Ride to work/college

[Marcg868]

So how was your ride to work/college this morning? This obviously for the all year riders, not sunny only day Tarts

Basically set off at 8, making good progress from Breightmet towards Bolton town centre, traffics not too heavy, just the usual moronic taxi drivers etc, its dryish, get onto St Peters way, not any busier than usual but it starts to rain, then get round the bend after farnworth and then bang.............. traffic backed up. Filter through, and it starts raining worse, theres disel everywhere, all over the road, all the way up the A666, M61 southbound and up to the m61/A580 junction. My tyres were covered in diesel today and couldnt brake atall today, had nothing but engine breaking, any use of my brakes felt like i was gonna end up on my arse

Today was horrible and didnt enjoy it, usually dontm mind riding in the rain in rush house, but today was shite.

So how was everyone elses ride, random and boring topic but im a random person
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JACK, MISS YOU LOADS YOU LEGEND.

[davidimurray]

If its damp/raining I have to change my route to work!

There is one route to work that basically goes down a small high street. This road is soooo slippy in the damp that I now avoid it. When your heading in a straight line in 2nd on idle and the back wheel starts spinning up - enough was enough!

The alternative route I use has a great big bus lane down it - so far I have resisted the temptation to roar down it - just filter down the opposite side instead !

Cheers

Dave

[FreshAL]

Crazy traffic here as well, I was filtering within 10 yards of my front door - didn't get clear of traffic for 3-4 miles.

Notable incident of this mornings ride:

Pedestrain crossing coming of a roundabout. I'm coming off my exit, spot a doddery old lady shuffling across, and start to brake. Sniff sniff, whassat? Diesel. Bike and Conti Road Attacks to a great job, and haul me up before I become an old lady killer. Got a lovely wave of thanks from the old lady as well, I'm sure she was expecting me to just barrel past her.

There're ya are. A random and boring reply for ya

[UrbanRacer]

This morning was the first really cold morning we've had since march. i had to feel up the engine like some twisted perv to warm my hands, the sun was also really low and it was difficult to see when heading towards it (note to self:- clean the visor in the morning). I noticed that the grip that was availible last week is now gone
won't be long till the gritters are out again

it was the usual run to work, filter for 6miles on the mway and avoid the lane hoppers

[veeeffarr]

Fine,

Same as usual, little bit cold but I'm not bothered.

Went a little bit faster than usual as I just fitted my loobman and wanted to get a good distribution on the chain

Plan to put a thick coat on later and derestrict the bike.

T

[Ste]

I just got out of bed.

[mchaggis]

Out the yard, out of my road and onto the main road. It's a fair bit colder than it has been recently, but I don't notice it with a fleece, necktube and Heine Gericke Pathan Gloves.

Up to the traffic lights, sit and wait until they turn green. Turn right and have a blat down the dual carriageway at 40. Filter up to the roundabout, go over that, filter up to the next roundabout, wait a bit and go over that.

Next comes a long filter down the hill over multiple pelican crossings and past multiple junctions. I'm lucky today, it's green lights all the way. An eejit in a VW Bora changes lane in front of me but I see it coming in plenty of time and hang back. Shortly before the head of the queue, a pickup truck is dithering about trying to choose lanes so I go around him and nip out onto the big roundabout (Hadigan for anyone who knows Aberdeen).

Turn left, gas, brake! Someone's not noticed the queued traffic and stopped in a hurry in front of me. Filter past them and past the remainder of the queue up to the pedestrian crossing. Someone looks like they're trying to cross but decides not to when they see me coming. The lights turn green and I scoot out ahead of the queue. I'm careful to keep to the limit as there's very shortly a 40 limit Gatso.

Further along the limit drops to a 30 and there's a load of cars and vans parked on the left hand side, some for residents and some for the bakery at the end. There's no need for me to change lane though everyone else does. I'm not stupid enough to try and gain ground in the left hand lane; they'll merge back into it soon enough. Gatso shortly before the pedestrian crossing. Get through that and go up to the airport roundabout (by Lidl).

Turn left and accelerate up to 40. Carry on over the next roundabout before meeting the queue to get into the Dyce Industrial Estate. Filter past about half a mile of queue simply by staying in the left hand lane. Half way down there is a car turning across the dual carriageway from the other side and traffic turning onto the duallie from the left. Successfully negotiate that lot and fiter up to the head of the queue.

Filter onto and off the roundabout, get back in line for the next junction as traffic moves into the right hand filter lane without warning. Repeat for the airport junction. Some eejit is tailgating me (I just filtered past him), but I filter past some more traffic and get away.

