Things that are just true about urban cycling

biondino

No insurance. My fault. Sad.

johndiamond

Hear what you're saying about going commando at the office. Packing my bag in a hurry in the mornings I tend to forget something or other most days.

At least once a month I also find myself rocking the Don Johnson in Miami Vice look; suit with loafers, but no socks baby!

Wallace1492

The fitter you get and the more your commute time comes down, the more often some jean wearing RLJer in jeans and a messenger back and riding an old MTB with knobblies will effortlessly breeze past you.

Wallace1492

All traffic lights at the bottom of a decent hill are set to red, until you hit the hidden switch by stopping, clipping out, losing all momentum and putting your foot on said switch. This is true no matter if you speed up to lights and brake hard or slow down well before, feverishly willing them to change.

ketsbaia

Wallace1492 wrote:

All traffic lights at the bottom of a decent hill are set to red, until you hit the hidden switch by stopping, clipping out, losing all momentum and putting your foot on said switch. This is true no matter if you speed up to lights and brake hard or slow down well before, feverishly willing them to change.

You've been down Dog Kennel Hill, then?

asprilla

Traffic lights have no truck with nonchalance.

Aidy

There's always a headwind. No matter which way you're going.

Wallace1492

ketsbaia wrote:

Wallace1492 wrote:

All traffic lights at the bottom of a decent hill are set to red, until you hit the hidden switch by stopping, clipping out, losing all momentum and putting your foot on said switch. This is true no matter if you speed up to lights and brake hard or slow down well before, feverishly willing them to change.

You've been down Dog Kennel Hill, then?

No, just Maryhill Road.....

kieranb

doesn't matter if you're a parent with your young child in a seat on the rack, a woman out leisure cycling with her family, once you are on a bike you are fair game for verbal abuse from any dirver.

kieranb

RLJers are a threat to the state and health of the eldery/young and must be stopped

Speeding drivers are just ordinary people in a rush to work/home, very understandable.

Aidy

lost_in_thought wrote:

If you delay unclipping at a red, then eventually decide to give in, it will change to yellow the instant your foot touches the ground.

The corollary to this is that the instant you achieve the perfect trackstand, the trackstand to end all trackstands, the one which you could hold for days, and which would win you the love and adulation of millions, the lights will change to green.

Greg T

Aidy wrote:

The corollary to this is that the instant you achieve the perfect trackstand, the trackstand to end all trackstands, the one which you could hold for days, and which would win you the love and adulation of millions, the lights will change to green.

When you are in the zone and your karma is so perfect your wheels are locked still, your body in equilibrium and balance - even weight on both feet and you are in the perfect hover....

Someone pulls alongside and looks at your feet.

You start disco dancing like an epileptic at a strobe fest.

gtvlusso

You realise what a state British road surfaces are in.....

jedster

Lobotomised idiots who haven't ridden a bike for 30 years suddenly become experts on cycling when they get behind the wheel of a car.

FACT!

rml380z

The bigger the car, the worse the driver.

Kinda strange, because;

The smaller the scooter/motorbike, the worse the driver.

dhope

lost_in_thought wrote:

If you delay unclipping at a red, then eventually decide to give in, it will change to yellow the instant your foot touches the ground.

Always a moment before I find, just late enough that I've shifted my balance enough that my foot needs to touch the floor before I can reshift balance and then head off again, by which time I'm holding people up.

dhope

If your commute takes 30 minutes and the shower/change takes 10, and you manage to shave 2 minutes off the commute, you'll spend that 2 minutes cooling down and stopping perspiring after the extra effort. Net time gain, zero.

jonny_trousers

dhope wrote:

If your commute takes 30 minutes and the shower/change takes 10, and you manage to shave 2 minutes off the commute, you'll spend that 2 minutes cooling down and stopping perspiring after the extra effort. Net time gain, zero.

You soon discover that pushing yourself harder and harder has little to do with shortening your actual travelling time and everything to do with the race. Otherwise we'd all be riding two-hundred-quid hybrids, rarely breaking a sweat and arriving at our destination just two minutes later than we do now. It's all about the race baby, it's all about the race (safely and respectfully, of course).

shouldbeinbed

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

Being overtaken by a girl really, really hurts.

