This morning's commute and other commuting stories

This reminds me of a joke that was in the break room of the first place I ever worked. It went 'Doing a good deed around here is like peeing yourself in dark trousers. You get a warm feeling but nobody notices'

My best story of unsolicited contact to do a good deed was when I was riding the bus home from somewhere a few years ago and we drove past a house where the owner had left his keys in the front door in plain view on a busy street, on the side gate there was a plaque with the name of his accounting business on it which i just had time to read as we went past. so I googled it and called the business number. he answered and I said "this is going to sound weird but do you have a house along <road name i can't remember>?" and he goes yeah so I say "Just wanted to let you know you've left your keys in your front door" and hung up.

Thanks for the tip. It's a slow Friday and I'm wearing navy trousers.

@HatBeard that's nice. Wonder if you just ruined his rubbish attempt at insurance fraud

On a forum ride to Brighton I found a semi smashed digital camera lying in the road. Picked up and, latter on, perused the recent pics on the 2Gb SD card. A family in pics outside a stately home.

Looked on the map and found the nearest National Trust gaffe to where I had found it. I rang them and told the lost property office and gave them my contact details. Two days later I got an email from the owner and arranged to post it back to him. Just needed his address so emailed to ask for it. He never ever replied, even when I chased it up. I formatted the SD card and kept it.

[dark post]

I found an SD card on the street. It had pics of flight tickets and lots of personal shit. Took maybe 5min to find where they worked. Called to check they did work there then dropped the card off in an envelope after-hours.

#csdcsb

National Trust gaffe

That's a bit of a gaffe by your phone's predictive text function. :)

Nearly knocked off by a police motorcyclist who was filtering on my side of the road straight towards me when I had nowhere to go as I was passing a pulled in bus. Said what the hell to him as he had his visor open but he told me to shut up as he squeezed past. Got his rego, gonna report.

Darker if he copied the photos before formatting.

To protect and serve...

Called a copper who pulled me over ‘mate’. Honestly I could have called him cunt and he would have been less insulted. I realised it was because he expected deference. Don’t expect polis to treat us as equals.

The mates.

To project and swerve...

Nice fastish ride in this morning on the new to me fixed, until I reached Stockwell and realised the metallic ping at Clapham Common was one of the front wheel track nuts falling off, cue very slow ride to Vauxhall.
Is Evans at Victoria the nearest bike shop to Vauxhall? Anything at Clapham junction?

It.. Has.. Begun

The nodder-bell tolls

Noddergeddon... Might try and leave even earlier. Or much later. Was tough battling through the shoals this morning.

London Cycle Workshop just up St John's Hill towards Wandsworth Common.

The London Cycle workshop up on St Johns hill is the nearest to CJ

125 St John's Hill, London SW11 1SZ

Good day to test run the new wheelset. Chunky tailwind meant I was spinning out on 49x16. Either that, of these are magic wheels.

bring back winter!

The change in weather seems to have an effect on some people. On my 2-3 mile commute witnessed two drivers pulling out in front of traffic which had priority (one of which involved going through a red) and got buzzed by an oncoming car down a residential street for no reason other than he felt like it.

I'm getting really tired of buses coming up the hill near me, almost fully in my lane.

Cars parked both sides of the road mean there's only 1.25 of a lane anyway but what the fuck?

Tempted to just stop in my lane next time and stay there until the driver gets out or the fuck runs me over.

Is this wrong: https://www.drivingtesttips.biz/passing-parked-cars.html

If the cunts have to use almost my entire lane, they are the ones that should be giving way to me, right? Have I been doing it wrong all this time or are they just getting more cuntish?

put my fixie skidder back together yesterday after a year of enjoying chubby tires and freewheeling on my commute. experience as follows:

miles 1-2: "this is great! i've missed this"
miles 2-3: briefly forget i cannot freewheel, nearly do a buckaroo "oh gad, this is terrifying and impractical, i'm not going to survive the rest of the ride"
miles 4-5: lots of stopping and starting at lights / zebra crossings / road works / traffic etc, convince myself it's a matter of time before i have a clipless fail and end up sprawled all over the road.
mile 6: "i love this! i am at one with the bike, fixie isn't dead!" ...not sure if it's alive though either, for me.
arrive at work: treat myself to x2 pastries to make up for the trauma

Rolled my fixieskiddah over to a mate's last night. I still like it. Only on flats though so just pub bike cruising speeds. Still tempted to get another frame and use it for commuting but specificity and all that..