This morning's commute and other commuting stories

...after all the drafting chat. Managed to run into a deliver moped that decided to do a surprise brake manoeuvre...

In fairness; doubt moped-ers expect to have someone running on their tail, so it probably wasn't deliberate and 100% my fault. If annoying.

OUCH! Fell off on my way home. Cable St. Rider in front struck an ebike, fell off, I locked by brakes an fell off in sympathy. No real harm done, bars out position, Rapha Gilet torn, biggest bummer actually. Some bruises, scrapes an chest pain for me.

Could of been worse, got that out of the way etc.

Damn, dude. Hope you're ok. Check yourself and your bike tomorrow too. Things can take a while to show.

Heal up, etc.

Thanks c00ps!

What c00ps said. Heal up quickly!

Rode in on my fixed gear with regular tyres today, instead of the geared bike with studded tyres for the first time in three months. Felt very good.

Going south at the bottom of Blackfriars bridge by the lights this evening, there was a yellow ortlieb pannier sitting on the pavement. I went and picked it up and since no one ran over I assumed the owner wasn’t around. I had a look for something to ID them but just a change of clothes, lock and water bottle inside. Thought the best bet was to leave it hung up tied to the button bit of the pedestrian crossing and the owner would find it retracing their route. Surely you would realise one of your panniers had fallen off? It was heavy with a D lock in.

After a 12 hour shift yesterday, 5 minutes into my ride home I got a flat on the canal path. Then I cut my finger on the big bit of glass stuck in the tyre. The spare tube, new out of the box, was missing the valve core. Ended up getting a taxi home. The shame! Fortunately a very nice driver who didn’t give me a hard time about taking the bike…

well hopefully that's your 'bad luck comes in threes' all done in one hit.

Haha hope so!

Shout out to the woman on the squeaky folding bike in this morning. Sharing the deluge while you lip synched to Ace of Base's It's a Beautiful Life that was cranking from your bluetooth speaker my highlight of year so far. Godspeed.

saw a woman on a penny farthing at 7.30 am heading west on South Carriage Drive earlier this week, in regular commuter garb. respect

Saw a youngish fella on a white Bullitt with a dog in the front at 04.50 this morning smoking the fattest joint I’ve seen in an age. (The fella was smoking the joint, not the dog. That would have been just plain weird even for Norwich)

Saw a lad riding a grey cannondale with LFGSS stickers on the south circular between Clapham and Brixton hill. If you see this- hello!

That thing where you spend Sunday cleaning your drive train, replacing jockey wheels and replacing pads and rotors to get back to a quiet bike, but you are 1% that knows how to maintain your bike and your entire commute is surrounded by the "WD-40 method" crowd and you can't figure out if your Sunday was well spent.

you can't figure out if your Sunday was well spent

It was

True. And I could have phrased that better.

tl:dr - I can't tell if I fixed my squeaks because everybody else has all the squeaks.

lovely ride home this evening, until a drivist squeezed past me while I was overtaking a parked car.
pulled up next to him at a red light about 50 metres down the road, and was met with the 'i cycle as well and I thought I gave you plenty of space' bullshit line.

unfortunately didn't have my camera on today either.

I think Ace Of Base turned out to be nazis or something. Ah maybe flimsy evidence:

Could ‘Happy Nation’ be talking about an Aryan nation? I don’t know, maybe? Is the line “I see danger in the eyes of a stranger” about the fear of immigrants? Possibly, or it might be about a dog looking at the postman. What if the sign in ‘The Sign’… is a swastika?

https://thisweekinthe90s.com/p/ace-of-base-blur/

to the fuckwit who ran a red, clearly your strava time was much more important.
Also your British cycling kit and long yellow socks just makes you look a cunt not a ace skill pro bicyclerrrrr

Lovely tail wind home tonight. I'm not a stravaist but reckon I got a PB up Sawyer's Hill. Easy smash straight up. You know it's not real power but for a moment I felt like Lance Armstrong.

A bit of a sticky return home today

3 Attachments

So many drivers on their phones yesterday. Am tempted to get a camera and start reporting them.

Unless you want to stop and film them then the video you get while passing is often rubbish for reporting, doesn't really capture it. IME anyway.

I was thinking something head mounted, but I don’t wear a helmet (just a cycling cap), so not really viable.