Stupid New Years Resolution!

Stupid New Years Resolution!

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Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Tuesday 30th October 2012
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That was great fun. smile

One 4x4 decided to play and put his roof bar of lamps on and my headlight goes from on to low to strobe. That put an end to that. Apart from that a couple of cars dipped their lights as soon as I put mine on so first test is it works exactly as expected. hehe

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Wednesday 31st October 2012
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Finally Thumbsnap is working again.

Here's the revised photo's as promised earlier. The rear has the reflector as high as possible, the laser light and a five led light on the seat post and my trusted Topeak RedLite on the end of the mud guard.





200 Lumen Halfords light on the left and the eBay light on the right up front with the battery pack strapped to the cross bar. I didn't have enough room for the Halfords rear light so with a cable tie...



...I've secured it to the back of my helmet.



Believe the hype...



...these lights are that good. smile


blueheron

461 posts

144 months

Wednesday 31st October 2012
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Nice light! What's the left-right/up-down adjustment like on the bracket?

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Wednesday 31st October 2012
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blueheron said:
Nice light! What's the left-right/up-down adjustment like on the bracket?
Left and right you have a good twenty or so degrees.

Up and down depends on the rubber band you use to mount it. wink

I left a little late this morning as I needed to discuss an important issue at work. A good steady forty three minutes not bad as it was a head wind as usual and Friday for me. smile

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Friday 2nd November 2012
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So now I can concur my nemeses with my front light and I have enough rear light to be seen from space I should be safe?

Just to make sure I'll wrap this...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/180690058765?ssPageName=...

...around my rear triangle as well. wink

Maybe get some fog lights for the bottom of my forks? scratchchin


Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Saturday 3rd November 2012
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My front light let me down today. For some reason my Halfords (Bikehut) light didn't need batteries for the first ten months and I've used two sets in a month. scratchchin

Just did a power check and the three Duracell batteries are fine but one of them has been replaced with an Energizer one that has leaked. rolleyes

So as well as someone (probably one of my nephews) borrowing a battery and replacing it with a flat one. The flat battery trying to take a charge from the other three has made it blow it seals. Grrrrr!

Just as well my new light has a low setting. I used it for two thirds of my journey, in high mode where there was no traffic or house windows to worry about and it took ten minutes to fully charge when I got here. smile

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Saturday 3rd November 2012
quotequote all
The new rear light bracket snapped when I took the light off earlier so it's on my helmet and the Hafords light will go back on later.

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Sunday 4th November 2012
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So anyone expecting me to moan about the weather can wait until tomorrow. Today it cacked it down up until half an hour before I left work. The the drizzle was enough to wash the mucky road water off and the spray made pretty illuminated fountains in my new light. smile

My mew trousers are surprisingly water resistant and the jacket still isn't. wink

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Monday 5th November 2012
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Full wet weather gear and it the sunniest day of the week. rolleyes

Typical. wink

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Monday 5th November 2012
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I had a go at the high frequency lower gear head wind riding today. It felt slower but was the same speed I had jelly legs for a while. On the weather front I got snowed on. Even though there was only a few clouds on the horizon. The aforementioned head wind must have carried it some distance.

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Tuesday 6th November 2012
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Now unless the forecaster is lying to me again it's going to be crap today and okay for the next two so I'll be a florescent yellow power ranger today and normal (by my standards) for the rest of the week. smile

I'm going to try and a get a couple of hours nap before tonight's shift. Another eBay purchase today lead to me getting a phone call at quarter to eight. rolleyes


Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Tuesday 6th November 2012
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So I knew the weather was going to be crap. I had been all day from lunchtime onward so why did I insist on cycling tonight?

Well...

...ladies and gentlemen...

...boys and girls...

...tonight I have covered more miles on my bike this year than my and my fathers car. bow

I'd like to thank Specialized for building a bloody good bike, Curio for superb road tyres, various people who have tried to kill me and have failed so far, eBay for selling an eclectic mix of cycle lights, reflective tape, mud guards and high viz back packs, the company who made my Joker mask and DT Swiss for making wheels with crap super soft spoke nipples.

clap

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Wednesday 7th November 2012
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Tonight's journey too longer than expected due to the headwind and feeling crap. Still feel crap but it'll be a tailwind home. My next milestone is next Wednesday.

4,000 miles!


Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Thursday 8th November 2012
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This morning view. smile



Took it nice and easy without the mask as it was warm enough not to bother with it.

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Friday 9th November 2012
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Stupid ride to work yesterday. I left five minutes early due to the head wind and arrived twenty minutes early because the wind dropped not long after I left.

This morning it was a nice tail wind but even though the temperature was nearly double figures I felt cold. Add the general roughness I've felt for the last couple of days and I think I may be coming down with something. Overslept today and got a total of nothing done. Rubbish.

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Saturday 10th November 2012
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Had to cycle into town today. I had forgotten how nonchalant town drivers are. Also how irate they get when you filter past them. A source of great amusement only spoiled by a "local" who decided to overtake me in a 20 zone (I'd slowed to 20mph), underestimated how fast I was going, went the wrong side of a traffic island to avoid hitting it or me (thanks for that by the way) and nearly hit a car coming the other way because the whole manover took three times as long as he expected.

Naturally he pulled over in the nearest bust stop, got out to have a go. Apparently I was cycling too fast; considering he was trying to overtake my speed being too fast would make him look more guilty than he already was. I was also too far from the curb; this time of year there's a good meter or so of leaves, mud, crap and water (it had been raining all day) from the curb as there's no law stating cyclist have to get covered in crap I was taking a dryer line. I asked if he was new to the area and didn't know about the traffic island. He's lived here all his life and knew damn well it was there. So why did you overtake knowing there was a traffic island ahead. He didn't realise I was going as fast as I was. It's a twenty zone; I was doing twenty so there was no need to overtake at all. This is where the driver got abusive. Okay SP20 as I was doing twenty and you were going fast enough to overtake, CD10 Driving Without Due Care and Attention because you nearly hit a traffic island and CD10 for going the wrong way round a traffic island into oncoming traffic, attempting to incite a road rage incident by pulling over to have a go, section five of the Public Order Act for swearing at me and section six of the Public Order Act for threatening me. I put my bike down and stood sideways to him in a defensive posture. "So what now?"

He got in his car and drove off like he had Miss Daisy in the back. hehe

The elderly couple waiting for a bus clapped as I picked my bike up and carried on.

joe58

711 posts

150 months

Saturday 10th November 2012
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hehe

Rostfritt

3,098 posts

150 months

Saturday 10th November 2012
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Liquid Knight said:
Had to cycle into town today. I had forgotten how nonchalant town drivers are. Also how irate they get when you filter past them. A source of great amusement only spoiled by a "local" who decided to overtake me in a 20 zone (I'd slowed to 20mph), underestimated how fast I was going, went the wrong side of a traffic island to avoid hitting it or me (thanks for that by the way) and nearly hit a car coming the other way because the whole manover took three times as long as he expected.

Naturally he pulled over in the nearest bust stop, got out to have a go. Apparently I was cycling too fast; considering he was trying to overtake my speed being too fast would make him look more guilty than he already was. I was also too far from the curb; this time of year there's a good meter or so of leaves, mud, crap and water (it had been raining all day) from the curb as there's no law stating cyclist have to get covered in crap I was taking a dryer line. I asked if he was new to the area and didn't know about the traffic island. He's lived here all his life and knew damn well it was there. So why did you overtake knowing there was a traffic island ahead. He didn't realise I was going as fast as I was. It's a twenty zone; I was doing twenty so there was no need to overtake at all. This is where the driver got abusive. Okay SP20 as I was doing twenty and you were going fast enough to overtake, CD10 Driving Without Due Care and Attention because you nearly hit a traffic island and CD10 for going the wrong way round a traffic island into oncoming traffic, attempting to incite a road rage incident by pulling over to have a go, section five of the Public Order Act for swearing at me and section six of the Public Order Act for threatening me. I put my bike down and stood sideways to him in a defensive posture. "So what now?"

He got in his car and drove off like he had Miss Daisy in the back. hehe

The elderly couple waiting for a bus clapped as I picked my bike up and carried on.
Have this all the time. doing well over 20 myself and someone tried to go past. Some have pulled appalling maneuvers after finding out I am going too fast. Just last week I took someones mirror out after they tried to overtake 3 car lengths from some traffic lights and had to abort because they turned red. They pulled in to the side giving me nowhere to go. Instead of getting angry they managed to stare ahead at the lights with their hands tight on the wheel for the whole time the lights were red. I squeezed around to the front and carried on down the middle of the road at 15 mph until they overtook completely on the other side of the road. Ride as far as you need to from the curb, especially near traffic islands, they are the devils work.

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Saturday 10th November 2012
quotequote all
As annoying as cycling through weekend traffic is, especially in King's Lynn where filtering is regarded as witchcraft and offenders have been burned at the stake for it; I found a great deal of amusement from this necessary evil. Just as the filtered and frustrated drivers were about to move I was a mile away and on a cycle lane that runs along the River Great Ouse (sounds nice but you get an arse end view of South Lynn's ghetto district and some industrial units the other side of the river; not that you can appreciate the view at all due to the amount of dog poo you have to avoid) out of town and out of range of any abuse. The locals don't cross the river unless it's a full Moon.

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Monday 12th November 2012
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So this morning's Darwin Award nominee is the driver of the Nissan Almera GTi who thought the ten foot gap between me and a parked car the other side of the road was enough room to overtake. He obviously couldn't see me because his front fog lights were on. I accidently put my headlight on strobe and made sure the little tt could see me in his mirrors.

I wouldn't normally mind his youthful exuberance but this is forth or fifth near miss and his car is worth a fraction of my bike and laptop if we were to collide. I soon caught up with him and he had a passenger/witness so it ended there.