Silly commuting racing

cjcp

#smuggerbybike

rhodrich

God forbid that was grim last night. I'd lost the feeling in a couple of fingers, plus my toes by the time I got home. It's not like I could warm up at home either, as there was no hot water, and no heating, owing to the broken boiler. Rinsed off quickly with a cold shower, and then shivered in front of the open fire. By the end of the evening, having had the fire burning for about 3 hours, the thermostat in the living room had reached the giddy heights of 13 degrees. This morning, it had gone back down to 11.

On the plus side, the shower at work this morning felt amazing!

Gallywomack

Glad I was WFH yesterday!

PF struck this morning on Borough Rd. Took me a while to find anything, when I finally did it was a tiny shard of glass buried in the tyre. There was such a traffic jam on the approach to the St George's Circus junction that by the time I'd fixed the tyre, a tipper truck that was alongside me when I first noticed the puncture had moved all of about 30 metres up the road. #Quickerbybikeevenwithap*ncture

rower63

Sgt.Pepper wrote:

Wellington seized up completely yesterday morning from a broken down lorry blocking just 1 of 3 lanes into town for all of 30 yards. ...

With the interconnectedness of networks these days I reckon that was probably what was causing the chaos in SW London

drhaggis

Rhodrich wrote:

God forbid that was grim last night. I'd lost the feeling in a couple of fingers, plus my toes by the time I got home. It's not like I could warm up at home either, as there was no hot water, and no heating, owing to the broken boiler. Rinsed off quickly with a cold shower, and then shivered in front of the open fire. By the end of the evening, having had the fire burning for about 3 hours, the thermostat in the living room had reached the giddy heights of 13 degrees. This morning, it had gone back down to 11.

On the plus side, the shower at work this morning felt amazing!

Driving a 1950's pagoda, riding a fixie from the middle ages and having a fireplace does not stop you from switching on the heating, you know?

rhodrich

DrHaggis wrote:

Rhodrich wrote:

God forbid that was grim last night. I'd lost the feeling in a couple of fingers, plus my toes by the time I got home. It's not like I could warm up at home either, as there was no hot water, and no heating, owing to the broken boiler. Rinsed off quickly with a cold shower, and then shivered in front of the open fire. By the end of the evening, having had the fire burning for about 3 hours, the thermostat in the living room had reached the giddy heights of 13 degrees. This morning, it had gone back down to 11.

On the plus side, the shower at work this morning felt amazing!

Driving a 1950's pagoda, riding a fixie from the middle ages and having a fireplace does not stop you from switching on the heating, you know?

A broken boiler does though.....

elbowloh

Another cycling (commuting focused) article, this time on 10 ways drivers are complete shits*

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2018/nov/21/ten-everyday-ways-drivers-make-cyclists-feel-unsafe

Even in the Guardian, this has attracted a few DM types.

*my words

drhaggis

Rhodrich wrote:

DrHaggis wrote:

Rhodrich wrote:

God forbid that was grim last night. I'd lost the feeling in a couple of fingers, plus my toes by the time I got home. It's not like I could warm up at home either, as there was no hot water, and no heating, owing to the broken boiler. Rinsed off quickly with a cold shower, and then shivered in front of the open fire. By the end of the evening, having had the fire burning for about 3 hours, the thermostat in the living room had reached the giddy heights of 13 degrees. This morning, it had gone back down to 11.

On the plus side, the shower at work this morning felt amazing!

Driving a 1950's pagoda, riding a fixie from the middle ages and having a fireplace does not stop you from switching on the heating, you know?

A broken boiler does though.....

Ah, the frozen boiler! Pages spin way too fast in the SCR thread.... Have any repair date? Couple of winters ago I spent three lovely weeks b/c management couldn't be arsed to fix the radiator in my office. In Edinburgh. In December.

anonymousblackfg

I imagine Rhodrich lives a similar life to JRM with less millions.

I avoided the grim commuting yesterday by WFH. As punishment I got an awful commute this morning save for a nice brief chat with Olas about the deflating sound coming from his rear wheel and his faith in his tubeless set up...

Principal issue was an overtake south of Raynes Park by a Reynolds artic which was the closest i've ever come to being sucked into a rear set truck wheels and spat out as a mangled corpse. Given the moron had already forced me out of my lane approaching lights and then made eye contact with me I can only assume was deliberate.

asprilla

DrHaggis wrote:

Rhodrich wrote:

DrHaggis wrote:

Rhodrich wrote:

God forbid that was grim last night. I'd lost the feeling in a couple of fingers, plus my toes by the time I got home. It's not like I could warm up at home either, as there was no hot water, and no heating, owing to the broken boiler. Rinsed off quickly with a cold shower, and then shivered in front of the open fire. By the end of the evening, having had the fire burning for about 3 hours, the thermostat in the living room had reached the giddy heights of 13 degrees. This morning, it had gone back down to 11.

