Your rants here.

redvee

Waddlie wrote:

Whichever one goes past the golf club.

That be Park Hill. Ever thought about doing Penpole Lane? Starts halfway up Lower High Street and misses Shire village totally.

davis

Well, that was an exercise in frustration.

Decided to clean the bikes because I'd been a little neglectful and I've not ridden all weekend. Thought I might as well clean the -- otherwise fairly tidy -- MTB's drivetrain because "well, I'm cleaning anyway, and it'll be a simple job".

I wheeled the bikes out and got to work. It turns out that the MTB's chain had turned to rust in 3 specific places; guess I hadn't sprayed those when I put it away. As I started working on the chain, my hands got very, very cold, and even opening the quick links on chains was a struggle. Three chains, and three half-quicklinks dropped in the bleedin' grass. Damn.

I dunk the rusty chain in a tray of petrol, leaving that for now. I start cleaning the bikes just as it begins to rain. Damn.
Then, it comes time to put the chains back on the bikes. I don't have the greatest bike maintenance skills, but I even managed to thread the chain incorrectly. On two bikes. :oops: Damn.

Cue some silent swearing and me incandescent with fury at inanimate objects and my own stiff-fingered ineptitude. More swearing, and more quicklinks falling in the grass. Damn.

Eventually get the things clean and threaded correctly. Try to sort out the limit screws on a rear derailleur. I've apparently knackered the head on one screw, despite rarely tweaking it. Damn.

At one point I was so angry that even if Buddha himself had turned up with a well-lit, heated garage, with a mug of Awesome Tea and a plate of bacon butties, and then turned out to be a bike maintenance genius I honestly believe I'd have D-locked the fat little git.
More pain in fingers. Damn.

I think I'll have a beer now.

Damn.

flynn160603

My rants, in no particular order

Dual carriageways

Runners on cycle paths

Over hanging trees/bushes on my commute home which always get me in the face

Pot holes

Sunken drains/gulleys

The twat on the super bike who passed so close to me yesterday at around 80mph that I nearly came off

Fireblade96

davis wrote:

...At one point I was so angry that even if Buddha himself had turned up with a well-lit, heated garage, with a mug of Awesome Tea and a plate of bacon butties, and then turned out to be a bike maintenance genius I honestly believe I'd have D-locked the fat little git....

Genius !

I feel your pain. It's too cold to work in the shed. Do it in the kitchen !

bannedbiker

Coming down a relitivly mellow DH out on the trail yesterday we must've found something spikey as 3 of us had flats by the bottom and none of them were snakebites. 1 guy whips his tube out, sticks another 1 in and carrys on to catch up with the rest of the group who have stopped at the top of the next hill. 2nd guy has to get a bit messy as he's tubeless, but takes out his valve, sticks a tube in and off he goes. I'm thinking I've got away with it, I'm flat but the latex has done its job and sealed the hole so i just need to stick some more air in. Flip my bike upside down, gran my pump and get pumping. get to about 15 psi when i get latex squirted in my face as the hole unseals itself! Try to get teh pump off quick as i can (its a tyre/shock pump, so not only is it threaded but also needs an adapter!) and spin the wheel. The hole seals itself again and i start pumping again. Get up to pressure no worries, take the pump off, and instead of the adapter coming off it takes the inner out of the bloody valve! my phone starts to ring cuz the guys wanna know whats taking so long! Ignored! finally get the inner out of teh adapter and screw it back into the valve body. start pumping a 3rd time and the fecking hole has unseald again! pump off, more spinning! pump back on and i'm running out of energy/patience to pump the bloody thing! Got it sorted, ride up to meet the guys, explain what happened and get going again.
Bout 2 miles later at the bottom of the next DH I'm fecking flat again...! With a bit of closer inspection, the hole is in the sidewall so all the spinning of the wheel aint done much! spun the wheel and held it horizontally, pumped even more and got on my way for the last time.
I used to love tubeless, not so sure now...!

attica

flynn160603 wrote:

My rants, in no particular order

Dual carriageways

Runners on cycle paths

Over hanging trees/bushes on my commute home which always get me in the face

Pot holes

Sunken drains/gulleys

The fool on the super bike who passed so close to me yesterday at around 80mph that I nearly came off

I regularly drive up a section of dual carriageway that has a very viable 30mph road running parallel to it and can't for the life of me work out why I see so many cyclists risking their lives on the dual carriageway.

