Who's planning to ride to work tomorrow?

Clever Pun

it's snowing like a mofo near my house now.... bugger

tomorrow looks dangerous

Porgy

Clever Pun wrote:

it's snowing like a mofo near my house now.... bugger

tomorrow looks dangerous

Will I ever reach my 5000 miles target?

Clever Pun

Porgy wrote:

Clever Pun wrote:

it's snowing like a mofo near my house now.... bugger

tomorrow looks dangerous

Will I ever reach my 5000 miles target?

depends how long you want to take to do it?

Porgy

Clever Pun wrote:

Porgy wrote:

Clever Pun wrote:

it's snowing like a mofo near my house now.... bugger

tomorrow looks dangerous

Will I ever reach my 5000 miles target?

depends how long you want to take to do it?

23:59:59 31st December 2009

hivizyellow

Hi,
Just skated home from Kilburn to west london.

Awful - just plain slippy sliddy unpleasant. Still, home now.....mentally gearing up for tomorrrow which will have that added spice of recently frozen slush. Yipee.

Hi Viz....

Porgy

I haven't even set off yet. I'm dreading it.

jimmypippa

I quiched it, and hadn't in hte heavy snow early last year.

Possibly because I got sore playing in the snow all Sat and Sun. Hillrunning uses different muscles to cycling... ouch.

Cafewanda

I'm in two minds whether to ride in tomorrow as it seems safer than walking on the pavements, locally anyway :shock:

I'll see what the weather-folk say in the morning.

greg66_tri_v2.0

That was unfun. It took over an hour (usually 25 mins).

Major roads, eg Strand, Whitehall and the Embankment, were fine. But once south of the river, all roads seemed to be jammed. There was a thin strip of heaped slush down the middle, and in the gutter. So if you wanted to make progress, you had to ride on the clear surface on the wrong side of the road. But then you had to negotiate the slush ridge to get back to safety - uh-uh.

So I ended up sitting in, riding at the speed of the cars for large chunks of the journey.

Car tomorrow. Though chances are it will mostly have melted by then. :roll:

Aidy

Yeah, it took me 90 minutes to get home and all (Normally under an hour).

Weirdly, I had the opposite to Greg66, roads jammed in central, but eased up as I got further out.

No thanks to the taxi who hit me as he jumped a red light (I'd been stopped at it for a good count of 5).

Fireblade96

I've just been riding

on the hill on the way into town.

SlowingDown

Left work at 4pm and it was spitting rain, half way home and I had 3 inches of snow on my arms and shoulders. Stopped a mile or so from home at the height of the snow storm to push a woman's car off the road as she'd broken down and was blocking the road. I'm there in comedy lycra, trying to get grip on snow in road shoes to push this car on my own while the people who were being held up by this car sat and watched. 5 minutes later I'd just about got it off the road when another bloke kindly helped me for the last 5cms. That's the spirit.

fnegroni

Easy jorney back for me. Knobbly tyres helped a` lot.
Left work at 6.30pm
Train from Maidenhead to Twyford was delayed, got to Twyford at 7.10pm
Cycled from Twyford to Wokingham: 30 minutes.
Had to overtake pretty much every car in front of me, especially the ones stuck on bends, sideways, abandoned, or stuck up/down the flyovers.
On the flyover, had a look at the gridlocked motorway and had a big fat laugh!
Colleagues who left at 4.30pm still on motorway at 6.30pm.
Some abandoned their cars and walked.
A friend walked 6 miles to rescue daughter from nursery!
It was slippery, so stuck to the main road, and would give way to traffic approaching from behind.

moonio

I just got home after leaving work at 6pm... it took 4 hrs to get here, not buses or trains in SE London!!! Ended up sitting in a curry house 2 miles from home with a bunch of strangers whilst we waited an hr for a minicab to take us the rest of the way home

Porgy

Wow - what an awful journey home.

Left work at 6.30 - arrived home at 9.30.

I was OK until I got south of the river - Tooley street. Then I struggled to keep space on the road - had to keep speed down - soon worked out how to hit ice patches without slipping. ..still a bit hair-raising though.

Around Surrey Quays the traffic settled into slow line of traffic - not much more than walking pace - and I ended up between cars, occasionally able to overtake a few cars when the centre of the road looked clear.

Cars were good though - left me plenty of space - only a bus and some white vans played silly buggers with me.

Eventually reached Plumstead - road was a sheet of ice. got off and walked. Managed to cycle odd bits - I was starting to get really cold by now.

Ended up walking about 3 or 4 miles of it, and cycling much of the rest at walking pace.

I'm on the bus tomorrow.

Porgy

moonio wrote:

Ended up sitting in a curry house 2 miles from home with a bunch of strangers

Now there's an idea 8)

moonio

hehe, they were all very nice, a German reiki healer who had just spent 20 yrs in India, a guy from ghana, a spanish woman, a slovak, and 3 carribeans.

We had a real blast drinking, looking out for buses and co-ordinating taxis...

