2008-03-15 Sat - Monopoly Night Ride

Hope you have camera/s

hippy London Station

tate modern, riverside.

chunky you comin?

Scott, we're (me & the mrs) are leaving from King's X - we going there for someone's leaving drinks first. What time will you be riding through?

Newington Green pick up about 8.34pm? I'll be hiding in my little green house.Only £60 on Old kent road but i'll bankrupt you at £400 on Mayfair!

at least you have some people to ride with to get there

dogsballs [quote]hippy London Station

tate modern, riverside.
chunky you comin?[/quote]

Having dinner with Mal's bro and his missus. I might give you a buzz and meet up somewhere but depends how long they stay.

Can someone whisper me Canine Knackers phone number please.

Mercy Boo Coo

i'm on the phone - will reply in a minute about times/places

Dylanshighheels Newington Green pick up about 8.34pm? I'll be hiding in my little green house.Only £60 on Old kent road but i'll bankrupt you at £400 on Mayfair!

sounds good... we'll be leaving at 8.30pm adn be at angel (islington green corner of upper st and essex road) at 8.45pm. may be a couple of minutes late to the tate, but well be there!

I need more time to finish my costume. I'm getting into it now. Can we start at 10pm

Maps will be given out right? Or are we all riding as one big lump?

If anyones still around who'll be there from the start, can you whisper me your mobile number? It's looking like I'll be late for the kick off and want to catch up...

its cardboard and gaffer tape city in my front room !

I have no costume

will be there as a dice, sticky back plastic all the way - riverside infront of the tate yeah?

have fun in the rain tonight! looks like it will be a long night.

Well myself and fizz are back already.

Park Lane drama on the way to the starting point, almost got taken out by a bus that missed me by centimetres whilst sounding his horn (the other 3 lanes were empty, no bloody excuse for this behaviour), then he cut across in front of me causing me to lose balance, and when I just about regain and catch up he's cursing and swearing at me. We overtook to get out of his way, and then he came up behind me and sat on my rear wheel sounding his horn, and when we got down to Hyde Park Corner he swung the front of the bus in front of me as I cursed like a trooper and gave him the finger for being such a bastard. He was just opening his door to shout at me when I got tired of it all, and still shaking from the adrenalin and fear of almost being hit by him I swung his passenger side mirror around and cycled off with fizz in tow through the narrow space he'd left us and the red light.

Immediately after I pulled over, shaking with fear still and just thought "what the fuck?". He'd had all the room in the world and there was no need for that kind of rubbish. And we'd already had a few near misses before that point.

We basically turned around then. Too many crazy bus drivers and TFL minicabs speeding around in the rain, and not enough of them looking out for cyclists.

So in my Regency Prince (Regents St) costume, and Fizz in her Press Gang (Fleet St) costume, both soaked and still shaken (Fizz at having just watched me nearly die because of that cunt of a bus driver - this is me being calm), we turned Westwards and have just reached home again.

Sucks sucks sucks. But I'm very glad still to be alive. That was the most harrowing experience I've ever had on London roads. Scared the absolutely living shit out of me.

Really hope it's a fun night for those who did go, mostly though... I really hope everyone gets back safely. The roads are hell tonight and the rain is just making drivers all turn into absolute idiots.

That's fscked up man. Don't suppose you got the fscker's driver number? I challenge the last twat bus driver to get out of his little box and sort it out after he chopped me while I was cornering.. fucker wouldn't get out of his bus though.. just kept waving at me to get out of his way. Kill 'em all.

The license I tried to get but it's hard when your blood is pumping with rage. Something like LJ57M?X. Park Lane is nuts, I don't think one road has ever scared me as much as that one did tonight. Taxis were coming so close at the Marble Arch end, and then that bus.

After we stopped Fizz turned to me and said "I didn't want to say but a car nearly took me out at the top too". She was behind me so I couldn't see, but she's right in that if I knew something threatened her I would've flipped out.

But really happy to be home safe. We were drenched, but just like the Southend ride you can only really get wet once. It seems the red from my top hat + tails jacket bled into my ruffled white shirt. Ah well.

(my spelling is going downhill too it seems, three edits and I'm still finding errors)

i have been having similar experiences with the bendy number 12s in peckham of late. not to mention the bmw driver who took it upon himself to force me off the road in ealing yesterday.

i swear it's getting worse, and i'm sorry about your really shit night, david. it sucks.

Sorry to hear this. Park Lane is a black run in good weather.

"I cursed like a trooper and gave him the finger for being such a bastard" :)

Blimey, vb, that sounds bloody awful :O Glad to hear that both of you weren't hurt. Hopefully you can get something done even if you don't know the exact reg, using route numbers and the time.

The weather is horrendous... was tempted to come along but not in this.

glad your home safe vb, shity night it seems

Sounds like a shit experience dude.

velocity boy

Too many crazy bus drivers and TFL minicabs speeding around in the rain, and not enough of them looking out for cyclists.

I've noticed this too - why does the rain turn everyone into such bad drivers? They just have to sit in a car, they don't get wet so what's the fucking problem. Had exactly the same experience a couple of days ago where everyone's driving dropped to bumper cars level

man that sounds shit - drivers should have to spend a week cycling before being allowed on the road
it's like if two people behaved like that walking down the sreet it'd be an assult
i was keen for the ride but the dark and the rain amd getting older etc
hope y'all get home safe