My advice, find a different route if at all possible.

roger_merriman

Attica wrote:

flynn160603 wrote:

My rants, in no particular order

Dual carriageways

Runners on cycle paths

Over hanging trees/bushes on my commute home which always get me in the face

Pot holes

Sunken drains/gulleys

The fool on the super bike who passed so close to me yesterday at around 80mph that I nearly came off

I regularly drive up a section of dual carriageway that has a very viable 30mph road running parallel to it and can't for the life of me work out why I see so many cyclists risking their lives on the dual carriageway.

My advice, find a different route if at all possible.

does depend on the road, some are motorways in all but name others are not.

local to me the A3 isn't a good time but others like the A240 are fine. the A240 is nicer than the A24 by a long shot, which isn't dual carrage way at that point.

flynn160603

Waddlie wrote:

redvee wrote:

Waddlie wrote:

Lovely ride home tonight along the Pill path, over the Avonmouth bridge and then back up the bastard hill of Shirehampton...

Park Hill or Lower High Street? I guess Park hill, if the other you seriously need to MTFU. I too had an experience of the best of Worstbus a few days ago. Coming past the new Primark in Brizzle and a bus at the bus stop indicates then pulls out when I get to within 10 foot of the bus luckily I had the camera running.

Whichever one goes past the golf club. It's not the hill itself that's the problem, it's the motorists flying past me at 40+ inches from my handlebars. There's already two shrines by the side of the road so I've decided to change my route before I become the third...

I remember the good old days when Primark was Bentalls...

I remember when it was john lewis

flynn160603

Attica wrote:

flynn160603 wrote:

My rants, in no particular order

Dual carriageways

Runners on cycle paths

Over hanging trees/bushes on my commute home which always get me in the face

Pot holes

Sunken drains/gulleys

The fool on the super bike who passed so close to me yesterday at around 80mph that I nearly came off

I regularly drive up a section of dual carriageway that has a very viable 30mph road running parallel to it and can't for the life of me work out why I see so many cyclists risking their lives on the dual carriageway.

My advice, find a different route if at all possible.

I always do but there is one section of dual carriageway which I cant use an alternative for, as you local you'll probably know it, the start of the A370 into weston after junc 21 of the M5 I ride down from the motorway round about and then turn off at the roundabout by morrisons, scares the hell out of me

Tempestas

Runners on cycle paths.... the trick there is to have fun with them, stealth up behind them at speed and say "afternoon" just as you pass them. Scares the cr4p out of em, especially if they have headphones in :twisted:

flynn160603

Tempestas wrote:

Runners on cycle paths.... the trick there is to have fun with them, stealth up behind them at speed and say "afternoon" just as you pass them. Scares the cr4p out of em, especially if they have headphones in :twisted:

I was actually riding towards them the other night with my lights flashing, helmet light etc and still they only noticed at the last minute :roll: fair play to them for getting out and fit but a handful of them got the right hump when I asked them to get off the cycle path

attica

flynn160603 wrote:

Attica wrote:

flynn160603 wrote:

My rants, in no particular order

Dual carriageways

Runners on cycle paths

Over hanging trees/bushes on my commute home which always get me in the face

Pot holes

Sunken drains/gulleys

The fool on the super bike who passed so close to me yesterday at around 80mph that I nearly came off

I regularly drive up a section of dual carriageway that has a very viable 30mph road running parallel to it and can't for the life of me work out why I see so many cyclists risking their lives on the dual carriageway.

My advice, find a different route if at all possible.

I always do but there is one section of dual carriageway which I cant use an alternative for, as you local you'll probably know it, the start of the A370 into weston after junc 21 of the M5 I ride down from the motorway round about and then turn off at the roundabout by morrisons, scares the hell out of me

You're right, I was thinking of the A370 near Long Ashton.
I rarely ride in to Weston and when I do I normally hang a right lots earlier and end up out near Kewstoke or occasionally I'll ride the couple of hundred metres to the first junction after the motorway, but from there you can use the back roads to get to Morrisons or pretty much anywhere in Weston without touching the A370.

Where are you going to and from? I and maybe others can suggest a route, I know Fenymanc travels out that way

flynn160603

Attica wrote:

flynn160603 wrote:

Attica wrote:

flynn160603 wrote:

My rants, in no particular order

Dual carriageways

Runners on cycle paths

Over hanging trees/bushes on my commute home which always get me in the face

Pot holes

Sunken drains/gulleys

The fool on the super bike who passed so close to me yesterday at around 80mph that I nearly came off

I regularly drive up a section of dual carriageway that has a very viable 30mph road running parallel to it and can't for the life of me work out why I see so many cyclists risking their lives on the dual carriageway.

My advice, find a different route if at all possible.

