Interestingly my club ride yesterday took in about 15 miles of shared use path, we slowed down a bit and passed other path users carefully and it was all good.

Years ago my sister was flying out for a long trip to Thailand. On the Sunday I drove her down to Heathrow then straight back to Leeds. Before she left she handed me a pile of cash and asked if I could pay it into the bank for her. Being knackered after the drive I put it on the side and completely forgot to pick it up on the Monday morning.

Got home from work on Monday evening and I’d been burgled. They’d been through a tin I kept expired ID cards (from when I’d been a student abroad – quite crap keepsakes, but never mind…) and foreign loose change in but failed to notice the big pile of £20 notes sitting on the side in the same room…

We had this conversation last night.

OH – do you have any plans for that marrow?
Me – no, do you?
OH – I might try to do something with it tomorrow night.
Me – I’ll be out so that sounds perfect.

Pause.

OH – so what can you actually do with a marrow?

(He’s veggie so stuffing it with mince won’t help and I had no other ideas. Still, if he gets rid of it I’m not too concerned about how!)

I used to put 2 bikes with wheels on the back of a fiat 500 – significantly wider than the car (and probably the mirrors although I never checked and have now sold the car) and I never had any issue with it. I don’t know whether that’s because it was OK or because I was never caught though.

I seem to have had mental shift in my attitude towards alcohol in the last month. At the end of July I went on a work event – meal and bar paid for, overnight in a hotel, that sort of thing. There was some throwing up in the bathroom in the morning and I missed my train home.

That would usually put me off drinking for a few days, and it did, but unlike previous binges it also seemed to trigger a rethink and a conscious decision to cut down more permanently rather than allowing it to creep up again (I tend to go in cycles – binge, cut down, a glass of wine an evening at weekends, a glass of wine an evening during the week, a bottle of wine each day at weekends etc etc until I get to the next binge).

A month on I’m still barely touching the stuff – I’ve had a few drinks at weekends but nothing midweek and not every day at the weekend either. I’m currently seeing if I can go 2 weeks without a single drink and relatively confident of achieving it.

If I could happily stick to one glass per night then I’d like to do that, but past history shows that I can’t and once it turns into a habit or an expectation that I’ll have a drink I end up doing it whether I actually fancy it or not and that’s where the problems start.

Hora – mine is on 3. Great phone.

I’m not in favour of compulsion, but I’d see some merit in a compromise – compulsory helmets on roads with higher speed limits (maybe kicking in above 40?) With the flip side being more 20mph limits (ie reducing the limit on the roads where helmets aren’t required). No helmets required onoff road cycle paths/bridleways/anywhere with no cars.

I once got started by a guy on an electric bike 😮 on a climb 😮 my proudest moment on a bike so far, I think!

I’ve got one too, 2012 I think which I picked up 2nd hand at the end of last year.. Really like it.

Tomd – snap! My mum lives in Spain and reads the mail in a bar. I now preface any response to information from her with “did you read that in the daily mail”.

I bought and fitted a new light for my commuter yesterday 🙁

Taster session at the velodrome in the morning.

Rogerthecat – agreed on the resources thing, I accidentally edited that sentence out before posting… It just irks me that bad driving is only seen as an issue if you kill someone. Not if you injure someone and certainly not if it’s just bad driving without any consequences.

At least in this one the police put the dangerous driving charge to the jury. You might not agree with the jury’s decision but at least the police/CPS pursued it.

I can see how a jury would visualise it – they’ve probably all done things that take their attention away from the road for a couple of seconds, and they’ve probably all seen cyclists without lights or reflectors in the dark. Defence lawyer paints a picture and maybe glosses over or deflects issues such as whether lights/reflectors were actually needed and they see themselves in that scenario.

I think there’s far too much tolerance of low level bad driving and not enough enforcement – and too much of a public perception that enforcement is about revenue generation rather than saving people’s lives. Most drivers who eat a sandwich won’t hit someone but only taking action against those who do reinforces the idea that they were just unlucky rather than shifting it round so that the people who didn’t hit someone were lucky that their lack of attention didn’t lead to worse consequences.

Rattling around in my panniers I have a bottle of lucozade, some spare tubes, a lock I don’t actually use (the bike goes into a cage secured with a padlock so I don’t use a separate lock once it’s in there but carry it in case I stop at a shop on the way home. Which I never do), some spare batteries for my lights and (unless I’m wearing them) a waterproof/arm warmers. There’s also a saddlebag which has another tube, levers, multitool and a spanner in it. I’d empty that into a pannier except that my rear light clips onto it so I may as well leave it there until I get round to fixing a light onto the rack itself. I then put my stuff into a lightweight bag inside the pannier and just lift that out when I get to work rather than taking the whole pannier.

I have a planet x, my other half has a Ribble. I’d go for the planet x 🙂

Went out this morning in drizzle just in case it got worse and we’ve had bright blue skies all afternoon on the Fylde coast!

They got me through shorts last weekend. Bastards.