I've been overtaken by a dwarf before.

I was gutted until I caught up with them at a cake stop and saw what a whizzy piece of kit they were on.

seataltea

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

dhope wrote:

If your commute takes 30 minutes and the shower/change takes 10, and you manage to shave 2 minutes off the commute, you'll spend that 2 minutes cooling down and stopping perspiring after the extra effort. Net time gain, zero.

You soon discover that pushing yourself harder and harder has little to do with shortening your actual travelling time and everything to do with the race. Otherwise we'd all be riding two-hundred-quid hybrids, rarely breaking a sweat and arriving at our destination just two minutes later than we do now. It's all about the race baby, it's all about the race (safely and respectfully, of course).

I ride a sub £200 Hybrid on the commute am yet to be beaten, en-route to work listening to Radio 4 on the Pennine valleys and hills sweat is a minor irritant. On the way home at 4pm, 10pm or 3am with a touch of Incubus on the mp3 I have only been 'done' once by a roadie on a tourer and he had a cycle trailer with bricks in it. The few words we exchanged were along the lines of he was training for a race, he deserved to win. Riders who assume Hybrids are not worthy, are not worthy.

dhope

seataltea wrote:

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

dhope wrote:

If your commute takes 30 minutes and the shower/change takes 10, and you manage to shave 2 minutes off the commute, you'll spend that 2 minutes cooling down and stopping perspiring after the extra effort. Net time gain, zero.

You soon discover that pushing yourself harder and harder has little to do with shortening your actual travelling time and everything to do with the race. Otherwise we'd all be riding two-hundred-quid hybrids, rarely breaking a sweat and arriving at our destination just two minutes later than we do now. It's all about the race baby, it's all about the race (safely and respectfully, of course).

I ride a sub £200 Hybrid on the commute am yet to be beaten, en-route to work listening to Radio 4 on the Pennine valleys and hills sweat is a minor irritant. On the way home at 4pm, 10pm or 3am with a touch of Incubus on the mp3 I have only been 'done' once by a roadie on a tourer and he had a cycle trailer with bricks in it. The few words we exchanged were along the lines of he was training for a race, he deserved to win. Riders who assume Hybrids are not worthy, are not worthy.

Pennines? What are you doing in the urban commuting thread. Get back to your hills, scenery and fresh air

seataltea

I pass many a barge, lock, pub, small town and village whilst riding to work, it's almost ghetto like on some days, urban is as urban does

jonny_trousers

seataltea wrote:

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

dhope wrote:

If your commute takes 30 minutes and the shower/change takes 10, and you manage to shave 2 minutes off the commute, you'll spend that 2 minutes cooling down and stopping perspiring after the extra effort. Net time gain, zero.

You soon discover that pushing yourself harder and harder has little to do with shortening your actual travelling time and everything to do with the race. Otherwise we'd all be riding two-hundred-quid hybrids, rarely breaking a sweat and arriving at our destination just two minutes later than we do now. It's all about the race baby, it's all about the race (safely and respectfully, of course).

I ride a sub £200 Hybrid on the commute am yet to be beaten, en-route to work listening to Radio 4 on the Pennine valleys and hills sweat is a minor irritant. On the way home at 4pm, 10pm or 3am with a touch of Incubus on the mp3 I have only been 'done' once by a roadie on a tourer and he had a cycle trailer with bricks in it. The few words we exchanged were along the lines of he was training for a race, he deserved to win. Riders who assume Hybrids are not worthy, are not worthy.

Point well and truly missed.

Catfish

SimonAH wrote:

Number One

All pedestrian underpasses will contain at least a small quantity of broken beer bottle glass.

The word pedestrian would suggest that you should't be cycling through them, so if you pick up a puncture then thats payback

jonny_trousers

You will quickly discover that holierthanthouism is rife within the world of cycle commuting.

asprilla

Catfish wrote:

SimonAH wrote:

Number One

All pedestrian underpasses will contain at least a small quantity of broken beer bottle glass.

The word pedestrian would suggest that you should't be cycling through them, so if you pick up a puncture then thats payback

Someone has already made that point and he's explained he poor choice of shorthand for shared pedestrian / cycle underpasses.