The Tyne and Wear Commuter Thread

Tony Mc

The weather looks ok but heres hoping we've not bitten off more than we can chew doing the Epic .

Captain Slackbladder

There's a section of cycle path that leads over the a19 (tyne tunnel) that they've dug up and cordend off. Can only assume they are resurfacing it, seems a tad strange as it seemed in pretty good nick already. Far worse sections along that route.
In its absence they've created a temp route by scraping a bit of soil off the grass and placing some plastic barriers either side, slightest bit of rain on Wednesday and it was a mare, hopefully its sorted soon.....turning into a right Victor Meldrew here

Initialised

Warning to those who ride near Kibblesworth.

There's a corner with a bunch of holes in it. It looks like a plough has hit the tarmac.

It's on the downhill (south bound side) section of Birklands Lane between the two off road cycle paths. I'll take a closer look next time I ride up there, looked just the right size to grab a front wheel, would be nice as I tend to be fast on that bend.

Initialised

Tony Mc wrote:

The weather looks ok but heres hoping we've not bitten off more than we can chew doing the Epic .

Did you make it round?

I scraped through in 8:45:30 maybe it was all the hills, maybe it was the headwind up half of the. But I blame wiggle.

Was an amazing ride and possibly the Sportive with the most climbing and I've yet to tally how many of England's highest roads it ticked off.

Captain Slackbladder

Captain Slackbladder wrote:

There's a section of cycle path that leads over the a19 (tyne tunnel) that they've dug up and cordend off. Can only assume they are resurfacing it, seems a tad strange as it seemed in pretty good nick already. Far worse sections along that route.
In its absence they've created a temp route by scraping a bit of soil off the grass and placing some plastic barriers either side, slightest bit of rain on Wednesday and it was a mare, hopefully its sorted soon.....turning into a right Victor Meldrew here

As if by magic 2 rear spokes went ping this morning on that very stretch.... :evil:

Tony Mc

Initialised wrote:

Tony Mc wrote:

The weather looks ok but heres hoping we've not bitten off more than we can chew doing the Epic .

Did you make it round?

I scraped through in 8:45:30 maybe it was all the hills, maybe it was the headwind up half of the. But I blame wiggle.

Was an amazing ride and possibly the Sportive with the most climbing and I've yet to tally how many of England's highest roads it ticked off.

Yes managed to get round the Epic in 9.06 couple of tough bits butm we're glad we did it

Managed the climb up to Langdon beck??
Had to bail up on the start of the accent coming out of stanhope to Rookhope and the first bit heading up to the race course
The views were fantastic the wind not so !!

Great day really pleased to finish first hundred

markhewitt1978

Initialised wrote:

Warning to those who ride near Kibblesworth.

There's a corner with a bunch of holes in it. It looks like a plough has hit the tarmac.

It's on the downhill (south bound side) section of Birklands Lane between the two off road cycle paths. I'll take a closer look next time I ride up there, looked just the right size to grab a front wheel, would be nice as I tend to be fast on that bend.

Thanks, keep us updated if you're round that way again as I was likely going to go that way on the way to my Mam's house .

Initialised

Tony Mc wrote:

Initialised wrote:

Tony Mc wrote:

The weather looks ok but heres hoping we've not bitten off more than we can chew doing the Epic .

Did you make it round?

I scraped through in 8:45:30 maybe it was all the hills, maybe it was the headwind up half of the. But I blame wiggle.

Was an amazing ride and possibly the Sportive with the most climbing and I've yet to tally how many of England's highest roads it ticked off.

Yes managed to get round the Epic in 9.06 couple of tough bits butm we're glad we did it

Managed the climb up to Langdon beck??
Had to bail up on the start of the accent coming out of stanhope to Rookhope and the first bit heading up to the race course
The views were fantastic the wind not so !!

Great day really pleased to finish first hundred

Cresting just to see that looming, no, filling the horizon and knowing it was next was awesome. The blast through Teesdale made up for it. Only really got to enjoy that and the descent into Edmundbuyers since pretty much all the others had you conserving energy for the next climb. I make it 8 of the North Pennines highest roads (http://www.ocd.org.uk/uk/HighestRoads.html) with Langdon Fell being 10th highest in the UK. So not a bad day out. I stopped a couple or three times on that climb, wasn't going to walk any of them though, that's cheating!

markhewitt1978

Initialised wrote:

I stopped a couple or three times on that climb, wasn't going to walk any of them though, that's cheating!

