The daily "I cycled to work" thread

[yellowjack]

Rocksteadyeddie said:

yellowjack said:

KernowSid said:

...National Cycle to work day and I didn't see another cyclist (usually see at least one!). More publicity required.

This morning's BBC Breakfast news story was the first either me of my wife had heard of 'Cycle to Work Day' this year. Usually her employer is pretty good at publicising it, and participants get a free bacon roll, or some other dangled carrot, if they arrive by bike. This year, not a peep from them. I wonder that the wheels are falling off this particular bandwagon, whereby employers are seeing little increase in regular cycling and so are unwilling to invest time and resources into supporting such campaigns. The shocking thing for me is that so few of her colleagues participate, yet there are constant complaints over the cost of staff parking permits, and lack of space in the staff car parks leading to staff having to park in the public car parks with the Trust (local NHS hospital) refusing to refund charges incurred. I berated the wife this morning for not cycling in. She normally rides in to work, but I've been driving her in just this last couple of weeks because, to be fair, she's not been too well.

I can't imagine many people opting for the carrot over a beautifully cooked and divine smelling bacon sandwich.

You can't discriminate against the vegetarians, though

[GarryDK]

Beautiful day so I took the single speed.

banana wheatabix things

[S10GTA]

Cross bike today as the single speed isn't well. Needs a new bottom bracket, chain and freehub.

wheatabix

[Steve vRS]

Road bike today. 19.5mph average in!!!!

Bran flakes

[Usget]

In honour of National Cycle to Work day, I got the train in this morning.

I'm just so alternative, it hurts.

[Rocksteadyeddie]

Usget said:

In honour of National Cycle to Work day, I got the train in this morning.

I'm just so alternative, it hurts.

Me too. Hateful experience as always.

[donfisher]

Usget said:

National Cycle to Work day

I was running a bit later than usual but even then the racks at work seemed strangely empty this morning. That explains it then.

[tobinen]

Rocksteadyeddie said:

Usget said:

In honour of National Cycle to Work day, I got the train in this morning.

I'm just so alternative, it hurts.

Me too. Hateful experience as always.

I drove in, although mainly because Thursday is my day when I take home dirty clothes and replace with new. Also I do 45 mins circuits at 07.30. I've ridden in once and then straight into circuits but it wasn't very productive so not doing it again!

[AC43]

Road in on Tue, first day for four weeks. Found it tough on the way in into a headwind. Well, head breeze really,

Did in again yesterday. Much better.

Doing it again today.

Great to be back on it.

[AndyWoodall]

I ride in most days (4 miles off road, canal path), but not my full commute of 18 odd miles (mountain bike, no road bike) so for National Cycle to Work day I thought I'd give it a try.

Foggy morning, so all pictures on the way there ended up being a little dull, but on the way home I stopped at Bobbington Airfield (sorry, Wolverhampton Business Airport) to take a shot of the gate guardian that I've never noticed before driving past...



Then as I started to leave the West Mids Police chopper was heading out to track the chavs...



Good ride, not sure I'd want to do it everyday on an MTB, but once every week perhaps in summer.

[lukeyman]

My first official Friday at work for years... and my train is delayed. Sigh.

[yellowjack]

AndyWoodall said:

I ride in most days (4 miles off road, canal path), but not my full commute of 18 odd miles (mountain bike, no road bike) so for National Cycle to Work day I thought I'd give it a try.

Foggy morning, so all pictures on the way there ended up being a little dull, but on the way home I stopped at Bobbington Airfield (sorry, Wolverhampton Business Airport) to take a shot of the gate guardian that I've never noticed before driving past...

A bit of history for that Jet Provost here... http://www.jetprovostfile.org/t5-xw420-to-xw438/ ...just scroll down to 'XW434' and it's service and post-disposal history is all listed. First delivered to the RAF in 1972, it was disposed of by the MOD in early 2013, and it's only been at Halfpenny Green/RAF Bobbington since it was trailered there in May 2013.

Edited by yellowjack on Friday 5th September 09:09

[Fugazi]

You can tell the kids are back at school judging by the standard of driving this week, on the way home I had had three left hooks the last one was somebody overtaking and immediately indicating left while I was doing close to 30mph. We both hit the brakes and then a stand off occurred whereby I was waiting for her to carry on and she was waiting for me to pass. Then to cap it off I had some twonk blast the horn at me as I had the audacity to pass a parked car while he was behind me, despite having checked over my shoulder, so it wasn't like I was appearing out of nowhere. I'm sorry, my psychic powers failed to tell me that you thought it was a great opportunity for an overtake into an oncoming van. No wonder people use headcams, I can honestly say I've never had a commute on the bike like this one hope it's just an outlier as everybody just seemed to be in a mad rush today.

Edited by Fugazi on Friday 5th September 18:28

[JQ]

Don't worry I drove to work yesterday and was almost taken out on 3 separate occasions by some truly moronic driving. Felt far safer to be back on the bike today.

[AndyWoodall]

yellowjack said:

A bit of history for that Jet Provost here... http://www.jetprovostfile.org/t5-xw420-to-xw438/ ...just scroll down to 'XW434' and it's service and post-disposal history is all listed. First delivered to the RAF in 1972, it was disposed of by the MOD in early 2013, and it's only been at Halfpenny Green/RAF Bobbington since it was trailered there in May 2013.

Edited by yellowjack on Friday 5th September 09:09

Ah, thought I'd not seen it before and that explains it was only recently, haven't been past in the car since 2011 so thats why!

[lukeyman]

Steve vRS said:

Road bike today. 19.5mph average in!!!!

Bran flakes

Out of interest how far? And how hilly?

Today I cycled the whole 18 miles back from work and it took me an hour and 20. Which averages 13.5mph I think.

I thought I did alright considering I usually do 11 miles a day split into 4 chunks around the train.

Toast this morning. Brown. Just jam.

[jmb88]

Knocked 10 minutes off my 48 mile round trip today, amazing how much of difference raising my seat an inch has made. Average for the 24 miles in went up from 16mph to 16.9, 1h26 instead of the 1h31 I got on Tuesday.

[okgo]

When the fk are they going to finish Putney bridge. It's doing my head in going through that dump that is Wandsworth one way.

Kings road was totally snarled up this evening. None other than Garlick contributing to the issues sitting in his TVR. I'd imagine it would have take at least 30 mins to go from where he was near Edith Grove to Putney.

[Jayfish]

Decided to let the Garmin guide me to work just to change up the route, 1385ft of climb in 13mi and a 3 mi stretch on the A26 with the lorries, I think I'll stick to using my brain in future!

[Black can man]

okgo said:

When the fk are they going to finish Putney bridge. It's doing my head in going through that dump that is Wandsworth one way.

Kings road was totally snarled up this evening. None other than Garlick contributing to the issues sitting in his TVR. I'd imagine it would have take at least 30 mins to go from where he was near Edith Grove to Putney.

My eldest daughter lives on Putney high street & she absolutely loves the bridge being closed, i was under the impression that the bridge was open for cyclists .