Quite a mixed bag this time. Cycles and cars jumping reds, cars stopping at greens, a possible new word, some imagined lip reading and, of course, no shortage of close passes.
Two cycles used in this volume, my normal hybrid and my new foldable. The fact I carted that to Chester and back for no reason is a lesson to be learned for the future Γ°ΕΈΛβ
The words on my lips as the woman overtook the horses were, “You stupid cow!” π
Mostly morning duties do not make for lots of incidents, but do make for safer cycling. We still have over 20 clips though, so enough to be going on with.
I decided to visit some portals I’ve not been near for a while, and I thought the best way would be via the Rumney Trail.
I sort of planned the route in my head, but couldn’t quite fully consolidate how it connected from Pentwyn to Rumney Hill Gardens. As it turned out, I still couldn’t when on the trail!
I had a feeling I’d run into a dead end, so left with plenty of time (I’m not that daft) and after some rough ground and a lot of thorny branches I backtracked to a location I knew I could use to get back to a navigable path. Even though I didn’t know my exact location relative to the more well used tracks (I was using the Ingress scanner as a map) I still knew it would lead to a better path, and it did.
One thing this did teach me: while I’m an accomplished road cyclist, I’m a novice 0ff-road. Do I regret it? Hell no! I’m looking at Google Maps as I type this and realise where I went wrong, and the right way would have meant a lot more doubling back (I needed to be the other side of the river). Not something I’d do regularly, but given the weather and time I might do this again, but not go past the waypoint I tag in the video.
The video is quite long and mostly uneventful but I’ve annotated parts and it might be interesting to some.
I was also logging with Strava. The link to that ride is >here<.
It’s not all bad this time! Plenty of close passes (as usual) including one that was so close a slight wobble from me would have meant a clip, but also some people getting it right!
I only realised after rendering that the guy at 5:30 has an ankle tag fitted Γ°ΕΈΛβ
This is a Carrera Intercity folding bike I’ve taken possessions of via the Cycle To Work scheme. It won’t replace my Escape 1 as primary transport but will be great for occasional use in cases where the main bike is impractical π
I ordered it Monday, Wednesday I received a missed call from Halfords so called them back and booked a built pickup today. On my way home from work to pick it up I got a phone call asking when I’d like it built for pickup!
I got to Halfords expecting to be taking home a box, but the shop tech was already building it, because it’s not a complex build at all so only took about 20 minutes.
So I got to ride it home. Very strange at first but as it’s designed to be adjustable on the fly I soon had it set up as I like it. Slight problem with gear changes but nothing major, and I did a bit of Ingress on the way home too.
On arriving home, I fitted lights, The Hornit (after removing the bell) a camera mount and a cycle computer. I’m not too happy with the latter, it’s open to interference so shows 56mph at a stand, but it was only a cheap one to get started. I’ll get a better one soonΓ’βΒ’.
The Hornit (my 140dB bell replacement) will now fit on all three of my bikes very quickly. I feel more comfortable with that fitted than a bell π
106 episodes are still going strong!
As per the video description, I’m hardened to all but the closest of close passes but I’m going to show all due to how frequent an issue this is. One day that law on close passing, promised for 2019, will come into effect. Not that I believe it’ll make the slightest bit of difference.
Also we see a woman on her phone, at night, in the rain, walk out into the road while looking at her phone. The button had slipped wasn’t where I expected it to be when I went to sound The Hornit but I still managed to notice and steer around. I don’t want to be brought to blame for someone else’s idiocy!
On a brighter note, 2 kudos given in this episode! I don’t think I’ve given 2 before in a single video! I actually prefer to show this than bad driving, but sadly the latter far outweighs consideration, especially towards cyclists.
What a day!
9 clips with 1 day to go before 2 days off, which is a good time to upload a new video because I have 7 days work in a row when I go back. 9 clips would be too short but today was special… and enough idiots and twats showed up to give me another 12 show and tell opportunities and make the video worth uploading!
It it any surprise that both the bullies mentioned in this video are driving Volvos?
The twat that caused me to blaspheme passed very close, very deliberately. I have absolutely no doubt about it from the piss taking thumb up he gave as I passed. He had nowhere to go but to the queue of traffic stopped at the lights so had no need to pass at all, yet he did so close that a less experienced cyclist may have come a cropper.
Even if you don’t do as I do, a camera is a great help if something actually did happen.
A few days ago I bought a Quickshot II joystick for my C64 from eBay. Today it arrived.
I knew it wasn’t going to be fully working, as advertised, because when I opened the box, two triangular pieces of metal were found loose. (One fell on the floor and I took a while to realise).
Sure enough, when I tested the joystick, neither fire button worked. I had one of these at hand and attempted to refit it. First time it was like the button was continually pressed. I realised I had seated this piece wrong, fixed my mistake and tried again. That worked and I had one working button.
Then I noticed the second piece. A bit more screwdriver and fiddling later and…
…now I have a fully working joystick! π
I did leave positive feedback but sent the seller a message telling him that a less technical person may have not been able to repair this and returned it as not working. I don’t give up that easily π
Most things I shrug off, take in my stride and post to YouTube but these close passes are really getting my goat. One day action might be taken over this shitty act. I can dream, can’t I?
Anyway, on a more humorous note, this video has a special appearance of a human tank! I chuckle every time I see the clip π