I always do but there is one section of dual carriageway which I cant use an alternative for, as you local you'll probably know it, the start of the A370 into weston after junc 21 of the M5 I ride down from the motorway round about and then turn off at the roundabout by morrisons, scares the hell out of me

You're right, I was thinking of the A370 near Long Ashton.
I rarely ride in to Weston and when I do I normally hang a right lots earlier and end up out near Kewstoke or occasionally I'll ride the couple of hundred metres to the first junction after the motorway, but from there you can use the back roads to get to Morrisons or pretty much anywhere in Weston without touching the A370.

Where are you going to and from? I and maybe others can suggest a route, I know Fenymanc travels out that way

I know what you mean about the A370 at Long Ashton, I ride through long ashton on my way home much safer than the bypass, I know a few people have been killed down there over the years.....after the Morrisons roundabout its easy as I have options on using either the cycle path or the old main road into weston, its just that stretch from the motorway until the roundabout that unnerves me

The rest of the route is easy, I start in Bedminster and go straight down the A370 after going through Long Ashton

attica

flynn160603 wrote:

I know what you mean about the A370 at Long Ashton, I ride through long ashton on my way home much safer than the bypass, I know a few people have been killed down there over the years.....after the Morrisons roundabout its easy as I have options on using either the cycle path or the old main road into weston, its just that stretch from the motorway until the roundabout that unnerves me

The rest of the route is easy, I start in Bedminster and go straight down the A370 after going through Long Ashton

I might see you somewhere in Long Ashton then!
Have you tried this?
It is a nightmare of a section to get through though I agree

asprilla

I'd like to rant at my own stupidity; just because the main road isn't covered in ice, it doesn't mean the rest of the roads aren't.

Guess who rode to the train station this morning and had an off when entering the car park? Fortunately a woman in a 4x4 was able to offer all the assistance I needed by simply winding down her window and pointing out that it was icy.

unCivilServant

Thanks to the Met Office and BBC Weather for your 'creative' interpretation of weather symbols. I hadn't realised when choosing where to go cycling on the basis of the forecast yesterday (immediately before setting off for the afternoon), that "light white cloud" would mean "almost constant rain".

It was particularly welcome what with it being a scorching 3 degrees above freezing--after all, what better way for cyclists avoid overheating than by having an unanticipated soaking. And full marks for making sure we don't use forecast bad weather to wimp out of essential training: had I realised what was in store, I might've done something totally pointless instead like tidy the house or do some kit maintenance rather than spend 3 sodden hours averaging 9mph while trying to get sensation back into my hands, worrying about hypothermia and cutting short my ride.

flynn160603

Attica wrote:

flynn160603 wrote:

I know what you mean about the A370 at Long Ashton, I ride through long ashton on my way home much safer than the bypass, I know a few people have been killed down there over the years.....after the Morrisons roundabout its easy as I have options on using either the cycle path or the old main road into weston, its just that stretch from the motorway until the roundabout that unnerves me

The rest of the route is easy, I start in Bedminster and go straight down the A370 after going through Long Ashton

I might see you somewhere in Long Ashton then!
Have you tried this?
It is a nightmare of a section to get through though I agree

I'd never thought of that, i'll give that a go, thanks

Eau Rouge

unCivilServant wrote:

Thanks to the Met Office and BBC Weather for your 'creative' interpretation of weather symbols. I hadn't realised when choosing where to go cycling on the basis of the forecast yesterday (immediately before setting off for the afternoon), that "light white cloud" would mean "almost constant rain".

It was particularly welcome what with it being a scorching 3 degrees above freezing--after all, what better way for cyclists avoid overheating than by having an unanticipated soaking. And full marks for making sure we don't use forecast bad weather to wimp out of essential training: had I realised what was in store, I might've done something totally pointless instead like tidy the house or do some kit maintenance rather than spend 3 sodden hours averaging 9mph while trying to get sensation back into my hands, worrying about hypothermia and cutting short my ride.

The only way to do the weather is to look at the radar images and the projected radar paths. They get dumbed down to those symbols but they really are dumbed down and necessarily inaccurate. The radar images are self explanitory and give you a much better feeling for what the weather might do.
For example, if half the country is covered in rain, you're going to get wet, but if it's really just a few patches moving across the country you might miss them and stay dry. At least you know more than a symbol could tell you.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

I'm sat here feeling a bit sorry for myself, having "wasted" another of my long weekends off work that come around every five weeks...

One of my generous postie work colleagues took a single day off ten days ago for a cold/flu thing, before coming back in the next day and since, thereby passing said lergy to others including myself.

