Legitimate business mileage again :-)
Had to go to the accountant's yesterday, so instead of car, I used bike.
Lovely pootle. Only thing to be wary of is that although the journey is on
what is mostly narrow country lane, that narrow country lane is a B-road and
as such, can have quite a bit of traffic on it and traffic doing speeds
totally unsuitable for a narrow, winding road with limited visibility due to
high hedgerows at side and number of bends...
So the vast majority of the ride was done in the primary riding position on
the road and I have to say, it works. Cars did not try to squeeze by or
overtake when unsafe to do so, apart from a berk in a black Audi sporty
jobbie, another berk in a silver Merc sporty jobbie and the ever occuring
tw&t in a black BMW. All of these gave excellent examples of how driving
such vehicles apparently gives the drivers the ability to see round corners
as they overtook me at bends in the road. On the other hand, the vast
majority of the motorised ones yesterday were courteous and whenever I said
'thank you' whenever I could. I even experienced a courteous bus driver
(gasp!). The driver waited behind me until safe to vertake - overtook me at
a reasonable speed and with a reasonable gap between me & side of coach.
Once he got past me and I could see him in his side mirror, I put my hand up
with a wave to indicate to him he was now past me, and he waved back, put on
LH indicator & moved in. Wot a nice chappie. A bit of courtesy makes the day
go a bit better I think :-)
Excellent cycling weather, cloudy, but warm and dry until I pulled up
outside home when it started to rain.
Interesting ride, as really I *had* to be out in the primary position on the
road due to the crappy nature of the road surface. Often the camber of the
road towards the left was quite severe and much of the surface was badly
broken up so it would have been dangerous to be over to the left. Also, not
a single motorist gave me any hassle for being more out to the centre, which
was a lovely surprise, apart from the three with the ability to see round
corners and in particular, the BMW, the driver of which seemed to be of the
understanding that if he/she breathed in to negotiate a narrow space, then
the sides of the vehicle narrowed at the same time ;-)
Lots of lovely wildlife about... loads of bunnies hopping about in the
verges and several deer spotted too.
All-in-all, a civilised way to travel ;-)
Cheers, helen s