Your rants here.

veronese68

Trying to get an appointment with a GP for my son. On hold for 15 minutes waiting to book an appointment, got called away as one of my customers had come in. Dealt with him and tried to call them again. :twisted:
40 PHUCKING MINUTES ON HOLD!!! At the end of that I still hadn't managed to talk to anyone, my wife had called and left a complaint for the practice manager and I gave up. Previously I've tried to get through on my mobile when I was at home. After 15 minutes I drove round there with my phone on the passenger seat. Got there and walked in still on hold to find 2 receptionists stood there having a jolly nice chinwag, and completely ignoring the phones that were ringing beside them. Time to find a new GPs practice I think.

rick_chasey

Don't think I saw as many tipper trucks during the whole of 2013 as I have in the past 3 weeks.
Ridiculous amount.

I've had 2 instances this morning where I'm stationary for traffic and I've been put into the lorry blind spot by their arrival at the junction/traffic light.

That and a bunch of nodders limiting my usual exit plans, meant I didn't arrive in a great mood.

---
Nodders - when there is a tailwind - that's not an excuse to race guys who are obviously faster than you, especially not in heavy traffic with heavy good vehicles around.

I get it, you think the guy in his lycra and his Sidi shoes are a big target, but seriously, calm the f*ck down.

Well done, you can accelerate from the lights faster with gears over a guy pushing 80 inches. You're still riding like a chopper, and you can't maintain it for more than 50 metres. That's why I keep passing you, again, and again, and again, and again....

Anonymous

omg surely not sidi shoes?

rick_chasey

coriordan wrote:

omg surely not sidi shoes?

Exactly.

DrLex

I assume from the height that he's holding them and his rictus, he was thinking of Signora Pozzato at the time.

awavey

Rick Chasey wrote:

Nodders - when there is a tailwind - that's not an excuse to race guys who are obviously faster than you, especially not in heavy traffic with heavy good vehicles around.

I get it, you think the guy in his lycra and his Sidi shoes are a big target, but seriously, calm the f*ck down.

Well done, you can accelerate from the lights faster with gears over a guy pushing 80 inches. You're still riding like a chopper, and you can't maintain it for more than 50 metres. That's why I keep passing you, again, and again, and again, and again....

yes I had similar nodder like that the other week,in the end I slacked right off to let him go because he was beginning to take some really stupid risks in the traffic to stay ahead, ones Im not even sure he knew how close he was to being wiped out, and I was thinking he isnt really taking the hint after about the 5th or 6th go at this

KnightOfTheLongTights

Bloke this morning between H'Smith and High St Ken on a mountain bike with huge knobbly tires, seat down, knees up ... every lights he'd work his way to the front right of the queuing bunch of a dozen or so cyclists, and every time set off and ride more or less primary at about 12-14mph, somehow managing to get in the way of both traffic and all the riders behind him.
He even managed to shut out the inside line by drifting imperceptibly to the left across the bunch... Had to say something after it had happened three times.

R4skob

Misplaced my keys, only for reception to have them. (Good so far)

A rant because I had asked at reception and security if any had been handed in and the answer was no. Turns out one of receptionist had put them away in a draw and not told anyone that any had been handed in, before going away for a few days. resulting in me having to trawl around 3 different locksmiths to fins a place that would cut a set as they are apparently 'special' security keys that most places don't have the tools for.

Combination of my own stupidity and staff not following protocols

slowbike

Veronese68 wrote:

Trying to get an appointment with a GP for my son. On hold for 15 minutes waiting to book an appointment, got called away as one of my customers had come in. Dealt with him and tried to call them again. :twisted:
40 PHUCKING MINUTES ON HOLD!!! At the end of that I still hadn't managed to talk to anyone, my wife had called and left a complaint for the practice manager and I gave up. Previously I've tried to get through on my mobile when I was at home. After 15 minutes I drove round there with my phone on the passenger seat. Got there and walked in still on hold to find 2 receptionists stood there having a jolly nice chinwag, and completely ignoring the phones that were ringing beside them. Time to find a new GPs practice I think.

Just ask them if they are refusing you treatment .... that'll send them into a spin!

keyser__soze

Bus driver attempted to right-hook me at a crossroads today (I was going straight on), then shook his fist at me when he had to stop. Turned around and asked him at the next stop why he was shaking his fist at me, he told me I was in his way and "It's no wonder so many of you cyclists die". He then made an offensive hand gesture at me while I was taking the number of the bus on my phone camera, which I also managed to get on film. Let's see if Stagecoach complaints give a crap... they're all up on chasing down customers who are offensive to their drivers, will they care about a driver nearly killing someone then being offensive? Somehow I doubt it.

KnightOfTheLongTights

Keyser__Soze wrote:

Let's see if Stagecoach complaints give a crap... they're all up on chasing down customers who are offensive to their drivers, will they care about a driver nearly killing someone then being offensive? Somehow I doubt it.

hear hear! - let us know the outcome

dhope

Keyser__Soze wrote:

Bus driver attempted to right-hook me at a crossroads today (I was going straight on), then shook his fist at me when he had to stop. Turned around and asked him at the next stop why he was shaking his fist at me, he told me I was in his way and "It's no wonder so many of you cyclists die". He then made an offensive hand gesture at me while I was taking the number of the bus on my phone camera, which I also managed to get on film. Let's see if Stagecoach complaints give a crap... they're all up on chasing down customers who are offensive to their drivers, will they care about a driver nearly killing someone then being offensive? Somehow I doubt it.

Social media is good for this sort of thing. Seriously, post up the pic for them on their Twitter feed, would imagine they'll make an effort then
https://twitter.com/stagecoachgroup

bendertherobot

Bad back, bad leg, poor weather = car to work TWO Days running. I think that last happened sometime before the financial crash.

jspash

3 "attempts" by Fedex to leave a package at my door. Apparently they left notes each time (never happened). The website is shite. The customer service is useless. And now I have to pay for re-delivery. Not to mention I took a day off work. My GF took a day off work. And I stayed in most of Saturday because of this and they didn't even attempt to deliver on Saturday.

All for a couple of toothbrushes!

(very posh electric ones though)

rick_chasey

deliver to work not possible?

Sure it's a 'tooth brush' and not other vibrating apparatus?

keyser__soze

dhope wrote:

Social media is good for this sort of thing. Seriously, post up the pic for them on their Twitter feed, would imagine they'll make an effort then
https://twitter.com/stagecoachgroup

I tend to use Twitter as pretty much read-only, so don't have a massive following, but have put some posts up. TFL forwarded me to their standard complaints form, no response from Stagecoach. Been in meetings all day so haven't had time for emailing complaints in, will do that now. Still not sure what the idiot driver thought I did wrong - it's the crappy junction referred to in this thread here - viewtopic.php?f=40012&t=12717825 - but he must drive that every day and know that the phasing was changed years ago to give a green light for people like me coming from Deals Gateway. Video of standard driver behaviour here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EuZSJCMMX8

Edit: formal complaints made to Stagecoach and TfL. Predicted outcome: nowt.

awavey

had a close encounter with not 1 but 2 cars who pulled onto a set of mini roundabouts from my left, whilst I was kind of already blocking their way, I can only assume from the abuse from the 2nd car whose horn also seemed to get stuck about "my effin green light", whilst all I could mumble back was "its roundabout!!!" vaguely pointing at the pimple of roundabout the council have left after resurfacing the thing, that the installation of a set of toucan crossings on every entry point to the roundabout as a "safety improvement", has rather confused things.

redvee

Thought lying in a bush on the way home was a good idea on Tuesday. Went from riding to lying in a bush in one step, no dismount in between. Got a nice chlorophyll coloured stain on my jersey for my troubles.


Was actually looking at something on the rear of my bike then whenI looked up I was in the gutter with chance of steering out of it all caught on camera.

cruff

Not one, or two, but three twatwaffles trying to kill me this morning - all on the same three mile stretch of road between Walkden and Swinton (aka Retard Alley on Strava)

First one decides he doesn't want to wait in traffic, so darts out left into a side road - missing me by literally an inch.

Second one in her land rover thinks that it's perfectly acceptable to speed up to pass me on a traffic island - saving herself literally one second and almost killing me in the process

Third one pulls out of a side road, without looking, straight across me and into the outside lane. Actually felt the paintwork as I was forced to squeeze back past him and the car in the inside lane

Ar5eholes

jspash

Rick Chasey wrote:

deliver to work not possible?

Sure it's a 'tooth brush' and not other vibrating apparatus?

ha! yes, just a pair of ordinary rechargable plastic oral manipulators. in retrospect, all deliveries will now be sent to work. to be honest, being a bit of a weight weenie i didn't want to have to lug them home in my rucksack.

hegyestomi

jspash wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

deliver to work not possible?

Sure it's a 'tooth brush' and not other vibrating apparatus?

ha! yes, just a pair of ordinary rechargable plastic oral manipulators.....

Like on of this?
https://goo.gl/mJqTsb
:twisted:

imatfaal

Got hit from behind when I pulled up at a traffic light this morning.

A few cars had gone through on the orange and there were pedestrians waiting to cross so I pulled up - and the fvcker behind hit my back wheel - luckily it was gentle and knowing the lights take forever I was unclipped. He never admitted he was wrong but kept insisting I was in the wrong for stopping - all the peds were giving him grief and he just kept up a mantra of "you shouldn't have stopped in the middle of the road" He was unable to answer the questions put by almost everyone there "where else should I/he have done?"

It is entirely his fault - he wasn't paying attention; and it was lucky that no one got hurt. But it is also clear what his unspoken reason was "all cyclists go through orange/red lights till the last possible moment and the traffic is flowing against them" therefore he didn't need to stop because he assumed I wouldn't.

seajays

Cycled my 5½ mile commute home last night, pulled up at the house and went to panniers to get my keys out. No keys there. What have I done? Left them stuck in the front of the cycle locker at work!! No way to get into the house, so have to go all the way back on another 11 mile round trip and another 40 minutes to go back and get them. :?

Fortunately they were still sat there in the front of the cycle locker which is something at least. :roll:

slowbike

Seajays wrote:

Cycled my 5½ mile commute home last night, pulled up at the house and went to panniers to get my keys out. No keys there. What have I done? Left them stuck in the front of the cycle locker at work!! No way to get into the house, so have to go all the way back on another 11 mile round trip and another 40 minutes to go back and get them. :?

Fortunately they were still sat there in the front of the cycle locker which is something at least. :roll:

Sounds like an excellent excuse for a bit of extra training ...

hegyestomi

Slowbike wrote:

Seajays wrote:

Cycled my 5½ mile commute home last night, pulled up at the house and went to panniers to get my keys out. No keys there. What have I done? Left them stuck in the front of the cycle locker at work!! No way to get into the house, so have to go all the way back on another 11 mile round trip and another 40 minutes to go back and get them. :?

Fortunately they were still sat there in the front of the cycle locker which is something at least. :roll:

Sounds like an excellent excuse for a bit of extra training ...

That's a great trick, I'll try that at home, let's see is she will believe me

redvee

Double snakebite attack on the way to work today, with only two spare tubes so the remaining 17 miles of the round trip were a bit worrying. Got into work and changed and pulled my phone and cash out of the jersey pocket to find only loose change, no notes and no bank card, £4 for dinner and a dessert at tea time.
Get home and look at the kitchen worktop expecting to see my cash and card and it isn't there, before the panic sets in I do a pocket search of my 501s and luckily I forgot to remove em when I got back from shopping.

Another one:
Email from Camelot, News about your ticket. Can't log on to the NL website as it's being played with. I could be a multi-millionaire right now.

menthel

Bloody front derailleur won't set up properly on the Aprire. Chain rubs in 50/11 and a couple down from there too, despite me setting it up according to the shimano instructions. No room left for adjustment on the high screw and no barrel adjuster means I can't up the cable tension any further.

I am inclined to agree with Ugo that they let the work experience boy set it up. It's just a shame as the bike rides so wonderfully. It just glides along quite happily and when you push it goes! So frustrating!

vimfuego

Did the Jurassic Beast sportive yesterday (6th time - yay me!) and whilst riding through Stoborough Heath on a narrowish bit of road encountered a group of cyclists headed in the opposite direction. About 7 of them in total spread across the entire width of the road. I could see them coming from about 100m away, ergo they could also see me, but despite me hugging the left hand side to give as much way as possible, these twunts just carried on nattering away to one another and ploughed straight towards me, including one of them on (his) right hand side almost in the gutter. With about 20m to go I shouted "er HELLO" and the bozo careering straight at me looked up but just looked at me and maintained his line! fortunately one of the group that was inside him had the presence to apply his brakes and slot in behind someone else, allowing me to pass through the middle of their hi-viz clad group. I uttered a "FFS WTF?!" as I went through but only got a "bloody hell what's your problem mate" back again...... Good job I wasn't a car! Morons.
Thankfully zen was restored quickly and I smashed the rest of the course and set a new PB!

slowbike

vimfuego wrote:

Did the Jurassic Beast sportive yesterday <snip>I smashed the rest of the course and set a new PB!

Ah well done .. we had a rather slower ride around - not preparing for the mizzle didn't help, nor did the chain braking 1/2way through...

I can confirm that a KMC 10 speed quick link works on an 11 speed ultegra chain ... well - at least for 50 miles ...

menthel

No sure if this is a rant or anti-rant but given the safety issues it causes it goes in here...

Ladies, its lovely to see you out cycling but please wear something more robust on your bottom half, its rather distracting to see your flowery pants or tiny thong through what seems to be a pair of tights. Something slightly thicker would keep your dignity intact, you warmer and me safer! :oops: