How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

[higdawg]

Attacked by a killer seagull across the causeway again. not my fault they decide to nest right next to a road.

[Drizt]

Didn't even get close to my targeted 30km/h average this morning. Wasn't for a lack of trying as the heart rate was going pretty good. Legs just weren't up to the task.

P. S. I've never actually hit the 30km/h average for my commute. 29.8 is as close as I have come.

[Robinho]

"met" Colin old cranky on the way home tonight. I say met, I flashed past just south of bull creek station and shouted "you must be Colin" at a guy on a unicycle, and got a "hi, how's it going" in return. Sorry I didn't slow for a chat, I was going on to Hammond park and was already looking like I might be late for dinner!

[ColinOldnCranky]

"met" Colin old cranky on the way home tonight. I say met, I flashed past just south of bull creek station and shouted "you must be Colin" at a guy on a unicycle, and got a "hi, how's it going" in return. Sorry I didn't slow for a chat, I was going on to Hammond park and was already looking like I might be late for dinner!

Yep - I am guessing that you're the guy that passed me on the upramp just south of Leach Highway.

I confess that I was cheating however. Though I seldom miss riding in, mostly I can't get away from work early enough so I take the train for all but about 6 or 7 km on most evenings. Two-plus hours is hard to face after a day at work.

[Lukeyboy]

Apologies for the dirty bike. Hasn't had a clean since racing in the rain the other day.

After racing the other day I noticed that the tyres were finally showing some canvas due to wear/earlier lock up damage. Even so I still rode the 50km home. 160km later and still no punctures. Its showing more canvas but I still have no idea how i managed to make it on my to and from work commutes today..... I might change it tomorrow if I can be buggered

[jasonc]

cold - garmin got down to 4 degrees this morning (I have an edge 500 which have a habit of reading high). A friend had an 810 that said 2.3 which is probably closer

[TailWind]

Rather peculiar sighting on the Darebin Creek Trail yesterday afternoon.
A ute had gone rolled down the embankment towards the creek and obviously had just been recovered and loaded onto the flatbed tow truck.
No idea how it got there, the nearest road must be 100m away...perhaps it was stolen and dumped.


Uneventful ride in this morning.

[CXCommuter]

Lukeyboy
I just got rid of a rear tyre that looked like a family member of yours- just didn't trust it even walking it out the back, still rode it with canvas showing for about a week!!

first day back after riding the porcelain bus the last four days. Very strong tailwind meant I picked up several PRs (definitely not due to my legs/lungs which felt accordingly weak- but having lost 4kg I should be a better climber ). Got up early and missed the crazy storm which hit about 20min after I arrived at work, missing the weather was touch and go due to some drunk throwing a bottle of johnny walker across the PSP just south of the recently reopened section between Reid Highway and Beach Road.

Talking of which, some people are so rude, standing on the side of the road changing my tyre I waved people down and shouted at them (i.e. "Glass ahead") to ride on the opposite side to avoid the glass. Of the dozen riders that passed, 2 stopped to ask if I needed assistance, another 4 slowed, missed the glass and headed on after a quick query on my state (all good thanks). The rest (half) didn't say thank you or any other acknowledgement, with several just completely ignoring me and riding through the glass (and close shaving me as I indicated to them to miss the glass). Rude, ignorant people

Oh and 2 didn't have any lights at all on an unlit section of the PSP.

[Summernight]

Good ride home last night. A cyclist behind me came up beside me at the Albert/Hoddle St lights to ask about my helmet camera ( (1) whether it was a camera and, (2) if it wasn't too rude of him to ask, how much did it cost). I'm perfectly happy discussing cameras and would have talked for longer and told him it was a Jumbo 808 #16 and that the new version was the Mobius Action Camera available through that eBay guy, but the light changed. So he only got information on the price of my TicTac box camera, not the actual model or where to get it. Ah well.

A fair few cyclists at those lights so I decided to slot in behind another cyclist and cruise a bit instead of overtaking and pushing the muscles. He was still going a decent speed anyway.

This morning I overtook a bit close to another lady cyclist and thought at the time "that was dumb of me". No contact but I appreciate that we all like enough room and I think I didn't give her enough. We had been waiting at lights and I had happily decided to wait and let her start accelerating before I started to overtake and she wobbled a bit just as I was overtaking, hence why my overtake was too close. If you read this, sorry about that.

