Silly commuting racing

rick_chasey

Ah yes my “commute” back in October suddenly ended












Still not allowed to lift anything heavy or lean on it so cycling out of the question for now...

wolfsbane2k

rick_chasey said:

Ah yes my “commute” back in October suddenly ended

Still not allowed to lift anything heavy or lean on it so cycling out of the question for now...

YOWCH!
That looks nasty - and hope that the recovery goes well and speeds up some!

roger_merriman

wolfsbane2k said:

Over the last 2 days seems there's been a lot of newish riders out on the roads for the morning's commute - great for some easy pickings, especially as i'm on the hardtail with knobblies so my FCN number is significantly lower than normal...

In all honesty, it's great to see new riders out with their new years resolutions - and many with new Ebikes they appear to have got over the last year. These are, of course, less easy pickings, but win some, lose some.

My commute which is North past the Wastelands around Heathrow and up the Parkway, since COVID19 have got quieter used to see 3 regularly one middle aged woman on a E-bike and two high vis commuters one male one female.

The parks have got busy but mostly walkers/runners I pass though Bushy/Crane/Hounslow Heath.

But other cyclists bar Bushy have become less for me!

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Snow has finally arrived in Southampton overnight and given the temps until the weekend, it's likely to stick around, at least in ice form. Which brings me to a tyre predicament that I already suspect the real answer to...

Been running a 35mm Marathon Supreme on the rear since the weekend, fits nicely under the Beavertail XL mudguard and rides nicely too.

But are they like Bambi on ice/snow and so should I really just switch it out for my second 45Nrth Gravdal until the snow/ice goes, to match the Gravdal already on the front, even though that means ditching the rear Beavertail mudguard?

seanoconn

4 million views!? Did this thread go viral?

elbowloh

People wanted to know what commuting was.

It's gone from living collective memory.

hamish_mctavish

seanoconn said:

4 million views!? Did this thread go viral?

Just a product of length of thread, I think. That's 52 views/post whereas "Your Rants" has 62/post and "Ebay Monstrosities" is over 100.

kingstongraham

Impressive damage for 20mph.... Hope the cyclist is OK.

https://twitter.com/MPSRoyal_Parks/status/1362347460845318147

elbowloh

cyclist has a very strong face if he did that to a car and he/she doesn't have life threatening injuries...

veronese68

Yikes! You do wonder how they managed that at 20mph
Hope the rider isn't too badly injured.

wolfsbane2k

I would say "a bit of scr this morning", but the reality is I wasn't even in the running, and I saw the guy coming from a mile off

captain_kirk

I managed a great bit of SCR on Monday. Came out of work just as another cyclist went past my work gate, so he had a slight head start due to momentum.
He looked to be going a little slower, based on cadence, so I immediately made my mind up that I needed to get past him. His cadence was slow, but his speed wasn't! I've never cycled home so quickly! Passed him in the first mile, but then he stuck with me for half my commute home. Obviously I couldn't let him re-pass me, so had to put all I had into staying in front.
My normal commute averages 15.5-16mph. I got home at an average of 19mph that day!

itboffin

SCR ...what's that?

wolfsbane2k

Left for dead by a number of roadies today while on the mountain bike still. Kinda nice to know I've got no chance, and to just pootle!

dyrlac

Sod this. Have had both jabs, had covid in December, and getting tested 2x/week because of the kids in school. So I'm back in the office every day from this Monday. Need to shift the 10kg that I accumulated after 5 months of not even managing time on the turbo. The sticks on the embankment are making sport a bit chancy (although I'm struggling against anything more than a Boris bike right now).

hopkinb

dyrlac said:

Sod this. Have had both jabs, had covid in December, and getting tested 2x/week because of the kids in school. So I'm back in the office every day from this Monday. Need to shift the 10kg that I accumulated after 5 months of not even managing time on the turbo. The sticks on the embankment are making sport a bit chancy (although I'm struggling against anything more than a Boris bike right now).

