Took charlie out for a spin in leverhulme park on saturday, first time off road since his first ever ride. He doesn't like the fast bumpy bits (downhill with a kicker at the bottom) but he likes getting sideways round gravelly corners :-) Brand new hope hoops don't like getting sideways on gravelly corners, managed to put a bit of a wobble on them. Not sure how much is the rim and how much is the not so good halo ust tyre. We went down to the river and he walked straight into it and had a splash around, then we went for a run around on the footy field, nice.
A rather nice commute on monday, the baby bunnies and geese were out, the trails were dry, the sun was shining, few people about on the way home so got a lot of use out of my bell (which I've just noticed has n+1 written on the side :-) ) everyone friendly having a nice day, top stuff. Bagged myself a pair of oakley MX goggles on the way home too, might be useful for wet downhill days. Tuesday was a bit grim so back on the road. Now stabiliser has almost scared me off riding dual carriageways I think his report on how normal inoffensive drivers gang up with their collective stupidity to kill cyclists is bang on. I've had a couple of 4x4 drivers swerve round me at the last minute and the person behind (too close behind) come passed incredibly close. I've been dodging the 50mph DC on my commute but the alternatives aren't great. A slow cycle route which has 1 chicane and 6 slalom gates within a quarter mile. A road route, extra 1.5miles, a section of narrow 30 limit rd which often has speeders rat running, a roundabout where I turn right and often get drivers (also turning right) going round it the wrong way to over take me followed by a fast downhill heavy with traffic and lots of side roads for people to pull out on me. After trying various routes I'm back to the DC but totally hogging the left lane to prevent the above. But instead of just primary I'm between dead centre of lane and the right of centre, 2 mornings of that haven't been too bad, no attempted kills, no beeps either (yet) tho I have noted a few drivers muttering to themselves whilst passing me. See how it goes.
No-one else could make tuesday night ride and my mrs looked tired so I stayed home, went out for a ride last night instead. Got a bloody flat again down wildeswood (ust tyre+stans), pumped it back up and it stayed put for rest of ride (and overnight) dunno whats going on there, burping, badly applied rim strip (that'll be me then) or just crap tyre. 2lads, wildes, pike, san marino, quarry, home through eagly and hall ith wood. Very tired at the end, fish, chips, cake, strawberrys and a bucket of tea to replenish energy.
Might have bagged myself a bargain, dt240 wheel, mint condition rim, totally shagged bearings, much cheapness. Will have to see how much it costs to get it up and running before I decide if it was bargain or bust, I did a full bearing change on my very similar 440 for £25ish so fingers crossed.
3 comments:
I have a couple of miles on a proper dual carriageway (central reservation the lot) to work and it doesn't bother me, the alternative is much worse as it makes a dual carriageway out of what really should be single carriageway road, no central reservation and it is bad enough in a car sometimes.
When I've driven along it I am usually shocked at the speed differential between cyclists and bikes but it never seems to bother me riding. Its got a proper wide cycle lane so I'm not in with the traffic, its not massively busy and it also has no slip road style junctions, just one traffic light controlled crossroads so its better than most.
Its also the main route out to Warton and lots of cyclists use it and it has good sight lines. A surprising amount of drivers will pull out to the outside lane when passing you to give you loads of room if they can even though your happily in the cycle lane.
The only downside is the road surface in bits, I oten end up riding the white line on the way to work its that bad.
No bike lane on this section of the east lancs and while plenty of people do give you space there are some drivers who, even when the other 2 lanes are empty, will not change lanes to get passed, they'll just move the bare minimum to the right so as not to hit you. Worse still is when the other 2 lanes are busy, approaching drivers will wait till the last minute to brake (or swerve round if a gap appears leading to the dangers stabiliser highlighted) :-(
I'm fortunate its not a problem on my current commute, my old commute went down the other road and on several occasions I heard a spine chilling screech of brakes behind me as drivers didn't anticipate having to move out. I usually didn't bother cycling home until the rush had died down a bit, which was actually quite early on as I was heading towards Preston against most of the flow of traffic in the evening (I imagine the east Lancs is a different kettle of fish entirely)...never had the problem in the morning though, not sure why.
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