On the plus side, the shower at work this morning felt amazing!

Driving a 1950's pagoda, riding a fixie from the middle ages and having a fireplace does not stop you from switching on the heating, you know?

A broken boiler does though.....

Ah, the frozen boiler! Pages spin way too fast in the SCR thread.... Have any repair date? Couple of winters ago I spent three lovely weeks b/c management couldn't be arsed to fix the radiator in my office. In Edinburgh. In December.

Brrrr. My boiler has failed once. In 2009 I'd spent Christmas with family in Zambia where it was 38c on Christmas day, and after a 72 hour delay thanks to the BA crew getting Norovirus, we got back to snow and -8c at Heathrow on Jan 2nd. Turns out the boiler had failed pretty much the day we left and there was no residual heat left in the house.

It was unpleasant.

drhaggis

If that was January 2nd, 2010, you were in for some lovely month! Weren't the fountains in Trafalgar Sq frozen for the first two weeks of the year or something?

cjcp

A horrible winter. There was indeed a norovirus outbreak.

asprilla

cjcp wrote:

A horrible winter. There was indeed a norovirus outbreak.

Richmond Park in the snow was brilliant though.

rhodrich

DrHaggis wrote:

Ah, the frozen boiler! Pages spin way too fast in the SCR thread.... Have any repair date? Couple of winters ago I spent three lovely weeks b/c management couldn't be arsed to fix the radiator in my office. In Edinburgh. In December.

The only plumber we trust couldn't come out until Friday, so let's hope he can fix it then. I'm working from home tomorrow and Friday, so I'll dig out the skiing thermals to wear beneath my normal clothes. Will just have to hope we've got enough bags of coal to keep the fire going too.

anonymousblackfg wrote:

I imagine Rhodrich lives a similar life to JRM with less millions.

You're not the first to say that (despite my being a firm remainer)! Ever since we got an Au-Pair, my colleagues rib me with questions about 'the nanny'. It also doesn't help that our house looks a bit like a castle too, as it has a turret.

The '1950's Pagoda' is actually a 1965 model though, and being a 2 seater, it doesn't go out much - in fact I've not driven it for over a year. Most of the time I drive a 1968 VW Microbus. Not sure you'd see JRM ever driving a camper van!

kingstonian

Last night was pretty miserable, as was this morning when I found my shoes hadn't quite dried out after last night's exploits and they caused my toes to get bloody cold this morning.

Best event this morning was a bloke in a black SUV pulling out slowly in front of me approaching Parsons Green, he had his head down and looked like he was reading his phone while driving, but on further inspection it was obvious his window was fogged up and he was trying to see through about 6 inches of clear window at the bottom of the windscreen. A bit further he sailed through a red light, almost hitting a pedestrian, so I caught up and had a word.........."I saw you and made sure you had space....." was his reply, but he looked a bit sheepish when I responded "Yeah, that's great, but fancy explaining why you didn't see the red light you just sailed through and the pedestrian you nearly hit?"

mtb-idle

Smokey Bacon wrote:

Grim weather and awful traffic on the way home. Didn't see a clear patch of road from the city to Richmond!

There was an amusing thread on Twitter yesterday where a driver posted a pic of back to back traffic and an empty cycle lane expecting everyone to join in with a 'bleedin' cyclists' type of rant only to be inundated with repsonses of the 'you are the problem' type.

I laughed anyway.

EDIT: now updated with aforementioned thread

asprilla

Kingstonian wrote:

Last night was pretty miserable, as was this morning when I found my shoes hadn't quite dried out after last night's exploits and they caused my toes to get bloody cold this morning.

Best event this morning was a bloke in a black SUV pulling out slowly in front of me approaching Parsons Green, he had his head down and looked like he was reading his phone while driving, but on further inspection it was obvious his window was fogged up and he was trying to see through about 6 inches of clear window at the bottom of the windscreen. A bit further he sailed through a red light, almost hitting a pedestrian, so I caught up and had a word.........."I saw you and made sure you had space....." was his reply, but he looked a bit sheepish when I responded "Yeah, that's great, but fancy explaining why you didn't see the red light you just sailed through and the pedestrian you nearly hit?"

Hey, I was the bloke you were discussing that with. Morning.

I still don't believe he didn't see the red, I think he put his foot down.

kingstonian

Asprilla wrote:

Kingstonian wrote:

Last night was pretty miserable, as was this morning when I found my shoes hadn't quite dried out after last night's exploits and they caused my toes to get bloody cold this morning.

