Silly commuting racing

kingstonian

Man down this evening..........me. Oil on the corner at the bottom of Priory Lane and I hit the deck like a sack of spuds. Knee, elbow and hip took the brunt of it, but thankfully nothing more than bruises, road rash and holes in knee and elbow. Bike is absolutely fine too, no holes in my clothes, so probably the best outcome I could hope for.

Thanks to the pedestrian and another cyclist who stopped, got my bike from the middle of the road, and made sure I was ok.

Depending on how things are in the morning, I may have to trainw@nker it tomorrow, which is the saddest outcome.

cjcp

Eeesh! Glad it's not worse - you put ice and what not on it?

Better if you ride in rather than having to walk and put weight on it?

Horrible, horrible bit of road.

hopkinb

Heal up quick kingstonian.

london-red

The roads felt a bit slimy tonight - sorry you came a cropper.

smokey_bacon

Ouch, heal up quick Kingstonian.

A heads up for those that roll through Villers Rd/Albert Rd in the mornings the left hander entry to Albert Rd is really sketchy now with potholes all across the road.

Otherwise quite enjoyed the ride in this morning in the quiet and gloom, not withstanding the suicidal lady on Surbo high street who thought looking was optional to cross the road, she got a shock when she nearly walked into me!

london-red

Last night was one of the most enjoyable commutes I've ever had (certainly in winter). I'd nailed the clothes so was the perfect temp, a faint tail wind to make me feel like Spartacus, I hit green light after green light after green light pretty much all the way home, and I shared the road with various different riders, none of whom were knobs... Even the cars were well behaved.

More like that please!

This morning was back to normal - under attack from mopeds...

hopkinb

london-red said:

a faint tail wind to make me feel like Spartacus

Goddamn. I thought I was able to cruise at 42 kph on the tops because of my spiffy new front wheel.

anonymousblackfg

kingstonian said:

Man down this evening..........me. Oil on the corner at the bottom of Priory Lane and I hit the deck like a sack of spuds.

Ooof, heal up, my wrist is still giving me issues from my spill on oil the other week. I started getting sideways through a evidently slippery corner in Raynes Park last night, somehow I held it and managed the correction like an absolute legend, stay safe all.

hopkinb

anonymousblackfg said:

...Raynes Park last...

I was picking my daughter and her friend up last evening and was driving back along Worple Road when a cyclist nipped up my inside while I was queuing for the lights where I turn left for my road. I realised too late that it was you, and you moved sufficiently far up the queue that unfortunately I was unable to ask my daughter to open her window and shout generic anti-cyclist abuse at you.

anonymousblackfg

hopkinb said:

anonymousblackfg said:

...Raynes Park last...

I was picking my daughter and her friend up last evening and was driving back along Worple Road when a cyclist nipped up my inside while I was queuing for the lights where I turn left for my road. I realised too late that it was you, and you moved sufficiently far up the queue that unfortunately I was unable to ask my daughter to open her window and shout generic anti-cyclist abuse at you.

You did well to avoid you getting your door panel dented then... take that as a win.

hopkinb

anonymousblackfg said:

hopkinb said:

anonymousblackfg said:

...Raynes Park last...

I was picking my daughter and her friend up last evening and was driving back along Worple Road when a cyclist nipped up my inside while I was queuing for the lights where I turn left for my road. I realised too late that it was you, and you moved sufficiently far up the queue that unfortunately I was unable to ask my daughter to open her window and shout generic anti-cyclist abuse at you.

You did well to avoid you getting your door panel dented then... take that as a win.

Bl00dy cyclists.

mattsaw

kingstonian said:

Man down this evening..........me. Oil on the corner at the bottom of Priory Lane and I hit the deck like a sack of spuds.

Hopefully you're not too sore this morning?

I managed that in exact the same spot two years ago.

https://twitter.com/MPSRichmond/status/950781381902204934

It was right on the corner as you lean in to take the turn. Overall 6-7 people came down while I was there.