Fireblade96

I did feel a little guilty being out enjoying myself while others were clearly having a hell of a journey. The main road into town - Woodcote Road - is completely blocked. Nothing can get up it, lorries and cars parked everywhere, people walking back with bags of supplies to wait it out. I spoke to one bloke who had walked back from the M4, which has to be a good 6 miles minumum.

Today I was very glad I work from home.

ocaaaaa

Cycle home today was OK, although the last stretch of road was very slippery so kept having to put my foot down.

Walked a bit and had loads of ice stuck to my cleats and as I was only a few minutes from home decided to walk the rest of the way, as I couldn't get them clipped in with all the ice

Nearly fell over in the kitchen , forgot about the ice on the cleats :shock:

iPete

Am I crazy, first chance to cycle since thursday tomorrow and think I'm gonna go for it.

Greater south west London into central, madness on a clipped in roadie with skinnies?

Main roads going to be bearable at half 7?

Anyone else doing similar?

Wrath Rob

Looking out the window the snow is still on the pavements here. Not sure if it will be best to take the tube and risk frozen points even though TFL have had all night to sort them, or break out the MTB and the mud tyres and risk the road. I've not ridden since last Tuesday so I'm going stir crazy ATM

Porgy

Wrath Rob wrote:

Not sure if it will be best to take the tube and risk frozen points even though TFL have had all night to sort them,

That's London Underground, Central Maintenance Organisation. TfL has nothing to do with it.

jibberish

In 3 years of commuting from Wandsworth to Canary Wharf - tonight was without doubt the nastiest journey of them all. The worst bit was getting cold because I couldn't pedal fast. That and the cars which forced me to the side of the road where that line of snow/ice was building up. Train tomorrow :-(

King Donut

iPete wrote:

Am I crazy, first chance to cycle since thursday tomorrow and think I'm gonna go for it.

Greater south west London into central, madness on a clipped in roadie with skinnies?

Main roads going to be bearable at half 7?

Anyone else doing similar?

:? Considering it now. Partly to cure the hangover. Looks ok out there.

cjcp

Wel, last night's commute was great fun for the most part. Left at 4.30, with snow settling in St Katharine's Dock. Was cycling through pure snow and the same down Lower Thames St - had the slope all to myself because the cars were crawling behind . I can recommend Michelin Mud 2 cross tyres!

I prefer riding down Millbank wth snow than into a headwind!

Then got slushy and a bit gnarled up with traffic, and the sleet seemed to clear much of the snow. Decided to take the route through Richmond Park - don't normally do it in the dark because of the deer and lack of visibility, but decided to make an exception . Lots of snow, which helped with the visibility.

As long as I stayed seated and kept spinning in the 36, controlling the bike wasn't a problem.

EDIT: my enthusiasm for riding in snow means I'm glossing over the very wet, slushy bits, the fact that the sleet saturated my gloves, so the fingers were freezing (not toes though, oddly) and that I'm not disappointed I'm not commuting for the rest of the year.

roger_merriman

much nicer ride yesterday, not as much ice and after I arrived the rain came down. followed by snow so the ride home though the park at 9pm was lovely all white with mist and deer. and the snow was a lot easier than the ice the day before.

iPete

King Donut wrote:

iPete wrote:

Am I crazy, first chance to cycle since thursday tomorrow and think I'm gonna go for it.

Greater south west London into central, madness on a clipped in roadie with skinnies?

Main roads going to be bearable at half 7?

Anyone else doing similar?

:? Considering it now. Partly to cure the hangover. Looks ok out there.

To report, went all good, no ice on the roads, apart from my own road that I walked, as I left early very little traffic, even around Earls Court!

Looked dodgier being a pedestrian :!:

bd12mz

there are some nutters about.
we were waiting to pull out and we saw a flashing bike light so held back.
bike went by so we pulled out.
the guy had:

no helmet
dark trousers
dark red jacket
black bag on back
no back lights
no hi vis at all

all this at 7.30 near enough dark, snow in the streets and fog!

wanted to get out of the car and tell him off.

King Donut

roger merriman wrote:

much nicer ride yesterday, not as much ice and after I arrived the rain came down. followed by snow so the ride home though the park at 9pm was lovely all white with mist and deer. and the snow was a lot easier than the ice the day before.

I attempted a run in Bushy Park on Sunday. Was treacherous on the hard ground and all roads leading to the park.

This morning I wimped out of the commute. Spent so long thinking about whether to ride or not that I ended up late and had to get the train. Shame cos it seems to be a bit warmer today and the main roads are all clear.

cjcp

King Donut wrote:

I attempted a run in Bushy Park on Sunday. Was treacherous on the hard ground and all roads leading to the park.

Running full stop is treacherous.

This morning I wimped out of the commute. Spent so long thinking about whether to ride or not that I ended up late and had to get the train. Shame cos it seems to be a bit warmer today and the main roads are all clear.

You mean, too cold to only wear a vest.