LOTS commuting in the tube strike madness

[Kato]

Another great ride from leafy surrey to the big smoke plenty of scoots an cycles to dodge......still laughing about the cyclist who had to put her hands over her ears as I played a tune with my throttle through the Euston underpass...... Still marveling at the fact that my 35 minute ride takes an hour and 10 on the train and is about £10 more expensive.......

[JerryXt]

Originally Posted by Kato

Another great ride from leafy surrey to the big smoke plenty of scoots an cycles to dodge......still laughing about the cyclist who had to put her hands over her ears as I played a tune with my throttle through the Euston underpass...... Still marveling at the fact that my 35 minute ride takes an hour and 10 on the train and is about £10 more expensive.......

...if only Ducati made a scoot

I'll get my coat...

[JerryXt]

Just want to be clear about this scoot businexss so peeps don't get offended - I started on a 125 scoot andI loved it. I've always looked at the bigger gileras as a good commuter alternatve to the xt and the new gilera mp3 looks like an excellent alternative.

That said, the only drama I've had with other riders on my commute are inexperienced scooter riders, and they make up the largest number of deaths in London.

Whatever you ride; ducati, scoot or bike, be safe and enjoy.

Originally Posted by Kato

Another great ride from leafy surrey to the big smoke plenty of scoots an cycles to dodge...... <cut>.....Still marveling at the fact that my 35 minute ride takes an hour and 10 on the train and is about £10 more expensive.......

Blimey. What route do you take? I do Richmond to Canary Wharf on a daily basis. 35 min on clear roads at midnight / 6am, but 50 min otherwise. I take A205 to Putney, then through Fulham and Chelsea along embankment to Tower Bridge and down to CW.

[Kato]

Originally Posted by Mostro69

Blimey. What route do you take? I do Richmond to Canary Wharf on a daily basis. 35 min on clear roads at midnight / 6am, but 50 min otherwise. I take A205 to Putney, then through Fulham and Chelsea along embankment to Tower Bridge and down to CW.

Hamton Court to Kingston to the 316 upto hammersmith then bayswater road through sussex gardens onto the Euston road and straight up to Angel 19 miles door to door 41 minutes this morning.....usually leave home 07:00 don't normaly have to go slow until I get to the Euston road then its extreme filtering the rest of the way..

Originally Posted by Kato

19 miles door to door 41 minutes

That's good going, will check out the route with Tower Bridge / CW in mind.

SPOTTED: Still tons of bicycles, and a red Vespa that nearly tripped me up on 3 separate occasions between Tower Bridge and Canary Wharf. GIVE ME SOME F***ING SPACE MATE, stop trying to molest my bike with your teeny weeny front wheel.

ALSO SPOTTED: Bloke on a 1098 in shorts, t-shirt and trainers, no gloves. Nice, but completely fking mad.

Originally Posted by Mostro69

ALSO SPOTTED: Bloke on a 1098 in shorts, t-shirt and trainers, no gloves. Nice, but completely fking mad.

Bit cold for that sort of behaviour on the Monster!! And the thought of getting a wasp up the shorts just isn't worth thinking about this time of the morning

[Headhunter]

Originally Posted by Mostro69

ALSO SPOTTED: Bloke on a 1098 in shorts, t-shirt and trainers, no gloves. Nice, but completely fking mad.

Probably from Rimini! All about the coolometre.

I am lucky enough to have my own bay #

If it's dry, I take the monster, the scooter is just too slow to get you into and out of trouble, the monster is not so great for low speed gap finding but overall it gets me to work between 5 - 10 mins faster depending on the traffic, and oodles more fun!

I rode my Monster through the office door today! Another day of secure parking at work!

Some numpties decided to play chicken, outside Hatton X tube station! Messed up cars... Oh well! And numpties getting off of buses, I mean, either they are deaf and can't hear my bike (which would be very hard indeed!), or they are just kamakazi!

Just glad I wasn't travelling from the posh side of London today

I also tear through the London traffic on my Monster everyday, but from now on though I might try the follow another bike filtering technique whenever possible.
This morning the guy in front of me on his BMW something or other took the brunt of some f@*&wit changing lanes without looking. He wasn't doing anything wrong and was actually filtering a lot safer than I would have been had he not been slowing me down!
He was OK by the way, but the fairing on his bike was totalled.

As for scooters, a rider pulled alongside me this morning asked what size my bike was, told me it was beautiful and that he now wants one. So there you go some of them have impeccable taste!


Be safe, follow a BMW

[Headhunter]

Used to ride a Vespa ET4 for 5 years myself and have to admit I sometimes miss its manouverability during those tight spots.

Is true people move them and knock your bike, but as a I say it's still annoying but part of City commuting whether it be a biker or a scooterist.

The good thing is we all have one thing in common - our passion for bikes and the fact that we're not prepared to be treated worse than livestock - boy I wish I could have the luxury they travel in.

I ride a scooter regularly for commuting and only last week, some guy in an Audi wound down his window and told me to get a proper bike.

I just smiled nicely at him and kept my thoughts to myself.

[Kato]

Ooh that would be JerryXT then......

Originally Posted by Mand

I ride a scooter regularly for commuting and only last week, some guy in an Audi wound down his window and told me to get a proper bike.

I just smiled nicely at him and kept my thoughts to myself.

Does make me smile when other 'bikers' look down at me when I'm on the scooter.

I just smile knowingly and they get uncomfortable about why I look so smug.