planning on riding over to the pool later, which is 50 mins each way, and it’ll be dark when I head back…. expecting to have to wrap up pretty robustly….have just dug out my neoprene overshoes!
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I’ve got both the narrow and wide Lifeline long ass-saver things, and a set of SKS Raceblades I bagged 2nd hand for not very much.
None are as good as full length mudguards.
Raceblades good at the back and moderate at the front - still a bit of spray coming straight up off front wheel.
Lifeline long ass-savers good at the back but obviously do nothing at the front.
All are dead quick to put on or take off.
Raceblades take a bit of adjusting to get a good fit but you only have to do that once.
I guess there might be frames the Raceblades don’t fit but current forks are really fat and wide clearance and old ones were narrow. Same at the back end. Both fine.
But if you can leave them on and have the frame fittings, full mudguards every time.
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Cheers for the previous advice.
As for tyres - a combo of reviews, availability and price led me to 28mm Panaracer Gravelkings with odd brown tyre walls.
The lifeline clip-on mudguards look alright (especially for £15), so I’ll try to fit them tomorrow.
Bit fresher riding in this morning, saw a few people scraping their car windows on the way.
Don’t think the bug I had at the weekend has completely departed as, despite being a bit nippy on the way, I’m now sat at my desk with sweat dripping off me.
Ps. No-one has to sit anywhere near me so could be worse.
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Yeah it was very chilly this morning. Started off cool, but bearable on the coast, but the further up the river i went, the colder it got. i could see the mist sat up on the marshes etc and knew i was in for it! TBF i was ok other than my toes, which were flippin frozen. Could really have done with my overshoes, as the shower when i got in was flippin painful!!! Garmin was reading 1 degree for the last 10km or so of the ride.
Beautiful morning though, wish i could’ve been bothered to get my phone out of my bag. When the weather plays ball, the scenery on (about 70% of) my commute is pretty ace.
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Yes, some light frost here in the fields this morning; forecast was 7 degrees overnight too.
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Same here. I’m already in the overshoes and winter jacket, but only one layer underneath at minute.
The wind is a nightmare here. Most of my commute is fully exposed and it’s nearly had me off a couple of times.
So yeah, winter commute is here. Builds character apparently.
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Bloody freezing here this morning. I was sort of half dressed for it. Winter base and jersey, winter tights, light gloves and nothing on my ears or feet.
Body was fine but my toes took an age to warm up after
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Yeah first day today I upgraded a few items
- Toe covers
- Fleece lined gloves
- Roubaix shorts (already had knee warmers on previously)
- LS Roubaix Jersey
Think I got it about right. Thought it would be too warm going home, but wind feels fresh.
Hopefully won’t see the d1ckhead teenager (if he was even that old) who sweved into me, whilst wheeling at me - with me riding canal side. He even came back for a chat when I stopped and turned around - smug little tw@t.
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Toe warmers next ride, will try and hold off on full overshoes
should have seen how good a swimmer he was and if he could do a triathlon 
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What bothered me most (other than his audacity) - was how young he appeared. Made me feel a little uncomfortable with the confrontation if I’m honest.
Tho he also needs to learn - so clothes lining him next time still remains an option 
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A stick through the spokes will learn him
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I quite often see groups of kids like that riding around London. They’re usually wheelying towards the oncoming traffic. I often think they’ll meet a van driver one day who doesn’t care about his paintwork and hates cyclists and he’ll wipe the lot of the out 
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That’s the issue, you can’t do a thing but shrug your shoulders and walk away hoping they get bored and don’t pull a knife. They know that they can act with impunity also.
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As @Hammerer says, he probably has a few mates a couple of minutes behind and then if a confrontation takes place, you’re the most likely candidate for the swim, one of them probably has a shank which would risk another way of you getting wet… Best to move on swiftly.
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Yeah I was the one that rode off… And other than being a bit sweary, wasn’t aggressive (mainly cause he was a kid).
Incidents like that don’t particularly bother me…just pi55es me off that the next person they do it to might be far more intimated.
And to go slightly off-topic, 4 of us were walking home post-pub a few years ago, strung out over approx 100 metres of road, the smallest of us dawdling at the back, I noticed that he had attracted the attention of a barely-teenaged would-be mugger, I called all the lads back, said mugger was getting a bit of a push around, but not so much that he wasn’t able to make a phone call, no-one else seemed to comprehend he was clearly calling in reinforcements. All ended well as I reminded everyone that we needed to get back home for a game of cards and no-one lost face (or their life) (or ended up in the back of a police van!)
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following the off-topic, a friend and I, both about 5’10" were out on a colleague’s stag do, he was a very well built 6’+ gym freak/bodybuilder/boxer and the rest of the group were eight friends from his gym. The two of us shorties went to the bar and were surrounded by four idiots who wanted free drinks and not cheap ones and were getting a bit aggressive, right up to the point where two of our group turned up to help carry drinks, followed by the rest of the group having seen what had happened, all bar the stag who went to the bouncers to point out that four people were about to be carried out, went a bit quiet after that, best night out in the land of the giants we ever had.
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not quite a commute, but a ride to the pool and back this afternoon, which is 12 miles each way… first time riding outside for a couple of weeks… christ, where did the warm go?… full on winter kit, with overshoes and hat under my lid!
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