool dad!

If someone runs in to the back of me and then gobs off I'm going to throw my bike through their fucking windscreen.

oooh bad luck.
well dealt with on the RTA.

she deserved her keys throwing into the undergrowth.

dovvles,

what would you have done if someone rams you from behind and then keeps on rolling their car into you because they dont want to stop and wait for the police

i nearly d-locked the entire car, but instead i just played the sound of her driving into me to the police by speaker phone.

Damn that's some bad luck. I thought I was bad last night falling off in the rain home from a 12 mile commute and my handlebars comming out. Rest up hope you feel better soon.

Still can't believe the old bint.
Some of the fucking cheek of people.

I had a women smash into the back of me on the ice last year. When she got out of her car to see the damage she said "I didn't even think it was icey" she could barely stand up it was that fucking icey.

Again, really impressed that you and your daughter commute so far. Id find that tough in idyllic weather. But 80% of the year is cold and rainy, plus were starting to get to frosty season!

You must of course be suited & booted in some decent winter gear to make this possible right? (extra hardcore if your not!)

But what kind of tyres are you using!? Just seems extraordinarily impossible to get 4 punctures in different wheels in a row. I dont know anyone who would even carry more than one inner tube for a commute.

Ive ridden mainly cheapo tyres like rubinos (and worse) but never ever had a puncture, and being in a city I have to ride over broken glass every day.

^shit happens. Wet bits of flint are a match for broken glass (probably sharper). And sometimes, when it's cold, you're fucking freezing and in shock, and it's pissing down, it's easy to miss stuff still lodged in the tyre. If you're really unlucky, you can also get the bonus of slicing your finger open whilst searching for the embedded penetrating perpetrator.

If you've never had a puncture, you're very very lucky. Hope it lasts…

Bummer Mark. Hope your back starts to mend soon.
I got caught out by just a couple of punctures a few weeks ago, only had the one spare and had to resort to frequent stops/pumping. 3 spares in my bag now.

nightmare.

hope your back is ok

First puncture for me in 6 months this am. On the home stretch after a nice little tootle through the frosty countryside, to find that someone had scattered a packet of drawing pins in the bike lane. Echoes of the Etape Caledonia...

+1

The girl roadie next to me at a set of Camberwell New Road lights got shunted by another cyclist. She looked very Stoic and said that she had already behind bumped by a motorbike that morning. She had a 'it's going to be one of those days' look on her face.

Anyway - hope your back heals soon Mr J.

The girl roadie was Fenella, she says that she can smile about it now.

That's good to know :) Bummer of a way to start the day though...

Very true- it was a car not a motorbike also, just to make it even better.

Charco has trued her wheels today- luckily a light wobble was the only result.

In reply to many:
What do you do? She was about 900 years old and all most people saw was a dayglo lycra maiac shouting the odds at a poor defencless old biddy, I was on a looser, so I left. Yes, in hindsight I should have taken her index, I even keep a pen in an outside pocket for such occasions, but it was really pissing down so I left.
We certainly are rugged up DFP, the lot: Daglo orange Polaris jacket, yellow backpack cover, overshoes, the lot. Including a 900 lumen DX cree and a Joystick Maxx up front and a BLT X9 plus 2 smart 1/2 watt red leds on the rear. So just how she didn't see me is a mystery.
As for tyres, my lass uses 25mm Gators and me 28mm same (as I'm a bit bigger then her) they are usually spot on but it gets very flinty out here in the sticks.
I find that the right gear makes weather kind of irrellevant, the trouble comes when you have to stop, then you get cold.
No urban island heat effect round here.

True about stopping. I had a puncture in the freezing cold the other day (while riding up a stream, oddly) and heard a pop, pfffff, as soon as I finished pumping it up. By the time I finished fixing it again I was shivering.

Didn't mean to criticise for not taking details, I just think that you should always report these things for the sake of statistics if nothing else.

No offence taken Sparks, you are perfectly correct and I am usually the loudest advocate of reporting these things to the Police, but standing there in the rain with 100 pairs of accusing eyes seeing me "bullying" grandma led to my good sense being over ridden. Anyway my back fwwls better today so I might go for a toodle tommorow.
:-}