Eventually it turns into a 30 and after a while you turn left, right, left. There're slippery manhole covers everywhere. Every morning I think about how they're going to be in the winter. Zoom up to the top, turn right and immediately left into the office car park.

That's how my ride in this morning was. Every day I filter past at least 3 miles of stationary/ slow moving traffic.
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I must not be a troll...
Mmmm, Guinness
Discovering the delights of Hammerite and a 3/4" brush.

[extreme3d]

Woke up at 6.30 and saw it was raining heavily. Still my gears fully waterproof so I wasn't that brothered. Had a shower, checked the online notice board and found my 9 Oclock lab session was canceled.. Result - went back to bed

[Itchy]

get up see it looks damp and a bit chilled , go out fire up the bike finish me tea , ride out , notice all the lines on my road are burnt off , filter down the Radcliffe , abnormally queit , see Hornet man , give a quick toot , we then proceed to race to about prestwich where a scenic cuts infront of me blocking my filter , he loses me in Salford , as he is willing to go 90mph in a 30zone.

filter in slowly meet the usual oil slicks , meet a bus leaving an oil slick park up walk in.
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[Marcg868]

[Barry_M2]

It was my ride home yesterday that was a fu**er!

Wake in the morning to see a nice sunny day starting, put on the weather and the silly bint tells me its going to be a nice day, with rain in the evening.

Great, I think, I'll take the bike today rather than sit shoulder to shoulder with some fat smelly git on a packed train.

Get my gear on and have a great journey into work, surprisingly very little traffic pretty much the whole journey into the City, its usually packed.

Boring day at work follows.....

5pm, get my gear back on and walk out the office towards to car park. Lovely blue skys with a puff of white cloud here and there, and still very warm.

About 30 mins into my journey and just getting onto the A1(m), the black cloud I see in the distance has been getting closer and closer and eventually throws everything its got at me.

I get absolutly soaked. Jacket wet right through, as was my t-shirt underneath and also my jeans. Had my boots on as usual so my feet were nice and dry. And dont you just hate it when the water slowly starts to run down the inside of your gloves!!!!

Thats the first time in a very long time I have ridden in the wet, and, running Metz RaceTec tyre's, was not something I want to do again in the future. They DO NOT like rain!!! Although to try and cheer myself up I was spinning the rear up every now and then.


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CBR1000 RR4 - For the track.
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[Trixie]

Nice sunny ride in this morning. Had to fit the dark visor because of the low sun. I hit a lovely derestricted stretch of road heading east to Ballacraine (and can quite legally top a ton)

Next part of the journey is the TT course from Ballacraine to Quarterbridge (going against the course), where I was very thankful of my dark visor. Overtook a number of cars and then did some filtering at Snugborough, Braddan Bridge and the approach to Quarterbridge.

Compared to my old commute in the UK into Reading, where I had the joy of riding/filtering on the M4 every day, I'm very lucky indeed to have the journey I now have. Sometimes life is good, even if I am travelling into work!
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Dead nobodies in company cars...

[tony532]

it's only a 4 mile ride to my main job down a 4 mile long country road. so i trundle along at 60 get to a set of lights for a right turn and then see what 0-60 times i can do.

i do this 5 mornings a week.

i find that even a 4 mile ride at a sedate pace for the most of it wakes me up in the morning.

getting a lift in the car just leaves me in a semi dazed sleep mode for half the day.
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bikes owned :-

aprilia rs125 - suzuki gsxr400rrsp 1990 - yamaha yzf600r thundercat - honda hornet 6

[Irezumi aka Reuben]

Down the A20, round the M25, down the M23.

Caught up with BMW man after learning from him for the past week then subsequently got passed him as he got held up by lorry's(he's too wide), and made 'progress', not sure it's wise with one front disc, but it seemed to go pretty smoothly today. Still get owned in the high speed stuff by the R1, CBR and VFR though!

FJR1300 man pwned everyone by going through gaps with his pannier's that we all hesitated on, bloody fast rider!

The Pink express always makes me chuckle when he passes as well.

Ride back was boring, should have slowed down to help a struggling/dangerous noob GS rider. Sitting at 60 right next to the hard shoulder on the M25 means people will push you over!
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Pictorgraphicalfantastical

[trevoriv]

[Marcg868]

[trevoriv]

from my house to town in 60 seconds - just caught the lights right your honour

[Serendipity]

Get my gear on as it starts to absolutely lash down with rain…..