Oh, received my Fly6 today. It is now charged and I get to play with it at lunch or after work.

[singlespeedscott]

cold - garmin got down to 4 degrees this morning (I have an edge 500 which have a habit of reading high). A friend had an 810 that said 2.3 which is probably closer

It was an unusually cold SEQ winters morning ride. All the paddocks around my place had frost. Glad I don't live in Ipswich.

[jasonc]

Glad I don't live in Ipswich.

trust me, living half way to ipswich is bloody cold enough

[Robinho]

Yep - I am guessing that you're the guy that passed me on the upramp just south of Leach Highway.

I confess that I was cheating however. Though I seldom miss riding in, mostly I can't get away from work early enough so I take the train for all but about 6 or 7 km on most evenings. Two-plus hours is hard to face after a day at work.

That was me, I was in 2 minds whether to say anything as I came past, didn't want to startle you into a bigger wobble as you can up the hill!

I'd hardly call it cheating either, it's impressive just doing that.

[westab]

Last couple of days have been good commutes - even with the frosts in Western Sydney. (temp of 2 deg C)

Had a bit of fun on the way in as I ride through a parkland on a shared path - there were lots of little finches (not sure what kind) that were "buzzing" me. They would weave over and under and around me on the bike it looked like it was a game for them and was pleasant for me; so I rode back and forward 3 times where they were - by the last time there seemed to be twice as many as the first time

[AndreB1972]

... so I rode back and forward 3 times where they were...

Trying to improve your challenge position?

[TailWind]

Beautiful afternoon in Melbourne yesterday for the ride back. However, that brought some dozy peds with dulled senses out of hibernation and onto the paths.
Had several occasions where, despite vigorous bell-dinging and yelling, the peds were either oblivious or did the headless chook thing.
One character was particularly in denial - when I pointed out his dog should be on a leash, he insisted I didn't ring my bell, which of course I had several times.

That out a damper on my ride for a bit, but all good otherwise.

Unusual number of people on the DCT around 4:30am this morning. A semi-ninja (no lights, but a reflector and a light top) riding towards me, a petrol powered bike noisily joining the DCT behind me near Northland, and a walker with a small fluorescent light slung over their shoulder a bit further along.

[Summernight]

Last night was another busy night for cyclists on Albert St, which was great to see given the cold.

This morning was a bit cold. They are still putting the water pipes in on Albert St so one lane is still blocked. This morning as I went past they had the water pipe over the whole side street lifted up by a small crane. It looked like a large anaconda (a 50 cm diameter black and blue anaconda, that is) snaking through the street. It was an interesting sight.

[casual_cyclist]

Yesterday evening my commute was walking home half an hour from the train station. It was sunny when I left work and immediately started raining as soon as I stepped out of the train

This morning I rode in and it was cold but sunny and clear. Spectactular morning for riding. No wind and the river looked like glass.

[find_bruce]

Had a bit of CCR fun, getting away on a hill from a guy on a very nice cannondale super6. Sadly the hill also went up

In the CBD I nice chap say hello & give me a wave. Sadly he had some trouble making himself heard, but I think he was saying something about how he had spent a lot of money on his 4wd and it was very damaging to his self esteem that it was no quicker than a short fat old bloke on a bike. He did try continuing the conversation when he caught up to me 2 sets of lights later, but regratbly while he could hear me clearly, it was a one way conversation.as I couldn't hear what he was saying.

In an attempt to resolve his difficulty in expressing himself he had to resort using a rudimentary hand gesture. His grasp of sign language was similarly stilted and he only had one. I wanted to tell him that you say hello with all fingers pointing in the same direction, but it was time to go & leave him behind in the traffic.

[Summernight]

Had a bit of CCR fun, getting away on a hill from a guy on a very nice cannondale super6. Sadly the hill also went up

In the CBD I nice chap say hello & give me a wave. Sadly he had some trouble making himself heard, but I think he was saying something about how he had spent a lot of money on his 4wd and it was very damaging to his self esteem that it was no quicker than a short fat old bloke on a bike. He did try continuing the conversation when he caught up to me 2 sets of lights later, but regratbly while he could hear me clearly, it was a one way conversation.as I couldn't hear what he was saying.

In an attempt to resolve his difficulty in expressing himself he had to resort using a rudimentary hand gesture. His grasp of sign language was similarly stilted and he only had one. I wanted to tell him that you say hello with all fingers pointing in the same direction, but it was time to go & leave him behind in the traffic.

[jasonc]

winning

[find_bruce]

Great ride home though. First riding in the middle of 3 lanes, keeping pace with a bendy bus on my left, I wiggle around a car partially blocking my lane, intending to stop behind the cars ahead. Bus driver thinks I am about to either (1) pull in front of him or (2) share the lane he is in I would like to think I am not that crazy, but anyhow what the bus driver did next was truly shocking. He stopped. Yep he looked, saw me & was doing his best to avoid killing me even if I did something that was truly, utterly stupid.

Couple of k's further on I was stopped at a red light with a couple of other riders, as you do. Cross lights go orange, 2 cars go through followed by a motorbike, when the moto turns on his pretty flashing lights. Nice to see someone getting booked for running a yellow, laughed that he didn't look in the rearview mirror to see the cop.

When I got home I fired off a comment to Sydney Buses - hopefully some positive reinforcement will help.

[Lukeyboy]

It seems many people forget that the red lights at level crossings are to be treated the same as a red light. There's been many a time where I have seen police cars chase after cars that have run the flashing red lights after the boomgates go up. Even seen some doing u turns and going off in pursuit. The other week I saw one idiot take off as the boomgates were going up right beside the marked police car. It was amusing seeing the copper in the passenger seat point out the car, lights on the roof came on, waited for the lights to stop flashing before casually driving across the level crossing. What made it just brutally funny was that on the other side of the crossing was stationary traffic. The police car even left a nice a nice gap in the traffic for the car to move across into the empty bus bay on the side of the road.


One place you really don't want to run them is right next to the Brisbane Metropolitan Police facility where many marked and unmarked police cars go. Shortly after I had crossed the crossing a familiar sound could be heard in the distance.

And while I was riding to work today there was a loud cracking knock coming from the bike. I doubt its a crack but hopefully not.

[jasonc]

hope it's not a crack too luke

feeling terrible but still rode to work. TW is too close

[Summernight]

The wind kept changing direction on me this morning so I didn't know which way I was going or which direction to brace in.

Someone has placed a portable flashing sign on the Kew Boulevard near Walmer St which reads something like:

SHHHHHHHH
Quiet Please
Residential Area
[repeats this twice or something then:]
Caution: Tacks on Road
Police Surveillance in Force
[repeat]

It was very colourful using greens, reds, blues etc. Looks to be timed to only flash at night or early morning because it had switched off when I ran past again after 7AM (I'd run past before 7AM in the other direction).

I did like the use of the 'Shhh'. That got a laugh out of me.

Anyway, for the actual commute I had a taxi honk me because it wanted to cut the queue on Albert St (where the two lanes become one at the moment due to the water pipe works) and I was claiming the left lane at the time. Said taxi then zoomed up to the front of the queue at the traffic light and then cut back into the right hand through lane in front of all the polite cars. I waved at the taxi as I went past later while it was stuck in traffic further up.

I also saw a lady cyclist wearing the most awesome pair of brightly coloured leggings. I said to her that I loved her leggings. Hopefully that came across as I meant it... (I was wearing brightly coloured stuff too so I think she got the correct meaning).

[find_bruce]

Anyway, for the actual commute I had a taxi honk me because it wanted to cut the queue on Albert St (where the two lanes become one at the moment due to the water pipe works) and I was claiming the left lane at the time. Said taxi then zoomed up to the front of the queue at the traffic light and then cut back into the right hand through lane in front of all the polite cars. I waved at the taxi as I went past later while it was stuck in traffic further up.

I also saw a lady cyclist wearing the most awesome pair of brightly coloured leggings. I said to her that I loved her leggings. Hopefully that came across as I meant it... (I was wearing brightly coloured stuff too so I think she got the correct meaning).

I am sure you are polite enough to ensure all fingers were pointing in the same direction

While I am always a bit hesitant commenting on what people are wearing, the more unusual it is, the more the person is, shall we say, familiar with receiving feedback.