The Tyne and Wear Commuter Thread

king_jeffers

jomoj wrote:

Did the GNBR a couple of years ago and was pretty underwhelmed at parts of the route ( along the spine road from ashington to Blyth?? Come on...) so didn't feel inclined to do it again. Don't know much about the wooler wheel, might look into that.

Yeah after I posted checked the route out... Spine road?! Might give that one a miss, shame really entire route seems quite flat.

Noticed the Wiggle sportive here : http://www.wiggle.co.uk/wiggle-super-se ... -road-fun/ bit much for me at the moment, not had much training in recently with it raining every day... Sick of always having wet kit. Defo for next year although maybe not the 92 mile route!

Initialised

tuktuk wrote:

I still havent got musgaurds, just a very wet ars*!

Only on the rear, soaked feet but dry ars.

Initialised

Allez Mark wrote:

Rode from Sunniside to Team Valley at about 6.30 this morning. Missed the rain for a change.

Do you go down Consett road, A692? It's a nice descent that one. I use it as R&R after climbing from the South end of the Valley via Kibblesworth on my lunchtime rides. Also is it wrong to fist pump at the "Check Your Speed" sign and hope to trip the camera?

Allez Mark

Initialised wrote:

Allez Mark wrote:

Rode from Sunniside to Team Valley at about 6.30 this morning. Missed the rain for a change.

Do you go down Consett road, A692? It's a nice descent that one. I use it as R&R after climbing from the South end of the Valley via Kibblesworth on my lunchtime rides. Also is it wrong to fist pump at the "Check Your Speed" sign and hope to trip the camera?

Yes, down the A692. I'm not sure it's possible for us to set the camera off. I've been past at well over 30.

That's a decent climb up through Kibby. Have you been up the road that passes Silver Hills garden centre or there is the Lady Park road which all bring you out at the virtually the same place. I just go back up the 692 to home.

Long_Time_Lurker

Initialised wrote:

Also is it wrong to fist pump at the "Check Your Speed" sign and hope to trip the camera?

It is never wrong - in fact I would say it is mandatory. I have two speed indicator signs on my commute.
I'm not trying hard enough if I can't get the numbers to display in red.

anthdci

sick of this rain. Put me off riding in this morning so got ready for the metro, but it had pretty much stopped when i left so i should have rode anyway.

jomoj

One trip on the Metro is enough to remind me I'd rather get wet on the bike...

jomoj

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Initialised

Allez Mark wrote:

Initialised wrote:

Allez Mark wrote:

Rode from Sunniside to Team Valley at about 6.30 this morning. Missed the rain for a change.

Do you go down Consett road, A692? It's a nice descent that one. I use it as R&R after climbing from the South end of the Valley via Kibblesworth on my lunchtime rides. Also is it wrong to fist pump at the "Check Your Speed" sign and hope to trip the camera?

Yes, down the A692. I'm not sure it's possible for us to set the camera off. I've been past at well over 30.

That's a decent climb up through Kibby. Have you been up the road that passes Silver Hills garden centre or there is the Lady Park road which all bring you out at the virtually the same place. I just go back up the 692 to home.

Yes, I do a few routes around that way. Mostly depends how much time I have.

I think you need to be wearing proper Hi Vis gear and for it to be dark to trip a GATSO. I'll have to experiment as I think it's the only one nearby I'd have much chance of setting off.

iirc red is 'only' 36mph on that one, endomondo has me at 44.2 max. It's just so hard not to get held up by paranoid drivers.

tuktuk

I think i seen the sun thismorning!

jomoj

the quayside was all barriered up this morning, I thought perhaps they were clearing the path of ipod zombies so i could make a good attack on the riverside segments but apparently there's a queen or something in town. Maybe she's here on a hen do.

Twostage

Had a crash this morning. Schoolboy error - I forgot to close the front brake release after doing some fettling on the bike. So going downhill towards the A68 on a wet road I discovered I only had a rear brake. Two attempts at braking with the rear just made the back-end slide out to the side and the junction was approaching rapidly. So I just had to steer into the hedgerow and hope for the best. Quick somersault ending up on my back with the bike a few feet down the road. Surprisingly OK. Left arm and ribs a bit sore (which I can't understand as I'm sure I landed on my right hand side). The rear wheel was slightly out of alignment but I just loosened the QR and got it back in line. Given the bike a check over and it looks OK.
So, could have been worse.

tuktuk

That was lucky Twostage! Good to hear you arent too damaged.

I have started a new route this week,

past rake lane hospital, down the back of the silverlink past B&Q and wickes, through battle hill, over coast rd and down past the side of the golf driving range, turning right at the bottom to head up past siemens and the small retail park and then down towards the quayside.

It feels a bit backward to do this route but its all on road and hopefully will see me having less punctures compared to the 'cycle' paths. Suprisingly it takes next to no extra time, probably because im not stopping to cross over the coast rd slip roads every 500m.

cje

I commute to town from Kingston Park every day. If you see a fat bloke on a bike between those two points it might be me. I did the 63 mile cyclone in four and half hours.

king_jeffers

tuktuk wrote:

past rake lane hospital, down the back of the silverlink past B&Q and wickes, through battle hill, over coast rd and down past the side of the golf driving range, turning right at the bottom to head up past siemens and the small retail park and then down towards the quayside.

