This morning's commute and other commuting stories

highfive

Fuck these cunts.

11C or something this morning. Sweating buckets.

That's a point, maybe it's just the first time it's been double digits since I got my (non-breathable) jacket

I ditched my gloves and opened the jacket but if I knew what the temp was I'd have not bothered with a jacket at all. I also stupidly wore tights because I thought it was going to rain and I don't like getting home and on the turbo when everything's wet.

I had something similar this morning going round buckingham palace towards Victoria. Taxi driver was busy looking right and assumed I was going straight into the cycle path instead. I could easily tap his window. Thankfully I had sense and slowed to allow him to pass and regain the lane we were both taking. Not what you need at 7.30 in the morning!

It's definitely getting roadsafed. Also sent it to road.cc cos the cunt deserves wider publicity.

Haven't actually tried to check the plates, but given the circumstances I'm pretty sure they'll be legible on the original footage.

sent it to road.cc

Most of the 'close' passes they publish don't seem very close to me so this should easily get on there.

As if by magic

https://road.cc/content/news/270099-near-miss-day-351-electric-cab-driver-makes-very-close-pass

Got cut up by a bus on my way home earlier. I stopped by the driver's window at the next stop to politely explain to him what he'd done and encourage him to be more careful next time. He flatly denied doing it and got really arsey and defensive. What a nobhead.

In my experience that’s a fairly typical reaction ,sadly.

Anyone know what’s going on in Peckham? Police cordon, white tent :(

https://microcosm.app/out/CfxXh

Sadly

Report the driver ask for a copy of the driver cab video that they have to provide and basically make the guys week difficult . He may think twice in future . It worked for me with one sweary driver. Bus company's have procedures to follow now.

Time
Venue
Street
Driver description
What they said
Where their passengers ?
.

Chain broke while riding home. Thank god I had an extra quick link in the bag. after only 2k km, not going to buy the same one...

Not a singlespeed chain, I assume? Out of interest, how did it break?

Cs7 busy with bikes this morning from CW north and some tosser on an e scooter who kept trying to undertake in between wildly swerving away from holes, bumps in the road etc. Fucking nuisance.

It was an sram pc 1130 I think. Looked down after I noticed my chain was not running smoothly and saw it was a bit crooked (roads were very dirty so I thought It was just mucked up). Stopped to inspect and on the picture here: https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/bike-chain-loose-996-644-1447696801.jpg?resize=768:* the part that's loose was broken. Forgot to take a picture as it was raining and I was pissed off :p

I admit my chain maintenance is not always 100% on the commuter, but have never had anything break on me...

Doesn't it say 'Shimano' on the picture?

But yeah, that's a new one to me too. Actually not quite - I've had it happen before with a chain I repaired without using a quick link, as I failed to put the pin through properly. That was completely my own fault though.

Yeah, that's a random pic from the internet. Chain is sram. Always had good experience with 10 speed sram though...

Only thing I can think about is I dropped the bike twice since installing that chain and once it was rusty as I put it away without cleaning after a very wet and dirty commute. But breaking...

Oooh I see, sorry I misunderstood about the pic. Yeah honestly the chain breaking like that is rather rare. I've see chains rusted almost stiff that didn't break, just put up a lot of resistance. And the chain is usually not what takes the most impact in a crash, so I'm not sure it'd be down to that...

Summary of local accidents since the 20mph speed limit came into play in Richmond borough:

1. Enormous multi-car wreck at Teddington high street / Stanley Road crossroads involving people being cut out of cars and unrecognisable wrecks. Just after 20mph limit came in.
   
2. Two-car crash where front car looks like it has gone head-on into a tree and then hit from behind at speed. All glass smashed out of tree car so it must have been some whack. Tree car is so mangled it can't be towed and is still sticking out in the road at 45° with cones round it. Has been there since mid December.
   
3. As yet unspecified incident at Hampton Hill crossroads which closed the road in all 4 directions last night. I'm guessing this was a death.
   

Is that due to the speed limit though, or what are you getting at? Seems like driving more slowly could have helped in all of these accidents. Is the limit actually being enforced, or is it another one of those theoretical 20s you find all over London?

I didn't get any details and it wasn't really severe enough to warrant the effort. Hopefully after he's gotten over the knee jerk reaction of being a defensive dickhead he might actually take a second to assess if there was any possibility he was in the wrong.

I managed to snap the chain on my Cannondale twice within the space of about a week. I have no idea what the chain was, it came with the bike (which was second hand and built up with the cheapest, shittiest components imaginable). If it's happened once I'd guess it's more likely to happen again, time for a new chain if you've not bought one already! KMC are cheap and I've never had any problems with them.

First cycle commute of the new year. Nice tailwind all the way in to work. Shorts, s/s jersey and mitts, although I did have arm and knee warmers on.

Pub tonight and combined run/bike commute tomorrow morning (still not back to running the entire way) so I expect to pay the price with a hard headwind on the way home Friday night.