This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Just rode past the immediate aftermath of an old man having been driven over by the driver of an HGV. CPR being administered. Ermergency services just arriving on scene. Did not look good.

North side of Putney Bridge expect delays.

Now a fatality RIP

I was pretty certain but didn't want to speculate.

RIP

Don't ever look down for a second whilst cycling down a 3 lane, not very busy, one way road. When you look up again someone will be reversing their Mercedes towards you forcing you to skid into their bumper and come off. But don't worry, the driver was the brother of a guy on the pavement.

After many, many years of cycling in London's famous London, during which time the only me/motorised-vehicle collision was definitely my fault (overtaking a car over a speed bump going down Frognal in Hampstead on a blind corner), I can finally feel self-righteous after having been nudged up the arse by a taxi on the corner of Carey Street and Chancery Lane on Thursday evening. I stopped at the junction for another taxi (oh, the irony), he didn't. No harm done to either me or the bike, so I limited myself to pounding my fist on his bonnet in righteous rage and calling him a wanker. Happily, the people drinking outside the Knight's Templar seemed to be swayed by my persuasive powers of advocacy, and as a result Mr. Taxi Numpty drove away to the resounding chants of 'Wanker, Wanker'.

At least, I think they were directed at him. Nah, pretty sure. Fairly sure, anyway. Then again...

^nice!

Someone absolutely giving it the beans and getting into a "solo break from 120 kms" position on the walworth road through camberwell today.

Clipped a white vans wing mirror with my bag while filtering up Old St. From the yelling and horn use I muse have written off his van.

Very close call yesterday morning. Only 30 seconds out of the house. Our road isn't particularly narrow, but cars park up both sides and cars go up and down too too fast. I had my eyes front, parked cars to my left, watching a pickup truck hurtling towards me. Plenty of room for me to get through, but I could also hear a car approaching, too fast again, from behind. I think, "He won't pass, he hasn't got room." I don't look back, mainly because I want to keep an eye on the truck, and in any case I am not doing any maneuvering. The car behind passes me, pulls in just as he's past to avoid the oncoming truck, misses me by a gnat's whisker. I shout, "OI - FUCKING HELL," which seems proportionate, and follow the passing car up the road, where he stops in about 40 meters to turn right. There's a car in front of him and I can't pass on the left. I look in, all the windows are closed and the driver's not looking back, but I can hear ranting, faint but violent. I think about going round to the driver's side to take issue with him, but think better of it as he is turning right. The ranting continues as he makes his turn and disappears. Still not sure whether the ranting preceded the close pass and was at someone on the phone, or was a result of my reaction to it. I've asked santa for a GoPro session for Christmas so the next fucker that does this to me gets reported with evidence. I hate those bellms that go out with their cameras cycling like nobs and complaining about minor liberties taken by motorists, and I don't want to be associated with them, but I do think we need to do something to get te truly dangerous fuckers off the road.

@Hamham:

What reaction would you reasonably expect? You collided with another vehicle and, presumably, did not stop to apologise or check damage.

@sharkstar: HYCCT?

God I'm being self righteous today!

Looked back put my hand up saying sorry and the wing mirror was fine. My bag was empty so there is no way it could do any damange other than the noise it made. dramaticwhitevanowner/10

Theydontusethemanyway...

Oops.

I could have taken a more central position, but as I say the truck was hurtling towards me and I was inclined to stay clear, and I already had a decent clearance on my left. I could have looked back, which sometimes works in holding aggressive drivers back, but again: the truck. What would you have done differently?

What would you have done differently?

I think that's the important part, even if there's a correct way to do it, it's not always straightforward to implement this in the heat of the moment.

You did the best you can in that moment.

Even with the benefit of a description of what happened and time to consider, I can't think of anything different I would have done. Do I need to consider cycle training?

Yes

The true cyclist considers cycle training at least once every day. This is the way of the true cyclist.

LFGSS is just a mechanism to ensure the continued employment of cycle instructors. They've got this kind of spam up all over the site.

Is that before or after the session you do to see if cycle training is something you would consider more of?

i resemble that remark

HYCCT?

Gortex over shorts almost feel like cheating when it's raining. I just wish rapha would make some to the same design of their touring shorts, that should be ACE.

The Gore ones are just a bit too mountain biking baggy

The true cyclist considers cycle training at least once every day. This is the way of the true cyclist.

Sharkstar Tzu has spoken.

Tower Bridge has reopened to traffic..

a week ahead of schedule too. brilliant