Are you one of those on the Strava Rake Lane track?

Initialised

tuktuk wrote:

Suprisingly it takes next to no extra time, probably because im not stopping to cross over the coast rd slip roads every 500m.

That's why I ended up just using the main carriageway when I used to ride the coast road.

@Twostage, I did that a while back, but found out without the assistance of a hedge. Hope you're OK.

tuktuk

I have strava installed but never used it, tbh im not quite sure how to use it! Im not sure wether im meant to be on new ride or 'feed' ? Im not very fast anyways, especially heading away from the foxhunters, ie the harder way haha.

Does the segment there run both ways or just heading up to new york?

Twostage

Twostage wrote:

Had a crash this morning. Schoolboy error - I forgot to close the front brake release after doing some fettling on the bike. So going downhill towards the A68 on a wet road I discovered I only had a rear brake. Two attempts at braking with the rear just made the back-end slide out to the side and the junction was approaching rapidly. So I just had to steer into the hedgerow and hope for the best. Quick somersault ending up on my back with the bike a few feet down the road. Surprisingly OK. Left arm and ribs a bit sore (which I can't understand as I'm sure I landed on my right hand side). The rear wheel was slightly out of alignment but I just loosened the QR and got it back in line. Given the bike a check over and it looks OK.
So, could have been worse.

Bit of a stiff right shoulder this morning which is what I expected. According to my garmin track log I was going 25 mph when I bailed. Checked the scene on the way home last night, I was about 10 feet from the junction so I'd definitely left it until the last moment.

Long_Time_Lurker

tuktuk wrote:

I have strava installed but never used it, tbh im not quite sure how to use it! Im not sure wether im meant to be on new ride or 'feed' ?

Start it off (wait for it to find a GPS signal), stick it in your pocket and ride. At the end press Feed and it uploads it to the database.

Someone has ruined one of my Strava routes. They have done it in a car - no chance that the average speed is 48 miles and hour :x

tuktuk

Do you have to have a memory of where the segments are so you know when to go for it or does it beep or anything ?

Apparently the new route is just under 10miles, and i got here thismorning in 35mins, computer was saying slightly under 17mph average, never had sweat patches like it haha.

Long_Time_Lurker

No beeping - up to you to remember (or make your own on the website).

Initialised

Twostage wrote:

Twostage wrote:

Had a crash this morning. Schoolboy error - I forgot to close the front brake release after doing some fettling on the bike. So going downhill towards the A68 on a wet road I discovered I only had a rear brake. Two attempts at braking with the rear just made the back-end slide out to the side and the junction was approaching rapidly. So I just had to steer into the hedgerow and hope for the best. Quick somersault ending up on my back with the bike a few feet down the road. Surprisingly OK. Left arm and ribs a bit sore (which I can't understand as I'm sure I landed on my right hand side). The rear wheel was slightly out of alignment but I just loosened the QR and got it back in line. Given the bike a check over and it looks OK.
So, could have been worse.

Bit of a stiff right shoulder this morning which is what I expected. According to my garmin track log I was going 25 mph when I bailed. Checked the scene on the way home last night, I was about 10 feet from the junction so I'd definitely left it until the last moment.

Maybe get it checked out, shoulders are delicate and take ages to heal.

tuktuk

Can i ask, would there be any benefit in me changing my bars to road bike (drops?) bars and also what would a rough cost of parts be ?

Is this something that is worth doing or will the bike still be far from a road bike meaning i should just buy a proper one ?

Initialised

I looked into this and n+1 quickly became the obvious answer because of the complexity of the changes needed. What you need are bars, brake levers, shifters, brake adapters possibly new gear and brake cables. Maybe a new stem.

Benefits are better riding position, more hand positions so easier to control the tingles, easier to assume the position.

ozzrahog

hi, looking to commute from washington to newburn anybody suggest the best route?

Initialised

Cyclestreets wants to send you up the A1, which is a stupid idea.

So, get to Birtley then round or through Team Valley, either up Bensham Bank and down Scotswood Road or Cross the A184 at the Eslington Towers, then Clockmill Road, Keelman's Way and either cross at Scotswood Bridge or Newburn bridge.

jomoj

not really tyne related but I just got back from a week in Montreal, Canada and was well impressed with the number of people cycling despite the patchy infrastructure and SUV laden roads. Loads more people riding in the city than here - perhaps the sunny weather helps - but it was good to see people just using bikes to get around, very few with 'all the gear'. They also have a shared use bike scheme with swipe card activated docking stations. I know we've got those scratch bikes here but I've only ever seen a couple of people actually using them.

tuktuk

Just had a call from my mam checking up on me as apparently there was an accident involving a cyclist near or on Norham rd ?

tuktuk

Sounds serious

Twostage

Does sound bad. Fingers crossed.

I'm just back from southern Spain. Thirty odd degrees every day and 900 metres elevation. I was pleased there was nowhere to hire a bike from as just going up stairs was knackering. The village was on a national cycle way, though, and I saw a few determined cyclists wearing lycra on mountain bikes. I assumed they were local and used to it.
I'm hoping my altitude non-training is going to help with my commutes next week