I'm going in twice a week, hoping to up it to 3 times, for the same reason, and the same amount of weight. Terrible infrastructure "improvements" on the embankment and CS7 mean that the days of sport are more or less over - I've been using Q5 and Q14 on the way in, and diverting via RP on the way home to get extra km into the legs. There aren't many other cyclists out there, though I have been leaving early for sprog collection.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Tories took control of Southampton from Labour council and one of their first plans is to remove the bus lanes we've had on the A3024 for most of the last year, which made using said road to commute in feel hell of a lot safer.

At least I'm now commuting before the rush hour again before this lane removal, but there's so much more traffic at 0600-0630 than there was ten years ago.

wolfsbane2k

N0bodyOfTheGoat said:

Tories took control of Southampton from Labour council and one of their first plans is to remove the bus lanes we've had on the A3024 for most of the last year, which made using said road to commute in feel hell of a lot safer.

At least I'm now commuting before the rush hour again before this lane removal, but there's so much more traffic at 0600-0630 than there was ten years ago.

Urgh. Watched those results come in with disgust and wasn't suprised when first proposal was to rip that ( and the wonderful bedford place pedestrianisation) up.

Will be interesting to see if they are content to hand back the TCF funding to central government or if they'll try and cook the books into yet more car centric planning. Bring on the Active Travel England quango.

wolfsbane2k

Lost out to at least 4 people on bikes today while sat in traffic that i'd normally filter past, but due to people who shouldn't be behind the wheel I'm no longer cycling in, but driving, at least for the next couple of months.

dyrlac

A reasonable number of people on the racetrack c. 0730 - 0800 (albeit still only 10% of the glory days), well paced by a chap on a lovely Mason (I was blowing, hard, on my hackabout FXE asI don't deserve to ride a fancier bike in my current bloated condition).

Why is there not more uproar here about the "improvements"? Did I miss it during my 14(!) months at home? Someone is going to die when cycle and/or car traffic gets anywhere close to normal.

itboffin

Is anyone still cycling to work in London or is it still all like 28 days later?

kingstongraham

In the office for the first time in a year next week. To empty my desk as it's all hot desk or no desk planned. Think I might as well pick up my bike lock.

itboffin

I have a bike locked up in the basement at work, I hate to think how much dust will be on it

roger_merriman

itboffin said:

Is anyone still cycling to work in London or is it still all like 28 days later?

Never stopped! Though my commute is far west ie from the river up past Heathrow to work.

But my fellow commuters have disappeared, in that I had a couple of hi vis folks that I’d see once a week or so but now I can go weeks with out another bike!

dyrlac

Slowly coming back. Lovely day for it today, hope the easterly holds out for the ride home (checks forecast ... dammit).

rhodrich

First ride back on the SCR racetrack yesterday morning for 15 months. Legs feeling a bit wobbly, but no real competition. Not a big fan of those plastic posts segregating CS8, as it makes it very difficult to overtake. Will numbers ever get back to how they were?

kingstongraham

itboffin said:

I have a bike locked up in the basement at work, I hate to think how much dust will be on it

I went and collected the lock from work the other week. Not that I need it anywhere else!

veronese68

rhodrich said:

First ride back on the SCR racetrack yesterday morning for 15 months. Legs feeling a bit wobbly, but no real competition. Not a big fan of those plastic posts segregating CS8, as it makes it very difficult to overtake. Will numbers ever get back to how they were?

Are you back or was it a one off?
Hope all is well

rhodrich

veronese68 said:

rhodrich said:

First ride back on the SCR racetrack yesterday morning for 15 months. Legs feeling a bit wobbly, but no real competition. Not a big fan of those plastic posts segregating CS8, as it makes it very difficult to overtake. Will numbers ever get back to how they were?

Are you back or was it a one off?
Hope all is well

All good here thanks veronese. Hope all's good with you! I've quit the job in Dublin (commuting back and forth by plane doesn't really work in the current environment), and I'm back to my old job in London, so I'll be back to the bike commute a bit more going forward. Currently set up to do one day a week in the office at the moment, but will look to increase that to 2 or 3 days a week as things get back to 'new normal'. How about you?

veronese68

All good now thanks, in the office twice a week which and wfh the rest which suits. Not been riding much as I got knocked off last May and broke my wrist which is taking ages to heal properly, still painful now. Unfortunately also bent the frame on the old Italian bike I'd just rebuilt.