Road rage...again

On my way home friday I see a bus up ahead indicate to pull out, it's quiet so I move out to where the bus driver can see me in his mirror and wave him to pull out, he starts to do so. Just then I hear a car coming up behind, I hear him speed up, passing us and preventing the bus from pulling out. I flap my right arm up and down to signify my annoyance (I may have been holding an imaginary beer bottle at the time) Car goes passed, bus starts to pull out again then has to brake again as the car has pulled in ahead of the bus...uh oh! I tuck in behind the bus but nope the driver has seen me and starts shouting "was that at me? Eh? WAS THAT AT ME?" Oops. "if you can't take a bit of criticism then don't drive like  wanker" was not my response, well not unless I wanted to follow it up with "unhand me you oaf" and "strike me down and I shall become more powerful than you can possi...OUCH" This guy looks a bit of a scrote but he is driving a nice car so he's either well dodgy or he's in the cars, beer and burds neanderthal brigade. Either way that plus the fact that I'm exit strategy deficient in the damp paper bag scenario means I aint squaring up to him. So I do the valiant thing and run away, pavement, 1 way street, exit stage left. Another adrenaline riddled commute ending with sewing machinists jangly leg syndrome. Tool!

But not as much as a tool as this absolute degenerate.
:-(

Be kind to your knees you'll miss them when they're gone

Amen, mine appear to be crumbling to dust. Been taking it easy all week but knees are still suffering, on the ibuprofen this week I think. Before anyone says it I doubt it's singlespeeding, my knee pain seems to come and go at varying intervals no matter what I'm riding - eg keilder wrecked them, hope they sort themselves out soon. I also hope the weather sorts itself out, I keep daydreaming of long dusty trails, firm grassy sections and fast hardpack climbs, but no, for now it's still chucking it down. Nipped out yesterday to test my SS, slapped some 120mm forks on and a dinky 45mm stem and it has kind of transformed the ride, downs are a lot more comfortable, ICR was not a problem, front end pops up nicely great for wheelying off drops and hopping stuff. Unfortunately it's also gimped the climbing, bars are higher and nearer so not so much leverage for thrutching up climbs, ho hum. I managed tho up barrow and onto winter hill, 2dogs and wildes were fun but then I died on my arse up bastid climb (mind you there is a good reason for the name) A couple of stops and some pushing! Dunno what was up with me, the rest week didn't help much then. ICR, back up the gardens then blast home on road where I managed to catch and drop a roadie*

*ok not a roadie, a man on a drop barred bike.

Fashion Faux pas

Somehow I managed to put on odd gloves this morning...nightmare.

Mind you not half as bad as yesterday, wet and cold in the morning so waterproof jacket, warm on the way home so instead I put on my bright red lightweight shell I keep at work, and set off. Caught sight of myself in a mirror, with my jacket unzipped halfway, my very open round necked baselayer revealing my chest rug, topped off with a buff meant I looked very, erm....flamboyant.
The tights didn't help either.

An error in judgement

Nearly threw myself under the wheels of a car this morning, worst mistake I have made on the road in a looooong time. Approaching a big roundabout there's a long line of cars stopped on the cycle lane so I cut down the right hand lane intending to slot in further up the line where the bike lane becomes mandatory (so will be free of cars...yeah right!) it's a big roundabout and has a cycle lane so no matter how busy it is I can normally get on and off without problems using the mandatory bike lane*. Anyway I'm heading down the right lane, no spaces at all then a space appears right at the front, I race forwards to try to get to it but the van next to me floors it too, I'm faster but not quick enough to get into the left  lane properly, I endup charging into the roundabout too fast, too wide and pretty much straight into the path of a car already on the roundabout. Fortunatley he/she saw me and braked I waved apology and again as he/she passed me on the exit. Felt like a right tool, stupid stupid idiot.

I dunno this probably wouldn't have fazed me when I was younger, infact half the incidents I moan about on here probably wouldn't, near misses were still misses - I win. Nowadays I know how to ride "properly" and I know how other road users should treat me, before it was "the road is for cars, i'll just weave around them", now it's "we are all traffic, lets do things properly please". So I get all flustered when people don't give me some common courtesy, ie a bit of room so I don't get hit by a tonne of fast moving metal if I fallover/wobble/breath out and I get more worked up about a driver treating me as a 2nd class road user than I will about someone nearly killing me, education can be a dangerous thing**

*This is fine if you are taking the next exit but if you are taking the 2nd, 3rd or 4th exit the markings indicate you keep to the edge and stop at every exit road and wait for a space to cross it then move on to the next one, daft, instead of getting into the flow of traffic and it being 2 junctions (1 on 1 off) the road planners want to you to negotiate several. Rubbish design.

