Silly commuting racing

itboffin

kingstonian said:

itboffin said:

my 10 years cycling in London has improved my driver anticipation "spidey sense" many times over, when i'm in the car i look at other drivers the way i did as a cyclist, most of the time i can predict the stupidity about to follow.

Yeah, me too - only problem is that last night my wife was driving and I pointed out to her that the bus was about to pull out even though it wasn't indicating (my spidey senses were right, of course)...........all I got was "DO YOU WANT ME TO PULL OVER AND LET YOU DRIVE ???????"

Very tempting to answer "Yes", but I somehow stopped myself from doing so.

itboffin

mamil314 said:

Winter cycling wooohooo
https://news.sky.com/story/south-western-railway-27-days-of-strikes-planned-on-major-rail-line-next-month-11854952

Not the first time they've done that, everyone likes a lovely break over Xmas right. Gits

monkimark

I came through there around ten past 7 on monday and it was open but I've a feeling that it varies as I'm sure I've been caught out by random opening times before.

That cycle path does seem to be pretty crap for the short section that I ride (just before asda up to the shell garage roundabout) alongside it. It also seems to be taking forever to build for some reason.

slowmonkey said:

Anyone know what time kingston gate is opening during the cull presently? Appreciate signage suggests 0730, but previous years has been earlier.
Tried the new cycle path on kingston hill Toward A3 last two mornings. Death trap at 0630. Standing water, wet leaves everywhere, poor design in parts.
No likey.

elbowloh

itboffin said:

kingstonian said:

itboffin said:

my 10 years cycling in London has improved my driver anticipation "spidey sense" many times over, when i'm in the car i look at other drivers the way i did as a cyclist, most of the time i can predict the stupidity about to follow.

Yeah, me too - only problem is that last night my wife was driving and I pointed out to her that the bus was about to pull out even though it wasn't indicating (my spidey senses were right, of course)...........all I got was "DO YOU WANT ME TO PULL OVER AND LET YOU DRIVE ???????"

Very tempting to answer "Yes", but I somehow stopped myself from doing so.

My wife is the worst passenger though.

If a car 100m in front brakes and I don't brake immediately she lets out a "shit we're going to die" scream, which gives me a fecking heart attack as it makes me think I've missed something and we're about to die. Every time i've seen the car brake and have often taken my foot off the accelerator, waiting to see if i need to brake.

Every
Fecking
Journey

this happens at least twice.

smokey_bacon

Been off for a few weeks so today was a good shakedown of my legs. Apparently, according to the bolt, the rest has done me good.

mtb-idle

nice one, i'm just using the 'like' feature. does anything flag up to you?

smokey_bacon

Yup, little 1 next to the thumbs up has come up. Very social media!

hopkinb

Day off the bike yesterday due to discovering a flat rear tyre on my way put of the door. No track pump meant that replacing the tube and then pumping it up seemed too much of a faff.
Bought track pump on the way home last night, fixed rear, discovered my front tyre was at 30psi...surprised that one hadn't pinch flatted.
Smooooth ride in on properly inflated tyres...number of cyclists thinning out?

kingstonian

slowmonkey said:

Anyone know what time kingston gate is opening during the cull presently? Appreciate signage suggests 0730, but previous years has been earlier.
Tried the new cycle path on kingston hill Toward A3 last two mornings. Death trap at 0630. Standing water, wet leaves everywhere, poor design in parts.
No likey.

Funny you mention that cycle path........I never ride that way, but on Monday evening I happened to be in a car coming the opposite direction and noticed how poorly some of the cycle path is designed. By the bus stops, the cycle path goes up a ramp and then right in front there is a bus stop sign !!! By another bus stop, not only is there a bus stop sign in the way but also a great big rubbish bin. Someone's gonna come a cropper soon.

monkimark

The bus stop/bin chicane is a safety feature to slow you down before riding into the foot deep puddle that they've created behind it.

The strange thing about that cycle lane is not that it's crap - most of them are. But that they are obviously spending so much time and effort to create a crap cycle lane when a good one would have been no more effort.
They've removed a lane of vehicle traffic and still ended up with effectively a shared use footpath - a better result would have been obtained by just repainting the white lines on the road.

mtb-idle

smokey_bacon said:

Yup, little 1 next to the thumbs up has come up. Very social media!

uh-huh, okay. The less said about the 'My Badges' section/feature in my profile the better. How old do you think I am; twelve?

martinc

monkimark said:

The bus stop/bin chicane is a safety feature to slow you down before riding into the foot deep puddle that they've created behind it.

The strange thing about that cycle lane is not that it's crap - most of them are. But that they are obviously spending so much time and effort to create a crap cycle lane when a good one would have been no more effort.
They've removed a lane of vehicle traffic and still ended up with effectively a shared use footpath - a better result would have been obtained by just repainting the white lines on the road.