I'm sure it was a diesel from a bus. I absolutely stank of it.

I was unlucky enough to take it at speed and face planted. Teeth clean through my top lip. Claret everywhere. A woman stopped and gave me a spare pair of her (clean) tights to stem the blood.

Luckily Kingston A&E did a fantastic job of ensuring my beauty has not been significantly reduced and you can barely see anything now other and a bit of a lump inside my lip. It's not a fun place to stitch though.

Possibly the worst part was explaining to the wife why I had a pair of tights in my bag,

kingstonian

Yes, it was EXACTLY that spot for me. I'm certain it was diesel, the top I was wearing picked it up as I hit the deck. I was taking exactly the same line around the corner that I've taken every day for the past few years so it wasn't as if I was doing anything unusual. And when a guy behind me also hit the deck 10 secs after I did that confirmed it for me.

Hip and knee are swollen so hoping that calms down in a day or two, the skin stuff looked messy yesterday evening and this morning but that will heal in a week or so. I popped into Boots this morning (handily there is one next to my office) and the pharmacist suggested I take 500g of Paracetamol and 200g of Ibuprofen at the same time every 4 hrs, said it is way better than just one or the other. Seems to have done the trick today.

Worst bit is having to sit with the living dead on the train today. Definitely back on the bike on Monday, can't suffer the train again.

hopkinb

kingstonian said:

the pharmacist suggested I take 500g of Paracetamol and 200g of Ibuprofen at the same time every 4 hrs

That pharmacist should be sacked. Or the "m" on your keyboard/phone has bust.

Longshot

kingstonian said:

Yes, it was EXACTLY that spot for me. I'm certain it was diesel, the top I was wearing picked it up as I hit the deck. I was taking exactly the same line around the corner that I've taken every day for the past few years so it wasn't as if I was doing anything unusual. And when a guy behind me also hit the deck 10 secs after I did that confirmed it for me.

Hip and knee are swollen so hoping that calms down in a day or two, the skin stuff looked messy yesterday evening and this morning but that will heal in a week or so. I popped into Boots this morning (handily there is one next to my office) and the pharmacist suggested I take 500g of Paracetamol and 200g of Ibuprofen at the same time every 4 hrs, said it is way better than just one or the other. Seems to have done the trick today.

Worst bit is having to sit with the living dead on the train today. Definitely back on the bike on Monday, can't suffer the train again.

Get better soon!!

kingstonian

hopkinb said:

kingstonian said:

the pharmacist suggested I take 500g of Paracetamol and 200g of Ibuprofen at the same time every 4 hrs

That pharmacist should be sacked. Or the "m" on your keyboard/phone has bust.

hahaha, good point !!!

itboffin

jeez folks glad your all okay, but what about the poor bikes?

veronese68

Thankfully Kingstonian’s bike survived I think he said.
Glad you’re relatively ok K’onian, I’m sure a cold drink will help.

kingstonian

itboffin said:

jeez folks glad your all okay, but what about the poor bikes?

Not a mark on the bike. All I had to do was put the chain back on and it was ready to go.

itboffin

talking of crashes, one of our ex club members who's a strong rider but has the road craft of an Addison Lee cab came down hard today, i have to say it's been long overdue and lucky he didnt take anyone else out in the process.

I'm not saying you fine folks lack handling skills or road craft but its clear familiarity of a regular route and the brain switches off, i'm pretty sure every non icy crash i've had has been on roads I've ridden thousands of times.

itboffin

Not too easy to see but in the distance you can see the wave created by the 4x4 that carries on for a few hundred feet, further along the road is a similar length flood but 1.5-2ft deep.
Its been there most days since the 22nd Dec and back again today.

https://youtu.be/YAfv_-hg2Xo

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Almost tempted to ditch the ice spike tyre up front, but Tues has a "feels like" temp of -2C (actual temp approx +4C) in Southampton. Should be fine if I switched it for the other 4Season, but just a little cautious about maybe some micro-climate pockets of slippy stuff before 0700.

