Rivers of blood.
Chainrings should be banned or hidden in chaincases!
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting
Confessions of a Cycle Commuter
(1669 posts)-
Posted 8 years ago #
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As you will remember, yesterday was a bit wet. So, when I got home I hung up the kids' waterproofs to dry.
Getting them dressed this morning they put on lovely & dry waterproofs and toasty warm gloves from on top of the radiator.
Unfortunately, I had left the helmets in the bottom of my pannier and when I turned one over and squashed it down on Mini- HC's head the pad emptied itself of water all over his head... oops.
Posted 8 years ago # -
As described in the "Severe weather warning" thread, I got wet yesterday, and came to work in an old pair of shoes.
It turns out that those old shoes were rather more knackered than I realised. The heel has just fallen off one of them. I'm left with a pair of lightweight shoes that live under the desk. I guess I'll be going home in them. I will have cold, wet feet again.
Posted 8 years ago # -
I need to practice what I preach and not cycle along parts of the Innocent when it's wet. The chance of a puncture is much higher as I was reminded this morning. Pssssssssss
Posted 8 years ago # -
My inner tube was shredded yesterday by a large nail. Conveniently I was about thirty seconds away from my usual bike repair shop *and* a bike hire station. Lock up bike, posted key through repair shop letter box, and leapt onto hire bike to finish commute. Reversed the trip on the way home, collecting my bike with new tube.
Worth every penny not to faff about changing tubes in the rain!
Posted 8 years ago # -
do you think the bike shop or hire bike people have been scattering nails?
Posted 8 years ago # -
Ha - an outside possibility...
Posted 8 years ago # -
Headed through the Innocent tunnel and on down this evening (bound for Seafield to retrieve the car I hardly use from a service) - I don't go home that way and ooooh it is DARK! A slight nervousness about Lurking Characters (or Imagined Beasts) until I reached streetlights and chaps wandering home with their carryouts again*!
*sometimes the cry of "gies a backie!" is actually quite friendly. I felt a bit like he felt obligated to say it...
Posted 8 years ago # -
Yesterday on my multi modal commute I took my folding bike out of the car, having parked it nr mini bike train's school and then headed off to work.
I though 'did I lock the folding mechanism?'
'Yes I must have, I always do'.
Then I feel that the bike is not handling well. Like the back wheel is all wobbly.
I pull over to check and discovered that my subconscious was correct and the bike was about to fold in two.
Lucky escape there.
Posted 8 years ago # -
I switched off someone's lights at the bike racks behind Loudon's at Port Hamilton yesterday. Only while I was trying to locate the off button on the rear light did I think about the fact that I was probably on CCTV looking very like I was pinching them! Thought it was odd that they were still on the bike but didn't note the bike type. If you are on here I hope the lights were still there, at least the batteries should have been functional...
Posted 8 years ago # -
Somebody switched off my lights a few weeks back. Which is awkward because they're dynamo jobs and I was halfway home in the gloom before I realised I had no lights on.
Still, I thoroughly appreciate the gesture, and I now just check to ensure I've got something glimmering away as I leave the office!
Posted 8 years ago # -
@Darkerside, good point, hadn't thought of that. These were little USB numbers so I hope it was Ok.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Having dynamo lights with a standlight feature is a continually updated index of the kindness of strangers - a woman actually got out of her car yesterday to let me know I'd left my lights on. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I can't turn the back one off and it seems to shine for ages, from the number of people who have come to find me to tell me ...
Posted 8 years ago # -
Left a long 13hr shift at the western general to find that I hadn't actually locked my bike to anything in the morning. Silly silly numpty!
Posted 8 years ago # -
I hit one of the patches of glass at Wester Hailes on Friday night. Front tyre went flat instantly, got ripped off the rim under braking and I very nearly went for a swim. Tube change by torchlight. Thought I'd got the offending bit of glass out but obviously not, the tyre kept going down slowly and required pumped up about 10 times to get me home. I only found the other two bits of glass still in the tyre today.
Several things of note:
1. No puncture in 2,000+ miles on Gatorskins and then the first week commuting on my MTB a knobbly tyre gets shredded.
2. Lots of people are very kind in stopping and checking all's well. Thank you.
3. Mini-pumps are great until you have to inflate a 2" mtb tyre ten times in 45 minutes. Then you hate them.
4. I know for a fact the towpath glass has been tweeted repeatedly to various authorities. Who actually looks after it?Posted 8 years ago # -
Canal authority look after the towpath? I think?
Posted 8 years ago # -
Snowy - Scottish Canals are responsible for the towpath. You can tweet them @scottishcanals
Posted 8 years ago # -
@snowy I tweeted @scottishcanals about this very glass several days ago and they acknowledged it. Oddly I later tweeted them about a wheelchair in the water which they replied to say they'd fished out. I suspect that fishing out wheelchairs is more interesting (and therefore higher priority) than sweeping up broken glass.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Is there a market for a sturdy but foldable brush we can carry in our panniers and sweep as we go? Lot of glass in the cowgate. My schwalbe marathon pluses can't keep it out forever.
Posted 8 years ago # -
@gembo
What is requied is an increase in motor traffic. It is the passage of these vehicles which grinds glass into harmless dust, and we should show some gratitude if not respect.
Posted 8 years ago # -
I prefer my brush
Posted 8 years ago # -
"I prefer my brush"
Words to live by.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Tesco used to do miniature dustpan/brush combos which clicked together flat. Know what you mean, though - a long handle would be much easier as a big glass-patch (like the carpeting around Drylaw in August or around the Hawthornvale steps in September) can take a quarter of an hour to clear with a full-sized hand-held dustpan-brush. My plastic snowshovel screws apart into two sections so I'll have to remember to check the size of the thread on the allotment-brush-head sometime.
Posted 8 years ago # -
It's pouring out and I took my raincoat out of my pannier this morning.
sob.
Posted 8 years ago # -
My waterproof trousers are in my flat. I share your sobs!
Posted 8 years ago # -
3 confessions today
1) left the house with 2 left overshoes
2) cycled ~2 miles in 2nd before working out that Bike and Go Gears worked
3) retraced my steps on foot for 5 mins looking for a glove, only to find it on the floor where I parked my bike.Not a day for high powered thinking...
Posted 8 years ago # -
@paddyirish, you are just out of the habit? Roll on 04.01.16
Posted 8 years ago # -
@gembo, yep definitely didn't help. 04.01.16 is wildly optimistic I fear.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Last week I duly emptied my locker of clothing, with the thought of bringing some new stuff in this week... That idea failed to stick. Now sat in the (admittedly quiet) office in cycling gear. At least I dodged the rain this morning and am dry.
Doh!
Posted 8 years ago # -
" At least I dodged the rain this "
You must have been weaving all over the road! ;-)
Posted 8 years ago #
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