Agree. Kingston has been a mess for over a year with this bike lane malarkey.. and so far seems a huge waste of money. Could've just painted a blue lane from river to park and be done with it. Guess they've gotta spend as much money as poss to justify those gold-plated pensions.

In other news.. nothing.

kingstonian

I'm not a fan of the bike lanes..............but if I try desperately hard for a minute to play Devil's advocate, I wonder if the underlying thinking is that less confident cyclists are fearful of riding on the road and the only way to get them to cross that chasm of fear is to build into the street layout some form of segregation. So just by painting a blue strip on the road, or something similar, the majority of folk will still feel that they are dicing with death every time they consider riding a bike and will decide against it.

For the likes of us who cover a lot of mileage each year on all types of roads, I doubt any of us really give a toss as to whether it is segregated or not, so we'll naturally see it as a waste of time and money.

kingstongraham

martinc said:

monkimark said:

The bus stop/bin chicane is a safety feature to slow you down before riding into the foot deep puddle that they've created behind it.

The strange thing about that cycle lane is not that it's crap - most of them are. But that they are obviously spending so much time and effort to create a crap cycle lane when a good one would have been no more effort.
They've removed a lane of vehicle traffic and still ended up with effectively a shared use footpath - a better result would have been obtained by just repainting the white lines on the road.

Agree. Kingston has been a mess for over a year with this bike lane malarkey.. and so far seems a huge waste of money. Could've just painted a blue lane from river to park and be done with it. Guess they've gotta spend as much money as poss to justify those gold-plated pensions.

In other news.. nothing.

On London Road where they have taken out a bus lane in order to put a half-baked bike lane it's worse than doing nothing in my opinion.

The official guidance is that cyclists who go quickly are still expected to use the road, but I'm guessing that won't filter down to all drivers.

mtb-idle

I like to think that I'm an experienced cyclist and cycle-commuter.

I agree that a bit of blue paint does not provide the magical protection that some cyclists believe but i have been commuting into central London long enough to remember what is was like pre-cycle superhighway (errr...Googles quickly - in 2010) and IMO the route(s) that I ride are vastly superior than they were before their introduction.

YMMV

kingstongraham

I find it depressing when they go to the effort and expense to make a segregated bike lane - which is great, but then try to not inconvenience anyone else, by making it go through bus stops and give priority to every car that ever crosses it, meaning that every bike using it has to cross traffic from a standstill. It misses the point, and that's what some of the Kingston ones are looking like.

mtb-idle

fair enough. I cycled thru some of the works when i rode to the SCR drinks t'other week (approaching Kingston one-way from New Malden)

anonymousblackfg

It's an utter sh1t show in my opinion, even if the down hill towards the A3 on Kingston hill they have made a decent pump track by making the bike lane follow the dropped curbs for drive entrances. You can get some good air with enough speed.

Remember, remember the 5th of November... apparently the rest of that ditty is 'sit in your cars in south west london', tons going nowhere last night, all off to fireworks in their little metal boxes?!?

itboffin

elbowloh said:

itboffin said:

kingstonian said:

itboffin said:

my 10 years cycling in London has improved my driver anticipation "spidey sense" many times over, when i'm in the car i look at other drivers the way i did as a cyclist, most of the time i can predict the stupidity about to follow.

Yeah, me too - only problem is that last night my wife was driving and I pointed out to her that the bus was about to pull out even though it wasn't indicating (my spidey senses were right, of course)...........all I got was "DO YOU WANT ME TO PULL OVER AND LET YOU DRIVE ???????"

Very tempting to answer "Yes", but I somehow stopped myself from doing so.

My wife is the worst passenger though.

If a car 100m in front brakes and I don't brake immediately she lets out a "shit we're going to die" scream, which gives me a fecking heart attack as it makes me think I've missed something and we're about to die. Every time i've seen the car brake and have often taken my foot off the accelerator, waiting to see if i need to brake.

Every
Fecking
Journey

this happens at least twice.

I know what you mean, I drive on the M4 everyday now for best part of 60 miles, even with the road works speed restriction you still get drivers who speed up brake hard and repeat all the way, i do the same as you take my foot of the accelerator and watch, surely drivers these days know its possible to slow down in a controlled manner?

Perhaps not

elbowloh

Plus it saves you petrol and is lower emissions wise to drive like that.

anonymousblackfg

Chapeaux to the guy in full summer kit and no gloves! Kit selection was just about ok though I need dig out some warmer socks.

cjcp

"20p for the swearbox"?

What the fork is going on?

WFH today, which, given the temperature, I'm quite delighted about.

A lot of fairy action this week.

cjcp

Had to explain to some chap why he'd be toast if he sat right on my wheel in the segregated bike lane and I had to brake suddenly. He said it was easier, and then shortly afterwards jumped a red light.