Best event this morning was a bloke in a black SUV pulling out slowly in front of me approaching Parsons Green, he had his head down and looked like he was reading his phone while driving, but on further inspection it was obvious his window was fogged up and he was trying to see through about 6 inches of clear window at the bottom of the windscreen. A bit further he sailed through a red light, almost hitting a pedestrian, so I caught up and had a word.........."I saw you and made sure you had space....." was his reply, but he looked a bit sheepish when I responded "Yeah, that's great, but fancy explaining why you didn't see the red light you just sailed through and the pedestrian you nearly hit?"

Hey, I was the bloke you were discussing that with. Morning.

I still don't believe he didn't see the red, I think he put his foot down.

Hello mate !!!!!

To be honest, when I was talking to him he reminded me of an older "Tim, nice but dim" sort of guy, so nothing surprises me.

veronese68

Last night was a bit grim. I had to go home then chuck the bike in the car to dump it at my Mum's then ride home again. So I had enough time to almost get dry whilst sat in the car, then freeze my tits off shuffling cars around before riding back to Kingston. Pushed on a bit in my attempt to warm up. Could hear a van engine too close for comfort as I crested Coombe Lane West, wasn't impressed to get an uncomfortably close pass from an ambulance that I was the freewheeling behind going down the hill. I may have been muttering under my breath as I passed him when he hit the inevitable line of traffic.
This morning was chilly when I left so I stopped at my mate's coffee shop in Hampton Wick for a livener, was a bit warmer after that with a shot of caffeine helping me along. No competition at any point.
Back to Raynes Park to salvage the car this evening.

kingdav

Useful info I picked up via your twitter link there...

4pm daily taxi protest on London Bridge starting Monday 26th Nov.

https://twitter.com/LondonTrafficW1/sta ... 9780386817

smokey_bacon

MTB-Idle wrote:

Smokey Bacon wrote:

Grim weather and awful traffic on the way home. Didn't see a clear patch of road from the city to Richmond!

There was an amusing thread on Twitter yesterday where a driver posted a pic of back to back traffic and an empty cycle lane expecting everyone to join in with a 'bleedin' cyclists' type of rant only to be inundated with repsonses of the 'you are the problem' type.

I laughed anyway.

EDIT: now updated with aforementioned thread

I laughed too. Amazing!

kingstonian

kingdav wrote:

Useful info I picked up via your twitter link there...

4pm daily taxi protest on London Bridge starting Monday 26th Nov.

https://twitter.com/LondonTrafficW1/sta ... 9780386817

Oh great, looking forward to that adding to the usual traffic carnage on the bridge

itboffin

looking out the window this morning at the sleet and snow made me very glad i no longer commute by bike and even more so i'm WFH for the rest of 2018

Toasty

sgt.pepper

Got robbed of a potentially good race last night by some slightly bad behaviour, bit disappointing. Was a guy on a gravel bike who kept jumping reds by skirting down side roads or going over pedestrian crossings. He got the initial lead, but I passed him up the hill. Think he may have taken issue with this, and re-passed me as I was fumbling to put my helmet back on. Sadly didn't get chance to have an even duel on the flat as he jumped the light by skipping over another pedestrian crossing at the next town. Was quite miffed, claiming that as a win.

Also wore trainers this morning as going to a fitness class after work with colleagues - was strange not being clipped in, definitely didn't feel brilliant when accelerating. Then again, the flat side of my pedals don't have the surface area/grip of the BMX ones I used back in the UK.

mtb-idle

Sgt.Pepper wrote:

... and re-passed me as I was fumbling to put my helmet back on

When I read that I imagined you had undertaken some kind of SCR celebration looking a bit like this only waving your lid in the air at the same time.



Perhaps that is why he was so miffed

sgt.pepper

MTB-Idle wrote:

Sgt.Pepper wrote:

... and re-passed me as I was fumbling to put my helmet back on

When I read that I imagined you had undertaken some kind of SCR celebration looking a bit like this only waving your lid in the air at the same time.



Perhaps that is why he was so miffed

Haha no, I take it off for climbs or I end up laid up with a blinding migraine.

cjcp

How long are these climbs??!!

cjcp

itboffin wrote:

looking out the window this morning at the sleet and snow made me very glad i no longer commute by bike and even more so i'm WFH for the rest of 2018

Toasty

Ah, I miss the days when you used to tell us about your daily 17-hour commutes in the driving wind and rain, dense fog, snow, ice, and delayed or cancelled trains.

Fun times .

Gallywomack

Slightly chilly this morning. The traffic light Gods smiled on me with a long run of greens so I could warm up. Just about OK in 3/4 bibs, two base layers and a jacket, winter gloves and an extra pair of socks. And a wussy ear warmer/head band thingy. Saw a couple of people sans gloves, mental.

rower63

-4 in Richmond Park this morning, lots of layers of mist, really pictures-queue