And today's commuting highlight is...

[bgunn]

Lee540 said:

Surrey Council put down so much grit last night that some sections at the beginning of my commute felt like I was riding across a beach..

Nearly the end of the financial year init. Don't want to have a stockpile of grit and lose it from next years budget...

[sjtscott]

joema said:

Nearly killed a pedestrian today. Stepped out in front of a truck while I was overtaking stationary traffic. I'm always careful to check for people emerging from parked cars and ride with a good margin from the cars but with it being a truck I couldn't see so going to be more careful passing bigger vehicles.

Had to brake really hard. She had headphones in and was oblivious and didn't even see me braking and just carried on her way none the wiser that she nearly got mown down.

Peds in London on my route in were on fire for random crossings this morning.. guess cos the suns out.. add in headphones and or smart phone (head down) zero observation even without stationary trucks. I've done my commute home at lunchtime today to work at home this afternoon. Noticeably better heading east from central london at midday

[Biker 1]

sjtscott said:

Peds in London on my route in were on fire for random crossings this morning.. guess cos the suns out.. add in headphones and or smart phone (head down) zero observation even without stationary trucks. I've done my commute home at lunchtime today to work at home this afternoon. Noticeably better heading east from central london at midday

Never ceases to amaze me the zombie smartphone/facebook hordes. More amazing is that there aren't many more fatalities from crossing the road.
Anyway, uneventful ride in, apart from no frost!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Cbull]

I've gone into 2 of the buggers in the 16 months :\. Luckily at slow speed.

Caught a flipping big fly on my visor yesterday. They're coming back!

The commute has been alright for me lately, not too many dramas at all.

[sjtscott]

Again whoever is controlling the overall traffic light timings basically generates a solid two lane queue of traffic heading west into central London daily from Aspen Way/Limehouse link all the way to Tower bridge. I'm convinced this is being done at least 50% on purpose to p*ss drivers off.
Whilst you can't remove the traffic as people strangely still want to drive you could easily make it flow better by allowing more traffic to head across to Tower Gateway/Hill than it does currently its literally no more than 60seconds of green peak time. Still amazes me that once I'm over the tower bridge crossroad/lights there is almost no traffic on lower thames street now peak time. I have an empty road pretty much up to Southwark bridge where I cross the river.
Highlight on a fairly uneventful trip: A two up hazard flashing biker slow through the limehouse link today, the rider absolved himself by letting me through at the tunnel exit - so top marks for that at least

[bgunn]

sjtscott said:

Again whoever is controlling the overall traffic light timings basically generates a solid two lane queue of traffic heading west into central London daily from Aspen Way/Limehouse link all the way to Tower bridge. I'm convinced this is being done at least 50% on purpose to p*ss drivers off.

I thought it was a documented fact that London traffic light phasings are deliberately 'out' for that reason. Ok, maybe not to piss people off, but to deliberately impede flow to discourage city driving. I'm sure one of the mayor's election tickets one year (may have been mad Boris) said he'd re-phase the lights again to smooth traffic flow. Remember how much more free flowing things seemed during the Olympics?

[Pothole]

Mega muppet on the ride in this morning:

BMW in lane 3, southbound M6. Overhead "managed motorway" gantries on 60, traffic moving well at 65+ (they seem to have taken all the cameras down between J11 and j6. I moved up behind the BMW and sat on his left quarter, a little bit close but hoping he'd take the hint, notice nothing was next to him in L2 and that he wasn't overtaking anything or moving faster than the cars ahead in L2...after about a minute he put his hazards on. I pulled back and over to the right in case he was about to do an emergency dive for the hard shoulder, but he just carried on, still showing his hazards and now giving me the time-honoured "coffee beans" hand gesture. I raised my upturned left palm in a "what's the problem?" gesture and pointed to lane 2. He moved into lane 2, having cancelled his hazards but not indicated left and I passed him. He was still gesturing and gesticulating. I'd estimate that if we were travelling to the same building in central Birmingham I'd have arrived about 10 minutes earlier than him...so why bother getting so excited?

[sjtscott]

bgunn said:

sjtscott said:

Again whoever is controlling the overall traffic light timings basically generates a solid two lane queue of traffic heading west into central London daily from Aspen Way/Limehouse link all the way to Tower bridge. I'm convinced this is being done at least 50% on purpose to p*ss drivers off.

I thought it was a documented fact that London traffic light phasings are deliberately 'out' for that reason. Ok, maybe not to piss people off, but to deliberately impede flow to discourage city driving. I'm sure one of the mayor's election tickets one year (may have been mad Boris) said he'd re-phase the lights again to smooth traffic flow. Remember how much more free flowing things seemed during the Olympics?

No these are on another level of stupid phasing on peak time mornings.
It is well know since Ken became the first mayor since around 2003 they took all junctions reduced widths, changed all the phases to generally slow down the traffic.. they got 20mph limits put in everywhere because with what appears visibly less space or actually less space it became more dangerous to stick with 30s.

Free flowing for official Olympics vehicles in the official olympics lanes which no one else could use solid traffic on the general use lanes.. lol

[Cbull]

Lots of people unnecessarily moving over this morning in strangely not so busy traffic. Good ride in

[jrich123]

Same here too.... I even had a bus move over for me on Battersea Bridge! Unheard of normally

[WaferThinHam]

Pothole said:

Mega muppet on the ride in this morning:

BMW in lane 3, southbound M6. Overhead "managed motorway" gantries on 60, traffic moving well at 65+ (they seem to have taken all the cameras down between J11 and j6. I moved up behind the BMW and sat on his left quarter, a little bit close but hoping he'd take the hint, notice nothing was next to him in L2 and that he wasn't overtaking anything or moving faster than the cars ahead in L2...after about a minute he put his hazards on. I pulled back and over to the right in case he was about to do an emergency dive for the hard shoulder, but he just carried on, still showing his hazards and now giving me the time-honoured "coffee beans" hand gesture. I raised my upturned left palm in a "what's the problem?" gesture and pointed to lane 2. He moved into lane 2, having cancelled his hazards but not indicated left and I passed him. He was still gesturing and gesticulating. I'd estimate that if we were travelling to the same building in central Birmingham I'd have arrived about 10 minutes earlier than him...so why bother getting so excited?

Just go past in lane 2, life's too short.

[The Selfish Gene]

bgunn said:

sjtscott said:

Again whoever is controlling the overall traffic light timings basically generates a solid two lane queue of traffic heading west into central London daily from Aspen Way/Limehouse link all the way to Tower bridge. I'm convinced this is being done at least 50% on purpose to p*ss drivers off.

I thought it was a documented fact that London traffic light phasings are deliberately 'out' for that reason. Ok, maybe not to piss people off, but to deliberately impede flow to discourage city driving. I'm sure one of the mayor's election tickets one year (may have been mad Boris) said he'd re-phase the lights again to smooth traffic flow. Remember how much more free flowing things seemed during the Olympics?

it was the pre Boris Anti Semantic guy..........forgotten his name. Weapons grade wker mayor I refer to him as.

didn't he basically go on record saying he had changed the phasing same time as "Congestion Tax" was coming? To make it look worse than it was, to help get it through - then never bothered putting the phasing back?

Could be urban legend........but that's what I heard !

[CaptainSlow]

The Selfish Gene said:

it was the pre Boris Anti Semantic guy..........forgotten his name. Weapons grade wker mayor I refer to him as.

I think you're being rather Anti Semantic.

[The Selfish Gene]

CaptainSlow said:

The Selfish Gene said:

it was the pre Boris Anti Semantic guy..........forgotten his name. Weapons grade wker mayor I refer to him as.

I think you're being rather Anti Semantic.

brilliant - fked that up. Never written that word down before.

I'm a tt.

Antisemitism.

At least I can't be that - as I didn't know how to spell it!

[Harji]

CaptainSlow said:

I think you're being rather Anti Semantic.

It was Boris, after he was caught at traffic lights in my neck of the woods in Ealing. Of course he did nothing and spunked £940 Million of tax payers money on vanity projects, garden bridge, cable car etc etc.

[The Selfish Gene]

not according to the Independent ( I googled)

"Motoring groups, including the AA and RAC, say Ken Livingstone, London's mayor, has intentionally created the traffic chaos now – in order to make his congestion charging scheme more popular when it is introduced in nine months time. Congestion charging is due to begin on 17 February next year with motorists paying £5 a day to enter eight square miles of London's city centre. A ring of 200 cameras will scan 40,000 number plates an hour."

It was the anti Jewish (see what I did there) wker called ken.

Maybe Boris also did it

Maybe neither of them did

[kiethton]

Unfortunately it looks like it was my clutch that's on its way out - came the long way home and sitting in 3rd at 7.5k rev's and accelerate hard in gear and all I get is rising rev's before it slip engages and I actually move.

Is it an easy DIY job or should I just move the bike on with an eBay no reserve auction and get an emissions compliant bike at the same time.

Other issues are:

Broken speedo
Cable tied indicators (no straight/undamaged pannel anywhere)
Due a chain/sprocket
Minor oil dribble from crank case
Due full service

[Deranged Granny]

kiethton said:

Unfortunately it looks like it was my clutch that's on its way out - came the long way home and sitting in 3rd at 7.5k rev's and accelerate hard in gear and all I get is rising rev's before it slip engages and I actually move.

Is it an easy DIY job or should I just move the bike on with an eBay no reserve auction and get an emissions compliant bike at the same time.

Other issues are:

Broken speedo
Cable tied indicators (no straight/undamaged pannel anywhere)
Due a chain/sprocket
Minor oil dribble from crank case
Due full service

I wonder how many people have come off because of the oil your bike is pissing out. Didn't you just buy a newish Lotus? Bin this bike and get something roadworthy.

[kiethton]

Deranged Granny said:

I wonder how many people have come off because of the oil your bike is pissing out. Didn't you just buy a newish Lotus? Bin this bike and get something roadworthy.

Yeah, got a 10 year old lotus last summer...

The oil is now a tiny weep, 100ml a month tiny, fixed the proper leak a good few months back.

Now I've got a new job lined up I'm tempted to do so, biggest thing will just be insurance, if I spend more than £1.5k I'll need to upgrade my TPO cover to TPFT which may not be too easy to do.

[gareth_r]

kiethton said:

...Is it an easy DIY job?...

Probably:
soak new friction plates in oil
drain oil (or lean the bike to the side away from the clutch )
disconnect clutch cable
remove clutch cover
remove clutch spring bolts and springs
remove pressure plate
remove clutch plates
check the plain plates
check the clutch centre and basket for excessive wear (notching)
reassemble clutch with the new friction plates and, possibly, new springs
adjust clutch release mechanism
replace cover
refit cable and adjust
refill with oil (or new oil & filter).

There are probably pictures and videos on the web.