This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Canyon-SRAM Rapha bib shorts over a t shirt on a knackered Halfords Carrera is a strong look hombre

This "thing" with two tiny front wheels that every time one dipped in a pothole on OKR threatened to hurl the rider into the road

Well at least you can see his bag buckle clearly

He's wearing a crash lid, what could possibly go wrong?

bought a 59 'roller frame, I will do the needful

walking home last night from work and got passed by a bloke in his early 20s on an electric skateboard. Without doubt the rule of cool made it awesome, the iffy dismount at every kerb less so.

even so i kind of want one.

I think the 'do what your 14 year old self would have thought was cool' rule applies

if teenage me could see those boards now, and realise middle aged me could afford one, he'd be pissed I wasn't getting one

I can hear the conversation: "dude, it's an electric skateboard, FFS- get some!"

Yesterday I saw a guy going the wrong way down King St, Hammersmith on an electric scooter & knocked someone over. Stopped briefly and asked if they were ok and carried on..down the 1 way...the wrong way. They need to ban these

They need to ban these

How does this follow logically from your anecdote?

can’t ever see these as ‘cool’ and there’s no soul in just mounting the board and hitting FWD, is there?
(also... urethane wheels + greasy roads = why your dentist has Hayes & Jarvis brochures in his waiting room)

So tired of the sheep mentality when one pedestrian actually checks before that they can get across in time and everyone else just aimlessly follows, leaving you with a wall of people with headphones in, staring at their phones who won't move out the way

I'm the cunt on a bike who loudly says 'ding ding' as I approach this situation. I should just get a bell, but I've not found one with the right patronising lilt.

Honestly want to get an airhorn to shit them up and get them out of their morning haze. Would really spoil the aesthetic on my bike though

They already are banned.

There are so many electric scooters/skateboards/mono-wheeled-thingumybobs appearing that the only logical thing to do would be to to authorise a vehicle catogory that allows at least certain types of these things, which would at least allow for some form of regulation of them and their riders.

My worry would be that the review of existing vehicle regulation this might require, would prompt all the helmet law, bike numberplate, mandatory cycle lane, etc. nutters to get cycling pulled into the review.

Just don't run into any of them and be liable for £100,000

His crowd fund's gone up three grand in the last hour:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-cover-rob-hazeldean039s-legal-fees

and a little bit more

And a bit more again. Fresh thread for this?

Going up quite rapidly at the moment.

Muggy/10

Craziest interaction on the road for a long time- lady on a bike pulled out right in front of me as I was heading north into Broadway market, literally sailed right out without looking either way or modulating speed. After evading I then pass and say something like 'fucking look' and then it got wild:

Started laying into me saying I'm misogynist pig, a nasty violent male, and then to top it off repeatedly shouts to passers by and people sitting outside the restaurants that I am a rapist and I am raping her.

She literally went from 0-100 in under second escalating way beyond what the situation called for. She looks like a local and it is ringing bells of a similar but less aggy experience about a year ago but I'm not 100% sure.

Probably should have just ridden off as soon as she started up but the urge to correct what she was saying about me was really strong given how public the forum.

Wow, that sounds extremely unpleasant. And also probably like some mental health issue. Not that that makes it any better for you, of course :/

I'm soft pedalling like I've got the worlds squeakiest bottom bracket, in a desperate attempt to avoid getting the blood pumping at all, and liquefying into a pool of stinky ooze. And failing.