This may be my task tomorrow. My sister and BIL aren’t bike people so I am in charge of getting my nephew (4) on 2 wheels.

I bought him a balance bike, and he got the hang of it slowly. Then I got him an islabike for his 4th birthday. We took him out for a session and he didn’t just get it, but was making some progress. Then we went home and because he hadn’t got it straight away they put some stabilisers on rather than persevering. He bombs round on it and loves it, but isn’t really balancing.

Tomorrow I’m looking after him all day, so the aim is to get him riding without them!

Drove to london stopping at a random parkrun on the way.
Went to the anniversary games.
Kept tabs on the rugby and got excited about a trip to wembley.
Drove home in torrential rain.

A custom tourer, then I’d start riding and see where I ended up.

I love my Berlingo, I’ve only had it 2 months and I wonder how I coped without it for so long.

Only debt is my mortgage, somewhere around £135,000 I think on a 200k ish house. Car is owned outright, student loan is paid off, credit cards cleared each month. I sometimes dip into my overdraft as a cashflow thing but my overdraft limit is lower than my savings.

I wear one all the time – being hit by a car and ending up with a huge crack in the helmet a mile from home means I do it even for short trips. I guess for me it was already ingrained before the accident from cycling proficiency in the 80s and then reinforced by the accident.

This weekend I rode with a different (faster) group at club and was interested to see that the (mature) group leader didn’t wear one, just a cap. I’d kind of assumed that club rides would be like sportives with a no helmet no ride policy but it seems not (I’m still new to the club so learning all the rules).

20 miles on the mtb round pendle hill on saturday, 90 mile club road ride on sunday – so flat I didn’t change gear for 40 miles in the middle of the ride…

Last time I hired one, I didn’t need it. It was a little back street place in a resort rather than a big company online though.

Shorts update time. To put this into context, I am (a) female and (b) already seen as a bit “different”. I am comparatively well paid and have a free parking space at the office, but mainly cycle to work (and when I don’t I drive a Berlingo). Not an Audi or BMW in sight. I often pad around the office in Birkenstocks and keep my heels under the desk for client meetings. I also have no interest in playing the corporate game which bemuses people. I’m the only person from my team here today, and my line manager works in a different office.

Anyway, I’m wearing shorts and nothing has been said. However, no-one else is – other than the summer work experience bloke to whom I should really raise a hat. Brave choice of attire, sir, particularly when you’re essentially on a two week interview. I haven’t checked the policy to be honest, but I’m showing no more leg than some of the skirts and dresses I’ve seen today reveal. I did at least change out of my running shorts (I ran to work this morning for a change)…

We have a dress down day today and I’m in shorts. I’ve never done it before so we’ll see what the reaction is when I get to the office!

Stove top espresso pot for me.

A reg metro
E reg metro
Fiat punto
Renault clio
No car for 18 months
Fiat 500
Berlingo

I’ve got a berlingo and my mum has a kangoo, not much between them tbh, although the old shape kangoo feels smaller to drive than the new shape berlingo while still having plenty of room for bikes. Mine has more grunt than hers but not sure what engine she has.

I wish I’d bought mine years ago!

Multiple bikes – I have 4 at just over the £1k mark and I ride them all for different things regularly. If I had a better version of one of them there are loads of rides I wouldn’t want to do on it.

Mine used to wobble above 60, partly because it was on a small car and stuck out a fair way. Hated the thing, although I never lost a bike and did plenty of miles with it on. Never got pulled for lights/number plate although I wouldn’t have had much of a defence if I had been. So glad I can now fit bikes inside and don’t have to use the thing.

Another nexus 4 fan. I switched from an iPhone and I’m very impressed indeed. Paired with an unlimited data tariff from 3 it does everything I want it to and more.

I have gym membership over the road so use their showers and towels. I leave shoes at work, and carry the rest in panniers.

3 or 4 years at 20 miles a couple of times per week.

One collision with a car. She turned right across me (clear road, sunshine, not flashed across, just didn’t see me despite hi viz) and I went over the car, landed on the roof then fell onto the floor. Bike and helmet both write offs, I got away with a headache for a week or so and a sore back for a couple of months (and a year when I did far less cycling for fun than I had before the accident).

A couple of offs that were my fault, failed attempts to bunny hop kerbs, hitting gravel etc. one clip less moment, sadly it was right outside the office.

We are paying for an extra piece of luggage between two of us.

And I’ve seen people boarding flights wearing their helmet so it counts as clothing rather than luggage (this was Ryanair…) my OH always takes his helmet as hand luggage, I usually put it in my case. Both work.

My input isn’t particularly valuable either but I’ll keep an eye on this thread because I’m booked on BA in September – that was certainly my understanding of how it worked when I booked but I haven’t had the real life experience to check…

There’s sod all happening here, my employer doesn’t think bikes exist, but in previous years the building managers have done something and the council usually put a bike breakfast on – I haven’t seen any sign of either this year.

The dalai lama on a golf buggy outside my office.

Bradley wiggins just behind me at the rugby