Your rants here.

wolfsbane2k

"Strava has recovered from a problem".
On a day you've taken a 10 mile detour to make sure you exceed your yearly target on the last riding day of the year.

froze

SmellTheGlove wrote:

School bus driver accelerates from behind me to about 40 (diesel death rattle rings serious alarm bells) to race me to a light-controlled junction where I know the lights are about to go red.

Obviously not wanting to stop at the all-too predictable red (by this time red for a couple of seconds at least) after this frankly incontinent manouevre s/he proceeds to hang a left regardless into the moving traffic. Must have been a proud moment.

Oh big deal, I had a police officer do this after he passed me within the 2 foot rule we have in Indiana! And he wasn't in a hurry. This is the main reason why I don't wear headphones while riding, sure I could probably hear a diesel ramping up with headphones on but not a car, I heard the car (which when I heard the engine ramp up I had no idea it was a cop since he was behind me) so I already was slowing down to prepare for some moron to turn at the intersection in front of me...that moron was a cop who past me within a foot of me then he turned in front of me and proceeded casually down the road like he didn't do anything or was in any kind of hurry.

thistle_

Mud on the roads, everywhere.
If I want to get muddy I'll go out on my mountain bike.

I got more muddy from a 30 mile ride around Shropshire than I did from the black route at Llandegla this week.

bunter

My chainrings look worn, so I look up replacement costs for tiagra 4700 10 speed. How bloody much! It looks like it might be economical to buy a complete new chainset instead, which seems ridiculuous...

awavey

thistle (MBNW) wrote:

Mud on the roads, everywhere.
If I want to get muddy I'll go out on my mountain bike.

I got more muddy from a 30 mile ride around Shropshire than I did from the black route at Llandegla this week.

absolutely, I came back off a ride yesterday and my bike & me looked like Id been cyclocross'ing not just riding on normal roads

wolfsbane2k

bunter wrote:

My chainrings look worn, so I look up replacement costs for tiagra 4700 10 speed. How bloody much! It looks like it might be economical to buy a complete new chainset instead, which seems ridiculuous...

Im in this boat with 105 5700. It's cheaper to buy a brand new off bioe but second hand 6700 chainset.

redvee

Getting emails from Probikekit with discount codes which won't work on the item they've got cheap that I want but don't need.

drhaggis

Trying Santa's Castelli Gabba, and finding out that I ate too much yesterday for dinner. Ho Ho Ho.

Santa gifting me what I wanted, but not what I needed (unsexy mudguards)

Santa not gifting me a sparkling new aero road bike (a TCR Aavanced Pro would have done just as well, mind you). Not that "santa" could have easily paid for it, taking into account some expenses that must come in a couple of months.

My children fighting for each other's xmas gifts.

Merry Xmas to everybody

redvee

A 2 mile detour back the way I came on the way to work today cause of some water in a subway I use.



It was reported the previous day when a work colleague said it was flooded to 6" deep but still passable with care.

lllnorrislll

1st off in 4 years - fecking ice, fecking rain, at 6am. Now nursing a grade 2 acj sprain, thanks to my shoulder taking the brunt. 3 weeks of fecking bus!

wolfsbane2k

During a fettling session with the bike on an Lidl maintenance stand, while trying to treat the rear wheel the entire bike fell out of the stand.

The bit that holds the bike frame had come away from the rest of the stand, bolt had gone clean through the base it was tightened against.

Id tightened it up 6 months ago as the top piece has no knurling on it and the bike would rotate.. turns out I tightened it too much ...

roger_merriman

lllnorrislll wrote:

1st off in 4 years - ******* ice, ******* rain, at 6am. Now nursing a grade 2 acj sprain, thanks to my shoulder taking the brunt. 3 weeks of ******* bus!

Ouch! I came off after the snow, on some black ice that had collected, shoulder and hip though was slow speed and mostly pride. Luckily since I don’t have a reasonably public transport route to work!

wolfsbane2k

Spent best part of 3 hours repairing a topeak trunk bag that had split at the seam of a pannier near the seam, including getting the seeing machine out. Finish up, and double check rest of bag over.
Large, unrepairable rip wear the pannier bag meets the trunk bag means it's toast anyway, and just wasted those hours.
And I now need a new trunk bag.

wolfsbane2k

Realisation that the merino baselayer top I grabbed for on a whim in TK Max 10+ years ago is made of something called Ultrafine MAPP Merino. I think I paid less than a tenner for it.

Trying to find similar now is looking at £70+.
That'll teach me for forgetting to put the gloves with Velcro closers into their protective washbag.

wolfsbane2k

Couldn't get a tyre boot to hold, 6 miles from home/work.

dinyull

What did you roll over, a sword?

timothyw

"Taxi!!!"


You have my sympathies, that's pretty spectacular.

EBEB

Black cabs

They may not be worse than normal drivers, but they are in bus lanes and have tighter turning circles (and apparently mirrors that don’t show bicycles). Lost count number of near impacts, near passes and irate cab drivers.

I can’t actually think of an example of a bus lane where there isn’t a whole lane next to it going the same way. By definition if there is room to overtake a cyclist there is a whole lane…and their excuse, I think, for being allowed is bus lanes is because they can fit wheel chairs in - never seen a wheel chair in one - I doubt many are rich enough. They should just be banned. Many of them shouldn’t even be allowed to drive a normal car.

And because they are all independent private operators the only recourse you have after being nearly killed is the police, who have zero interest. At least bus companies seem to want to know if their drivers are bad.

rick_chasey

EBEB wrote:

Black cabs

They may not be worse than normal drivers, but they are in bus lanes and have tighter turning circles (and apparently mirrors that don’t show bicycles). Lost count number of near impacts, near passes and irate cab drivers.

I can’t actually think of an example of a bus lane where there isn’t a whole lane next to it going the same way. By definition if there is room to overtake a cyclist there is a whole lane…and their excuse, I think, for being allowed is bus lanes is because they can fit wheel chairs in - never seen a wheel chair in one - I doubt many are rich enough. They should just be banned. Many of them shouldn’t even be allowed to drive a normal car.

And because they are all independent private operators the only recourse you have after being nearly killed is the police, who have zero interest. At least bus companies seem to want to know if their drivers are bad.

Take primary!

dinyull

EBEB wrote:

At least bus companies seem to want to know if their drivers are bad.

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha

condorman

EBEB wrote:

Black cabs

They may not be worse than normal drivers, but they are in bus lanes and have tighter turning circles (and apparently mirrors that don’t show bicycles). Lost count number of near impacts, near passes and irate cab drivers.

I can’t actually think of an example of a bus lane where there isn’t a whole lane next to it going the same way. By definition if there is room to overtake a cyclist there is a whole lane…and their excuse, I think, for being allowed is bus lanes is because they can fit wheel chairs in - never seen a wheel chair in one - I doubt many are rich enough. They should just be banned. Many of them shouldn’t even be allowed to drive a normal car.

And because they are all independent private operators the only recourse you have after being nearly killed is the police, who have zero interest. At least bus companies seem to want to know if their drivers are bad.

Odd how they never see you but can spot the fare at 100 yards when all the fare has done is crook their little finger in their vague direction ...

tgotb

condorman wrote:

Odd how they never see you but can spot the fare at 100 yards when all the fare has done is crook their little finger in their vague direction ...

Ha ha, so true, I'd never thought of it like that!

I like to think I get a small amount of revenge by waving back at anyone I see trying to hail a taxi (in addition to trying to high-five people at bus stops, obviously).

fat_tail

some f*cker spilled a lot of white paint on Col du Jzed .... new tyres have a nice white sidewall now. bast*rds.

poweredbyidris

fat_tail wrote:

some f*cker spilled a lot of white paint on Col du Jzed .... new tyres have a nice white sidewall now. bast*rds.

Just, just managed to avoid that.

bast*rds indeed

roger_merriman

EBEB wrote:

Black cabs

They may not be worse than normal drivers, but they are in bus lanes and have tighter turning circles (and apparently mirrors that don’t show bicycles). Lost count number of near impacts, near passes and irate cab drivers.

I can’t actually think of an example of a bus lane where there isn’t a whole lane next to it going the same way. By definition if there is room to overtake a cyclist there is a whole lane…and their excuse, I think, for being allowed is bus lanes is because they can fit wheel chairs in - never seen a wheel chair in one - I doubt many are rich enough. They should just be banned. Many of them shouldn’t even be allowed to drive a normal car.

And because they are all independent private operators the only recourse you have after being nearly killed is the police, who have zero interest. At least bus companies seem to want to know if their drivers are bad.

Agreed though must point out, london councils fund a Taxi Card, so if your wheelchair or other mobility, you can call/use app for the Taxi, it’s also mostly funded by the Councils so a fair is generally £2.50 rather than £10+ admittedly not all cabs are in that system but mostly you can find one in a taxi rank.

Ben6899

EBEB wrote:

... because they are all independent private operators the only recourse you have after being nearly killed is the police, who have zero interest.

They're licensed by TfL...

elbowloh

condorman wrote:

EBEB wrote:

Black cabs

They may not be worse than normal drivers, but they are in bus lanes and have tighter turning circles (and apparently mirrors that don’t show bicycles). Lost count number of near impacts, near passes and irate cab drivers.

I can’t actually think of an example of a bus lane where there isn’t a whole lane next to it going the same way. By definition if there is room to overtake a cyclist there is a whole lane…and their excuse, I think, for being allowed is bus lanes is because they can fit wheel chairs in - never seen a wheel chair in one - I doubt many are rich enough. They should just be banned. Many of them shouldn’t even be allowed to drive a normal car.

And because they are all independent private operators the only recourse you have after being nearly killed is the police, who have zero interest. At least bus companies seem to want to know if their drivers are bad.

Odd how they never see you but can spot the fare at 100 yards when all the fare has done is crook their little finger in their vague direction ...

And when the fare is spotted they apparently have licence to arrow straight for it like a locked-on exocet without having to look at whether it's safe to change lanes, do a u-turn or signal.

minnnt

It would seem that today is when all the bell ends returned to work/child delivery. FFS. 6.10am and the roads were full of utter dicks. Meh.

Rant over.

cruff

Flu

Off the bike for five days now (longest for three years). Just starting to feel vaguely human again, after three days last week where I literally felt like I was dying. F***ing typical that last weekend was the first without rain up here for about three months...

dinyull

Had yesterday off for the little ones 2nd injections, so set aside an hour to clean the commuter and index the gearing as it had been starting to skip since I fitted a new chain a few weeks ago.

Spent a good hour cleaning and faffing on till I was happy with the gear changes.

Head out to work this morning, and the front mech gear changes start playing up instantly, annoying but nothing a bit of fetling wont fix. Mile down the road, on a busy 2 lane roundabout chain explodes. Can't pull over to either side as i'll not get off the centre of the island it's so busy and cars are flying past my left hand side.

Eventually coast to the exit pi$$ing off many drivers in the process and start the mile walk home in cleats to swap bikes.

Only myself to blame as the chain is but a few weeks old, not even covered 200 miles, so mustn't have been installed correctly. Annoyingly I can't check the chain to see where it failed as it's still sprayed all over the road in the middle of the busy roundabout (which I saw as I passed it half an hour later).