Another Day In The Life Of cyclist

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
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NATURAL ANKLING
Posts: 13780
Joined: 24 Oct 2012, 10:43pm
Location: English Riviera

Another Day In The Life Of cyclist

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

rHi,
Out training yesterday, two hundred yards down the road and come across someone with a toddler (child 3 -5) with their back to me in middle of road, I ding my bell as they are blocking the single track road, they ignore me and carry on despite my attempts to get their attention :?
The child is left to wander in the road eventually turning round and just standing there as the parent does nothing.
Another ten yards and a parent carrying child and a toddler in the road with their back to me, I ding my bell and the parent walks between two parked cars leaving the toddler in middle of road :? I mumble somthing as I pass parent.

Another three hundred yards and I meet a Subaru with Exhuast on the wrong side of lane (single track) I am already far left on bend as a precuation and we meet blind on the corner, I had to swerve almost into hedge as he blindly speed into bend, on seeing me he swerved to avoid me, lucky for him I was not a car.
Last ride a van did the same thing on same bend................

Into diversions down lanes and meet a car on wrong side of road, I look at driver and they indicate that they are turning left with hand across chest, they have time to either get round or space to slow and let me pass but continue to drive at me , I pass between hedge and car and driver slows up but does not move to their left (there is more than enough time for the car to do manuvere but they move at a snails pace) (they are attempting a left turn on a hair pin bend into a junction, which I believe is an easy turn and they could have just turned into junction and slowly then move to otherside if nothing is comming ?)
It ends by me going close to car and shouting at the sluggish driver intent on blocking my path rather than stop, move over or do the manouver correctly :?:
As I pass the car it continues to turn and My handle bar hits rear of car, I am not hurt and I did not intend there to be a collision, the car stops as there was a load bang I carry on as my rubber grip would not of damaged car and I was ok, we were both moving at the time.

Later on wide shared cycle path (offroad) meet a parent with child walking hand in hand with two slow moving dogs back to me, I ding my bell and the parent ignores me and continues on their way, I ding bell again and nothing..........I almost stop behind the child who is not protected and one dog walks in front of me , leaves a gap which I slowly try to move through then dog pulls across my path, I eventually get by , the whole time the parent takes no notice and does not move child to a safer place :?

On the road again and spot some tyres leaning against hedge by a drive to house, I pass then decide to do a u turn to have a look, Free to good home :)
Motorcycle tyres two rear and a front , profesional pirreli mt43's :D These are the road trial riders tyre of choice.
How to carry all three tyres on my bike :?
Road is country lane with fields hedges and a drianage ditch or three, concrete culvert under road and its dry, so pick up three tyres throw them over fence and hide them under the road out of view :)
Continue on my way and up first steep road climb, at top a very steep 20 yrds and need to downshift or pull on bars hard.
Back is sore from garden work and woke with sore back, do my exercises, then off on bike which has some extra low bars for greater speed :) So no surprise that my back got twice as bad on top of climb :(

Continued on and kept my back straight even when standing and pain eased off :)
Came back along shared cycle path and meet cyclist with head down not looking forward :?
Next cyclist I meet is on blind bend and I am far left but they are at me on their right :? They swerve to avoid me..........Then the other half with child trailer is soon there on their far right stuffed up against the hedge my left with nowhere for me to go...they swerve to avoid collision

Usual drop into the recycling centre and spied my next steed, nothing but tots bikes, oh well.

See an office chair or five and this one looks almost new, not ripped or damaged or stained :)
Adjustable height, back height, arms up and down as well as rotate, seat base tilt, back tilt, seat base front and back slide, sprung back tension :o Fiver...weighs a ton.
On my way home back has eased up, great.

Have me lunch and get in car to retreive tyres and chair, my office chair cost a ton ten years ago and is not as good as this one, metal base for castors which are damped for no slide too, mines looking poor but functional so missus get the chair meanwhile :?
I have a new rear M/cycle tye and two rear ones (free) are 80 - 60 % good so will sell the new one and the free ones will give me several years use :P
Shame I did'nt add another steed to the stable but my last one was a 100% complete "Al Carter Nashville" complete with STX cranks with serviceable chain rings :) A tenner............Ho Hum.........
Last edited by NATURAL ANKLING on 9 Sep 2014, 8:03pm, edited 2 times in total.
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope
You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill
Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
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mjr
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Joined: 20 Jun 2011, 7:06pm
Location: Norfolk or Somerset, mostly
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Re: Anothe Day In The Life Of cyclist

Post by mjr »

Wow, it sounds bad on the English Riviera. Here's my day in the life, cycling in Norfolk today: I left my drive and crossed the A10 without stopping, joined the cycleway, then crossed back again half a mile further up and rode into the next village on estate roads to drop off some recycling. On the way to the recycling point, some young woman driver came up behind, revved it through the roof, then overtook well. I didn't understand the excessive revs until she drew level: an iPhone was held in right hand that was also holding the steering wheel, showing the App launcher/listing screen - presumably the left hand was trying to press the touchscreen as well as controlling signals and gears. Oh well, at least it was the poor gearbox getting thrashed rather than other road users. :lol:

No problems the rest of the way through the village, crossed the A10 again and continued on cycleway to the roundabout a few miles north, straight across the southbound carriageway to the island, slow slightly while the lights changed and then rolled across the northbound, slowed slightly to allow a van to clear the entrance to the industrial estate, then an ambulance driver signalled for me pull out onto the road in front of him. I'm not sure if he expected me to join the road because there is a cycleway continuing, but it has poor visibility crossing the A47 exit (Highways Agency failing to cut their trees back to clear sight lines and I've not yet been out with loppers) so I often don't use it.

