My wife and I were just sitting chatting, as you do. She was on the sofa, and I was sitting at the computer desk, with my feet up on the edge of the sofa, facing the living room window.
I jest not, one of our recycling containers was lifted vertically and carried intact across the street, smashing into a neighbour's car, and deposited its contents all over the street. The contents were thus taken by the wind and scattered I know not where.
I went out into the street in my pyjamas, recovered the box and alerted my neighbour. We both went over his car, but thank God, there was no damage.
This weather makes me particularly cross, because I did not do anything to cause this. These extreme weather events are the result of the abject abuse of the planet by those for whom profit is the only aim in life. Capitalists. I would hang the lot of them.
Search found 207 matches
- 15 Mar 2019, 12:06pm
- Forum: On the road
- Topic: Windy
- Replies: 42
- Views: 6659
Re: Windy
Cugel wrote:londoncommuter0000 wrote:Greystoke wrote:This morning 6am standing on the pedals, low gear, head down, 4mph
4pm going home same stretch of road top gear, legs like cartoon legs, briefly 32.4mph
That's impossible. Everyone knows that a headwind when you go into work, will have reversed direction by 180° when you go home.
In my 40s and early 50s I did a 50-60 round-trip commute across The Fylde in Lancashire - a large flat area between the rivers Lune & Ribble, exposed to the unfettered winds and also their frequent load of rain. It was a SW/NE journey (with wiggles) but there was often a NW wind, straight of the North Atlantic with only The Isle of Man in the way. This manifested as a constant headwind, both ways.... which was dispiriting
Where I grew up, was a small town perched on top of a hill. I would cycle to my friend's house, and be screaming abuse at the wind as it brought me to a standstill. And two or three hours later, I'd be screaming at the wind as it did the same in the opposite direction.
For a long time, I thought that I was cursed, and that God hated me.
Actually, what am I saying? I know that I am and that He does.
- 15 Mar 2019, 7:58am
- Forum: On the road
- Topic: Windy
- Replies: 42
- Views: 6659
Re: Windy
Greystoke wrote:This morning 6am standing on the pedals, low gear, head down, 4mph
4pm going home same stretch of road top gear, legs like cartoon legs, briefly 32.4mph
That's impossible. Everyone knows that a headwind when you go into work, will have reversed direction by 180° when you go home.
- 12 Mar 2019, 8:59am
- Forum: On the road
- Topic: Windy
- Replies: 42
- Views: 6659
Re: Windy
thelawnet wrote:[youtube]RsY8l0Jg3lY[/youtube]
Anyone enjoying the wind?
Gusts of 24 mph from 167° here, which is still less than the maximum of 32 mph from 339° at 08:52 on Sunday morning.
(yes - we have a weather station )
I was lying in bed this morning expecting the 'furniture' outside our house (bins, recycling containers, a bottle of anti-freeze that's next to the bins etc..) to be all over the street. Imagine my surprise when nothing had moved! Then I went out to get on the bike, and saw that one of the plants in the hanging basket right next to our door, had been uprooted and had vanished God knows where!
- 10 Mar 2019, 10:45pm
- Forum: On the road
- Topic: 5mph signs on national cycle route 1
- Replies: 36
- Views: 6317
Re: 5mph signs on national cycle route 1
gaz wrote: "no cycling" and "dogs on leads"
Really says it all, doesn't it?
- 10 Mar 2019, 10:10pm
- Forum: On the road
- Topic: 5mph signs on national cycle route 1
- Replies: 36
- Views: 6317
Re: 5mph signs on national cycle route 1
It doesn't really matter whether they're enforceable, and it doesn't really matter whether they can even measure a cyclist's speed accurately.
A police officer or a PCSO will be able to decide entirely arbitrarily that a cyclist was 'speeding', and the Alliston Effect will mean that the cyclist will be convicted.
A police officer or a PCSO will be able to decide entirely arbitrarily that a cyclist was 'speeding', and the Alliston Effect will mean that the cyclist will be convicted.
- 10 Mar 2019, 8:05am
- Forum: On the road
- Topic: Deliveroo
- Replies: 67
- Views: 22263
Re: Deliveroo
sapperadam wrote:1) Walking to work and nearly get runover on the pavement by a cyclist coming round a bend far too quickly (would have been ok if she'd been on the road and stayed on her side of it, but on the path when you can't see pedestrians it was too fast), simply so she wouldn't have to wait at the traffic lights in the area I would imagine.
