The daily "I cycled to work" thread
Discussion
On the way home, on a small, humpback railway bridge (that offen sees cars try to squeeze between oncoming cars and cyclists), a car half overtook me - straddling the middle of the road and probably with a poor view over the bridge- before indicating to turn left immediately after the bridge, then braked to a virtual standstill as My presence was preventing them turning left....
Why oh why oh why....?
The 2 km through suburbia is by far the worst part of my commute. I'm quite lucky really.
Why oh why oh why....?
The 2 km through suburbia is by far the worst part of my commute. I'm quite lucky really.
d wind.JQ said:
Wet and windy in Manchester this morning and legs felt surprising spritely considering I did two triathlons at the weekend. 2 PB's on Strava, primarily because the roads are so quiet and I'm not getting held up by cars.
aye, it was pretty dark, I need some clear glasses, tinted would have been stupid.Had an unusually high number of cars pass me closely this evening when cars were coming in the opposite direction. There is not much room for that, and it's not very fun when you can barely hear them approaching due to the wind. I ended up riding 6 inches further into the road for around 5 miles which seemed to help. I'm not very happy about that considering most of them are from my place of work.
I can join this thread at last. I've been cycling to and from work for the last few weeks and it's just 6 miles each way with a couple of big hills at either end to test me. It means I'm getting to use my cheap fixie I bought a few years ago in Barcelona and it's holding up pretty well apart from the first day puncture.
It's about 23C when I cycle to work and 35C when I cycle home here in the US, but thankfully most is on a 12ft wide greenway which is not open to traffic. At the work end, there is also a mountain bike area and 2 pump tracks so I might venture in on the mountain bike and test them out.
Yesterday I got home and 2 minutes later a tropical storm hit for 15 minutes which I was very glad to miss
It's about 23C when I cycle to work and 35C when I cycle home here in the US, but thankfully most is on a 12ft wide greenway which is not open to traffic. At the work end, there is also a mountain bike area and 2 pump tracks so I might venture in on the mountain bike and test them out.
Yesterday I got home and 2 minutes later a tropical storm hit for 15 minutes which I was very glad to miss
A slightly chilly ride in this morning until I warmed up.
Not raining, but very wet on the roads.
After the warmup I did a fairly structured interval session, with some longer efforts at convenient hills and obvious sprint locations.
I was on my flat-barred CX commuter hack bike (with its luggage air-brake) and noticeably quicker than the last time I did a similar session, which is encouraging.
Not raining, but very wet on the roads.
After the warmup I did a fairly structured interval session, with some longer efforts at convenient hills and obvious sprint locations.
I was on my flat-barred CX commuter hack bike (with its luggage air-brake) and noticeably quicker than the last time I did a similar session, which is encouraging.
Been a nice week of coumuteing so far, ditched the usual MTB and been using my steel road bike, which is great, except I have to use a nasty A road stretch which I can avoid on the MTB . Roads been a bit quieter due to half term
Weather has been cooler, so have been lazy n skipped showers , but blimey the wind has been a killer!!! Its been the same direction every day and I only hit it on one really exposed road on the Marlborough downs, even the strava segment is called Windy Straight!!! Every evening a short straight shallow climb into a full on headwind with no escape or shelter, either I get aero and spin it out or out the saddle big gear and grind away! I quite enjoy it tbh
I'm gonna end up doing about 6 days in a row, want to grind myself out so I don't miss it on my bike free holiday next week!
Since hammering out the miles on my Steel bike this week, Ive come to realise:
1.Conti 4 seasons are bloody brilliant tyres, never given any issues from a certain fairy even over testing nasty conditions and give a really nice ride
2.Even though the bike is a under £1k model, the steel frame is subtly brilliant and so bloody versatile, it can do anything I chuck at it: Commuteing, fast club runs, off road 32c cx tyres, mudguards, flat out sprints, great frame
3. Really like the Tiagra compact setup with a 34/30 dinner plate on the back. I really hated this at first, as my other bike had a campag 53/39 25 cassette, I thought it was a complete PITA, bottom gears were too low plus the large gear jumps pissed me off..but I have changed my mind.... Really come to enjoy the smooth no nonsense shifts from a basic group set. Whilst I don't really use the 34/30 gear its nice to do a commute and just stay on the big ring across the ride with high cadence, thumbs up for me. I even think my 10 speed Tiagra shifts better than my 10 speed 105 on another of my bikes.
In an ideal world I would still have Campag on my "best bikes" but shimano on my winter & commuting bikes
Weather has been cooler, so have been lazy n skipped showers , but blimey the wind has been a killer!!! Its been the same direction every day and I only hit it on one really exposed road on the Marlborough downs, even the strava segment is called Windy Straight!!! Every evening a short straight shallow climb into a full on headwind with no escape or shelter, either I get aero and spin it out or out the saddle big gear and grind away! I quite enjoy it tbh
I'm gonna end up doing about 6 days in a row, want to grind myself out so I don't miss it on my bike free holiday next week!
Since hammering out the miles on my Steel bike this week, Ive come to realise:
1.Conti 4 seasons are bloody brilliant tyres, never given any issues from a certain fairy even over testing nasty conditions and give a really nice ride
2.Even though the bike is a under £1k model, the steel frame is subtly brilliant and so bloody versatile, it can do anything I chuck at it: Commuteing, fast club runs, off road 32c cx tyres, mudguards, flat out sprints, great frame
3. Really like the Tiagra compact setup with a 34/30 dinner plate on the back. I really hated this at first, as my other bike had a campag 53/39 25 cassette, I thought it was a complete PITA, bottom gears were too low plus the large gear jumps pissed me off..but I have changed my mind.... Really come to enjoy the smooth no nonsense shifts from a basic group set. Whilst I don't really use the 34/30 gear its nice to do a commute and just stay on the big ring across the ride with high cadence, thumbs up for me. I even think my 10 speed Tiagra shifts better than my 10 speed 105 on another of my bikes.
In an ideal world I would still have Campag on my "best bikes" but shimano on my winter & commuting bikes
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