Consequently, I spent most of last week feeling like death, but still going in. But then I spent Saturday through to today indoors, to hopefully help my body get over whatever I caught. However, the lack of outdoor activity in three days has made me feel "wooly" as if my SAD symptoms are lurking around, rather than being kept in check by the daily outdoor round...

Had I felt healthier, I would love to have done things like:-
Get the Recon Race fork down to LBS to be installed
Take the Pylon8 for an XC ride or two
Take the Tricross out for a play along Weston shore and Victoria Country Park etc etc

unCivilServant

Eau Rouge wrote:

[

The only way to do the weather is to look at the radar images and the projected radar paths. They get dumbed down to those symbols but they really are dumbed down and necessarily inaccurate. The radar images are self explanitory and give you a much better feeling for what the weather might do.
For example, if half the country is covered in rain, you're going to get wet, but if it's really just a few patches moving across the country you might miss them and stay dry. At least you know more than a symbol could tell you.

Yeah, normally I do check the map projections--notwithstanding they often don't bear much relation to what the sequence of symbols is saying for a particular town. Being in London I have quite a wide area within reach by train--Kent/Sussex/Surrey fairly easily, Essex/Herts./Bucks/Berks with extra miles to the station--so try to pick where I'm going according to the weather prediction for each possible starting town. It's just a bit annoying to trek out to one of the few places within 50 miles of London that looked like it was going to stay dry, then find it definitely wasn't.

Spiny_Norman

Dear Mr VW Saloon, Thank you so much for your friendly greeting this morning. It's so handy to have a horn for useful things like leaning on it as you pass dangerously close to a cyclist, isn't it? Thank you for your patience at spending maybe 5 whole seconds following me at 20mph, which must have been a terrible hardship for you. I do apologise for not using the dirt track in 100m segments which is amusingly called a cycle path, but I wanted to get to work some time this week. Maybe I should learn from your fine example of patience and selflessness.

And Mr Van Driver from a well known electronics company which sounds like Sanaponic, Thank you oh so much for your considerate overtaking manoeuvre. You undoubtedly noticed that I was coasting because the car in front was slowing and indicating left. You must also have noticed the traffic island approaching, and you must have seen me, because you had to put your foot down so hard to pass me. That being the case, you will surely have seen in your wing mirror how hard I had to brake to avoid an accident, and shortly after that, you will have got a very good idea of my opinion of your driving.

Thank you both for getting my pulse racing enough to find an extra burst of speed for the remainder of my journey.

Tempestas

I spent most of last winter restoring a VW camper and finally got it all up together after £8500, I decide to drive it to Goodwood for a race last May as I thought it would be nice to get changed in comfort. I park it in the car park and head off to sign on and bump into some friends and start chatting, then all of a sudden I hear a ‘bang’ from the direction my camper was parked and low and behold someone in their Mercedes Vito van has reversed straight into the front of it.....front end dented, bumper bent, badge cracked and number plate bent...we exchange details and I think all will be fine, even thought the idiot didn’t apologise once....10 months on and he still isn’t helping with resolving the issue, he ignores all correspondence from the insurance company and now when he finally gets a summons he chooses to file a defence...how can you file a defence against driving into a stationary/parked vehicle? So there I am, 9 months later with a £1300 repair bill and a damaged van that I spent the best part of 6 months restoring.

So much for cyclists sticking together....the person in question is associated with VC Jubilee and has really done your club proud by demonstrating no morals.

I am now looking forward to wasting my days attending court, I am just glad I have four witnesses and hope this idiot gets done for wasting court time.

gbsahne001

Just wanted to say ty to the lady in the red car tonight who beeped as she went past me, indicating with her finger that there was a cycle path on my left.

I indicated in a suitable fashion that it was unlikely that I would be moving to said cycle lane. If she'd bothered to check her speed then she would have noticed that I was travelling at 20, and accelerating to 30 on that stretch.

It's a shame the traffic was moving tonight or I could have asked her to confirm her position on cyclists travelling at these speeds on a path shared with pedestrians!


oh and to top that, a few miles down the road a fellow cyclist decides to cross the road from one cycle lane to the other by using the traffic lights to stop me and the other road users. This has to be No 1 contender for makeing me see red on the commute home.

waving_sausages

Why do so many car drivers think they deserve to treat me like something on the bottom of there shoe?!?
Normally I can keep a Zen like calm and let the small things go but this week has sent me over the edge. If I didn't know better I'd have thought I had sign on my back inviting people try there best to annoy me. Nothing too big but just one after another after another little things, cutting me up, piping horns, yelling at me etc.
The final straw: overtaking me in a thirty with me doing pretty much 30 (down hill ) and then slamming on the brakes because there was a line of traffic in front. Since I can't go from 30 to nothing as quick as a car and the only other choice was to go into the back of the car I went around her. Only for her to lean out of the window and have a go at me for being in the road :evil:
Now normally I would ignore her and cycle on but not tonight if she wants a word a word she can have. So off the bike and back to her drivers window but what does she does she want to talk no! The window goes up and doing her very best to ignore the mad person at her window she turns her radio up, la la la I can't hear you :evil: GRRRRRRR

And now my jaw aches as I've been grinding my teeth all the way home!!