Good to see that even you are human . I may be of the drive to the start and do 50 miles type of rider rather than ride to the start do 100 miles and ride home, but at least we have that tactic in common

Initialised

markhewitt1978 wrote:

Initialised wrote:

I stopped a couple or three times on that climb, wasn't going to walk any of them though, that's cheating!

Good to see that even you are human . I may be of the drive to the start and do 50 miles type of rider rather than ride to the start do 100 miles and ride home, but at least we have that tactic in common

Only just feeling human again... Had to skip my lunchtime rides all week but in retrospect I'm not sure how much of it was genuine need to recover and how much was to get in a bit of extra time on the BF4 Beta before it opened to everyone.

anthdci

going to be a wet ride home! I've got one front light back to the manufacturer for repair and now the other is playing up :shock: 3 rear lights are working as they should though.

Tony Mc

Think you could be right about the soaking

Must get some mudguards

anthdci

Tony Mc wrote:

Must get some mudguards

fitted mine a couple of weeks ago Got new waterproof gloves, my waterproof overshoes, waterproof coat and waterproof overpants. But think I might boil if I wear all that so might just let my legs get wet.

jongooligan

anthdci wrote:

fitted mine a couple of weeks ago Got new waterproof gloves, my waterproof overshoes, waterproof coat and waterproof overpants. But think I might boil if I wear all that so might just let my legs get wet.

Have you tried these? http://www.rainlegs.com/en/home

Not perfect but you won't boil your legs.

anthdci

jongooligan wrote:

anthdci wrote:

fitted mine a couple of weeks ago Got new waterproof gloves, my waterproof overshoes, waterproof coat and waterproof overpants. But think I might boil if I wear all that so might just let my legs get wet.

Have you tried these? http://www.rainlegs.com/en/home

Not perfect but you won't boil your legs.

Have never seem those, but i think it is fighting a losing battle. My new gloves, sealskin winter waterproof gloves are most certainly NOT waterproof! Sending back to wiggle tomorrow. I could feel the water running down my fingers.

bucklb

They were selling rainlegs (or a copy) in Aldi recently. They were leftover from the commuter special, rather than part of the recent cycling special. Looked too bulky to be bothered carting around, imho.

I'm now a convert to going for the windproof & quick drying rather than waterproof approach. Stood at the front door wringing the water out of my (don't even pretend to be waterproof) gloves tonight I did wonder if I've made the right choice though.

Surprised sealskin weren't much cop. I've heard generally good things about them.

Aldi link - https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/specialbuys/h ... eg-covers/

anthdci

bucklb wrote:

Surprised sealskin weren't much cop. I've heard generally good things about them.

I was impressed for the first 20mins, not too warm and cold, no wetness coming through, but by about 30-40mins into my commute home it felt like i was wearing wetsuit material on my hands then i had to ring them out when i got home after 60mins. They've been on the radiator since i got in and still arent dry.

Tony Mc

anthdci wrote:

Tony Mc wrote:

Must get some mudguards

fitted mine a couple of weeks ago Got new waterproof gloves, my waterproof overshoes, waterproof coat and waterproof overpants. But think I might boil if I wear all that so might just let my legs get wet.

I'm wearing along sleeve base layer, windproof jacket, overshoes and shorts got some Defeet gloves whilst aren't waterproof do keep fingers warm at the minute ( will change to some old Altura waterproof gloves I bought years ago when it gets really cold and wet)

I'm of the same opinion as you legs get wet and are easy to dry once at work

Captain Slackbladder

No massive change for me during Winter, additional layer and switch to the water/wind proof jacket, decent pair of gloves and dut under the lid...jobs a good un.

I'm not shitting money so refuse to spend a fortune on 'Winter Gear'

Due to hit the 5000k mark on my Strava stats for this year shortly....chuffed to bits from where i was at in jan/feb.

