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Confessions of a Cycle Commuter

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  1. gembo
    Member

    @iwrats, thanks for your interest in this vital topic. I did once have a letter published in the guardian about Weller loving Sir Brad Wiggout's sideburns, true.

    There is a town in New South Wales, they call it wurri wurri
    It celebrates the Mullet with a festival
    Might not be wurri wurri

    In all semi-seriousness, there is a lot to be said for the cycling cap. Keeps your head warm in winter, absorbs sweat in summer. Great at preventing helmet hair. The little brim maybe helps with low sun? Etc.

    I was told recently I reminded someone of Hugh Macdiarmid. i think this can only be the haircut. The bagpipe based ceilidh band Hugh Macdiarmid's Haircut has an album Airs From Your Elbow. This is the second funniest bagpipe related joke I know (the other is in Dads Army, see threads passim)

    Posted 6 years ago #

  2. chdot
    Admin

    @HC

    Can’t the kids fix it?

    Posted 6 years ago #

  3. Trixie
    Member

    *drifts in* I wear a h*lm*t purely to try to keep my hair in some sort of fixable order.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  4. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @gembo

    Hugh Macdiarmid had a moustache. Do you have news for us?

    Posted 6 years ago #

  5. gembo
    Member

    Caused a stir recently on the book of face by reposting my early 1992 photo that our very own Wingpig described as having me look like the young Michael Bentine (in the hair dept). My boss (also good friend now sadly dead a whole decade) said to work for him at Uni of Strathclyde I could keep the Bentine hair but the Frans Hals tash had to go. So I spiked it up had the photo taken then shaved it off so next day I could begin the research into IV drug use in barlinnie. Those were the days.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  6. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    So is there a shadow CCE on Facebook? Nobody tells me anything.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  7. SRD
    Moderator

    it's mostly just people saying 'you already posted that on the forum'.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  8. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Hardly seems worth pretending to have friends for.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  9. gembo
    Member

    You get to see ex CCE people like Uberuce pumping iron without his beard or Wilmington Cow driving his cars or his elephant bike which he has called Nelly or Dumbo.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  10. chdot
    Admin

    “ex CCE people”

    “

    You can check out anytime you like but you can never leave

    “

    Posted 6 years ago #

  11. Frenchy
    Member

    Fixed a puncture in my rear wheel this afternoon, then went to do a short test ride. Got 200m down the road and my front tyre exploded.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  12. chdot
    Admin

    @Trixie

    Posted 6 years ago #

  13. Trixie
    Member

    Bwahaha!

    Posted 6 years ago #

  14. HankChief
    Member

    So the correct answer to my pu****re wows isn't to just put some sealant in and hope for the best...

    Had a blow out this morning so it is currently awaiting Hart's magic touch.

    As I was locking up I noticed the inner tube of the tag-along bulging through. Oops. It's not done bad though - it was 2nd hand when I got it and I've done 7,000 miles with it.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  15. unhurt
    Member

    Got sinusitis again. Got bus. Sat in large pool of cold coffee. Got wet. Mood: disgruntled and damp and regretting not just taking bike!

    Posted 6 years ago #

  16. Arellcat
    Moderator

    Got 200m down the road and my front tyre exploded.

    I remember my back tyre exploding 16 miles out of Newark, NY, with the nearest bike shop having a 559 tyre being about 15 miles away and somewhere in East Rochester. That was a long day.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  17. biketrain
    Member

    Just got changed in Sainsbury cafe toilets from cycling gear to civilian clothes. Apparently Hi viz is not cool at school concert.
    I was halfway through changing and the automatic lights went out. No amount of waving my Hi viz top could get censor to put lights on. Completed the procedure in complete darkness.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  18. urchaidh
    Member

    My brain was 100% occupied with getting the kids out of the house this morning so I forgot about the weather and came to work on the'normal' bike rather than the pub bike which has, crucially, the spikey winter tyres on it.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  19. unhurt
    Member

    Forgive me CCE for I have sinned in my heart against another cycle commuter. Third leg of work trip to London, tired, too hot (it is NINE DEGREES outside. Unnatural.) and I found myself mentally tsking at the lady with the purple Brompton barring my speedy egress from the train at Kew Bridge.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  20. Snowy
    Member

    Just after exchanging greetings with Gembo on the towpath this evening, I heard a small twang from my rear wheel. Another spoke gone.

    I'm blaming the gravitational vortex caused by his impressive panniers.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  21. piosad
    Member

    Caught out by the relatively innocuous chicane leading to the towpath at Harrison Park West. Normally there is a good angle which allows you to negotiate it with a tagalong easily but yesterday it was blocked by someone taking photos and forgetting about their dog who was faffing about in the middle of the space. Tried to negotiate the gap and the tagalong clipped the chicane, now my wrist is very tender indeed. Wonderful how these things change your views from ‘chicanes are annoying’ to ‘burn them all down immediately’.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  22. Frenchy
    Member

    DIfficult to tell without getting a tape measure out, but not sure the gaps in that one are Cycling by Design-compliant (1.5m minimum).

    Worth asking the council to replace them with bollards.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  23. piosad
    Member

    Yes will probably email Gavin C to see if he has an opinion…

    Posted 6 years ago #

  24. Greenroofer
    Member

    I have a pannier full of tools and zip ties but I can't think of a way to bodge a temporary repair to my mudguard (which has just broken). It's rubbing on the wheel so much that I can't ride home and so I'm sitting in Western Hailed waiting for Mrs G to rescue me. At least it's a nice night...

    Posted 6 years ago #

  25. SRD
    Moderator

    Tandem gave out today - possible effect of 10 months furlough followed by a couple months moderate usage and then 2 weeks intensive deployment leading to decrepit chain and broken spoke.

    upside was borrowing a cycleservice dahon loaner - quite fun. tiny wee thing. no gears. but nice and light. very ride-able.

    made a complicated day possible...thank you cycle service..

    Posted 6 years ago #

  26. wingpig
    Member

    @Greenroofer I found zipties a bit harsh for my flexible mudguard and tied it on at the seat stay bridge with a bit of inner tube.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  27. Greenroofer
    Member

    Mudguard fixed. It was the bottom bridge that had gone. I drilled out the corroded rivets and put in two new pop rivets. I've had a pop rivetter for a year, and this is just the second time I've used it.

    I'm feeling unexpectedly pleased with myself over this whole repair.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  28. wingpig
    Member

    My non-working rear dynamo light turned out to have been caused by the winter studs working their way through the insulation and core where the wire peeked out over the edge of the mudguard.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  29. gembo
    Member

    Total 'mare on the way home tonight. Picked up a glass shard the size of The Shard near West Port.

    Stopped to affect repair at racks near Lothian road. Valve retention nut not shifting. Attempted to locate tear and stick one of illustrious leader's Skabs upon it without removing tube. Despite huge shard could not locate in half light. Also did seem like my old toe peak pump had given up the ghost. Took rubber glove off, applied greater pressure to valve retention nut. Removed it. Put in new tube. Went to Evans, used their track pump. Dasha who works there allowed me to wash my hands ( she knows me from the old Bike Chain days). She claims anyone would get the same (she is trying to woo custom and succeeding EBC and spesh have not been fantastic over ongoing separate novel about the Boa Button replacement). Received good deal,on new pump. Bought some gels as coming over faint. Starts for home, front light flies off (yes at start of this saga I had turned bike over without removing lights mea culpa). Light flies down road. I get off to retrieve, bus driver kindly inches by without crushing it. sorry if I dazzled you as I had to tilt it up to stop it coming off after repeat performance on the towpath speed bumps. Oiled chain in garage at home. Ate nice pasta and drank dregs of an averrage Mourvèdre. Will now look at old inner tube.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  30. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Ate nice pasta and drank dregs of an average Mourvèdre

    You are blessed.

    Posted 6 years ago #

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