And today's commuting highlight is...

[IAN1967]

Biker 1 said:

SUMMER GLOVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I even took out the thermal lining from my jacket!!!
Probably too good to be true, but it seems winter might actually be over! Thank fk for that....

I thought that riding home last night with a few less layers

Changed my mind this morning though with a nice mist to ride through and luckily didn't shed any of my normal layers

[E36GUY]

IAN1967 said:

I thought that riding home last night with a few less layers

Changed my mind this morning though with a nice mist to ride through and luckily didn't shed any of my normal layers

Yes. A little Brr this morning! And an MoT fail to go with it

[sjtscott]

Day off the bike today as working from home.
But yesterday evening ditched all winter extras from kit, onto summer goretex gloves and just a tshirt under my goretex jacket. Sunshine to ride home in and warm weather makes the commute that much nicer

I'm finding I need an extra jumper layer/neck tube in the mornings currently but can ditch them coming home.

[kiethton]

I think I'm either foolhardy or stupid. Daily kit, throughout almost all seasons is:

Work shirt (no vest), wk Thomas jacket with no lining (was my dad's old jacket and don't know where the lining is) with just some Crane (Lidl/Aldi) bike jeans on the bottom half. then my Alpine Stars half boots and some amazon "buffalo" winter gloves which now stink like gone off ham.

On the very worst of the worst weather I had a hoodie on under the jacket and on top of the shirt and once this winter resorted to a balaclava....

Think I'll upgrade the kit in the next sales season! haha

[sjtscott]

kiethton said:

I think I'm either foolhardy or stupid. Daily kit, throughout almost all seasons is:

Work shirt (no vest), wk Thomas jacket with no lining (was my dad's old jacket and don't know where the lining is) with just some Crane (Lidl/Aldi) bike jeans on the bottom half. then my Alpine Stars half boots and some amazon "buffalo" winter gloves which now stink like gone off ham.

On the very worst of the worst weather I had a hoodie on under the jacket and on top of the shirt and once this winter resorted to a balaclava....

Think I'll upgrade the kit in the next sales season! haha

I think you already know having the right kit makes a big difference
Go spend some money and no more F(W)T stuff please! lol
I've got to the point of replacing kit in stages to ease the financial burden but then I tend to buy decent kit so to change it all at once is a massive dent in the wallet.
Goretex trousers are next on the list my current Hein Gericke ones are 2008 vintage and despite looking very secondhand and worn in places are still waterproof.

[paralla]

I retired my winter gloves yesterday, thought I'd get some new ones for next Winter. They came out of retirement this morning.

[anonymous-user]

sjtscott said:

my current Hein Gericke ones are 2008 vintage and despite looking very secondhand and worn in places are still waterproof.

I picked up some HG Goretex on eBay for £100 recently, jacket and trousers, complete with armour.
Granted the brand may be a bit "bearded IAM riding guru" but it does seem to last.

[Gypsum Fantastic]

First bike commute of the year today. Saved at least 20 minutes by not taking the car, lovely bright and dry weather, nodding at the regular bikers, loving life.

But now it's getting chilly and overcast, and I left my jacket lining at home...

[bennyboysvuk]

Riding in mist at 6am this morning and the bike seemed to be noticeably more pokey. The winter's gearing reduction (now -1, +2) has had a huge effect for the better too.

[outnumbered]

My morning highlight was getting new tyres. Got to work without crashing afterwards, will go the long way home and put a heat cycle in them before trying to do anything about the current 4cm chicken strip.

[sjtscott]

Crossflow Kid said:

I picked up some HG Goretex on eBay for £100 recently, jacket and trousers, complete with armour.
Granted the brand may be a bit "bearded IAM riding guru" but it does seem to last.

Agreed their kit lasts and mine gets hammered with year round all weather use - I usually only get shot of their Goretex jackets/trousers once they start to let in water or break apart somewhere.
I never have been interested in either the full on power ranger WSB/MotoGP look let alone the current hipster biker look either.
I want gear that keeps me protected as best possible which is also fully waterproof and can keep me warm in winter i.e. one lot of kit to do everything.
HG Goretex kit of all ticked all those boxes without the Rukka/BMW huge pricetag.. sadly with no Goretex license I'll have to change brands.