Edit - Holy moly, its edited out going to the bog for a number 2...

jongooligan

Biggest change for me is the switch to wearing a helmet. It's a good place to mount a light that can be directed straight at car drivers. No excuse for not seeing me on these dark mornings.

I'm also much slower in the dark as my braking distance is effectively governed by the distance I can see with my lighting set up. There are parts of my route that are completely dark so I've got decent 'see by' lights but they didn't stop me hitting a tree that someone had chopped down on the C2C track a couple of years ago.

A bit chilly this morning but cooking on the way home.

bucklb

You've just reminded me that I was going to go out & hack down the low hanging branch that nearly knocked my helmet off on Wednesday evening (in the rain & murk). Maybe helmets are of some use after all ...

tuktuk

Im commuting by car again as i couldnt face another winter on the bike. Last year scarred me for life i think.

Trying to get out on the dryer weather days and set up a turbo in the spare bedroom for the wet weather.

I was coming on leaps and bounds aswell as i was getting alot of miles in since getting the new bike!

andy9964

Grazed knee and elbow' sore wrist and strained lower tricep, after my 1st public clipless moment
Probably the busiest junction in town :oops:
At least I've learnt from the last time, check chain isnt wrapped around the inner crank area before riding off, or it will get stuck


Bike's okay though

Tony Mc

We've all been there :oops:

My worst moment was at bottom of Dunston bank traffic lights put the pedal down and the chain snapped ( what was that annoying clicking noise that i ignored ) bike literally somersaulted over my shoulder and i hit the deck forward rolling into the middle of the junction , picked the and walked off as if nothing had happened

andy9964

Well, the worst of the pain has subsided (tricep), but I now ache all down the left side.
Conclusion: I'm too old to be falling off my bike

In related news, someone told my wife that clipless shoes and pedals are the most dangerous thing in the world, conclusive proof right there :roll:

Initialised

I ended up in the RVI getting stitches after my last Clipless moment, haven't had one in two years. Last few offs and I'mout of the pedals before I hit the deck.

Had an embarrassing incident with a chain lest week heading g up Bensham Bank, a link was loose so I pulled over and sorted it out while some workmates goaded from their bus. I thought I'd fixed it and as I set off it snapped again.

bucklb

Navy ship moored at the quayside this morning - HMS Grimsby. Not really up there with names like Dreadnought, Fearless or Valiant.

Still, nice to see that expensive new mooring they installed actually being used for once...

jongooligan

bucklb wrote:

Navy ship moored at the quayside this morning - HMS Grimsby. Not really up there with names like Dreadnought, Fearless or Valiant.

Still, nice to see that expensive new mooring they installed actually being used for once...

Ha ha ha. Can't believe they've named a ship after that dump. Doesn't really strike fear into your heart, more a depressing sense of boredom.

bluefinch

I alternate between the Coast Road path and Hadrian's Way depending on where in town I'm going - the people who use the Coast Road path (and the people who've given up on it) will know that the stretch by TyneMet college has been in very poor repair for years. I've tried to get it looked at it a pathetic way (putting it on fixmystreet.com, emailing the council and councillors) to no effect and a couple of weeks ago decided to try a petition with the intention of starting a bit of a social media campaign to drum up some signatures behind it (this is an epetition, so wouldn't involve standing about with a clipboard collecting signatures). The petition is still "awaiting approval" nine days after being put on the council website but coming home this evening the path seems to have been fixed or at least patched, will have to have a look in daylight. Can't be a coincidence though so a petition with zero signatures seems to have worked.

There's still plenty wrong with that route but that was the worst of it and if anyone has similar problems the epetition system seems to be much the most effective way of dealing with it, at least round here (I know fixmystreet works in some areas but was a complete waste of time - all I got was a form email from Highways promising a full response in ten days, which never came).

bucklb

Didn't seem fixed when I came back that way tonight (admittedly in the dark). Congratulations if you have got something done though It can only be an improvement.

I've tended to use the concrete strip alongside the railings as it seems marginally less rubbish. Maybe I can try the tarmac path tomorrow as a special birthday treat.


Now seen it in daylight and a definite improvement (and more extensive than I'd expected). Will be interesting to see how the surface copes when we get the proper frosty weather - I may be back on the concrete strip