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I took a similar route the other day, and the one way streets where a nightmare - I'm still undecided, anti-clockwise might be better.

Which way round are people thinking to go?? The order they are given (clockwise around the city), or the other way round?

I'm thinking clockwise is best, means going uphill for high tech weaving - so no wasted downhill speed. But Euston Road is total luck as to the flow of traffic, sometimes it's a pain. And there are a couple of 1 way streets.

If his wing mirror were to fall off he can't continue working.

Same works for buses, in fact all you need to do is bend them, he then has to get out of his "c**t protection chamber (CPC)" and correct them. Well I think that's what happens, maybe he has to call in, as I can imagine crowds of angry Londoners would beat the crap out of him the second he leaves his CPC.

I am all for concentrating and not wearing headphones (for example) but FFS, cycling is not rocket science. So long as you are paying attention and not day-dreaming you can think or sing or glance around a bit (at appropriate times).

Yeah of course, I'm just speaking from experience. I've never crashed with total focus because even if other people make mistakes I predict them. Of course if I'm on a country ride it's different.

not tempted to make a manoevre at the last minute to make a turn that you nearly missed;

Well that was my point about keeping the flow ... last minute changes to your direction might mean a taxi crashes into you. The point is, that when people get lost, they often panic and try to turn around or something. You see this a lot with cars, you see twats in London every flipping day doing U turns and 3 point turns. It's not the end of the world if you get a few 100 meters further from your destination to find a small turning to make a proper turn.

"nothing wrong with riding fast, but please don't ride as fast as you can - it's that last 10% that is likely to get you into trouble."

Agreed, I didn't really mean push yourself, but keep up speed. It means cars are less likely to overtake, or if they do they give you more space. Also if you going close to the speed limit, you can just dominate the lane. I don't have cars cutting in front of me, cos I usually ride right in the middle between oncoming traffic, i.e. take a similar line to motorbikes and overtake everyone.

The amount of times I've seen cars cut up slow cyclists is 100x more than times I've seen cars cut up confident fast cyclists.

Really? How is it that hard to press start, and stop?

I did that, but pressing stop doesn't save the ride. I think I tried saving a ride and the "save" button was actually greyed out, eventually I realised it wanted me to manually enter some details, like how long the ride was.

I'll start using it when they fix the crappy interface.

I'm not thick, I've actually done some user interface development myself, so I just get impatient with crap ones cos I know I could do it so much better.

Front wheel stuck in tram rail three times.

I don't understand how people do that, though know people do. Just ensure your front wheel is close to a 90 angle with the tram line when going over it. The trick is to quickly turn it to make the angle, then when over turn it back again, then you don't have to switch your momentum.

Saying that I got my front wheel stuck between some weird concrete things designed to make cars go slowly. The result was a hilarious cleet fail - tried to uncleet but the action just pulled me to the ground much faster. No real harm. Now I walk over that bit.

Great fun reading these.

Riding on a cycle lane about 25 mph (dangerous, usually I'm in the middle/right of the car lane), car turns without indicating into a petrol station a little ahead. Had I been in the car lane I could have just gone round on the right.

Smashed into his wing mirror which broke into 100 pieces with my headset, peddle scrapped the car. Didn't put my feet down. Cycled in front of him, looked at the driver and passenger who although it was their fault had a look in their eye as if they wanted to stab/shoot me (was in a very very rough area, this was actually the 'oh shit' moment). So I carried on cycling while sticking my fingers up and took the first alley I saw.

The interface needs some work, I don't think I've ever managed to successfully record a ride, I've ended up accidentally deleting it or something.

From experience, having been put in hospital, cycling 20 years in cities, and having lost count of my crashes, I have come to know exactly when I will crash, and that is when I don't follow the most important rule:

Complete and utter 100% absolute FOCUS, CONCENTRATION and AWARENESS

Even when some twat doesn't use their mirror, doesn't indicate, opens their door, cuts a cycle lane, whatever, I consider it my mistake if I crash because I didn't predict them. Every time I've ever crashed I've looked back and thought I could have predicted that, or the way I was cycling wasn't allowing for that to happen.

The only assumption I make is that people are not intentionally trying to kill me, without that assumption you can't even cross the road.

In order to have 100% focus:

a) Don't think about anything except how to make the next maneuver safely.

b) Have an objective, a place in your mind where you want to stop - NEVER EVER cycle in a city without a specific point in space you intend on arriving at.

c) If you find yourself lost, not knowing which way to turn, carry on with the flow, move with the traffic. Slow down, remain focused on moving with the traffic. Then only when you are nice and slow, pick a point to dismount. Then, once stationary, you can think about which way to go.

d) Ride as fast as you can while being aware of your stopping distance. Never ride casually, never enjoy the landmarks, get to your objective ASAP.

That really was banging, many thanks to the organisers and everyone who took part.