Darwin Award candidate,.

rower63

I had an interesting crossing of Putney bridge this morning. Usual very busy traffic, and I found myself filtering on the outside of the traffic, where there was plenty of room. Trouble was, just behind me there was a scooter who regarded that space as his own, and I was treated to a constant stream of "GET IN THE F*CKING BIKE LANE YOU C**T!" over and over and over, all the while continuously sounding his horn. There was enough space to go reasonably fast, but not enough to make any sort of a pass without striking oncoming traffic. So naturally I slowed down to walking pace all the way along the bridge, whilst showing no reaction to him whatsoever. He just got louder and louder in his invective. Actually very satisfying. When the road opened and he did finally get through: L-plates, naturally.

kingstonian

cjcp said:

Had to explain to some chap why he'd be toast if he sat right on my wheel in the segregated bike lane and I had to brake suddenly. He said it was easier, and then shortly afterwards jumped a red light.

Darwin Award candidate,.

I had EXACTLY the same a couple of days ago, a complete turnip (scruffy white Specialized, fluoro yellow rain jacket) glued to my back wheel and then deciding to half-wheel me as we approached traffic lights. Eventually, at Chelsea Bridge, I told him that half-wheeling me as I approach a set of red lights is probably the stupidest thing he could possibly do and was likely to end with him hitting the deck, and he couldn't understand why I had a problem.

End of the discussion was me telling him that if I had to move 6 inches to the right I'd feel a slight knock on my back wheel and nothing more, but he'd be face down on the tarmac with no front teeth left in his mouth, probably a broken collar bone too, so he could decide whether it was worth doing or not.

Twat.

monkimark

On wednesday, as i rode out of Kingston gate with pink knees, thinking i may have slightly under dressed for the freezing fog (Garmin claiming -2) I looked up to see a guy cycling into the park wearing what appeared to be Aussie rules football kit - shorts and a vest, no gloves!

anonymousblackfg said:

Chapeaux to the guy in full summer kit and no gloves! Kit selection was just about ok though I need dig out some warmer socks.

cjcp

rower63 said:

I had an interesting crossing of Putney bridge this morning. Usual very busy traffic, and I found myself filtering on the outside of the traffic, where there was plenty of room. Trouble was, just behind me there was a scooter who regarded that space as his own, and I was treated to a constant stream of "GET IN THE F*CKING BIKE LANE YOU C**T!" over and over and over, all the while continuously sounding his horn. There was enough space to go reasonably fast, but not enough to make any sort of a pass without striking oncoming traffic. So naturally I slowed down to walking pace all the way along the bridge, whilst showing no reaction to him whatsoever. He just got louder and louder in his invective. Actually very satisfying. When the road opened and he did finally get through: L-plates, naturally.

Absolutely the best way to treat clowns like this. He'll have been livid for the rest of his journey, too.

Next time, if you get a chance, blow them a kiss. They love that...

cjcp

kingstonian said:

cjcp said:

Had to explain to some chap why he'd be toast if he sat right on my wheel in the segregated bike lane and I had to brake suddenly. He said it was easier, and then shortly afterwards jumped a red light.

Darwin Award candidate,.

I had EXACTLY the same a couple of days ago, a complete turnip (scruffy white Specialized, fluoro yellow rain jacket) glued to my back wheel and then deciding to half-wheel me as we approached traffic lights. Eventually, at Chelsea Bridge, I told him that half-wheeling me as I approach a set of red lights is probably the stupidest thing he could possibly do and was likely to end with him hitting the deck, and he couldn't understand why I had a problem.

End of the discussion was me telling him that if I had to move 6 inches to the right I'd feel a slight knock on my back wheel and nothing more, but he'd be face down on the tarmac with no front teeth left in his mouth, probably a broken collar bone too, so he could decide whether it was worth doing or not.

20p for the swearbox.

The Yellow Jacket of Authority crowd.

anonymousblackfg

kingstonian said:

cjcp said:

Had to explain to some chap why he'd be toast if he sat right on my wheel in the segregated bike lane and I had to brake suddenly. He said it was easier, and then shortly afterwards jumped a red light.

Darwin Award candidate,.

I had EXACTLY the same a couple of days ago, a complete turnip (scruffy white Specialized, fluoro yellow rain jacket) glued to my back wheel and then deciding to half-wheel me as we approached traffic lights. Eventually, at Chelsea Bridge, I told him that half-wheeling me as I approach a set of red lights is probably the stupidest thing he could possibly do and was likely to end with him hitting the deck, and he couldn't understand why I had a problem.

End of the discussion was me telling him that if I had to move 6 inches to the right I'd feel a slight knock on my back wheel and nothing more, but he'd be face down on the tarmac with no front teeth left in his mouth, probably a broken collar bone too, so he could decide whether it was worth doing or not.

20p for the swearbox.

Had similar before with some Clapham man, turns out that when I dropped the anchors so to not go up the inside of a left turning car I was right, he didn't like being on the tarmac though and was told it was thoroughly my fault.

hopkinb

Farking cold this morning. Must find my long sleeved merino base layers, also must buy new proper winter gloves. The cold seemed to have driven off quite a few cyclists. Seemed quiet, though it is Friday.