[CAPP0]

Strange/lucky one this morning, coming down the hill off Blackheath, I'm filtering past all the traffic but if you know it, about 3/4 the way down it goes to double solid white lines but there is a bus lane (bikes allowed). I'm a good boy, me, I don't cross solid whites if I can possibly help it, so I duck between two vehicles, quick life saver back up the hill and into the bus lane.

Which is blocked by a traffic car and 2 traffic BiB standing behind it in these strange full-length fluo coats. I ride towards them (I'm doing nothing wrong), they stare at me, I stare back, and ride past them.

Don't know whether they were looking for white line criminals, 4-wheeled bus lane criminals, or something else altogether.

(PS - ref the HG comments above, I too have the last of the proper Goretex Pro kit. It's very good. When I was skittled the other week, the kit survived without a mark, but it did make me wonder, if the kit was damaged and I had to claim, what would I get? The cost of their (frankly poxy) "Sheltex" replacement? That would not be good.)

[black-k1]

CAPP0 said:

(PS - ref the HG comments above, I too have the last of the proper Goretex Pro kit. It's very good. When I was skittled the other week, the kit survived without a mark, but it did make me wonder, if the kit was damaged and I had to claim, what would I get? The cost of their (frankly poxy) "Sheltex" replacement? That would not be good.)

Have a look at the Klim Badlands suit. Appears to be aimed at the market that the old HG Master kit was aimed at.

[boyse7en]

Pulled up behind a transit at traffic lights this morning. He suddenly starts rolling backwards towards me (more than a bad hill start). I paddle rapidly backwards but am blocked by a lorry behind me. Just as I'm thinking I'm about to get squashed Transit driver stops and then pulls forward into the left hand lane for a very late change of direction...

[308mate]

Today's highlights were Friday's light traffic, randomly meeting a PHer at the lights (I had earplugs in so missed your name!) got some good tips for the XR and then a spirited exit from the city on the A3 with a well ridden R1200RS, ending with a cheery wave.

London ain't all bad.

[SteelerSE]

black-k1 said:

CAPP0 said:

(PS - ref the HG comments above, I too have the last of the proper Goretex Pro kit. It's very good. When I was skittled the other week, the kit survived without a mark, but it did make me wonder, if the kit was damaged and I had to claim, what would I get? The cost of their (frankly poxy) "Sheltex" replacement? That would not be good.)

Have a look at the Klim Badlands suit. Appears to be aimed at the market that the old HG Master kit was aimed at.

I'm looking at new gear at the moment. The Dane stuff looks pretty solid. Otherwise there's Dainese and Alpinestar but I don't think that their stuff is Goretex Pro. Hopefully one of the mags will do a review. I know it won't be Rukka though - ridiculous amounts of money. And apparently the vaunted warranty forces you through loads of hoops before they honour it.

[Biker 1]

Uneventful ride in yesterday. Decided to take the scenic route home. Why is it that some people can obviously see you coming, but still insist on exiting a side road causing you to almost T-bone them???? The old biker 6th sense luckily kicked in, so I slowed in anticipation, but this sort of muppetry really fks me off. There was much wailing, gnashing of teeth, & gesticulating to the chav looking woman driver.....

[Iang84]

308mate said:

Andy XRV said:

Well it certainly fked Milan Dokic’s up so it looks like it's working

It's crazy because I've been associated with TFL before and speccing products for the trunk road network in greater London. My experience was that a lot of standards had to be met, trials done and hoops jumped through. So fk knows what happened here.

The only time I have had to deal with them was last year when they decided to add a bit of bus lane on the old kent road just before the fire station lights (if travelling towards elephant) and they put the sign up without a motorbike and behind another sign that blocked it completely if you were in the bus lane so I sent an email to them saying it was misplaced and dangerous by causing last minute maneuvers and that since it was still a red route at this point then they had obviously made a mistake in the signage and that they weren't trying to make cash from the bikers who had just carried on assuming the restrictions were the same. I didn't actually expect to accomplish the anything but was pleasantly surprised when they wrote back to me thanking me for pointing out the problem and that it was going to be looked at and if it was wrong it would be rectified less than a week later the sign had been changed to include motorbikes and moved further back so that you could read it whilst traveling in the bus lane.

[mitzy]

Me riding to work for the first time Since October 2016.

Pretty much the same as before .... traffic lights always on red and the smell of gear from Scaffolding lorries.

[308mate]

Lowlight: Averagee Speed Cameras now fitted on the A3 into the city past Esher. bds.