Urgent blood and airborne missiles

The Good

I saw the irony in nearly being run over by an ‘Urgent Blood’ van this morning. It doesn’t get much better than this, folks!

The Bad

If your thinking of throwing your rubbish into the bus lane…don’t. This morning my missus was nearly hit by an air-born wad of chewing gum that was launched from the window of…you guessed it…a white van. Disgusting! Yes, you might have looked sorry, but you wont have to pretend to be sorry if you don’t do it in the first place, right?

The Ugly

At the south end of London bridge a car had quite obviously collided with one of those horrid bendy buses. Fortunately, it seemed that no-one had been injured and the collision had been quite minor. Both vehicles had been turning left, the car (on the inside) obviously hadn’t waited for the bus which looked like it had already made the majority of its turn before being ran into. It is ridiculous that in Central London there are public transport vehicles that require a minimum of two lanes to make a not-so-sharp turn. It was undoubtedly the car drivers fault, and I am glad that no-one was hurt, but as a cyclist I’m all too aware of the hazards that these bloody abnormalities seem to create.

Blow outs and dropping a heavy load

The Bad:

My wheels are 700s and my Marathons have 38C (and ‘38mm wide’) stamped on them and recommend a pressure of 60-85 PSI. So, I bought Specialized 700 x 28/38 inner tubes and pumped them up to 75 PSI. I like my tyres to be rock hard, but I found 75 PSI to be adequate. Yesterday, I decided to use the automatic pump at a Somerfield petrol station in Shoreditch, and as normal, I pumped up to 75 PSI. About 20 seconds later as we were waiting at a set of traffic lights my front inner tube exploded. Luckily I wasn’t actually sitting on my bike at the time, or worse still on the move. I can only think that either I’m using the wrong inner tubes, or the speed at which the tyre was pumped up had weakened the inner tube or its seam. It was quite an impressive blow out, if not a little inconvenient.

The Good:

Upon hearing my inner tube explode, a guy behind me shouts from his white van “We’re going South of the river if you want a lift?”. I declined, explaining that I would change it for a spare, but thanked him for the offer. It wasn’t a transit van, and neither he nor his female passenger looked like your typical white van drivers, but still; a white van man offered help to a cyclist in need, and that counts for something in rush hour London.

The Ugly:

A very long vehicle appeared to have dropped its very long and very heavy cargo underneath the disused (being revamped) railway bridge by Shoreditch town hall this evening. Fortunately, it looked like no-one had collided with either the lorry or its load.

Motorbikes and White Van Man

The Good:

Thanks to the guy on the moped at Brixton, who very politely and graciously gave way to lots of cyclists trying to pass all those buses outside the tube station this morning. Of course, I let him out after seeing him wave through many cyclists in front of me. Thanks again G20K WXG!

The Bad:

Bad, bad white van man. I know you want to get somewhere quick, hell we’d all like to jump the queue once in a while, but really I’m not sure it’s worth my life is it? Coming out of a side street and forcing yourself into a stream of moving traffic??? I’m sure if you think about it real hard, even you can see that this is a bad idea.

The Ugly

Things nearly got ugly by Oval this morning – stupid man on a moped decided to pull out in front of me with zero warning. To make it worse, he then undertook me and decided to drive full steam ahead up the bike lane! Twice! Almost but not quite counteracted the move made by the guy at Brixton. Grr.

Glad to be back, annoying motorcyclists aside

The Good:

On my bike again, after an unavoidable, but thankfully brief encounter with public transport *shudder* on Friday due to a spot of illness.

The Bad:

Another motorcyclist thinks that he’s got a God-given right to block the bike box to cyclists. Now, I understand why motorcyclists want to use the box – for the same reason that cyclists do – to get a safe head-start in front of the traffic, but it doesn’t change the fact that they’re legally not allowed to. If you’re a motorcyclist and you’re thinking of using the bike box, don’t filter through two lanes of traffic and then simply stop in between two cars when you get in front of it. If you’ve got room to move out of the way and you choose not to, you’re blocking entry to the bike box to all the cyclists behind you for no reason. That’s fine, so long as you expect me to shout at you, call you a twatt, and scrape past your shiny bike to get inside the box. Don’t like it? Don’t use it, or at least don’t be so bloody arrogant and inconsiderate as to block it off to the people it’s actually there for.

The Ugly:

Apart from annoying motorcyclists, today was too pretty for uglies because I was so pleased to be back on my bike again, yey :)

Don’t believe the stereotype

The Good:

A cabbie gave way to me today. Yup, an actual London taxi driver in a hackney cab! I know…it’s true, you just can’t make this stuff up. It happened this morning at a traffic hotspot on the approach to London Bridge from Borough. Unfortunately, I was in too much shock to catch his plate or id, but I did manage to utter a word of thanks and a friendly ‘thank you’ wave. The cynic in me was saying it must have been his first day on the job, but I’d like to believe that even after years in the business, he’d remained uncompromised by the daily grind and allowed himself during rush hour to make the unprecedented move of extending his courtesy to the one road user normally considered the enemy…a cyclist. So, thanks Mr Taxi Man, it doesn’t happen often enough, but I really appreciated it.

The Bad:

This morning, a guy on a road bike was cycling far too slowly for a guy on a road bike. I don’t mind slow cyclists (to most people, I’m probably one of them) but really really slow cyclists that insist on holding everyone else up by riding two abreast even when they’re not overtaking!? But it’s ok, he was wearing a ‘Tour de France’ shirt so I guess that makes it a non-issue because his commute into work was obviously waaaay more important than mine, or anyone else’s for that matter. So, of course I shouted “Oi! Get over to the left, you’re in the bloody way!” Ok, I actually just tutted a bit in typicaly British style like everyone else and considered using my bell but didn’t. Well, what’s the use of a rant blog if I’m gonna let it all out on the road anyway?

The Ugly:

I don’t like to be a hater, but one too many selfish cyclists annoyed me today. Couple that with being confronted with a genuinely considerate taxi driver and what used to be my comforting road user stereotypes can’t get into an uglier mess. If much more of this goes on, I’ll have to start treating people as individuals. That will never do.

Bike boxes and bus lanes

The Good:

Saw the City Police giving motorcyclists a telling off for going in the ‘bike box’ at one of the traffic light sets in Bishopsgate.

The Bad:

They were handing out leaflets not fines…apparently you gotta be a cyclist to get one of those. Oh, the injustice!

The Ugly:

A motorcyclist had come off his bike on Brixton Hill in what looked like a collision between him and a white van that had been turning left. Probably cut him up as he was riding in the bus lane (allowed on that stretch). Unfortunately that happens a lot when your’re in the bus lane. Ambulance crew were there with plenty of gawpers as well. Hope he’s alright.

Posengers, flopping and still no Armadillos

The Good:

Slowed to a crawl behind a posenger today thinking that his lack of speed meant he would be pulling over at some point soonish. Two miles later and still no sign of him picking up the pace, so I overtook him (which seemed like some kind of achievement at the time, but now post adrenaline-rush, feels a little lame).

The Bad:

Woke up to find out I had a flat tyre :( Gotta get a pair of Armadillos, the tyres that came with my new bike are officially pants. Two punctures in a week pants in fact. One was caused by a stone! A very, very small stone. Grit, actually. Pathetic.

The Ugly:

Fell off my bike at the petrol station. Yes, fell. Actually, it was more of a flop. I wasn’t pushed, or nudged, I didn’t get distracted and I’m not claiming it was anyone’s fault but my own inexplicable, but momentary lapse of hand-eye coordination. Highly embarrassing. Just as well there were no motorists there to see it (too late to see rush hour due to the flat tyre). Conclusion…at least The Bad made The Ugly a little prettier.

Things get hot and the law break the law

The Good:

Knocked 5mins off our joint commute this morning…7 miles in just over 30mins. Not great, but not bad considering we don’t jump reds and as it has taken me an hour to do the full 9 miles before now!

The Bad:

Saw two community support officers on mopeds driving in the bicycle lane. Tut tut.

The Ugly:

It was hot hot hot this morning and I chose to cycle in sweat pants. Nice.

Taxi for one!

The Good:

Had  an argument with a dumb cabbie in which I totally kicked his arse.

The Bad:

Aforementioned taxi driver’s BMI was higher than his IQ, so my point was totally lost on him.

The Ugly:

Said cabbie was definitely today’s ‘ugly’.

Supercars, cycle paths and stretchers

The Good:

Pulled up to a supercar at Liverpool Street and he followed me nearly all the way home until we got to Brixton Hill, where we paired off..and I didn’t even jump any lights (never do). If you want to punch my smug face in, good for you, I deserve it!

The Bad:

Some prick in a three wheeled motorbike decided to drive up onto the raised cycle lane in Bishopsgate to overtake a bus nearly knocking out a couple of cyclists. Yeh well done AY57 FDD. Prick.

The Ugly:

Saw a cyclist on the floor at Hackney City Farm, accompanied by an ambulance, some police, a stretcher, and a car (presumably the one that hit him).