The daily "I cycled to work" thread

[Rolls]

No riding in today - got race training this eve, but yesterday eve was absolute carnage riding from London > Sidcup. A redonculous number of utter bellends in both cars and on bikes!

[kiethton]

Day off the bike for me, if its anything like yesterday I'm rather thankful!

Wedding reception in Rochester after work...

[Usget]

Smog. And traffic. Lots of traffic.

[biscione]

Busy out there this morning on my ride from Croydon to Traf SQ.

Lots of newbies and lots of cars. I'll take it steady on the way home methinks!

[Rocksteadyeddie]

Another utterly un-fun commute today. The only decent thing was the weather - which was beautiful.

[Justin Cyder]

Take care out there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_sXsXtlpYM

[AyBee]

lepetitoeuf said:

6.30am - raining hard
7.00am - spitting
7.30am - barely raining. I leave in fair weather outfit.
7.45am - stting down with rain

45 minutes of getting soaked, it was very unpleasant.

Very, very wet!

Justin Cyder said:

Take care out there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_sXsXtlpYM

Has to be a fake - surely nobody can be that blind?

[Justin Cyder]

Not a fake. Driver was fined for due care & the 12 year old cyclist got away with bruises. Not sure it's that funny tbh???

[TwistingMyMelon]

AyBee said:

lepetitoeuf said:

6.30am - raining hard
7.00am - spitting
7.30am - barely raining. I leave in fair weather outfit.
7.45am - stting down with rain

45 minutes of getting soaked, it was very unpleasant.

Very, very wet!

Justin Cyder said:

Take care out there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_sXsXtlpYM

Has to be a fake - surely nobody can be that blind?

They can, seen it before, only into a car not a bike

[lufbramatt]

Well that was bloody horrible

My feet were so wet that my socks left wet footprints all up the office carpet when I went to get changed

Need to find a way to dry out my SPD shoes before home time. . . .

[yellowjack]

AyBee said:

Justin Cyder said:

Take care out there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_sXsXtlpYM

Has to be a fake - surely nobody can be that blind?

I'm in daily pain discomfort three months on from a SMIDSY (although I was moving across a roundabout, not waiting to turn).

I found it difficult to believe anyone could be that blind/stupid too. But my X-Rays are testament to the moronic inability of some 'drivers' to grasp the basics of 'emerging safely' from junctions.

The one in that clip above is from the Sussex Police youtube feed, so it's unlikely to be faked. It looks like private CCTV from the car lot, and the cause of the incident will almost certainly be that the twunt behind the wheel wasn't interested in looking for/at the bicycle, and was only really concerned with motor traffic approaching from the left when he accelerated.

Unfortunately, many vehicle drivers are not concerned about bikes simply because bikes pose little danger to vehicle occupants. They'd have behaved differently if it were a car waiting to turn, I'm sure.

[thepawbroon]

Mixed commute today.....

Due to both the rain and the tube being back on, the roads seemed quieter. Certainly not many cycles on my route. I wasn't too bothered by the rain (hey - I come from the West of Scotland!) and was well on track for a PB when the P-fairy struck. Bastid! A tiny sliver of quartz-type grit had gone through the tyre.....

Hence, I spent a wet, grimey and oily 20 mins on Chiswick High Rd fumbling about changing the tube. Then arrive at work looking like I've been down a coal mine, only to meet the Ops Director and Country President coming in from the car park.

However, smart old me, I paused my Garmin, so *technically* it's still a PB.....

There's no way my gear will dry for the ride home - can't wait to put cold, wet shorts and socks back on

[WinstonWolf]

Keep some latex gloves in with your puncture kit in future

[AC43]

Left at 7.15 to the odd drop of rain. Perfect; all the tube strike wobblers have vanished AND all the fair weather cyclists too.

Great run in, only got a little wet towards the end.. Heavy rain stared as soon as I was safely in the building.

Happy days.

[thepawbroon]

WinstonWolf said:

Keep some latex gloves in with your puncture kit in future

Yes I was thinking that while scrubbing my fingers!

[AyBee]

Justin Cyder said:

Not a fake. Driver was fined for due care & the 12 year old cyclist got away with bruises. Not sure it's that funny tbh???

I take it back, it looked like it was staged with no injuries occurring hence the laugh - just seen it on road.cc and it's a real incident from 2012. Beggars belief!

[JQ]

Topped up my cycling Karma this morning - 500m after leaving the house there's a guy with a road bike running along the pavement in the opposite direction. A quick check from me and it transpires he's had a puncture and can't get enough pressure in the tyre from his crappy pump. I'm on my MTB due to the weather which also has a crappy pump, so offer to walk back to my house and let him use my track pump. All sorted and he's on his way to work.

Knowing my luck I'll gets SMIDSY'd on the way home.

[Rocksteadyeddie]

lufbramatt said:

Well that was bloody horrible

My feet were so wet that my socks left wet footprints all up the office carpet when I went to get changed

Need to find a way to dry out my SPD shoes before home time. . . .

You have to do two things:

1) Stuff them full of newspaper or paper towels. Then change it regularly through the day.
2) Find somewhere warm. An airing cupboard is ideal - but hard to find at work. Failing that PCs and monitors get pretty warm. Don't let them drip water onto either as management take a pretty dim view.

[WinstonWolf]

JQ said:

Topped up my cycling Karma this morning - 500m after leaving the house there's a guy with a road bike running along the pavement in the opposite direction. A quick check from me and it transpires he's had a puncture and can't get enough pressure in the tyre from his crappy pump. I'm on my MTB due to the weather which also has a crappy pump, so offer to walk back to my house and let him use my track pump. All sorted and he's on his way to work.

Knowing my luck I'll gets SMIDSY'd on the way home.

Nah, I reckon you're perfectly primed for a KOM on the MTB

[lufbramatt]

Rocksteadyeddie said:

lufbramatt said:

Well that was bloody horrible

My feet were so wet that my socks left wet footprints all up the office carpet when I went to get changed

Need to find a way to dry out my SPD shoes before home time. . . .

You have to do two things:

1) Stuff them full of newspaper or paper towels. Then change it regularly through the day.
2) Find somewhere warm. An airing cupboard is ideal - but hard to find at work. Failing that PCs and monitors get pretty warm. Don't let them drip water onto either as management take a pretty dim view.

Good shout on IT equipment- wedged them up behind the cooling fan on my pc tower and it made short work of the wetness without drawing attention as its under my desk :-)