This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Saw the aftermath of an incident on Waterloo Odean Roundabout this morning (the southside of waterloo bridge): red london bus with it's whole front screen totally smashed/cracked and a pool of blood next to a rucksack and a cycle helmet. No sign of the person/bike - just police managing the traffic. Hoping that whoever is involved is ok...

Been riding my single speed in recently, and now that it's got full guards and a front rack it's fast becoming my favourite bike.

I swore not to spend much money on it as I got it incredibly cheap... but I'm finding that compulsion very difficult to ignore. Might swap out the handlebars for something a little more compact and hope that that does it for now.

3 close calls in about 5 mins this morning. Oncoming driver turning right across my path, truck waving another truck through while I was filtering through and a cargo bike rider dawdling along and suddenly veering right without indicating just as I was about to pass. Long reach rim brakes with greasy roads not a great combination.

Long reach rim brakes with greasy roads not a great combination.

This combined with an emergency braking bus made me switch to disc brakes and I’ve never looked back.

Saw the bus brake, had plenty of time and space, braked myself and just waited whilst I continued to fly towards the back of the now stationary bus seemingly without slowing down myself at all. All felt very slow motion.
Managed to stop about 1-2cm from the back bumper

Whenever I have a situation like that, I instinctively unclip a foot... then starting pitching over in the other direction. Every ruddy time.

Wet wet wet. Glad I remembered waterproofs today.

Wet n windy. Lovely.

Glad we have a drying room at work though..

Glad we have a drying room at work though

I could use that right now. I'm pretty sceptical about most of my stuff drying till the evening. At least it's comparatively warm, relative to what it could be like in December!

Too warm! This weather is fine when rainy as don't get cold. But when I think it is cold I boil in the bag as have too many layers on.

Thought it should be single digit temperatures at this time of year

I'm currently building a bike specifically to have proper mudguards, so expect the driest Winter since records began from about Monday.

I love my cape

Ha. So Pleased I finished my winter bike two weeks ago. Think I've needed the mudguards everyday since then....

Loved it this morning. I'm all for more cycling, but its so nice to cycle with no others around.

Only having to concentrate on the cars and peds meant a 33.3333% reduction in my worries. I swear car drivers are more considerate when there are less of us too. Probably because by the time they interact with me they haven't been pissed off by umpteen other cyclists already on their journey.

Only negative, my disc brake pads squeal like an air horn and I seem to lose a lot of power in the wet. They are silent and powerful in the dry. Might try and source some replacements for the ride home.

Also not looking forward to soggy clothes for the way home. Temp is dropping too so I may be a layer short by 6pm.

so expect the driest Winter since records began from about Monday.

Could you hurry up please. I got some tools I can lend you if that speeds the process up.

Only negative, my disc brake pads squeal like an air horn and I seem to lose a lot of power in the wet.

Not a negative - useful for alerting head down peds to your approach. Not sure you can stop the squeal any way.

Sort of wish I had full guards but actually modified raceblade pros work pretty well and keep me dry (I know I'll be lambasted for this).

I need to fix some punctures instead of just swapping bikes. Rode the BMX in yesterday because the roady is flat. Picked up a drawing pin just before work. Already had the fixeh at work so rode that home instead. Lovely hobo projectile vomited on cs7 as I rode past, had to massively swerve and hold down a vomit chain reaction. The stench! 🤢

Yeah pretty sure you can’t get rid of the noise completely with any discs or pads but it is indeed pretty useful at times.
Shouldn’t be much less effective braking because of the wet though. I can stoppie in the wet with no effort

Inb4 shit fixie skidders say

What are said modifications? I’m running race blades but still getting a bit of inner calf “splash action from the rear”. Front works a charm mind

Just a bodged extended rear flap. Doesn't help me at all. Not had issue with inner calf spash action (ahem). Maybe in a few years.

Shouldn’t be much less effective braking because of the wet though.

Indeed. I have metal sintered pads and they only seem to lose much effectiveness in biblical proportion downpours and even then only momentarily.

I need to get to grips with all this disc shit, building a bike with discs now. Is there a help me I’m new to discs thread I wonder?

DBAD

Or didn’t you know?

I had heard. I only adopt anachronistic technology - a late adopter, if you will.

Just about got into 9speed.

Im posting this from my Apple Newton, while listening to Pink floyds ‘division bell’ on minidisc

✅