I’m in a rented house and the garage has an electric door…… and a huge effing hole in the roof (getting fixed this week I hope). So finally after several days of rain the damp had got into the electrics and the door wouldn’t open…..

Now raining harder, it’s about 18ºC and I’m starting to get hot in my waterproofs…

Go in the side door to the garage and manually release the main door, get the bike out and get it running. I have to shut the main door then walk back round the garden in through the side door to engage the lock…..

Getting really hot, sweaty and a bit irritated now….

Lock the side door and walk back to the bike. It’s still raining like the tropics.

Head off down the road to the first mini roundabout. Yesterday the bike slid here in the dry so I take it easy. When I get onto the main road where my daily filter normally begins there’s no cars at all. Make good time for the next couple of miles until coming up to a small queue at some traffic lights.

The brisk ride has cooled me a bit and the rain has stopped…

I filter to the front of the lights and just as I get there the light changes. It’s a gamble. Is the car at the front reading a newspaper/doing makeup/asleep/daydreaming etc or will they pull away like on launch control? I go for the safe option and pull in behind him as he pulls away quickly. The car behind me takes offence at me so brazenly pushing in and toots. I return a cheery wave as we immediately hit the next bit of queue and I fuck off.

The next couple of miles are nose to tail traffic and I filter past everyone with no further incident. Four and half miles and the engine is barely warm.

Arrive at work, make a coffee and wait for the cagers to start arriving, late again (would you believe it the traffic was a nightmare… really, you mean like yesterday and every other day before it? Get a bike or try leaving earlier you dopes!!!!)

I don’t mind the rain, but can’t wait for it to get colder. I hate getting hot in rain gear when it’s still relatively warm and humid…
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2007 CBF1000 & 2016 CBF1000F - Commuter heaven | 1994 CBR600FR - Awaiting defibrillation

[craigs23]

Not too bad. Roads were a little slippy so I had to be careful on the brakes (front is getting a bit squeeky and I think it needs a bit of a service). Handling's gone a bit scew wiff as I think I forgot to check tyre pressures yet again. Had a good dice with a 4 stroke Piaggio through town traffic, thought the chap was going to loose me, being on a scooter, wasn't until speeds increased a little that he eventually left me for dust. Next time....

Commute home was better as a lot more of it's downhill.

[ncrn]

Well my bike was getting strangley hotter and hotter as I was getting closer too college, I stop at college just before the needle had gone up to the red heat line, then clouds of steam start pluming out from under the tank, crap was the thought.

turned out a screw had come loose in the coolant line causing coolent to leak, and I had none left by the time Id stopped.

If I hadnt stopped that could have been two siezures in a month, and thats not fun

although no problems with traffic..
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Past: 55 Sym Jet, 91 ZZR250, 03 NSR125R. Present: 97 ER-5.
https://www.nsr125.co.uk - NSR Owners forum.

[Louise]

Well, Went out on the 125. Conked out twice. Pushed home half a mile
Other times on the scooter it would be hammering it down everyday.
Decided to take another route to work now. Less roundabouts for me to skid round

[Marcg868]

Today was truelly awful, got to work and was hot and flustered only in till 12. Ride back was a nightmare, M60/m61 was still chocka, another accident. Can car drivers not drive properly in the wet?!
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JACK, MISS YOU LOADS YOU LEGEND.

[DAF]

Started off for work at 7 o'clock; later than usual because I overslept. Sun just coming up so that was nice. Filtered all the way down the M11 (about 5 miles) but no other bikes on there today. Join the North Circular going east, need some fuel so stop at Tesco in Barking (83.9p per litre and generally one of the cheapest around). Back onto the North Circular towards A13 and see a storm coming up from south of the river; nice and picturesque with a few forks of lightning.

Onto the A13; there's always a lot more bikes on that stretch and often a convoy of us filtering as the traffic slows towards docklands. Rain came over before I got to Canary Wharf but made it to the office before the worst of the deluge. Parked in the basement, quick shower, change and I'm at the desk. Cup of tea and a kit kat orange then I'm ready for work.
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2005 Yam Fazer (FZ6-S)

[Louise]

Have just taken Josh to nursery and its bitterly cold. Ice just defrosting on the cars
First time ive felt it this year so winter is here, extra carefull now

[trevoriv]

Someone in a silver jag beeped and shouted 'w4nker' out of his window as he went past me while i was at the lights, god knows why, maybe he didnt agree with my rapid filtering

either way ive got his reg so if i see it again during my commute he's gonna get a toe slider down the side of his luverly motor