Flat Tyres, Parking Tickets, Cool Car and Politeness

For the last few months, it has been mostly riding in rain - or at least in the very cold.  I had managed to ride in the snow, one morning - not my favourite, but still better than public transport.  It gets a bit difficult, biking in the winter; the temperature can really affect my hands and feet, making the ride rather uncomfortable.

But the days are getting longer, and we had a nice sunny day and I knew there was only one thing for it - a ride.  So off I go, and just had a wander around - no destination, no deadlines, just a ride.  Here are some clips from that day.

Almost right away, I noticed a car blocking a 'Keep Clear' box, which was unfortunate as there was someone wanting to turn.  The driver was trying to get out of the way, but she couldn't quite do it.  A moment later, I have a stretch of road open in front of me and sure enough, someone joins the road in front of me.  It wasn't really close, but it was enough that I had to work to avoid them.  Two examples of poor judgement within moments of each other!

As I was passing a queue of traffic a bit later on, I noticed a pedestrian crossing the road ahead of me.  I wanted to include this because it shows that people can appear seemingly out of nowhere - and when you're on a bike its crucial to be sharply focused at all times.

I made my way down a high street, and saw two cars being ticketed for parking.  I didn't notice any signs indicating they were parked illegally; maybe it was because they were on the kerb?

A few minutes later, I heard a loud bike, and I wanted to see what it was.  I caught up to him at a red light, and saw it was a fellow learner on a 125 - it sounded pretty good, I thought.  Loud pipes save lives, so they say.  I noticed though that his rear tyre looked really flat, so I flagged him down to let him know.  I felt bad because there was literally nothing I could do - I don't have a puncture repair kit, I couldn't offer him a lift, and I wasn't sure how far away the next petrol station was.  I had to leave him to his luck.  I did notice that he waited a moment, then carried on; hopefully with care.  I then felt really bad because I told him I thought there was a petrol station at the next roundabout, and I was wrong - it was further up.  I hope he made it home okay.

A bit later, I noticed a classic Citroen car queueing in some traffic.  I love these open wheel racers - this is the second one I've seen in the area (you can see the other in my video here), so I'm wondering if there is a club or something based in the area.  Either way, a nice surprise to see on a day out.

And finally, speaking of nice surprises, I was filtering when I encountered a polite road user who did his best to make room for me.  This sort of thing is unfortunately rare; some car drivers take offence when bikers can advance through traffic faster than them (which I don't understand at all - if you want to get through quicker, get a bike!).  I try to always show my appreciation for their efforts.

In a production side note, I'm still finding my feet with the software I'm using, Adobe Premier Pro.  I'm trying to teach myself how to use particular effects, so apologies for the amateurish production quality.