I reached running speed as I turned off the roundabout and onto the A149 and the first set of lights were with me so I left the road onto the cycleway smoothly and slowly decelerated to the next junction, lights were with me again, so I rolled across (it's a nasty tight turn, which is why I was decelerating) and rejoined the A149. Again, there is a cycleway I could use but it's rough as heck and on the wrong side of the road so means four more road crossings, while the road is a short sharp railway bridge climb then a gentle downhill, 40-to-30mph limit, two lanes in this direction and two out of three roads feeding it are single lane, so I'm not much of an obstruction if timed well. That didn't stop one silly white BMW overtaking without changing lane fully, then cutting back in. I hope that's this week's nutter. :roll:

Traffic lights at Southgates junction were friendly (it's a good day), so I rode across onto the A148 through the gate towards town non-stop. A car just behind me and in the other lane at the point where two lanes merge - older driver, I think they were a tourist but I'm not sure why (I saw many in town today, but that was later) - clearly considered rushing for the gap, decided against it. Turned right off the A148 with a short stop in the middle of the road. Stopped to investigate a rubbing noise while pedalling. Rear derailleur hadn't selected the gear shown on the trigger: fixed by shifting down then up again and rode on past two gates that stop motor traffic, through our main park (the Walks) and past the church. I used the church drive to leave the cycleway and rejoin the road because the turn at the end of the cycleway is a bit tight and busy for my liking. The lights were with me (again!), so straight across, straight on to see if the cycle park by the market is open yet - no - then continue round and left into a contraflow cycle lane, then a left-hand U turn on the edge of the bus station, into the cycle park by the museum. Sometimes I'll ride across the bus station to one of the other cycle parks, but it's market day and it's crazy busy, with buses stopping across the pedestrian crossings and cycleway junctions. This bus station gets rebuilt next year to increase bus user and cycle capacity and not a day too soon.

Loaded down with shopping, I ride to the Millfleet on the south edge of the town centre using some service roads (I don't think this is safe, really, but we don't yet have an alternative and there aren't many HGVs delivering mid-morning on market day - probably because the shops don't have the staff spare to accept deliveries) and join NCN Route 1 for a short while out of town, the bit that buses are allowed on but happily I don't meet any buses today, even though I follow their fork to its end, then do a non-obvious series of crossings and U-turns to get around the Southgates roundabout on the toucan-ised bits of cycleway and join the cycleway eastbound alongside the A149 that I ignored earlier, over the railway bridge. I had a bit of a surprise as a bus stopped to drop off passengers (not at a stop), then a near-miss with a toucan crossing button pole (I leant the bike, but the weight of shopping leant it more and I turned faster than I wanted and they always put those button poles on the apex of corners) and fairly quickly across all the crossings (13!) back to the A10 cycleway. Uneventful ride down most of the A10 except for a wide farm vehicle mounting the pavement, but it's OK, it's recently been cleared to full width, so it wasn't very near me. That would have been much scarier last month.

On the short (100m maybe) narrow (1.5m maybe) section just before the junction where I turn off, there are two walkers on the cycleway, side-by-side, plus an oncoming cyclist. The walkers step into the verge, so I thank them and then both I and the other cycle pass. I again get straight out across the A10 without stopping. The road seems slightly quieter than usual here today, but it seemed busier than usual up by the A149/A47 junction.

That seems pretty good to me and really this is maybe the second-busiest and second-least-friendly route that I do. If I'm not in a hurry and can't be bothered dealing with the road sections (notice that's where most of the madness happens), I could do a few more crossings and ride slowly along the lumpy cycleways as well and not join a road until the edge of the town centre 20mph zone. I wish everyone had routes at least as dull and unexciting as this one. ;-)
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
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NATURAL ANKLING
Posts: 13780
Joined: 24 Oct 2012, 10:43pm
Location: English Riviera

Re: Another Day In The Life Of cyclist

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
Ah....seem's like only essay's need apply :)
Lets have yours...........
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope
You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill
Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
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ArMoRothair
Posts: 351
Joined: 20 Jun 2013, 10:55am
Location: Londinium

Re: Another Day In The Life Of cyclist

Post by ArMoRothair »

Dropped daughter to school, cycled to client's office, worked all day, cycled back to school, rode home with daughter, cooked dinner.
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