**education is like a communicable sexual disease, it makes you unsuitable for certain jobs and you feel the urge to pass it on :-)

Rest week

I'm currently on a not exactly self imposed rest week, sunday no-one was riding but besides I had jobs to do. Back gate frame needed repairing, proper manly stuff, (jig)sawing, drilling, screwing, bolting, nailing etc then unscrewing unbolting un-nailing and doing it all again but properly this time. No-one out last night plus a lack of motivation, no footy this week either. I had planned to do my annual ambleside ride this sunday but thats had to be cancelled. I'll just have to try harder next week.

F.R.I.day

Last tuesday wasn't great, on my ay home approaching kearsley roundabout (bit 2 lane job) there's a rescue van parked on the approach so I go round him and take primary in the left lane, queue of cars in the right, just as I'm about to enter the roundabout I hear a car behind, I enter roundabout and hold my lane, after being behind me for a whole 2 seconds driver gets arsey beeps and guns engine and over takes, immediately has to stop before exiting roundabout due to traffic backing up. Passing on his left I ask him what his problem is, he seems to have plenty to say so I move round to his side.
Him: Windowdown shouts something unintelligible windowup
Me: What?

Him: Windowdown "you were in the middle of the road" windowup
Me: I was in my lane, where should I be then?
Him: Windowdown "at the side, out of the way" windowup
I'm left gasping like a grounded fish, unable to articulate the full strength of my feelings on this little exchange without degenerating into expletives, and more than a little peeved with all the window business. I figure I'm onto a loser with this ignoramus cut my losses and move on. As I set off the traffic starts to move, he guns the engine again starts to accelerate with me inches form him, worried about the car glancing me and knocking me over (and I wanted this nob to stop) I lean into the car, as his wingmirror gets knocked back he gets the message and stops, windowdown "IDIOT" windowup, GRRR! I try again, set off get into lane infront of him only to hear him gunning the engine again, afraid he'll try to give me "a little tap" with his 1.5tonne merc I turn and shout at him (stop or no, cant remember) and the Fat Repugnant Ignoramus finally backs off the go pedal. Adrenaline has well and truly spiked now, I want to absolutley nail it all the way home but reign it in a little, I immediately lose FRI due to traffic but I'm keeping a close eye out for him all the way but thankfully no sign.
Got home pretty depressed, some tossers just don't see that cyclists are a good thing. If half or even a quarter of the drivers in front of FRI switched to bikes his journey would be a breeze (plus all the subsidiary benefits to society that FRI probably doesn't care about), of course he'd have to drive attentivley, but newsflash he's supposed to be doing that now. The dismissive if not outright hostile attitude to 2 wheels was what really got to me, plus the subsequent crash from the adrenaline high won't be helping. To cheer me up I made myself a bacon butty and then go out on an xc ride away from nasty car drivers. So quite why I suggested me and Johnnie went over to the nab leaving me with a 12mile road ride home (on a singlespeed) is a bit beyond me, but it sorted my head out. Rivi was damp but not too bad, lead mines beat me, just too muddy and cut up, wrong line etc, excuses excuses. I had meant to go up chorley old road and down barrow bridge but as soon as the road started to rise I realised my legs were shot so spun home on the flat.

Top Gear

First off squirt lube (don't google it) absolutley brilliant, been using it a while but the last few rides it's really proved itself winter proof too. Quick to apply, doesn't fuzz up in the dry, keeps your chain lubed when it's really filthy but your chain is easy to clean post ride (if you bother) As such it's possibly not up to regular river crossings but unless you ride with the bogtrotters it shouldn't be a problem.  I tend to re-apply before each ride unless it's been dry out, it's quick enough to do. Twenty odd quid for a huuuuge bottle, email and they'll send you a little sample pot that you can keep in your camelbak for emergencies.

After bemoaning the cost of gold star quality water proof pants I bit the bullet, saved my xmas pennies and bought some endura stealth lites. Money well spent, just a pity I didn't stump up more. These are basically waterproof tights and they are ace. I use them with overshoes and basically nothing gets through, on sunday everybody else had wet feet in the first hour except me, my feet were a little damp by the end but still warm and I'm pretty sure it's the overshoes that leaked, postride I even hosed down myself down and no water got through, brilliant. The only problem is I got the tights so they creep down,  I should have got bibs (I normally do) but they were another £30 - would have been worth it tho. I reckon boots with high cuffs like these would negate the need for overshoes too.