And today's commuting highlight is...

[kiethton]

Wasn't half windy earlier! - getting blown about all over the place, totally uneventful barring that though

Good to be back on the bike though, legs wouldn't allow me to cycle in again!!!!

Last ride this evening for a while - piss ups tomorrow and friday then a holiday will give me a break from the bike

[sjtscott]

So Traffic lights out earlier in the morning at Tower Bridge causing all sorts of chaos so solid gridlocked traffic even more solid on the highway this morning. I get to said junction/lights and they've left one lane coned off??? WTF but the lights were working - no wonder nothing moving.
Still having to make progress slowly but hampered again by L plate wobblers and commuter timid specials who really have zero spacial awareness.
I should have bailed out and done my south of the river route. Oh well still only took about 30mins door to door to do 7 miles LOL

[TurbosSuck]

Cheers Mosdef & sjtscott, I'll have a look into those options. A secondary flip down sun visor definitely sounds good, not sure if I can get one for my cheapo MT helmet though.

[Angrybiker]

sjtscott said:

So Traffic lights out earlier in the morning at Tower Bridge causing all sorts of chaos so solid gridlocked traffic even more solid on the highway this morning. I get to said junction/lights and they've left one lane coned off??? WTF but the lights were working - no wonder nothing moving.
Still having to make progress slowly but hampered again by L plate wobblers and commuter timid specials who really have zero spacial awareness.
I should have bailed out and done my south of the river route. Oh well still only took about 30mins door to door to do 7 miles LOL

Wasn't too bad for me coming from lower thames street, highway was busy but not ridiculous when I came down.
This is however mad September and while it's not quite as bad as it has been in the past there are a fair share of idiots slowing down and then indicating just as they start to turn. makes my blood boil.

[tenmantaylor]

So just to give you a bit of life and car history so you understand my fascinating commute story I lived in London two years ago when my job changed requiring 400 miles a week car commuting, mostly motorway (M25/M4) and regular use of the blackwall tunnel. Faced with such perilous commuting hell I quite naturally went for a 330d Auto (e92). Auto for the tunnel, 50mpg on the M4. Perfect. Then my job and location changed again to a beautiful out of London commute with no traffic, lovely A and B roads and a usually empty, never have to slow down section of dual carriageway. I was now in the wrong car! So 6 months ago I decided to rectify the situation and go for a rather more involving e92; the M3. Picked it up Monday evening. It's amazing, manual gearbox, blipping the downshifts, back end stepping out etc etc then what happens this morning? 3 miles tail back on the dual carriageway with the fuel warning light on and no start stop. Cue range anxiety, had 32 miles range on the computer and couldn't turn off. That's fine, it'll have 29 miles range when I'm past this jam. Wrong! was down to 15 before I finally got off at an exit. Would have ran out had I stayed in the jam.

Wouldn't change a thing though. This thing is epic.

Edit: didn't realise this was the biker forum. The M3 revs like a super bike if that helps.

Edited by tenmantaylor on Wednesday 13th September 09:59

[CAPP0]

CoolHands said:

beemer riders are all daft old s with no sense, and are frankly, rude.

I wish I was you…..

But then again, if I was, I wouldn't be able to do daft, c*tish things like this:

[supercommuter]

CAPP0 said:

CoolHands said:

beemer riders are all daft old s with no sense, and are frankly, rude.

I wish I was you…..

But then again, if I was, I wouldn't be able to do daft, c*tish things like this:

Sure, but you really are in the minority. I am sure you can agree with that.

[anonymous-user]

supercommuter said:

CAPP0 said:

CoolHands said:

beemer riders are all daft old s with no sense, and are frankly, rude.

I wish I was you…..

But then again, if I was, I wouldn't be able to do daft, c*tish things like this:

Sure, but you really are in the minority. I am sure you can agree with that.

A big, heavy, complex bike with rigid luggage....
New to expeds, aren't you?

[CAPP0]

Ah. Sometimes it takes a while to note who to ignore. You'd been so insignificant previously, you see.

[anonymous-user]

CAPP0 said:

Ah. Sometimes it takes a while to note who to ignore. You'd been so insignificant previously, you see.

And for a moment there I thought you were about to demonstrate that not all BMW riders are tts.
Oh well.....onward.

PS Who do you see yourself as? The one from Trainspotting or the other one?

Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 13th September 12:11

[ClaphamGT3]

CoolHands said:

Crossflow Kid said:

Coming home tonight, tit on a Beemer R1200GS...
Mate, the reason I drifted left in lane 1 on that right hand bend was to give myself a good line of sight around the stationary traffic in lane 2, not so you could barge past and then block the filtering option with your fking stupid fking massive empty fking panniers.
But you crack on.....

beemer riders are all daft old s with no sense, and are frankly, rude.

Come the Clapham revolution, they're all getting put up against a wall and shot

[sjtscott]

TurbosSuck said:

Cheers Mosdef & sjtscott, I'll have a look into those options. A secondary flip down sun visor definitely sounds good, not sure if I can get one for my cheapo MT helmet though.

