Geez @gembo that's some evening. You'll sleep tonight.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting
Confessions of a Cycle Commuter
(1669 posts)-
Posted 6 years ago #
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@gembo
why is it pumps always fail to work when your actually in need of them
did i see somewhere on the interwebby a compressed air pump that actually gets "recharged" as you ride?
Posted 6 years ago # -
my confession - despite the lovely day i didnt ride, hardly slept all night and took the easy car/drive option - as soon as i was in the car i regretted it and was tempted to turn around and cycle in, but i had a meeting at 8am
Posted 6 years ago # -
@rider73 yes, it was a lovely morning! I was planning to drive as I wanted to be home earlier tonight (btw. I got a car in January <hiding face in shame>) but really enjoyed the last two days of cycling so I decided to cycle again.
Sunny_clouds by Bill Harriman, on Flickr
Clifton_rd_sun_pano by Bill Harriman, on Flickr
Posted 6 years ago # -
@bill, @sheeptoucher reported your sin to me on Friday!
Posted 6 years ago # -
I stopped fitting the valve lock nuts years ago. Nothing bad seems to have happened and I've not had to search for needle nose pliers to unscrew a stuck one in the darkest mid winter. Schwalbe lock nuts are supposed to work as Schrader/Presta adaptors when the hole in the rim is much bigger than needed for a Presta but it doesn't seem to matter.
I get the "easier in a car" line from cow-orkers now and then. I don't think it is easier. I'm going to use the car a week on Thursday as I have to pick up boys from a re-scheduled music theory exam and I'm already annoyed about it.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@unhurt at least now I can easily return @sheeptoucher's pink tyres :D
it is mostly a hillwalking and bad/icy weather commuting type of car...Posted 6 years ago # -
Mine is a 21 yr old brown Volvo wagon which delights in parking outside the wean's school while playing Mötorhead, AC/DC etc at 11.
It's useful for carrying stuff to the coup and getting big boxes from IKEA.
Bad/icy weather is what the trike does best. Better than the car.
Posted 6 years ago # -
On the Brompton today, for first time in weeks.
When trying to attach the pannier to the front of the bike I realised that I can forgot the homemade bracket that attaches to the bike and allow me to hang my Ortlieb.
Managed to lash the pannier to the rear rack but kept banging my heals.
Have a laptop to take back tonight, so that will be interesting.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Yin and Yang
I had to be at the union office before five to pick up a D lock I had left hanging on their fence when I was giving the history master of South West High Schoo, a shot on a lecky bike.
So picked up lock then headed home early through west end road works that were passable to bikes only, well and some mad taxis. Made it to murrayfield despite the potholes. Then took route through park for first time since last POP. Lovely surface now and all way to Baird drive then up to Cultins road via tram path and saughton path. Out from there along towpath and onwards to Currie Scotmid. Cheesy pea curry now bubbling and my order of yellow cycling caps has arrived as I listen to Jello Biafra on radio six. Good one.
Posted 6 years ago # -
on my commute in today - usually see a long haired cat similar to this one (above):
he's never bothered by bikes and last summer i used to stop and give him a stroke when he was on a wall - he loved it - not seen him in a while, but today he was there! :)
(EDIT: he loved it, well i loved it too!)Posted 6 years ago # -
Wall cats are the best. Much easier to give them a proper skritch.
Posted 6 years ago # -
It took me about 45 minutes yesterday evening to clean out all the various bits of leftover rubbish from my main commuting workbag to check it would be safe to take through airport security. The obvious items like pliers, wrenches, multi-tool including knife/spiky things and puncture kit with razor blade were easy enough but there might have been something else under the compacted receipts and crushed child-dragging.
Posted 6 years ago # -
“crushed child-dragging“
Careful what you confess to here...
Posted 6 years ago # -
there will be something still in there hiding in the edges that the scanner will pick up and you'll be whisked into some bright stark room with a hanger for your clothes....
Posted 6 years ago # -
"child-dragging"
was auto-corrected from child-snacks, "-dragging" having been something I've evidently instructed my phone to consider as viable wording.The most unpleasant thing I found was a squashed restaurant-butter, which had fortunately managed to coat itself in various absorbent particles (from the various leaves/twigs/pinecones the children request me to keep for them) before it could smear itself around too much.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@wingpig, these twigs the lads ask you to keep for them, do they ever ask you to take them from the pannier, set up a wee museum display or anything? If not tell them to keep them themselves?
Posted 6 years ago # -
@wingpig - my niece likes stones. But she doesn't want to carry them herself...
Posted 6 years ago # -
Sticks usually go in the stick bush by the gate when we get home. Sometimes they get made into larger things. Sometimes leaves and twigs and pinecones go in pockets, sometimes the bag (so that I don't get jabbed in the hip later on) and are sometimes removed (whereafter they spend a couple of days on display in the kitchen before being removed) but sometimes lurk in pockets or bag until the pockets are washed or the bag inspected for flight-incompatible substances and implements.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@wingpig, thanks for the Sticks Report
Posted 6 years ago # -
@gembo Using the popular BBC iPlayer, search for "Hey Duggee" then find Episode 31 for a celebration of sticks.
@unhurt We do have a few stones here and there, including one shaped like a kidney bean called Mr Peanut and one which is really a sheep's vertebra. They usually go straight onto the kitchen windowsill.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@wingpig see also Julia Donaldson's Stickman(maybe our own @Stickman is a fan?)
See also Bonting by Shirley Hughes for the best story about a stone ever. [One fine morning Alfie went into his back garden and found a very special stone. He put it in his pocket and he called it Bonting, then the wee fecker lost it at the beach]
I also admire her Magnum Opus - Dogger. Not the best name these days for a toy dog but still a lovely little parable of kindness from older sib to younger sib.
Posted 6 years ago # -
wingpig - "stick bush"! Don't mention this near mini-Morningsider, or he'll want one too. He has to make do with a stick pile by the front door.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@gembo Using the popular BBC iPlayer, search for "Hey Duggee" then find Episode 31 for a celebration of sticks.
A curse on the show, that one in particular!!
Posted 6 years ago # -
i been drinking too much lately
moscow kgb might well be behind it all
and they haven't yet denied responsibility
best get back down the off-license just in case
Posted 6 years ago # -
@bax -San the new series of hitchhikers is back n middle class radio four. You need four pints in you to hitch lift with the Vogon constructor fleet.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Posted 6 years ago #
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Before I got a car fairly regularly I was advised: "You should/need/have to get a car/scooter/electric bike" or "You should move closer"; and I had to argue why I didn't want any of these and that I really enjoyed my cycling commute (most of the time).
Now when I got the car it is "Why do you still cycle?" :D
Posted 6 years ago # -
This morning it was raining and our car wasn't in use. Due to the personal part of the incremental cost of me driving to work being about 1/3 of the cost of train and it being substantially faster (if less pleasant) I drove.
Life would be much better if the fixed costs of car ownership were charged on a per mile basis so that not taking the car became wasn't so much more expensive than taking it.
Posted 6 years ago # -
On the bus today and Edinburgh is looking pretty glorious in the morning sunshine. And I got the front seat upstairs on the 29.
Posted 6 years ago #
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