This morning's commute and other commuting stories

...plus new mudguard flaps. Oh, the pleasure.

Mudguards, raincoat, rain cap, new bike = lovely.
Base layer as mistook wet for cold = not so lovely.

Will leave that layer in the bag on the way home.

Sitting in my pants having decided to WFH.

20/10

Ski jacket (too warm, but marvelously waterproof) over my regular clothes. Industrial-strength mudguards took the brunt nicely.

Utility bike/10

Mudguards, flaps, overshoes, and hardshell.

What rain?

On here looking type on black Cinelli and twinspoks jumped the lights up on City Road by Angel, rode onto the pavement, next thing I know he's picking himself off the ground, but seemed fine.

I really need to get into a better routine of charging and formatting my helmet cam so I actually capture moments like this.

This.

Just kind of witnessed a woman getting knocked off. Was obscured by a parked car but I definitively heard it. She seemed in shock but OK - the learner driver who hit her was doing the 20 speed limit, which most people don’t bother keeping to on that road. Stuck around to make sure the police had been called as well as ambulance but not much more me + a toddler could do to help.

Good stuff.

Were they with an instructor or just driving with a full lic. passenger?

Brake hood seemed to move so I had a look and realised the bars had snapped EXACTLY where there's a gap in the bar tape:

Overshoes and clip on guards. Super. Base layer, ss Gabba and fluoro armwarmers bit too warm.

Dry on the outside, not so dry on the inside.

It was a driving school car, so with full instructor and presumably dual control. I didn’t see exactly what happened so I’m making no assumption over who’s fault etc.

There's sellotape on it what you worrying about?

That'll be the bar tape backing.

Those bars got me over the Pyrenees, they've been pulled plenty. Even rapid deceleration could have bust them by pushing foward against the crack. Bloke in the pub said that creaking bars are a Sign of Certain Death and I didn't believe him, I thought creaking bars was normal. I'm gonna buy a lottery ticket.

Creaking can come from the physical join between the bars and the stem. Having said that, I have a pair creaking Cinelli Criterium bars on my Rourke which I will be keeping a close eye on after reading this thread!

This morning had 3 cunts bust a nut to overtake me, then as soon as their body was ahead they slacked off and cut me up, forcing me to avoid them to stop my front wheel getting taken out. To top it off, none of them had mudguards so I copped a face full of road-water thrice.

Thanks, cunts.

As a team or individually?

sounds like red hook crit

Individually.

There was a breeze this morning so they clearly all thought they were billy big balls until they moved out to overtake and got blown back, but didn't want to give up.

Must try harder then. Never let anyone overtake you. It is your duty to yourself to win your commute. Both ways. Every day.

Must try harder then. Never let anyone overtake you. It is your duty to yourself to win your commute. Both ways. Every day.

This.

Massive traffic jam at least 3 miles out from the office. But not for me.
However, I am not late for work but now everyone else has an excuse. Hurumph.

I need to work out how to react to being stopped by the police.

Clearly my reactions are OK in terms of outcome, but I do tend to answer back rather than do the sheepish "Yes, Sir" thing.

I dragged my somewhat sickly carcass out of bed early to beat trafficks and it was still full of cunts. Was it fucking dole day or something?