Tuesday Curse

Wallace1492

Second Tuesday in a row it had poured down here. Second Tuesday in a row that the PF has visited me. I think the PF lives on Maryhill Road....

This time a Vaxhall Nova forced me in, and I had to go over two big drains, one of them got the back wheel.

Then after changing to new tube, or rather the tube i repaired last week, decided to use the mini pump instead of CO2. After pumping away, pulled off pump and OMG, valve broke and top of it is stuck inside the pump. Miraculously the tyre stayed inflated, so I gingerly limped into work, but was overtaken by a few fellow commuter, was just itching to take off after them, but couldn't risk a hard bump deflating the tyre.

Ah the joys!!

always_tyred

Wallace, why DO you come all the way in along the Maryhill Road? Its not that much further to cut in towards the Great Western Road, towards the Univ. Glasgow direction. There are quite a few options if you come in that way.

deptfordmarmoset

Then after changing to new tube, or rather the tube i repaired last week, decided to use the mini pump instead of CO2. After pumping away, pulled off pump and OMG, valve broke and top of it is stuck inside the pump. Miraculously the tyre stayed inflated, so I gingerly limped into work, but was overtaken by a few fellow commuter, was just itching to take off after them, but couldn't risk a hard bump deflating the tyre.

Funnily enough, I managed to break the valve top off mine on Saturday while getting the tyres up to pressure. The air pressure managed to keep the tyre fully inflated for a 40 mile trip on Sunday and has only now decided to let itself down. It was an exceptionally loyal inner tube, all in all...

vorsprung

It's a loverly tuesday here in the westcountry
Pity I have to use the car today

beverick

Nah, the little b*****d lives in Leeds.

Having had a few unplanned air leaks during the late summer which I put down to a warn rear tyre I fitted a brand new Armadillo on the back wheel at the weekend.

Having put a 2-3cm gash in the side wall this morning - I assume from a glass strike - I now need another new tyre.

Rain, fog, dirty roads......welcome to "winter rules" commuting.

Bob

BentMikey

Bummer, bloody Nova driver! Totally his fault of course, but could your road positioning and herding be improved to prevent being forced over these drains next time?

Whenever this sort of thing has happened to me, I've realised that I could have ridden differently to have avoided the problem and better corrected for the bad driver.

Wallace1492

Always Tyred wrote:

Wallace, why DO you come all the way in along the Maryhill Road? Its not that much further to cut in towards the Great Western Road, towards the Univ. Glasgow direction. There are quite a few options if you come in that way.

I know, but to get where I am going (near Geo Sq) I find MR pretty decent. I take Garscube Road at the bottom and that get me out at Cowcaddens. It has bus lane down most of it, not any real hills and is generally pretty quick. Bottom half is not too bad with traffic lights.

Some times go home via Clydeside, or even south side and Yoker Ferry, but at 7am in the morning, I can never be bothered doing extra miles, and take route 1.

Wallace1492

BentMikey wrote:

Bummer, bloody Nova driver! Totally his fault of course, but could your road positioning and herding be improved to prevent being forced over these drains next time?

Whenever this sort of thing has happened to me, I've realised that I could have ridden differently to have avoided the problem and better corrected for the bad driver.

You can see said drains in this pic :

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=55.907155,-4.314612&spn=0,359.993123&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=55.90707,-4.314553&panoid=R2oUBfDpC8J7hiTMvYtvlw&cbp=12,4.2,,0,32.35

I was positioned in centre on inside lane, when car squeezed by mostly on the inside lane too. He then proceeded to undertake the half dozen cars that had passed me in outside lane, so he was in process of cutting in, and came very close, my natural reaction was to swerve in as he came by me, thus hitting the inner drain, which is now in a much sorrier state that in the picture.

My only alternative was to MTFU, and stay in current position and hope he judged correctly, however, I would rather trust my judgment and have a puncture!!

BentMikey

What about riding at the 2/3rds or 3/4 lane position in that situation? Perhaps also adding a wobble?

suzyb

See your Nova and raise you an HGV. The driver barely gave me a bike's width this morning so I too ended up going over a drain + surrounding potholes and through a nice big puddle.

All in all it was a pretty miserable ride this morning. Still glad I did it though.

BentMikey

p.s. I should have added I think that you did *exactly* the right thing given the circumstances. I'm just wondering whether it would have been possible to alter the situation earlier on, and exploring the possibilities.

I like to learn from my own mistakes, especially when they help me do better in correcting for a tosser's driving next time.

Wallace1492

BentMikey wrote:

What about riding at the 2/3rds or 3/4 lane position in that situation? Perhaps also adding a wobble?

As you can see though, there is and inner and outer drain, so centre of the lane is the route to get right between them. As there was a lot of cars going by, I didn't realise he was cutting in till he was virtually beside me. I think I acted correctly.

To be fair, these drains have been getting worse lately, used to bounce over them when on the MTB. Might report them.

BentMikey

The offside ones don't look as lumpy as the nearside ones, plus the 2/3rds position would put you on the edge of the offside manhole covers, where it's usually still smooth enough to ride safely. Add a little fear wobble, and he most likely wouldn't have dared to come that close.

As I said in the previous post, I would also have swerved in and hit the drain to avoid his bad driving, but I'd like to avoid having to do that next time by planning ahead better and earlier.

Wallace1492

BentMikey,

True, outer ones not as bad. Will probably take further out route there in future, just to stop the undertakers.... Talking of which, my grandfather had an undertakers business in the group of shops in the background!!

BentMikey

Sometimes it's quite irritating to have to go to these lengths to avoid such driving stupidity, isn't it? LOL on the undertakers - that has quite an apt maxim for two wheelers. "Undertaking leads to the undertakers".

I'm far from the best at anticipation and good riding or driving, which is why I work hard on situations just like this one to help me improve myself.