This morning's commute and other commuting stories

jup, rather not get hit and be found an hour later by an old bugger taking his dog out. in the cities you'll always have someone looking after you after 1 minute.

also, can't wait till my son gets into cycling but I also know the dangers...

Whose right of way?
The lights to turn right onto Green Lanes go green 1 or 2 secs before the opposite (red arrow).
Once a week I get revved or beeped at.
There's nowhere particularly sensible to wait and surely I've already joined the road and have right of way by the time people want to pull out.

feat. tiny arrows

You're turning right, so they have priority.

Who is hooting you up, the drivists behind you or the ones coming across you?

From memory the important point in the highway code is proceed 'once the way is clear'

You're turning right, so they have priority.

Oops.

The ones coming across are hooting.

It's a bit of a funky crossroad with my exit offset and the lights timed in my favour.
So my argument would be I've already joined the road they're trying to cross by the time their light has gone green, so they should be waiting for me.
But not worth the aggro.

I know the junction, the slightly odd angles of the roads are irrelevant. The cars from the opposite side are going straight on and you're turning across them.

Had a flat today that was noteworthy for two reasons: 1) it was the front tyre (such luxury, loosen two nuts and the wheel drops out), 2) it was an actual thorn rather than a shard or stone. No idea where in London I managed to find that thorn, but I'm feeling very connected to nature right now.

Paddy Wagon finally gave up the ghost over the weekend so I did a mad dash to get the nice bike fixed (front brake hose fitting and bleed, some other minor fettling). Got done and pumped up tires. Came down this morning and the front is flat. Got the inner tube out to reveal a large star shaped hole in the tube. culprit seems to be failed tubeless rim tape. That has to be one of the more extensive pre-commute repairs I've even had to make. Still, anything to avoid the train.

Had quite a quiet cycle In today, I think a lot of people are working from home it seems. Apart from the old tramp who came up to me to ask for money when I was stopped at the lights. When I said no, he started rubbing my back, asking me where I lived and if I had a girlfriend....

I wonder if this thread will get quieter as people get kept at home.

I really can't be arsed to keep taking my laptop home just in case...

Well, eeek! Is he there very often and do you need to race past that areas forever now?

. . .

This advice just through for us too. While I'd quite enjoy 2 weeks wfh lugging a laptop to/from is an absolute pain in the arse.

Likewise - can I nominate riding down a bit or all of Wightman Road instead?

your fault for being so darn sexy i guess.

I'd say red has priority as they're going straight on.

That junction has been fucked for ages though (about 5 years ago a couple of million was reportedly put aside to sort it but nothing happened) and the general policy seems to be to just do what you want.

Possible temporary pedestrian/cycle bridge to replace Hammersmith Bridge: http://www.putneysw15.com/default.asp?section=info&link=http://neighbournet.com/server/common/LdrsHAMBRIDGE002.htm

(Would allow work to fix the main bridge to be done quicker if they don't have to keep the current one open for pedestrians/cyclists.)

Green lanes is much more fun than wightman road in the mornings - bus lane all downhill.
Not an issue anyway just curious - I'll stop being stubborn and let the BMWs go lol.

Super... It's a messy one

Thankfully never seen him before, one of the other cyclists said he lives opposite them and he's always like that.

Well I'm glad someone noticed...

Hmm, takes all sorts I guess - I always preferred the less traffic light infested, hillier workout of Wightman!

As the others have said, you need to wait until straight-across traffic has passed. That this is quite a lot of straight-across traffic is down to the combination of the West Green Road/Alfoxton Avenue one-way system with the fact that the area west of Duckett's Common isn't filtered. There are only one-ways to deter one direction of rat-running (as, for instance, in the bit of Willoughby Road approaching Turnpike Lane). Measures like this are timid halfway houses that don't achieve much and make some forms of rat-running worse. Together, they mean that, as it's still possible to rat-run towards Turnpike Lane that way, you usually get quite a long queue of drivers from Alfoxton Avenue wanting to go straight across (the right turn there is, of course, from a separate slip designed to reduce conflict with traffic from Frobisher Road).

As ever, it's all hopelessly outdated stuff, right from the days in which the aim was generally to increase motor traffic everywhere, and it's long overdue that something is done about the whole area there. There was some kind of West Green plan a long time ago, but I can't remember what happened to that.

Had a bit of an issue on the ride in this morning. Pedaling along and realized my left foot is stuck in the pedal and I cant unclip. Dont panic, still able to get my right foot out. Oh fuck, same issue, both shoes stuck, cant unclip. I'm at elephant and castle so always a bit hairy.

Managed to find a pavement and some cycle racks so leaning against those and trying to undo my shoes so can take my feet out and off the pedals 🤦🏻‍♂😳

Standing at elephant and castle in my socks with the shoes stuck on the bike still. Felt like a right tool bag. Managed to undo them, tighten the cleats right up and off we go.

Trip home was just..... wet. Wet. Fucking wet. Everything is on a radiator atm
Those new shoes will probably be stinking again before long