Might require a purchase of a new helmet sadly. I think there are some budget ones with similar. Arai (def not budget) have an external sun shade which flips up and down externally on the top part of the visior.

Not that I'd know or could recommend but this is what I call budget https://www.thevisorshop.com/en/Caberg-Stunt-Motor...

[Sea Demon]

last day of the week for me! Off to Italy in the morning helping out a friend run the paddock for www.bestofitalyrace.com

Giacomo Agostini is taking part again this year so should get to meet him & see some nice bikes/cars...and bicyles..

[SteelerSE]

sjtscott said:

Also noticing that Honda Xrunners with standard Mirrors and Square Top Boxes are just at the wrong width/height for Van/smaller truck mirrors when filtering between one either side of you - guy in front of me really not able to make that good progress due to this, having to slow to a stop for stuff I'd carry on through in 2nd gear with. Difference here is this guy knows how to ride just the physical traits of his bike prevent progress compared to most other bikes around him.

I definitely have that problem on mine. All vans, most black cabs etc have wing mirrors at the wrong height for me. A pain but that's why I try and travel at times outside the worst of the rush.

[kiethton]

SteelerSE said:

sjtscott said:

Also noticing that Honda Xrunners with standard Mirrors and Square Top Boxes are just at the wrong width/height for Van/smaller truck mirrors when filtering between one either side of you - guy in front of me really not able to make that good progress due to this, having to slow to a stop for stuff I'd carry on through in 2nd gear with. Difference here is this guy knows how to ride just the physical traits of his bike prevent progress compared to most other bikes around him.

I definitely have that problem on mine. All vans, most black cabs etc have wing mirrors at the wrong height for me. A pain but that's why I try and travel at times outside the worst of the rush.

That's my biggest issue with them - considering one when Sadiq bans my CBR next year but love the way the current bike's mirrors just go under almost anything

[sjtscott]

SteelerSE said:

I definitely have that problem on mine. All vans, most black cabs etc have wing mirrors at the wrong height for me. A pain but that's why I try and travel at times outside the worst of the rush.

Have a guy in my office with one in the dark red - so I have had a good chance to look at it closely its def the front end width/height which seems just at the wrong dimensions.
I miss sports bike mirrors for sure majority of my commuting years in London have been on them - whilst the Speed Triple even with the genuine Tunono V4 mirrors I retro fitted which arn't that wide there are still moments where even these get in the way of progress - but they do act as a good width indicators/reminders - and they have battle scars to prove it £35 a set off Ebay means they can be replaced easily if the worst happens

[BuzzBravado]

Had a POLITE chap in front of me this morning, doing a fine job of preventing me from filtering. I could sense his smugness through his solid white helmet, fking tosser.

[SteelerSE]

sjtscott said:

Have a guy in my office with one in the dark red - so I have had a good chance to look at it closely its def the front end width/height which seems just at the wrong dimensions.
I miss sports bike mirrors for sure majority of my commuting years in London have been on them - whilst the Speed Triple even with the genuine Tunono V4 mirrors I retro fitted which arn't that wide there are still moments where even these get in the way of progress - but they do act as a good width indicators/reminders - and they have battle scars to prove it £35 a set off Ebay means they can be replaced easily if the worst happens

i was quicker on my old VFR but the wing mirrors on that had issues at car height so there's always something that's not quite there. In teh end of it I'm never in that much of a rush so I just make sure that I'm not in the way of other commuters as much as possible.

[Dakkon]

BuzzBravado said:

Had a POLITE chap in front of me this morning, doing a fine job of preventing me from filtering. I could sense his smugness through his solid white helmet, fking tosser.

Did his bike have panniers?

Have a nice run in this morning, the M4 was backed up from before jnt 3 to 2 Eastbound (car had broken down on the flyover) and was getting worse and the few other bikers I saw were all very polite, letting quicker filterer's through, waving, nodding etc.

[Angrybiker]

SteelerSE said:

sjtscott said:

Have a guy in my office with one in the dark red - so I have had a good chance to look at it closely its def the front end width/height which seems just at the wrong dimensions.
I miss sports bike mirrors for sure majority of my commuting years in London have been on them - whilst the Speed Triple even with the genuine Tunono V4 mirrors I retro fitted which arn't that wide there are still moments where even these get in the way of progress - but they do act as a good width indicators/reminders - and they have battle scars to prove it £35 a set off Ebay means they can be replaced easily if the worst happens

i was quicker on my old VFR but the wing mirrors on that had issues at car height so there's always something that's not quite there. In teh end of it I'm never in that much of a rush so I just make sure that I'm not in the way of other commuters as much as possible.

I am loving my blade, just turn the mirrors in by the stalks for traffic; and push out after traffic. No adjustment necessary. Also with front indicators on the mirrors I can also put the hazards on so maybe more cars can see me coming. Now making better progress even than on my old 600RR!

/smugon Last night there was an accident on the A3 on the raised section at New Malden, traffic was rammed right up to the bottom of Kingston Hill.. Flipped mirrors in and presto - caught up with and passed 5 groups of bikes in-between Kingston Hill and the accident. /smugoff