Anyone know how I can get my zen back? I really don't like getting so wound up, any words of wisdom?

Sorry for the long winded rant!

Eau Rouge

waving_sausages wrote:

Anyone know how I can get my zen back? I really don't like getting so wound up, any words of wisdom?

Tejvan Pettinger [url=http://cyclinginfo.co.uk/blog/]http://cyclinginfo.co.uk/blog/[/url] wrote:

Be Detached from Bad Driving.

Detachment does not mean we excuse bad driving or pretend it doesn’t exist. It means we don’t permanently carry around bad incidents in our mind. Motorists will drive dangerously / badly; but, we can’t allow this to upset our ride. I don’t expect much and try to let go of negative thoughts about other motorists. If we can’t do this; we can spend a 3 hour ride holding indignant thoughts about the motorist who cut a corner. Indignation doesn’t make the problem go away, but, it can spoil our ride.

The Power of Silence

Sometimes motorists or pedestrians shout abuse. The temptation is to respond in kind. But, this is just what they enjoy seeing. They want to see cyclists rise to the bait; this only encourages them to do more of it. If you completely ignore them you give the incident no energy.

People have different ways of dealing with unpleasant situations. My approach is to let it go. I know arguing with a driver is not going to make the roads safer. I just try to enjoy the ride; if I have to deal with bad motorists, that is just something to live with. But, I try very hard to ignore the problems.

Read more: http://cyclinginfo.co.uk/blog/cycling/c ... z0gZmbpUDR

I've taken this approach on board over the past few months. I still hate bad driving, but find a little wave of the finger as if I'm telling off some errant 3 year old works. It's no less effective than shouting, but has added smugness for me.

davis

Eau Rouge wrote:

I've taken this approach on board over the past few months. I still hate bad driving, but find a little wave of the finger as if I'm telling off some errant 3 year old works. It's no less effective than shouting, but has added smugness for me.

Blow them a kiss, then smile.

I don't have many encounters with gitacular drivers, but the two times I've used that the recipient has been annoyed, and I have a little giggle to myself.

Still haven't pulled though...

waving_sausages

Thanks Eau Rouge, that's exactly what I need Tomorrows another day and I'm promising myself, everything is going to wash completely over me. I enjoy cycling too much to ruin it by letting people get to me. This can't be helping my high blood pressure either

merkin

I've taken this approach on board over the past few months. I still hate bad driving, but find a little wave of the finger as if I'm telling off some errant 3 year old works. It's no less effective than shouting, but has added smugness for me.

"Added smugness", I love it. What would happen if you did that to a prius driver though. Your smugness would meet their smugness and we might all disappear into a huge smuggy fog! :shock:
If I made a mistake whilst driving, finger wagging would make me feel so small. But it's far less likely to escalate a situation than shouting abuse or worse. Perfect :P

waving_sausages

davis wrote:

Blow them a kiss, then smile.

Funny you should say that, did that once last year but it didn't end well! Seemed the driver of a well known local double glazing company didn't find it as amusing as I did and he decided to drive over the pavement so he could chase me! Luckily in Birmingham's rush hour traffic he couldn't get near me

Fireblade96

merkin wrote:

I've taken this approach on board over the past few months. I still hate bad driving, but find a little wave of the finger as if I'm telling off some errant 3 year old works. It's no less effective than shouting, but has added smugness for me.

"Added smugness", I love it. What would happen if you did that to a prius driver though. Your smugness would meet their smugness and we might all disappear into a huge smuggy fog! :shock:
If I made a mistake whilst driving, finger wagging would make me feel so small. But it's far less likely to escalate a situation than shouting abuse or worse. Perfect :P

+++ many !

The Waggy Finger of Disapproval is a mightyweapon, its humbling power ingrained into most schoolchildren at an early age.

Use in conjunction with the Disappointed Shake of the Head for maximum effect, but be prepared to see grown van drivers burst into tears on the spot.

:twisted: