Your rants here.

suzyb

It's only Monday afternoon, I'm struggling for work and the boss is on holiday.

It's going to be a very long week

dhope

suzyb wrote:

It's only Monday afternoon, I'm struggling for work and the boss is on holiday.

It's going to be a very long week

You can have some of mine (see SharePoint gripe further up).

hatbeard

fudging bike insurance companies requiring sold secure rated locks.

have got a faghettaboudit chain which lives at work to chain my bike up there which is gold rated and all hunky dory and ticketty boo etc.

but I also spent a shed load on a faghettaboudit mini d-lock to use in conjunction with the chain when at work but also for quick stops out and about when the chain is impractical to take with me (read: always) but as the mini isn't sold secure rated my bike won't be insured if I'm only using that to secure it.

so now I have to buy another lock that will likely be less effective (for my bike cost i only need sold secure silver) than the one i already have because they are incapable of accomodating any deviation from the norm.

nich

hatbeard wrote:

fudging bike insurance companies requiring sold secure rated locks.

have got a faghettaboudit chain which lives at work to chain my bike up there which is gold rated and all hunky dory and ticketty boo etc.

but I also spent a shed load on a faghettaboudit mini d-lock to use in conjunction with the chain when at work but also for quick stops out and about when the chain is impractical to take with me (read: always) but as the mini isn't sold secure rated my bike won't be insured if I'm only using that to secure it.

so now I have to buy another lock that will likely be less effective (for my bike cost i only need sold secure silver) than the one i already have because they are incapable of accomodating any deviation from the norm.

See if you can extend your home insurance to cover it.

I don't yet have bike specific insurance, but most likely will next year due to office move.

Direct Line will extend my home insurance for £70 (covering a grands worth of bikes outside my home), which is £60 cheaper than some bike specific quotes. They also don't specify which lock you have to use. I've yet to find out whether they are good or not at paying up, but I did pester the lady on the phone to get assurance that no specific lock was required.

Zav

to the bloke who nearly took me off at the bottom of constitution hill whilst i was waiting at the lights - thank you for apologising after i caught up with you (and after you had jumped more lights). in response to your crossness, apologies for swearing, but what i said was "stop jumping "f+++ing red lights".

to all rlj-ers, please please stop - how can we ask mopeds not to ride in bike lines or ask cars to give us more than 6 inches of passing room, if some us think we have special passes which allow us to jump red lights. you don't. it is bloody irritating and dangerous for the rest of us.

here endeth the lesson

nich

Zav wrote:

to the bloke who nearly took me off at the bottom of constitution hill whilst i was waiting at the lights - thank you for apologising after i caught up with you (and after you had jumped more lights). in response to your crossness, apologies for swearing, but what i said was "stop jumping "f+++ing red lights".

to all rlj-ers, please please stop - how can we ask mopeds not to ride in bike lines or ask cars to give us more than 6 inches of passing room, if some us think we have special passes which allow us to jump red lights. you don't. it is bloody irritating and dangerous for the rest of us.

here endeth the lesson

I had a strange one this morning.

I was slowing for a red-light, coming to a stop in the ASL box.

This lycra lout comes whizzing pass me and jumps the light turning left.

The odd thing was that he signalled his left-turn with a hand manoeuvre. Strange.

W1

Zav wrote:

to the bloke who nearly took me off at the bottom of constitution hill whilst i was waiting at the lights - thank you for apologising after i caught up with you (and after you had jumped more lights). in response to your crossness, apologies for swearing, but what i said was "stop jumping "f+++ing red lights".

to all rlj-ers, please please stop - how can we ask mopeds not to ride in bike lines or ask cars to give us more than 6 inches of passing room, if some us think we have special passes which allow us to jump red lights. you don't. it is bloody irritating and dangerous for the rest of us.

here endeth the lesson

You'll be amazed at how many supposedly "proper" cyclists on here disagree with you.

notsoblue

Zav wrote:

to the bloke who nearly took me off at the bottom of constitution hill whilst i was waiting at the lights - thank you for apologising after i caught up with you (and after you had jumped more lights). in response to your crossness, apologies for swearing, but what i said was "stop jumping "f+++ing red lights".

to all rlj-ers, please please stop - how can we ask mopeds not to ride in bike lines or ask cars to give us more than 6 inches of passing room, if some us think we have special passes which allow us to jump red lights. you don't. it is bloody irritating and dangerous for the rest of us.

here endeth the lesson

How others behave towards me on the roads should not be contingent on the behaviour of people I have no influence or control over.

rjsterry

notsoblue wrote:

Zav wrote:

to the bloke who nearly took me off at the bottom of constitution hill whilst i was waiting at the lights - thank you for apologising after i caught up with you (and after you had jumped more lights). in response to your crossness, apologies for swearing, but what i said was "stop jumping "f+++ing red lights".

to all rlj-ers, please please stop - how can we ask mopeds not to ride in bike lines or ask cars to give us more than 6 inches of passing room, if some us think we have special passes which allow us to jump red lights. you don't. it is bloody irritating and dangerous for the rest of us.

here endeth the lesson

How others behave towards me on the roads should not be contingent on the behaviour of people I have no influence or control over.

It shouldn't but it does: people are lazy and like the convenience of a stereotype, just like we mutter about scooter riders and Addison Lee drivers and so on.

gbsahne001

....one minute working perfectly, the next minute the front ring has decided that it doesnt want to play and I'm stuck on the middle ring.

Took me a while to find but it appears the outer cable I'd been meaning to replace had decided that it had had enough!

Really a rant at myself for not following up on work that needs to be done

notsoblue

rjsterry wrote:

notsoblue wrote:

Zav wrote:

to the bloke who nearly took me off at the bottom of constitution hill whilst i was waiting at the lights - thank you for apologising after i caught up with you (and after you had jumped more lights). in response to your crossness, apologies for swearing, but what i said was "stop jumping "f+++ing red lights".

to all rlj-ers, please please stop - how can we ask mopeds not to ride in bike lines or ask cars to give us more than 6 inches of passing room, if some us think we have special passes which allow us to jump red lights. you don't. it is bloody irritating and dangerous for the rest of us.

here endeth the lesson

How others behave towards me on the roads should not be contingent on the behaviour of people I have no influence or control over.

It shouldn't but it does: people are lazy and like the convenience of a stereotype, just like we mutter about scooter riders and Addison Lee drivers and so on.

Yeah, I know. I'm a conflicted idealistic pragmatist. I just feel the need to repeat this mantra every time I read a post that states that d*ckheads only treat "us" bad because "we" run red lights.

Zombie_donkey

The bastards in cars who never indicate when they are at junctions should have that frumpy woman who throws cats in wheelie bins dropped on them from a great height.

They make me stop unnecessarily. .... bastards!

jds_1981

Ack, a few irritations on the way home today.

1 a lady cycling the wrong way down a one way street. I'm normally quite liberal on cyclists bending the rules (read breaking the law) but it does require a certain amount of common sense which this lady did not have. She was coming down her right hand side of the road (my left) about a meter out. Exactly where I cycle up. Somewhere behind me a BMW was catching up. She went to my right as I shouted in my slow thinking haste "off the f*cking road" where what I was thinking was "this is a one way street which is quite a steep climb for me, why exactly are you cycling on my side of the road, if you're going to go the wrong way down a one way street at least keep on your hard left or out of every ones way". Mr BMW also gave her a bit of a honk.

2 some roadie had more favourable timings on some lights where I was stopped. I caught up quickly and was stuck behind for a while. He was constantly blowing snot out of his nostrils. Hope it wasn't due to a cold....

3 football match at Arsenal so I had to take a bit of a detour. Not too bad really but after the first two irritations..

redvee

Bit of a rant at myself for wasting six seconds of my life on a green light :oops: Should have been more awake after the 4 hours sleep I had which is why I jumped in the shower first thing this morning.

Kieran_Burns

Dumbsoddingidioticninjacyclist

Teenage lad on a (unlit) country road no lights, black clothes not even a reflector. *I* couldn't see him properly. How the hell the bus and cars managed to miss him :?

Oh and to the twonk in the Vectra. HOW MANY LIGHTS do I need for you to see me when you pull out of a side road?

Pillock.

W1

Why are bike light batteries so bloody expensive?

dhope

W1 wrote:

Why are bike light batteries so bloody expensive?

Niche still.
Yep, it's all Nich's fault.

dhope

Tool on a shopper that undertook me after I'd signalled left. I was on a Boris Bike, I was tempted to turn the 23kg left anyway to teach him a lesson. Earphones in too so he couldn't hear me voicing my annoyance.

CiB

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Dumbsoddingidioticninjacyclist

Teenage lad on a (unlit) country road no lights, black clothes not even a reflector. *I* couldn't see him properly. How the hell the bus and cars managed to miss him :?

Was it this bloke? Letter in the paper the other day about a ninja cyclist on the 515 from a bloke in Buxton going down to Ashbourne, attracting a few comments of the usual nature.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/8069601/Sign-of-autumn-a-pre-dawn-cyclist-with-a-death-wish.html

rjsterry

Tooting ninja peds: if you wear all black, including hoodie with hood up, and wander out into the traffic seemingly at random, don't be surprised if a passing cyclist appears to be suffering from Tourette's.

P.S., the Pentagon might want a word about camouflage for urban warfare though.

Kieran_Burns

Good Lord. No it wasn't this was on the road out of Gotham going up to Clifton - a busy road at the best of times.

You know what was really infuriating? I spoke to him as I passed and told he was almost completely invisible to which he replied "I know, I know"

Cuchulainn

Idiot in a Peugeot who pulled out in front of me - you didn't indicate when you pulled out and the reason you didn't see me is because you didn't clear the condensation off your side window, side mirrors or rear windscreen. Yes, what you saw through the tiny patch of front windscreen was indeed me shouting "f$%$^ng moron" at you.

CiB

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Good Lord. No it wasn't this was on the road out of Gotham going up to Clifton - a busy road at the best of times.

I used to do that one every day, from the top end of Gotham (road opposite the used cars) and then into first the ciity centre, then jolly old Basford along the ring road when the company moved. It wasn't that busy then, but times change etc.

Rant? Oh errr - how about this? If you're driving along in your motor car and you come to a bit of a slope, try pressing the loud pedal a bit to maintain your speed. I really do get brassed off at having to toggle my cruise control when traffic slows from a reasonable mid-50s down to 43 just because there's a hill in the way. What's with these people? It's the one nearest the door. Just push it another half inch or so. FGS.

Gneiss

S#*d#*g sore throat followed by cough and now green sinus goo preventing my usual commute and ability to enjoy my new Kinesis Crosslight.........urghhhhh

soundninjauk

Just coming off the roundabout at Shepherds Bush up Holland Park Avenue this morning, some absolute moron in a grey Audi slammed on their horn and turned hard left at 10 - 15mph, left hooking and nearly taking out the two cyclists in front of me. He'd previously cut up a silver Merc on the actual roundabout proper as well.

Moron.

redvee

Wearing a hi viz jacket doesn't give you an excuse not to have any lights in the dark morning at 6:50am, nor does it give you the right to RLJ. Why did you RLJ one set of lights but not the next set less than 50 yds away, BTW your RLJing didn't get you anywhere as I passed you pretty soon after the lights you RLJ'd.

jds_1981

Had the first person trying to kill me since I restarted commuting a few months ago. They were pulled quite far out into the road trying to weasel a space on the other side of the road.
I guess somehow although I have two very bright front lights and a yellow fluorescent top they didn't see me? This meant that they started pulling forwards again as I went in front of them. Elicited a shout from me which I doubt they heard.

From now on I'm going to have my lights on the 'blinding' setting rather than the 'sodding bright' setting & will hope for the best.

redvee

My Fenix L2D in eppeletic fit flash mode got a lot more attention on tuesday night, might try it again but angle it up a bit more :twisted:

Mr Sworld

redvee wrote:

My Fenix L2D in eppeletic fit flash mode got a lot more attention on tuesday night, might try it again but angle it up a bit more :twisted:

That's what I do with mine. Screw being nice to drivers.... Blind 'em!

hatbeard

to the lady on gresham street with the basket with little plastic flowers on it and those tassle'y things on the end of your handlebars your bike looks very nice indeed but people may actually be able to see your pimped out ride if you had bothered to put any lights on it. :roll: