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

FiveDaysAWeek
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby FiveDaysAWeek » Tue Aug 12, 2014 3:53 pm

Equal coldest commute of the year for me this morning at 7 degrees C with a rain bonus. Wore the spray jacket/pants/shoe covers in, and for once wasn't tempted to take them off half way. Arrived comfortably warm but slightly damp, as usual it's impossible to tell how much of that is rain penetration and how much sweat/condensation. Everything seems to have dried in the aircon during the day, so ready to do it again in reverse in a couple of hours.

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Lizzy
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby Lizzy » Tue Aug 12, 2014 9:32 pm

What a stupid afternoon.

Bike is booked in for a spa day tomorrow, plan is to drop her off after work. I get a text from the folks at lunchtime, a package has been dumped on their doorstep by a courier, they are out of town, can I go and rescue it and put it inside the house? Kfine, it's kind-of on the way, it gets to near enough home time, so I change into my riding gear (it's been hanging on the back of my door from yesterday), get to the folks place and realise I have brought the wrong set of keys. Package is AV equipment and about a foot wide. GREAT what do I do with this thing now?! Time is running out to get to the LBS so no time to call for reinforcements ... My trunkbag has done some impressive feats of haulage but this is too much. I drag out the cloth tote I use inside my trunkbag for my clothes, it just fits the parcel, so I sling this over my shoulders, stuff everything else back in the trunkbag and dash for the LBS.

Drop the bike off, walk to the bus-stop schlepping my trunkbag and parcel, get on the bus to the train station and an awful realisation creeps over me: My riding gear, after the blast down to the LBS to compound yesterdays' commute, is giving off the not so subtle aroma of a lightly toasted swamp. And I'm about to get on a train that's going through the city during Sardine Hour, undoubtedly in breach of the Geneva convention. In a panic I pull out my emergency Impulse canister, and fog my jersey with it as discreetly as possible while running from the bus to the train with bags and helmet dangling everywhere. This of course makes things worse not better and I now smell like a swamp with "Romantic Spark".

In my deep deep shame I get off at the first city station, and scurry through the peak hour scrum to find somewhere to change back into my work clothes to go the rest of the way home. Not so fast; in the course of my acute social oblivion I have forgotten to tag on at the station and earned myself a stern lecture from the smartrider gatekeeper. He let me off without a fine, probably because of the smell :roll: "Yes sir, oh absolutely sir, I'll be more careful in future" :oops: :oops: Gah.

Tomorrow is another day :x
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westab
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby westab » Wed Aug 13, 2014 9:09 am

Had a shocker yesterday - was running late for work so I went the short way to work on the road (I usually ride on shared paths - longer but safer) and about 2kms into the ride I hit a pothole that had been filled with water from the overnight rain. It looked just like the rest of the drying out road - hear the hiss from the rear tyre so I stop to change the tube. Get the panniers off then the wheel got all the gear ready for the tube change and then see the drive side of the axle looking not right (this is a freewheel 7 speed). Grab both ends of the axle and turn them in opposite directions - broken axle - Great.

Carefully put the rear wheel with the flat back in the bike - do the quick release up a little tighter put all the heavy gear in one pannier (to carry) whatever else I can't carry in the other put it back on the bike and do the walk of shame home to replace the wheel and then arrive even later to work. :-(

The good news is for the first time I was glad of the puncture otherwise I could have ridden on had a rear wheel stop/break/bring me down and got hit by a car or worse. Where this happened was a good place to stop with a wide breakdown lane in a low traffic area - 500m on I would have been in a high traffic area with no breakdown lane for the next 4-5km.

Had a good ride home - even if it was late due to the late start.
Not fast, no style, but still get there.

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Summernight
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby Summernight » Wed Aug 13, 2014 9:49 am

Haha Lizzy, don't worry about your pong in peak hour. Everyone else has a pong too, not to mention I think some people enjoy hacking, coughing and sneezing all over others, infecting them with their malaise. :P
Find_bruce wrote:Darn you - my son played this on endless loop & I have only just managed to purge it

http://youtu.be/astISOttCQ0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Gummy bears. Gummy bears. Gummy gummy gummy bears.

:lol:

Last night's ride was a bit sickly what with me having had a Milo drink in the afternoon because I was falling asleep at my desk and needed a pep-me-up (I don't drink tea or coffee or use energy drinks). The Milo didn't sit well in the stomach for the ride home, but I made it. Nice ride this morning, even with creaky I'm-about-to-die-somewhere bike and the maxi taxi who decided to stop right beside a parked car on Collins St and block traffic and the non-bike lane.

Oh, and on my morning run someone had 'kindly' rummaged through the Salvation Army donated items and then taken a couple of bags full to the bottom of the Gipps Street stairs on the MYT and then thrown them all over the path, making path users either step onto the items (clothes, shoes etc) or try and pick your way around. On my way back up the stairs I stopped to clear a path - two cyclists went past on my right and left and one got an armload of clothes accidentally thrown at him by me as I was clearing a way through the middle. Seriously people, either help me or make some noise. I clearly wasn't a hobo rummaging through the stuff.

And the regular cyclist who says hello to me came through just as I was finishing clearing the path, so I told him I'd cleared it just for him. He asked whether I'd found anything in my size in there. :D

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rdp_au
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby rdp_au » Wed Aug 13, 2014 10:29 am

Lizzy wrote:What a stupid afternoon.

Bike is booked in for a spa day tomorrow, plan is to drop her off after work. I get a text from the folks at lunchtime, a package has been dumped on their doorstep by a courier, they are out of town, can I go and rescue it and put it inside the house? Kfine, it's kind-of on the way, it gets to near enough home time, so I change into my riding gear (it's been hanging on the back of my door from yesterday), get to the folks place and realise I have brought the wrong set of keys. Package is AV equipment and about a foot wide. GREAT what do I do with this thing now?! Time is running out to get to the LBS so no time to call for reinforcements ... My trunkbag has done some impressive feats of haulage but this is too much. I drag out the cloth tote I use inside my trunkbag for my clothes, it just fits the parcel, so I sling this over my shoulders, stuff everything else back in the trunkbag and dash for the LBS.

Drop the bike off, walk to the bus-stop schlepping my trunkbag and parcel, get on the bus to the train station and an awful realisation creeps over me: My riding gear, after the blast down to the LBS to compound yesterdays' commute, is giving off the not so subtle aroma of a lightly toasted swamp. And I'm about to get on a train that's going through the city during Sardine Hour, undoubtedly in breach of the Geneva convention. In a panic I pull out my emergency Impulse canister, and fog my jersey with it as discreetly as possible while running from the bus to the train with bags and helmet dangling everywhere. This of course makes things worse not better and I now smell like a swamp with "Romantic Spark".

In my deep deep shame I get off at the first city station, and scurry through the peak hour scrum to find somewhere to change back into my work clothes to go the rest of the way home. Not so fast; in the course of my acute social oblivion I have forgotten to tag on at the station and earned myself a stern lecture from the smartrider gatekeeper. He let me off without a fine, probably because of the smell :roll: "Yes sir, oh absolutely sir, I'll be more careful in future" :oops: :oops: Gah.

Tomorrow is another day :x
Classic :-) :-)

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Summernight
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby Summernight » Thu Aug 14, 2014 10:09 am

Lovely rides yesterday night and this morning. It's good to be riding a bike! :)

I forgot about yesterday morning's car who was approaching from behind me half in my lane looking like they weren't going to give space (viewed through my rear view mirror). Engaging the 'wobble' at the appropriate time then had him correctly pass me in the right lane and then safely move back into my lane for a left turn up ahead. Winning!

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TailWind
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby TailWind » Thu Aug 14, 2014 10:57 am

Great commutes over the last couple of days, given this is winter in Melbourne. I have to say I'm ...errr, warming to this colder weather...it's been entirely pleasurable when wearing the right amount of layers :).
Working from home today due to a rather hectic day yesterday.
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jasonc
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby jasonc » Thu Aug 14, 2014 11:23 am

TailWind wrote:Working from home today due to a rather hectic day yesterday.
thanks TW - that probably makes us square with me having yesterday off. There's a "weather event" expected over the next few days for SEQ. They keep predicting rain. Still waiting.

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kb
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby kb » Thu Aug 14, 2014 11:54 am

Small ring commute today. Keeping my legs on their toes..er.. something like that :-).
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Robinho
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby Robinho » Thu Aug 14, 2014 12:05 pm

Fast ride home last night when I tagged onto the back of 3 quick guys at South Perth and hung on until My Henry, averaged over 38kph for that 8kms, but it was destroyed just keeping up. Went back to a more sensible brisk pace from there for the other 18kms solo.

As a result I was feeling it this morning so took it easy into the headwind. Looking forward to the tailwind home again tonight though

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oxonabike
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby oxonabike » Thu Aug 14, 2014 1:02 pm

jasonc wrote:
TailWind wrote:Working from home today due to a rather hectic day yesterday.
thanks TW - that probably makes us square with me having yesterday off. There's a "weather event" expected over the next few days for SEQ. They keep predicting rain. Still waiting.
It's started up here. Be a wet ride home tonight.

I would be happy for you to keep waiting for that predicted rain for a while, as it seems I've picked a bad weekend to visit SEQ to ride the BVRT.

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TailWind
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby TailWind » Fri Aug 15, 2014 10:51 am

Somewhat chilly start this morning (just under 4C when I left), but clear and dry.
Looks like it's shaping up to be a beautiful day here in sunny Melbourne.

Happy Friday! :D
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jasonc
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby jasonc » Fri Aug 15, 2014 10:53 am

ox - if you can delay that trip, I would recommend it

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Summernight
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby Summernight » Fri Aug 15, 2014 11:18 am

Last night alongside one of the tram superstops in Collins St the female cyclist in front of me got passed by a taxi with his side mirror less than 5cms away from the end of her handlebar. I was quite shocked. The footage doesn't show it as well as my eyesight did, but it was CLOSE! I told her about how close he'd come at the next set of lights. She said she didn't know what to do about it. I expressed my agreement with her frustration. I hadn't really thought about it overly much, but now I'm going to claim the lane even more than I usually do as watching how close that taxi came to her was scary.

Pic: http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y37/Su ... ae6b29.png" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4Hw8eSbtpQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This morning was cold with the slippery frost on the Walmer and Gipps Street bridges for my morning run. The bike ride was similarly cold. An impatient vending machine company branded van tried to MGIF me at the intersection of Elizabeth and Bourke Streets when the lights changed green. I was well aware of what he'd try to do so held a wide line so he didn't push me into the gutter when the tram superstop bollards forced him left. All good in the end because I held the wide line and strangely enough no horn abuse either, which was nice. :)

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oxonabike
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby oxonabike » Fri Aug 15, 2014 11:19 am

Fraid not. At the airport now. Booked in advance so sorta stuck with it. Anyway they're only talking a total of 40 mm, and you can wear that in a commute up here. I'll keep telling my self that anyway.

Wet ride in this morning, so we'll call that preparation for tomorrow.

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Robinho
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby Robinho » Fri Aug 15, 2014 11:19 am

Interesting ride home last night, started when the guy behind decided to straight line across the grass and bunny hop onto the road at the bottom of the narrows bridge - mill point road. He was on a hybrid front suspension commuter type bike, civvies and runners, but with a near vertical tri-bar type arrangement, which when used meant he could not maintain a straight line. He then did the same manoeuvre in reverse onto the footbridge across the freeway to rejoin the kwinana psp. By this time I was bothered by him so thought I'd catch and overtake, which I did and put some distance between us. I then backed off a little too much, the next thing I know he is tinging his little bell behind me at everything, slight corners, bridges with no-one on, single peds who are way over to the left, people coming the other way, passing birds, the universe in general. This increased my frustration so I attempted to shake him off from the draft, and went for it from canning bridge to mount Henry, eventually shaking him off and putting me out of earshot of the annoying constant bell ringing. I then maintained a brisk pace to ensure he didn't catch me again and also to race what looked like an impending rain storm. To cap it all, I beat the rain, went in the house to discover strava had tagged me with a +1 for the ride (hybrid bell man) and that I'd given him a PR for the canning bridge to my Henry section! Frustration. Still I had a good ride overall.

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Lizzy
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby Lizzy » Fri Aug 15, 2014 11:47 am

Massive faff-attack took hold while I was getting ready to leave this morning - go-time is no later than 0640, I was on track with the bike by the front door at 0635, just looking for gloves, the next thing I know it's 0655 and I'm stacking the dishwasher ... wut :oops: :| Had to go rail-assisted.

Beautiful hazy windless ride for the first 20km though. TFIF!
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TailWind
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby TailWind » Fri Aug 15, 2014 2:44 pm

Lizzy wrote: TFIF!
Hell yeah, it's been quite a week this side too...
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__PG__
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby __PG__ » Fri Aug 15, 2014 5:56 pm

Summernight wrote:Last night alongside one of the tram superstops in Collins St the female cyclist in front of me got passed by a taxi with his side mirror less than 5cms away from the end of her handlebar. I was quite shocked. The footage doesn't show it as well as my eyesight did, but it was CLOSE! I told her about how close he'd come at the next set of lights. She said she didn't know what to do about it. I expressed my agreement with her frustration. I hadn't really thought about it overly much, but now I'm going to claim the lane even more than I usually do as watching how close that taxi came to her was scary.
I don't know why anyone would ride down Collins St. I've ridden down there once in the past decade, and that was at 5:45 am on a Sunday.

Superstops create death traps IMO. Council should remove all bike lane markings and encourage cyclists to take the lane.
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TigerFilly
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby TigerFilly » Fri Aug 15, 2014 9:21 pm

Stacking the dishwasher instead of cycling - what were you thinking??

I had the most beautiful ride this morning. I had a work meeting 5 mins from home at 9am so cycled there. Then cycled in to our main office after my meeting finished at 10am - at that time of the morning it felt like Spring with warm sun and light breeze, and so quiet and peaceful on the bike track and back roads.
Riding home there was a guy talking on his mobile phone looking straight in my direction who just sort of ambled gradually onto the bike track as he saw me coming. Some people are just weird.

jasonc
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby jasonc » Fri Aug 15, 2014 9:41 pm

TigerFilly wrote: Riding home there was a guy talking on his mobile phone looking straight in my direction who just sort of ambled gradually onto the bike track as he saw me coming. Some people are just weird.
the fix for them is an AirZound. just stop right next to them and let it off. they get off the phone really quickly. they also get out of your way too.

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Summernight
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby Summernight » Mon Aug 18, 2014 10:54 am

__PG__ wrote:
Summernight wrote:Last night alongside one of the tram superstops in Collins St the female cyclist in front of me got passed by a taxi with his side mirror less than 5cms away from the end of her handlebar. I was quite shocked. The footage doesn't show it as well as my eyesight did, but it was CLOSE! I told her about how close he'd come at the next set of lights. She said she didn't know what to do about it. I expressed my agreement with her frustration. I hadn't really thought about it overly much, but now I'm going to claim the lane even more than I usually do as watching how close that taxi came to her was scary.
I don't know why anyone would ride down Collins St. I've ridden down there once in the past decade, and that was at 5:45 am on a Sunday.

Superstops create death traps IMO. Council should remove all bike lane markings and encourage cyclists to take the lane.
I do agree that the Collins St bike lanes (that aren't bike lanes) and their markings are bad and I ride outside of the markings as much as possible. Melbourne City Council has now added more useless paint on the road on Collins St to indicate that the teensy non-bike lanes move to the left of the left lane when approaching intersections. The markings and lanes are ridiculously small and ignored by cyclists and motorists alike.

The problem with the layout of Melbourne is that Collins St is the closest road that leads to Macarthur St with its bike lane. Bourke St isn't a through road due to the mall. I might use Bourke St if it was a through road, but it has the same bad bicycle lane markings and tram superstops. If Little Bourke Street allowed cyclists to ride contra flow that might be a better and quieter option, but that's not a possibility at the moment.

I could try Lonsdale Street with the lack of bike lane markings, but I get intimidated by the cars when riding up the hill at a really slow pace when the car drivers are all frustrated and revving their engines trying to get out of the city as fast as possible. I consider Lonsdale Street the 'Trench Run' (ala Star Wars) and find it routinely unpleasant to go down in both my car and on the bike.

It was a real eye opener on Friday night when the mounted police (on horses) turned from Swanston Street into Lonsdale St and sauntered at walking pace in the left lane down Lonsdale Street. They were travelling at a pace slower than a bicycle but everyone who approached them gave them plenty of room with absolutely no aggression whatsoever. Wish people also behaved like that with bikes.

* * * *

Lovely ride in this morning. Even with the surprise cyclist who decided to overtake me on the right after I'd indicated that I was turning right (in a one-way street).

A lady cyclist in front of me on Albert St had a safety wing attached to her handlebar. She flicked it in and out when needed. Great idea!

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Xplora
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby Xplora » Mon Aug 18, 2014 11:26 am

Summernight wrote:mounted police (on horses). Wish people also behaved like that with bikes.
Cops can charge people and make their lives quite difficult. The drivers are basically cowards when they won't say boo to a cop but give it to everyone else. :idea:

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TailWind
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby TailWind » Mon Aug 18, 2014 2:01 pm

Sluggish ride in this morning - not enough rest due to attending the Mythbusters show with junior yesterday afternoon.
Looking damp out there for this afternoon's ride back.
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jasonc
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Re: How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

Postby jasonc » Mon Aug 18, 2014 2:15 pm

you should leave the bike there TW. take the train
nice morning in Brisbane. We've had our wet weather for winter now I'd say.

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