New route to work friday

Since i started my new job 6 mths ago, every friday i try to take a different route to work. I'm lucky in that i work in nth london and work in east london, so there are unlimited ways to go.

Try it!

must be something in the water, i've just changed my route to work, now via Crouch End instead of Green Lanes/Finsbury Park - and yes a change is always good

Cool idea Dogs. Also I read somewhere it's a good idea to ride with less special kit than normal once in a while - say without your gloves or shades or whatever it is you think you can't possibly do without.

Taking yourself out of the rut / comfort zone is good for your mental health.

My mental health is fine.... well maybe not after last weekend, but its getting there.

Cool, I'll ride without pants next Friday

without gloves fell weird. did it the other day and took me a mile or so to work out what was wrong.

in the (slightly bikeradar) spirit of the thread, I have 5 routes to work of different lengths and hilliness I regularly use. It always feels best when I come the longer hilly way (endorphins n shit), but I can't always be arsed.

I agree Ru. I can't stand riding without gloves. That's my security blanket, along with a cap.

i forgot my helmet today. that was odd.

But the beauty of really really knowing your route is that you know the timing on the big junctions and stuff like that. Saves pots of time.

Downside is that you're fucked if you start taking things like that for granted.

I have a number of variations and I choose them on the fly as the whim takes me, my mental health is tip-top and my life is one big adventure.

...
Downside is that you're fucked if you start taking things like that for granted.

I think this is the point of that little bit of advice: don't get too complacent, thinking you know the phase of the lights and start anticipating and taking risks or whatever.

I'm lucky in that i work in nth london and work in east london

One of those 'work' words should conceivably have been 'live'. ;)

He has two jobs, and the only break is to go from one to the other!

I love this, just noticed the thread so it'll be new route home today

If I'm lazy and the weather's good, I go along the beach.

If I'm short for time I go with traffic (tend to do this one more often).

Like the idea of this though, will see if there are other routes I can take.

I'll go via Lambeth Bridge and up by St Thomas's hospital to avoid Westminster Bridge sometimes - the ice cream vans and crazy tourists drive me mad on there. Its only 1/2 a mile longer but sometimes my legs are tired. The road surface is way better at that end though - it can get a bit bumpy on a Brompton through Parliament Square and the end of Whitehall on to the Bridge, particularly when you are trying to hold the left hand A23 lane to get onto the bridge and not get forceably taken on to the Embankment by a white van. The road surface over Lambeth Bridge and up the Lambeth Palace Road is much better.

I might change my bib tights soon

I wouldn't worry Balki - if you've been wearing the same ones since August 2010, there'll have been sufficient molecular interchange to ensure that the ones you're noew wearing actually bear no relation to the ones you put on nearly three years ago. But there will be parts of your anatomy that may have taken on the characteristics of synthetic chamois...

I think the chamois has liquified

I used to go fishing when I was young. Sometimes I'd set out to catch eels, using big fat juicy lobworms as bait. I'd harvest these from the lawn late at night, quite a tricky job as they like to sit with their tails still in their burrows so that, on sensing danger, they are able to retreat with lightning speed and even if you get a good grip on the middle of the worm (using wool gloves) you've still got a struggle on your hands as the worm has little bristles with which it can grip the sides of its burrow, which often means that if you pull too hard, the worm snaps in half. Anyway, I once had a pot of lobworms that I left in the bottom of my fishing bag. They liquefied.

Your post reminded me of all this.

I think the chamois has liquified

dibs

add 1 part agnostura bitters
2 shots gin
1 shot vodka
1 shot creme de menthe

hey presto cocktail time

what about chambucca?

also I like to change up my route regularly, throws off potential kidnappers.

Nice idea. I'm stuck with the back streets behind Holland Park, Notting Hill Queensway etc all the way until the madness of Fitzrovia and Clerkenwell. It'll be different houses but the same mortages. It's a rich man's world.

And just by the by I cannot for the life of me understand why people cycle on Holland Park Road up through Queensway (it opens a bit around the Park). Every morning the traffic is fucking shocking and yet I seem to be one of the few who turn off it ASAP. Beggars belief.

No need to change my route of late. Between Locog and Her Majesty, everyday is new and exciting while trying to navigate through central London. Particularly enjoy running the gauntlet of gentlemen in hi-vis jackets telling me to get off my bike