On my commute home, there's a fairly steep hill where - depending on how tired I am and depending also on whether I'm on my single speed - I sometimes get off and walk up the path. At the bottom, there's a road crossing and then a corner on the footway that is so steep that it's impossible to see around the corner.
On this day, I'm pushing the bike up and a young man comes around the corner at full tilt on his mountain bike. I tut. My reward is to have him off his bike, up in my face, using words any of which would see me banned from the CTC forums.
I hit him.
- 10 Mar 2019, 8:02am
- Forum: On the road
- Topic: Deliveroo
- Replies: 67
- Views: 22263
Re: Deliveroo
mark1964 wrote:Redvee wrote:Spotted a Deliveroo cyclist with lights in Brizzle city centre on my way home on Monday but the lights were on his helmet and the rear was blocked by the box on his back. I did mention that the box should be where the light should be and not his helmet cause it can't be seen.
Spotted one of their scooters riding illegally back in July
[youtube]cRRli32j7W0[/youtube]
I see quite a few regular bikers take a short cut through this bit too. As for Deliveroo, someone should get onto their H&S department about training their riders to follow the road rules.
Waste of time. I tried. The response was the usual boilerplate, 'The safety of our riders is our primary concern...'
No it isn't, you greedy, amoral oafs. Your primary concern is making money.
- 1 Mar 2019, 10:26pm
- Forum: Lands End to John O'Groats
- Topic: LEJOG: would I enjoy it?
- Replies: 31
- Views: 7271
Re: LEJOG: would I enjoy it?
1982john wrote:Jamesh wrote:Any chance of getting unpaid leave?
Or doing overtime to get extra holiday?
Or doing it for charity and your work would agree to you doing it?
Or you have been there long enough to earn a sabbatical?
Or you get v bad flu for two weeks!!!
Just a thought!
I work in education so I can use the summer holidays. The downside is everything is 50% more expensive and the roads are very busy!
The thought of teaching is enticing, but a career change at my age would mean a 70% wage cut.
- 1 Mar 2019, 8:55am
- Forum: Lands End to John O'Groats
- Topic: LEJOG: would I enjoy it?
- Replies: 31
- Views: 7271
Re: LEJOG: would I enjoy it?
Jamesh wrote:Any chance of getting unpaid leave?
Or doing overtime to get extra holiday?
Or doing it for charity and your work would agree to you doing it?
Or you have been there long enough to earn a sabbatical?
Or you get v bad flu for two weeks!!!
Just a thought!
My employer is pretty good (insofar as a capitalist entity can be 'good' in any way), but I don't think they'd let me sod off for three weeks to cycle end to end in Britain. A couple of days, sure. Maybe ... maybe a week. But three weeks? Nah. Never going to happen.
- 28 Feb 2019, 3:45pm
- Forum: Lands End to John O'Groats
- Topic: LEJOG: would I enjoy it?
- Replies: 31
- Views: 7271
Re: LEJOG: would I enjoy it?
Tigerbiten wrote:londoncommuter0000 wrote:1982john wrote:This is something that has been on my radar to do for some time. I like the idea of the challenge but how much of the time would I be cursing the amount of traffic?
I like the look of the WIMPS route but going solo would it be advisable as a lot of it is on 'a' roads. There is perhaps the Cicerone route but that could face the opposite problem being over convoluted.
I'd love to do it. But I am 51 and all too aware that there are a limited number of summers left to me.
How many days are you thinking of taking to do the route ??
3 weeks works out to be roughly 50 miles per day.
But the more back roads you use, the longer and more lumpy the route tends to be.
Also are you thinking of camping or credit card touring.
Using a credit card to book rooms makes it easier to cover a good daily distance but at roughly 4x the cost.
If you are going to camp then try to stick to camping unless the weathers very bad.
Otherwise it's not worth carrying the extra weight.
My method of route finding is to link together sections of Sustrans routes that are going in my direction.
Once the Sustrans route starts to go somewhere silly then abandon it and aim for the next section.
By going somewhere silly I mean the likes of .....
..... using three sides of a square ....
... cut across a grass field ......
..... go up and down stairs ......
...... to avoid a short section of main road.
But as long as you've a good sat nav that you can plot your route into, then route finding can be fairly painless.
Luck .............
I'd probably do 45-50 miles a day.
But my comment was more in the vein of : that would be that year's annual leave blitzed.
If I'm lucky and if whatever deity is real shines upon me, I have 30 summers left. 1/30 of that to do a trip where I would not see my wife, and where she'd either be sitting at home or else doing her own solo holiday that year, isn't feasible.
It's a pity, I know. I'm missing out on what would be an epic jaunt. And I do not presume to judge anyone who chooses to do it. Respect to them.
This easter, we're cycling from Dunkirk to Bruges. And then next year, we're cycling from Bergen to Trondheim.
The year after that, we want to explore Japan by bike.
Happy days.
- 28 Feb 2019, 2:12pm
- Forum: Lands End to John O'Groats
- Topic: LEJOG: would I enjoy it?
- Replies: 31
- Views: 7271
Re: LEJOG: would I enjoy it?
1982john wrote:This is something that has been on my radar to do for some time. I like the idea of the challenge but how much of the time would I be cursing the amount of traffic?
I like the look of the WIMPS route but going solo would it be advisable as a lot of it is on 'a' roads. There is perhaps the Cicerone route but that could face the opposite problem being over convoluted.
I'd love to do it. But I am 51 and all too aware that there are a limited number of summers left to me.
- 25 Feb 2019, 11:31am
- Forum: On the road
- Topic: Something new to watch out for! - suspiciously fast (motor-)bicycles
- Replies: 84
- Views: 13100
Re: Something new to watch out for!
Cugel wrote:londoncommuter0000 wrote:Stradageek wrote:Cycling towards a familiar roundabout, check in my mirror for cars trying to exercise a last minute overtake when I'm suddenly buzzed by an electric bike clocking nearly 30mph.
I'm not sure where he came from (he possibly hopped off the adjacent cycle patch because he went back onto the cycle path after the roundabout) but I certainly didn't expect to have to be wary of such a beastie.
I believe you can fool the electric bike 15mph limit by simply telling the motor controller that your 29" wheel is actually 16", anyone else had this problem?
I encountered an e-bike on my commute up to London last year. Guy on the bike, headphones in, blissfully unaware of anything around him, as he sailed through red light after red light. I kid you not: he went through every single set of red lights, and the only time he slowed was when there was traffic coming perpendicular, and he would have been knocked off his bike if he hadn't slowed. But he didn't stop, and when the traffic cleared, he went on his way.
And of course, the laughable thing was that as we approached London Bridge, there I was - right behind him, and I had stopped at every light.
Is this a proposition that all e-bike riders are like that then?
No, not all.
Most.
There is something about a 'motorised' means of transportation which brings out the arrogant and selfish that is in all of us.
- 23 Feb 2019, 8:22pm
- Forum: On the road
- Topic: Something new to watch out for! - suspiciously fast (motor-)bicycles
- Replies: 84
- Views: 13100
Re: Something new to watch out for!
Stradageek wrote:Cycling towards a familiar roundabout, check in my mirror for cars trying to exercise a last minute overtake when I'm suddenly buzzed by an electric bike clocking nearly 30mph.
I'm not sure where he came from (he possibly hopped off the adjacent cycle patch because he went back onto the cycle path after the roundabout) but I certainly didn't expect to have to be wary of such a beastie.
I believe you can fool the electric bike 15mph limit by simply telling the motor controller that your 29" wheel is actually 16", anyone else had this problem?
I encountered an e-bike on my commute up to London last year. Guy on the bike, headphones in, blissfully unaware of anything around him, as he sailed through red light after red light. I kid you not: he went through every single set of red lights, and the only time he slowed was when there was traffic coming perpendicular, and he would have been knocked off his bike if he hadn't slowed. But he didn't stop, and when the traffic cleared, he went on his way.
And of course, the laughable thing was that as we approached London Bridge, there I was - right behind him, and I had stopped at every light.
- 22 Feb 2019, 11:48am
- Forum: Does anyone know … ?
- Topic: Triggering traffic signals with magnet?
- Replies: 55
- Views: 6309
Re: Triggering traffic signals with magnet?
althebike wrote:I rang the police on this one, and got the curt answer " no one can give you permission to go through a red light"
Technically, they're right. Each of us is responsible for our own transgressions, and we cannot use the word of a police officer or a solicitor or whomever, to get off with it.
In a slight thread swerve, I am reminded of the cases where people have been fined for going into a bus lane or crossing a red light line when an emergency vehicle has behind them, going 'blues and twos'. I have little sympathy for the whiny, entitled crybabies who make up the overwhelming majority of the British driving public, but on this one, I can't see how it can be right or just to penalise someone who in a gesture of compassion moves out of the way of an ambulance which might be rushing an infant on the brink of death, to hospital.