Just done some panicking outside the Assembly Roxy half an hour ago because my bike was definitely no longer on the rack where I locked it up, aaaaaargh trauma I can't believe someone stole my - - - oh. Wait. THere are TWO rows of racks across the road. Hello bike.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting
Confessions of a Cycle Commuter
(1669 posts)-
Posted 6 years ago #
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I took my slowly improving back to Balerno Apple Day yesterday. Rushing to get ready I hauled on an old but comfy pair of MEC bike shorts. For reasons best known to the designer the chamois is the same colour as the body of the shorts. This is relevant. Shorts comfort levels seemed lower than normal, all the way to Balerno, but I couldn't quite work out what it was that felt no quite right. Until arrival when I discovered, on visiting the facilities, that I had put them on inside out.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Must have just missed you? The bike count was high, possibly as high as the labradoodle count.
I was in queue for bread and chap behind me was objecting in indignant posh voice as young chap walked by with child and labradoodle
Posh chap: Excuse me, I do not want your dog licking my hand
Young lad: well, it's a dog, that's what they do. If you don't want it to lick your hand keep it in your pocket. A-hole.
Young lad lost the moral high ground with the sweary word we agreed later. He had not meant it to come out so loudly.
Posted 6 years ago # -
If you don't want it to lick your hand keep it in your pocket.
I believe that was the official BBC line on Jimmy Savile for years.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@unhurt - could be worse...
Posted 6 years ago # -
Oh my. Oh dear. (But my office mate was looking at bike shorts online and she found ones where the sale image is thus, so I can see how confusion might arise...)
NB I was wearing shorts over mine. Perhaps I should have made that clear!
Posted 6 years ago # -
I did that on one early start audax. Fortunately someone pointed it out kindly before the start (the colour of the pads is the same as the lycra). Less luckily the lycra was now covered with sudocrem. Fortunately the heavy rain sorted that.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Cycled to work this morning after a long tiring weekend. Was using a different bag to normal. Failed to put lights on my bike, and failed to pack my charger purse (this is a thing - in the world of tech you need a small case with all your chargers in it).
Spare lights are in other bag. Laptop only lasts until about lunchtime without a charger and my laptop is more modern than anyone elses in the office (much gloat) so none of their chargers fit mine (much being gloated at).
I have booked out a meeting for an hour at lunchtime so I can cycle home in shame and work from there.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Got up early to get first train into Waverley and was planning a trip over the Pentlands to work. All came undone when I heard a brief clicking while ascending Kirk Brae in granny gear. Before I could stop to investigate the clicking turned into a crunch. I assume something had got stuck in the wheel, but the net result was that the rear mech had come off, got entangled with spokes (at least two broken) and lodged firmly in amongst the others.
A costly morning - a single rail fare , a £23 taxi fare for bike and me to work another single rail fare home and then the repair. And I had just got the bike back with a new drivetrain about 3 weeks ago :-(
Posted 6 years ago # -
I feel ya @paddyirish. That crunch sound and the way it feels through the pedals is such a specific and terrible thing. Horrid
I managed to pack everything in my bag today but once again failed to put my lights on my bike. Thankfully I packed the kit that contains my spares. I'm essentially useless this week. I'll inform my manager and stop sending any emails.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Forgot my keys today, so the bike has just the hungry tiger guarding it at the moment...
Spare lock being provided momentarily,
Robert
Posted 6 years ago # -
And I had just got the bike back with a new drivetrain about 3 weeks ago
Ummm...ehhhh....are these events connected at all?
Posted 6 years ago # -
@arobcomp- I'm just glad I wasn't going down Kirk Brae when it happened!
@IWRATS- I don't think so I've done ~5-600km in that time, guess is that something got stuck in the wheel and caused that, but there was nothing obvious. All happened in a very short space of time at low speed.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@paddyirish - were you out the saddle going up hill?
I imagine that it might have been the following sequence of events
- Gear cable/derailleur settings settle/stretches a little allowing the rear mech to come a little closer to the spokes than it's meant to.
- you are out the saddle and the rear wheel flexes a little as you push lots of force through the bike
- mech catches on spokes
OR
- chain slips off the cassette between spokes and cassette, causing the mech to twist inwards and into the spokesI've had both the above happen, once after a bike crash and the second time after a new mech was fitted. Fingers crossed the damage is more in the derailleur hanger.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Forgot my darn chargers again.... Fortunately someone else in the office has one I can use today. Once again I changed my bag.
I think I need a checklist stuck to the inside of the garage door.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I think I need a checklist stuck to the inside of the garage door.
Or a dynamo.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@paddyirish The initial clicking was likely the derailler tipping the spokes, chances are that in a complete revolution one of the spokes would suck it in completely.
You may have done 100's of km since the service, but just a few hundred metres in the granny gear. And not changing down under pressure. Perhaps with the wheel flexing sideways from out-of-saddle pedalling.
It would not be cable stretch or "something got stuck in the wheel", it would be the high/low limit screws were not correct to prevent spoke-to-chain rub. Or a plastic spoke-protector disk.
If you had a chain-tool, you could have limped on single-speed.
Lucky you didn't break the dropout which would be a frame weld or replace job.Posted 6 years ago # -
Thanks le_soigneur and @arobcomp - certainly some things I hadn't thought of.
I seek out hills and often the steeper the better- have done ~8-9000m of climbing since the change, a lot of it in granny gear, and never out of the saddle, then again me in the saddle . The only time I'm out of the saddle is occasionally on a downhill on a long ride. I had moved down to granny at the bottom of Kirk Brae and was nearly at the top-it was flattening out- when the incident happened.
I had a chain tool and have used it many times before but 2 broken spokes and a rear mech wrapped around my cassette, suggested to me that this ride was over.
78uu5G0H5drIbRfijRQnzCuP-BHmObCcFj-yLjw8wQ4-1152x2048 by paddyirish, on FlickrSo update post inspection by mechanic. New rear derailleur, 2 spokes broken and one needing replaced, cable gear changer, the hanger needed to be straightened and aligned and touched up with paint (lucky it was steel). Likely bill in 2 figures (just) which was better than expected.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Good detail, so not due to limit screw being too loose.
Were all the broken spokes on the drive side? You might have been unlucky to snap a spoke on other side which allowed drive-side spokes to encroach on the mech.Posted 6 years ago # -
@Frenchy - laptop charger. Have ordered one more for this office now.
Posted 6 years ago # -
My answer stands.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Work colleague got an eye full this morning as I didn't properly lock the changing room door. At least I had my pants on....
Posted 6 years ago # -
@Frenchy - checkmate
Posted 6 years ago # -
Took long time repairing earlier repair of rear mudguard as has been rubbing. Meant drilling new hole and replacing zip tie. Quite finicky. Finally fixed and patched holes. Test rode and still rubbing as was bracket further down that was loose. Applied brief amount of pressure with pliers. either Side of the bracket , job done.
Posted 6 years ago # -
On my way to work this morning, as I passed under the A720 and accelerated hard onto Burdiehouse Road, I encountered a wormhole.
While nine years ago I may have in fact somewhat predicted my own future*, today I travelled back in time 19 years, 3 months, one day, seven hours and eleven minutes. In the process I was was transported 4,666 miles to the South Atlantic Ocean, to a point 260 miles southwest of the Parque Nacional da Quiçama in Angola.
The only reason I didn't suffer icy DETH in the red torpedo was because the wormhole transported me back to civilization a moment later and I carried on my merry way apparently none the worse for wear.
It may have been a GPS malfunction, but at this stage I'm not ruling out alien activity and/or science-meets-awesome power*.
* with the inevitable and remarkable conclusion that I must have reached the speed of light.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Yesterday I had a lot to do, so rode the fastest way to work, showered and got changed quickly, went up to my desk, introduced myself to two people I hadn't seen before, read my emails and decided to get a second breakfast. As I went to put my pass in the breast pocket of my T Shirt, I realised I had put it on inside out...
Posted 6 years ago # -
"my bike was definitely no longer on the rack where I locked it up, aaaaaargh trauma I can't believe someone stole my - - - oh. Wait. THere are TWO rows of racks across the road. Hello bike."
i parked my bike outside the House of Fraser last week, and just as I came out to find it stolen, two bobbies came around the corner. 'time saver!' i thought.
i stepped back a bit to put myself in their path--at which point another bike rack came into view, with my bike attached.
(i told them this little story, and they were amused.)
Posted 6 years ago # -
@Arrelcat, I think there's a lot of people who would believe your fantastic explanation.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@the canuck - I'm glad it's not just me!
Posted 5 years ago # -
Even if you only use the aldi cob light on low for half an hour a day, it's still worth charging on a Monday after sitting in the cold bike shed all weekend because the little light that warns of a low battery is pretty much invisible against the bright red of the actual lamp!
Posted 5 years ago #
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