Welsh Wales
Another weekend away in Wales to Ceod-Y-Brenin and Coed-Llagedla which was incredible. Superb dry trails and all running as fast as I’ve ever ridden there.
EDF Van – L008 KNX
Today’s prick of a van driver. Didn’t even shout at him. Just got his number took a few photos and sent this to EDF. Will they respond? I doubt it. Will probably just get the usual corporate bullshit back as usual.
Hi,
I’d like to make a complaint about one of your van drivers please. The registration of the van is L008 KNX. Two photos of the van and the driver are also enclosed.
I was cycling past Euston Station this morning going North along Eversholt Street. I clearly indicated to pull out into the centre of the and safely pass a van which was parked on the left hand side of the road. Your van driver decided to accelerate rapidly past me far too closely almost knocking me off and then proceed to completely swing the van in front of me completely blocking my path. I was trying to maintain a safe position on the road. This is the kind of thing I expect from dodgy builders not a reputable company such as EDF.
I don’t know if any of you at EDF ever cycle on the road but actions like this don’t really help. It’s intimidating and completely unnecessary. It’s also dangerous. It didn’t get your driver to his destination any quicker as he quickly got caught in traffic again and I passed him where I took these photos. He was later speeding along Camden High Street, which is a 20mph zone, to rush through an amber light.
I would like to think that EDF have a policy in place to educate their drivers about courtesy to other road users, particularly cyclists. It would also be good to remind your drivers, this one in particular, that vans consist of a couple of tons of metal which poses a real danger to cyclists who aren’t wrapped in such a protective shell. I would like to know how you intend to resolve this and prevent this driver causing injury or even loss of life through his actions.
I also happen to be a customer of EDF at present although I may reconsider that depending on your response.
Fingers crossed. The auto response from EDF doesn’t look too promising though.
Thank you for your email. Should your mail require a response, we will endeavour to provide this and update your account within 10 working days.
This story is good though.
John O’Groats with (Sign)post…
For some strange reason I find this really inspiring!
Think I might try and do this in 2011. Touring bike and panniers here we come.
HGV near miss
This morning I was cycling down Kennington Road towards Waterloo. There was a large HGV in front indicating to turn left into Kennington Lane. I suddenly saw a cyclist riding down the inside. The lorry was going wide right to go left. I shouted at her just in time and fortunately she stopped in time to avoid being crushed by the lorry. My heart was literally in my mouth.
She came round the right hand side of the lorry and caught up with me at the lights. I apologised for shouting but explained why I had. She seemed a bit shocked. Anyway, better that way than under the wheels of it.
Edit: Some good diagrams showing the blind spots on HGVs via www.movingtargetzine.com.
Neil’s blog
My friend Neil now has a blog worth checking it out. Mainly cycling related. Another one to add to my RSS feeds.
a new route required
Whilst Peckham Rye is being dug up I found what I thought to be a little detour to avoid the road works and take me onto a quieter road. Unfortunately not. It seems to have placed me on the most dangerous roundabout I’ve ever had the misfortune to use. If you click on the map below it’ll take you to the street view version of it. You can clearly see the drivers going East not giving way correctly on the roundabout (the transit and grey 4×4). I take the route of the red car and have almost been hit a couple of times. When asking the driver if they saw me I’ve had some pretty shocking responses, one proceeded to ram me with her car and drive up on the kerb, one apologised for almost killing me and the other had their passenger get out and try and beat me up. I’d report them to the police but I’ve got little hope of them doing anything about it really. They’re just not interested in cycling related issues. They are interested in giving tickets out at red lights and raising revenue though.
Regime change
No, not a post about the election or Iran etc, just a post about trying to get a bit fitter and trying to change a few bad habits I’ve picked up over the years.
During my year out (2002 time) I got incredibly fit by basically doing lots and lots of exercise. I was riding 12 miles each way to work – home up Box Hill – swimming at lunchtimes, running in the evenings (before cycling home) and climbing or mountainbiking at the weekends. I was pretty healthy on this lot and was having a great time. However I was only half way through my Architectural training. So this all kind of stopped pretty abruptly when I went back to studying in Portsmouth. Late nights, curry, beer and not much exercise. An ERASMUS trip to Vienna sorted that little blip out with another 5 months of exercise – mainly lots of cycling each day. The trouble is I came back and settled into the same old thing of curry, beer etc.
After graduating from Diploma things kind of got worse, I spent 2 hours minimum commuting to work in Winchester from Portsmouth each day and working late nights and eating junk. Riding at the weekends didn’t really make much difference really. After a year or so of this I moved to London and was riding to work again but still not doing that much exercise.
The long and short of it? I sit on my arse all day clicking a mouse, drinking coffee and eating nice sandwiches for lunch. I’ve developed an incredibly sedentary lifestyle which isn’t exactly what I wanted. The cycle commute doesn’t really count as that much exercise. The net result – I was getting fatter and fatter and not really feeling great about myself.
Anyway, time for a change. Hey I’ve recently hit 30 so why not? After talking about it for years I’ve joined a gym. Never thought I’d say that either but I have. Bizzarely I actually enjoy it too. I’ve got a mixture of cardio and weights to do in my hours session as well as a load of stretches. I’m managing to go 3 times a week at the moment which isn’t as hard as I thought. I’ve also had the benefit of a proper consultation session which has really helped. I had 3 aims:
1. Not be so fat
2. Sort my back out
3. Strengthen my knees
It’s actually working on all 3 counts. I’m definitely not as fat – I’ve lost quite a bit of weight and my back and knees are a lot better. Combining this exercise with less beer, not eating so late and less crap. I feel miles better and even have a resting heart rate of 50 bpm. Hopefully this is here to stay. More weight to lose but got to set the right habits now for later life I guess.
The perfect trail bike?
Not that I can afford it but this seems to tick all the right boxes for me right now. Swung a leg over one recently and felt pretty good. Reasonably short travel, flickable and can get a decent fork on there, nothing too crazy. Looks nice too. At an eye watering £1700 for frame only it’s not something I’ll be looking at any time soon.
