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Cycling log - random events in the day of a cyclist

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My Raveman 1000 somehow became detached from my bars this morning on my commute and I didn't notice (may have been the noise from the traffic).Luckily, I had a spare Knog as a back up which was OK for the road but less so for the 6 miles through the leaf strewn cycle path through the woods but got home safely .
May have to upgrade to the 1200 or the 1600 :D
 
Flat on Friday...fortunately close to work. I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and put it in for a service at Cycle Republic - it is on a service plan. I thought I'd retained the service document in my wallet but it turns out I had the handover document. Cycle Republic do not keep an electronic record so if you lose the service document you lose the service plan. I thought this a bit rum...should have taken a photo of it.
This morning the rear was down to 85psi from 100. Pumped it up and it seems to have held. No dust cover on the rear valve so I replaced it with the one from the front.
 
Ugh punctures. I put the studded winter tires on my around-town bike on Saturday and on Sunday the rear was flat. Back off an new inner tube in. Ready (somewhat) for the snow and ice now. Also setup an old TV donated from a relative with a roku in front of the spin bike in the basement, so doubly prepared for the snow and ice.
 
Sat at a red light (on my bike) near Dulwich this morning and an RLJ'er goes straight past me and into the traffic crossing on green where he struggles to merge in (because it's wet) and catches the side of a car leaving a nice scratch down the side of it. The driver quite justifiably goes a bit mental at the cyclist who tries to blame the driver and asks me to back him up.... laughing at him I tell the driver he ran the red light and was lucky not to get hurt... our cycling chum then calls me a traitor and scarpers off through another lot of traffic crossing the other way causing two drivers to have to stop abruptly to avoid hitting him. For some reason I felt the need to apologise to the driver and tell him we're not all like that.
 
I hate the cyclists who behave like w*&$%*(rs. It gives us all a bad name. My most hated are those who blow through pedestrian crossings. I assume RLJ = red light jumper.
 
tiggers said:
Sat at a red light (on my bike) near Dulwich this morning and an RLJ'er goes straight past me and into the traffic crossing on green where he struggles to merge in (because it's wet) and catches the side of a car leaving a nice scratch down the side of it. The driver quite justifiably goes a bit mental at the cyclist who tries to blame the driver and asks me to back him up.... laughing at him I tell the driver he ran the red light and was lucky not to get hurt... our cycling chum then calls me a traitor and scarpers off through another lot of traffic crossing the other way causing two drivers to have to stop abruptly to avoid hitting him. For some reason I felt the need to apologise to the driver and tell him we're not all like that.
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Don't worry, Darwin will settle his account before long.
 
clifftaylor said:
Anyone else pig sick of cleaning the bike??
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Sorry, what's "cleaning the bike"? Mine gets the mud hosed off once a year, whether it needs it or not. Other than that I oil the chain and wipe off the excess, after a ride the black sludge accumulates on the jockey wheels and falls off.
 
stevec67 said:
Sorry, what's "cleaning the bike"? Mine gets the mud hosed off once a year, whether it needs it or not. Other than that I oil the chain and wipe off the excess, after a ride the black sludge accumulates on the jockey wheels and falls off.
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Yeah, I am still a couple of years off that I think. Still got new(ish) bikeitis and clean the chainset fairly thoroughly every muddy ride.
 
Oh, top tip for winter cyclists, grease your cables. You can do this in situ. Unhook the brake caliper as you do when removing a wheel. Unhook the cable outers from the frame, get them free so you can slide them up and down the cable. Grease the cable, wazz the outers up and down so the grease gets carried into the outers. Wipe off the excess, hook everything back together, wipe up. Takes 5 minutes, gives you waterproofed brake cables that will last for decades. Since I started doing this I've not had to replace one. Same goes for gear cables, stops the water getting in and makes sure that they keep moving and shift properly. This is a far, far better way to spend your time on bike maintenance than wiping dirt off paint. The only "washing" I do is rinsing off salt periodically.
 
stevec67 said:
Oh, top tip for winter cyclists, grease your cables. You can do this in situ. Unhook the brake caliper as you do when removing a wheel. Unhook the cable outers from the frame, get them free so you can slide them up and down the cable. Grease the cable, wazz the outers up and down so the grease gets carried into the outers. Wipe off the excess, hook everything back together, wipe up. Takes 5 minutes, gives you waterproofed brake cables that will last for decades. Since I started doing this I've not had to replace one. Same goes for gear cables, stops the water getting in and makes sure that they keep moving and shift properly. This is a far, far better way to spend your time on bike maintenance than wiping dirt off paint. The only "washing" I do is rinsing off salt periodically.
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I don't have cables ;-)
 
cutting42 said:
Yeah, I am still a couple of years off that I think. Still got new(ish) bikeitis and clean the chainset fairly thoroughly every muddy ride.
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That's fair enough. I wipe off any excess gritty black sludge on the chainwheel, it has to help. The fact remains that the jockey wheels do a great job of cleaning off excess grit, the best way I know of cleaning a chain is to oil it and go for a ride for a few hours, then scrape the black crud off the jockey wheels with a stick. Even when I have cleaned everything with paraffin you get the black sludge on the jockey wheels after 40 or 50 miles.
 
I need to upgrade the motor before I spend money on the transmission. I'd have hydro brakes like a shot, but my "legacy spec" commuter bike still has V brakes and derailleurs. My roady is all mechanical too. Makes for easy servicing, I suppose.
 
I had a go on Zwift at a friends' house last weekend. I rode around a version of Central Park. It was certainly less mind-numbingly dull than the turbo I used to have and of course the resistance feedback and screen view of the road and power info etc are fun. The friends use it a lot and I did really enjoy it. But not a cheap proposition, especially if we wanted the convenience of an extra indoor bike (each) - plus saddles, pedals, computer etc. So not for now but if we were here all winter and could not ride outside I reckon we'd use it.

Meanwhile in the real world.... here in northern France (La Mayenne) it's rained almost every day for two months and I'm a right proper softy so a good summer of riding hit the wall in October. Anyway today we grabbed a brief sunny window to go out for a couple of hours. Felt SO good. The cycling around here is just about perfect.
 
Went out today for a couple of hours in the SUN, which was nice. Downside: sun very low at this time of year, so it was either shining through hedges or trees from the side, doing that flickering thing that my eyes don't like, or from in front so I couldn't see where I was going, or from behind so cars couldn't see me ( I had my nearest brush with death in just these conditions years ago!).
A day of sunshine does lift the mood, it must be said.
 
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