Looks a very safe switch from Weds onwards this week.

hopkinb

Felt like a monster tail wind. Loads of cyclists out there again, after perceived drop off last week.

I thought there might be a bit of SCR with a guy in Paceline shorts, orange top, white backpack. Either he'd been battering the training over the weekend, or too sensible to engage in SCR on greasy roads in Monday traffic. Possibly both, so it turned out to be a leisurely ride in.

anonymousblackfg

Managed to misread the weather on the phone so was dressed for tomorrows 3c not today's 8c... only a small difference but annoyingly warm.

I agree with Hopkins, plenty of cyclists out there especially given I was early and there were quite a few in out in zone 5.

asprilla

hopkinb said:

Felt like a monster tail wind. Loads of cyclists out there again, after perceived drop off last week.

I thought there might be a bit of SCR with a guy in Paceline shorts, orange top, white backpack. Either he'd been battering the training over the weekend, or too sensible to engage in SCR on greasy roads in Monday traffic. Possibly both, so it turned out to be a leisurely ride in.

Similarly I rode in with Rich P Paceliner this morning. Kept me honest.

mpdouglas

What happened this weekend on the roads of South West London? Based on the continuous diesel slick from Priory Lane to Regent Street this morning, it seems like there must have been some sort of "empty your fuel tanks on the road" event!

asprilla

mpdouglas said:

What happened this weekend on the roads of South West London? Based on the continuous diesel slick from Priory Lane to Regent Street this morning, it seems like there must have been some sort of "empty your fuel tanks on the road" event!

Oh yeah, that was what I came in to talk about and got distracted. Given it's supposed to drizzle all afternoon that is going to claim some teeth this evening.

I've reported it to Wandsworth Council. Be interesting to see how jobsworth they are as the bit of LRR over Bolan Bridge doesn't belong to them where as Priory Lane, URR and the rest of LRR do.

kingstonian

mpdouglas said:

What happened this weekend on the roads of South West London? Based on the continuous diesel slick from Priory Lane to Regent Street this morning, it seems like there must have been some sort of "empty your fuel tanks on the road" event!

Tell me about it.

Still trainw@nkering today, mainly because my ankle is not in a good way (may have damaged ankle ligaments in my tumble last week). Hoping that it calms down and I can be back on the bike in the next day or two. I've since heard of 3 other people that I know who all came a cropper since Wednesday morning, all of them due to slippery surfaces. Mine was definitely due to oil (it was all down the side of my jersey) and another took a tumble in Windsor on Sat morning when he hit a patch of oil on a bend.

Take care, peeps.

anonymousblackfg

Cut up by some selfish bint in Raynes park last night, had to put my hand on her bonnet while maneuvering around her given she'd trapped me in the wrong lane and did something to my nearly recovered wrist from my fall the other week!

Else, the choppers are getting quicker but zero idea of how to go through the Oval segregated section 2x2.

hopkinb

Where do people buy those 70's/80's pervert PE teacher tracksuit bottoms from? They seem to be a "must-have" for the utility cyclist in this colder weather, with the 4 inches of exposed @rsecrack and back getting cold. I'm pretty sure I never see anyone (except the PE teachers of my memory) wearing these things off a bike, so people must buy them deliberately for on-bike use. Why not buy something that's actually designed for what you are going to use it for?

Nice tailwind again, and most of the standing water from last night had drained away. Took it nice and easy though as traffic was very heavy, and spidey senses were very tingly for left and right hooks.

New deeper,wider and slightly heavier wheel *seems* to need a bit more heft to get it up to speed. Equally though, it *seems* easier to keep it there, and makes a much nicer whooshing noise (which is the main thing). Once I can be bothered, I'll clean my cassette (black and disgusting) and put it on the new rear wheel before the springtime chain/cassette change.