Stoke Newington to Cannon Drive

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Did I say why I’m getting my bike fitted properly? I suppose in essence, anything that gives me a chance of keeping up with Cath is a good thing. My bike was set up for the average Joe, and as you know now, I’m not one of them, so it is no wonder that I was getting really bad pains in my back, shoulders and neck when we went out. Having the bike tuned will hopefully remove some of that so that I have at least half a chance of enjoying my ride while keeping up with Cath!

So, today I was going to get the handlebars and stem replaced. Cath was going on a training mission, so I told her it would be safer if she took a spare tyre and the pump from my bike. With that, she turned left and I turned right in a jovial manner, fresh and happy as the day is long. I got a good three miles before I ran over some grains of glass almost too small to see. Not too small to burst my tyre though. So, the first day in over a year that I didn’t have a repair kit I get a flat! At least I had a pair of trainers in my bag so I was able to walk down to Liverpool Street Station to get a taxi.

Down at docklands they didn’t have all the bits needed, but Kevin put on the bits that he did have while I reminisced about the time I used to work there. There are a lot more shops than there used to be, and a lot more people knocking around, but it would still be a miserable windy soulless place to work – mind you, good to visit! I was a different person when I worked there. Even just seven years ago we worked our backsides off while seeing very little of each other.

Well the cycle ride back was OK, and I managed not to kill myself while doing it, unlike the poor sod who died on Friday night under the wheels of yet another bus. The comments make interesting reading as well. I heard about the accident in the taxi. The driver told me that the standard of bus driving has slumped in the last couple of years to the point where even the cab drivers are complaining about it!

I took notice of my bike ride back from the cycle doctor, and saw three green cycle sections at major junctions with cars parked on them, two buses and a car ignored red lights, and two cars had to brake hard not to pull out in front of me. Luckily I didn’t get any bus drivers overtake me just to pull into a bus stop, but it’s the first time in a while this hasn’t happened. I know many cyclists can be as bad, and it’s not always the messengers either, I’ve often been with messengers who have been passed at the lights by old doddery men and women on shoppers who have forgotten what red is all about. Having said that, I find it shocking that some Lord Bassam of Brighton has told another ageing peer that she probably did the right thing when she hit a cyclist that was running a red light. Would she have done the right thing if it was a car driver on a mobile phone, or a bus driver running a red light?