Thursday 12 August 2010

Speed, or lack thereof...

Why is it that when I cycle to work, riding as fast as my legs can push me it takes me 20 minutes to ride to work, but when I cycle home it doesn't matter whether I am ambling in some random direction or what speed I am going, it only takes 15 minutes?

Could it be that the weight and gearing of the Boris bike is so bad that the slight 1% uphill gradient equates to 12.5% additional journey time?

Well I can't explain it any other way. When I take the tube the evening journey takes longer, and walking takes about the same in either direction!

Wednesday 11 August 2010

Holy Calamazoo!

I haven't written anything here for ages.

That's because I couldn't be bothered, but while having a burrito at Benito's Hat this afternoon one of my colleagues told me he has a blog, and because we were talking about it I decided to write another post.
Holy Calamazoo!

So what's happened since the last post? I can't remember when it was, so I'll mention a few trips...

Le Mans 24h Skating race. That rocked. T-shirt fail by Nike but we are all up for going again next year.
Bunk Barn weekend. Also rocked. Cheap as chips too :)
Paris Birthday weekend. I am at a loss for words on that one. Whoa! 50 people showed up in Paris and another 40 in London. Amazing :)

What else?
My employer wants me to be featured in the social club newsletter. W00t!

Oh yeah, Boris bikes. They rock too. Not as good as Ve'lib but close enough. £45 a year gets me unlimited access, free for the first half hour of usage. One or two teething problems but I've been riding to work on them, and back :)

The only thing is, everyone beeps their horn at me. The gearing on them is terrible so they can't go very fast, so taxis and buses beep loudly. The bus this morning was the worst so far. I had to stop the bike in front of him at the ring of steel and let him beep his horn for a bit longer before carrying on. I forgot the number plate, else I'd have reported him. In Paris the buses have a bell so they can politely remind you there is a bus behind you. This guy pulled away from his bus stop into the next lane, I proceeded at my regular slow speed (as fast as I can make the bike go) but the bus realised he shoudl be in the bus lane and started to close in on me. The front of my bike was level with the front of the bus when he started beeping me. He really wanted to crush me.

Oh well, I kind of enjoy holding buses up. Feels like revenge for when I'm driving a car and they hold me up at 20mph :)

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