Commuting & Winter Riding Thread

[Cobbie]

@gingerbongo

@GeordieM

Aren’t they there to dissuade scrotes on motorbikes

I guess the bigger problem now is scrotes on derestricted e-bikes/scooters etc which cam bypass the barriers easy enough.

If they are for scrotes, then they are very badly placed because they are, almost all, in places where a cyclist (or scrote on a scooter) would have to slow down anyway. I would also add that the path was built before scooters were a thing and I really can’t remember ever having run ins with motorbikes.
There are two separate problems IMHO (@Doonhamer may see it differently?):

1. The barriers are too tight. It’s all very well to want people to slow down, making it really hard to get through the restriction implies that the people responsible for the design either had no experience of cycling or just hated cyclists.
2. They are in stupid places, especially where they’ve been installed in pairs.

On my trip round Wales in September I followed the Tawe riverside path through Swansea towards the Brecon Beacons. I didn’t measure the distance but it was over 10km and there was one barrier (outside the Ospreys stadium) which was easy to negotiate. At other junctions the paths were laid out in such a way that there was great visibility whatever direction you approached from. It was genuinely a joy, even in the rain.
My point being that you can cater for pedestrians and cyclists together with decent planning and design.

The sections of the TPT that I’ve cycled (Warrington to Manchester mainly) had more barriers but they were sensible placed (you have to cross some busy, narrow main roads where I agree that safety has to come before ease of use.

[Doonhamer]

I’ve only met a gang of scrotes on motorbikes once & they weren’t threatening at all, giving me plenty of room which was nice…not that I wasn’t apprehensive as we were approaching each other.

I also don’t really mind the cycle barriers & appreciate that they are in places to slow me down for my own good at road/path junctions. I find them easy to negotiate & have never been one to get my knickers in a twist about maintaining my average speed at 30.4km/h.

ETA there was a local case about 10yrs ago of a scrote who jumped on his monkey bike in the wee small hours to visit his dealer for a wee baggy. Unfortunately it was pitch dark & he killed himself when he crashed into one of the barriers.

[fruit_thief]

They look pretty dangerous. Black and pretty hard to see at night. I guess a bike commuter could wallop one too?

[Doonhamer]

I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more often.

There’s an accompanying path that runs parallel to this one - allbeit 2 miles away - which has a full on farmer’s gate which is sometimes across the path & sometimes across his farm access…this one has a few dents in it.

[tunster]

Wot like this…

Video: Cyclist is flung over in the air after not spotting a closed gate |...

[fruit_thief]

ouch

[Cobbie]

The issue for me isn’t really one of speed. It turns out that google maps has covered the whole riverside path so you can see it for yourselves:
Coming out of Chester it’s 2-3 miles of pretty straight cyclepath, with plenty of people walking as it’s still close to town and the local industrial estate / tip (edited to clarify … no barriers anywhere)
As you get to the first bridge (a foot bridge) you have this:

It narrows significantly, there’s a sharp left hand bend and (what you can’t see) is that the path drops as you go round the bend - there is no barrier.

At the bottom of the dip you have a sharp right turn and now that you’ve no speed left there is a barrier. Note how tight this barrier is and how narrow the path is. Also note that 20 yards further on is a 90 degree RH turn. This barrier is utterly pointless.

Then you go round the corner to be met by:

This is another really tight barrier and it’s only a couple of pedal strokes from that 90 degree corner so no chance that you could be pelting along at 20 miles an hour, even if you wanted to.
Since the vast majority of people are either going over the foot bridge or carrying on along the riverside path, it’s a 180 degree turn onto both.

So to me it’s risk assessment gone crazy with no common sense.

[Cobbie]

Here’s the link to google maps if anyone wants to see for tehmselves:

[Doonhamer]

That last house you pass heading to Deeside often has a strong smell of skunk

[joex]

I have fucking had it up to here with fucking bike fucking commuting cunting fuck wank.

Am Wake up an hour late. 20mins in. Puncture. No worries. Check tyre, swap tube. Done. Grab canister…where is the fucking adapter cunt bucket. Away with the fucking fairies is where it is. Cunt. Search bike shops, call Halycyon bikes…

“Hi there is that Halcyon bikes?”
“Good morning, yes.”
“…relay story”
“That’s a shame, I’d be able to help you but Im in a hospital bed, just had surgery…” And so on.

Fuck me.

Head to “Pedal it” ask bus driver if I can hop in…result! Actual result is evil eyes from mum/pram brigade. Eventually I’m standing there bike in the air, twisted to accommodate a zimmer frame nut case when mum/pram #2 says “can you turn a bit?” Then sneers at me. Helped zimmer lunatic and disembarked early. Walked a mile in cleats.

Bike shop has pump, nice one. And compliments my bike. Sweet. Inflate….fail. “You need a valve extender mate.” Indeed I have one. Inflate…fail. Cunt. Check valve extender. Valve extender is blocked. Never in the history of the fucking world has a valve extender grown a thin film sealing it shut but mine has set the precedent, the cunt. Rip seal. Inflate…pressure plummets. Repeat. Repeat. Check tyre. Tyre is rigid, pump is…a cunt.

Thank shopkeep, ride to work.

…

Ride home. Cable car over river. Remount, the tyre, sorry, the cunt is flat.

20km on a flat tyre again for me.

“Hey mate.”
Here we go.
“This lane is for cars.”
Sigh.
“Abuse. Abuse.”
Roll forward.
“Abuse. Ignorant. Abuse.”
I love it when they call me ignorant or stupid. If only they knew. Plus it cheers me up, when no one likes unsolicited advice.

Clunk, clunk, clunk…for an hour and a half.
But after thirty minutes you couldn’t hear the clunking…because something was screeching! Ha ha - good, fuck everyone else.

A bus sat on my shoulder for ten minutes, wouldn’t pass. So I stopped and just stared at him. Still wouldn’t pass. So I rode on the pavement. The cunt.

Five minutes from home someone tries to kill me. I am pretty fed up at this point and just stop. …He stops.
Here we go. Hmm…Do I kick off the cleats? He gets out starts running over.
“Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry Didn’t see you! I looked! Sorry! And you’ve got lights on.”
Sigh. Yes I do you stupid cunt.
“Sorry sorry sorry”
Ok fuck me, don’t have a seizure. You didn’t hit me. You’ll have to try harder than that.

What a cunt.

And home.

[Adam]

Sounds like you’ve earned a beer or two

(Top swearing though)

[JaRok2300]

Come on @toby_Hole_in_the_leg ,admit you’ve hacked @joex 's account

[toby_Hole_in_the_leg]

You’ve lost me

… oh i see - is that a rant

Tbf im long overdue a good rant

Oh wow

That’s rant

[fruit_thief]

Not as bad as @Joex but I also had a puncture commuting in yesterday. Second this month. When I checked the rear wheel, the tyre was full of little thorns, I pulled about 6 out. There is some nasty plant that grows near the cycle path which seems able to penetrate even the Decathlon nuke-proof tyres I have on at the moment.

I’m somewhat paranoid about being late for work, the paying punters don’t like to wait. I always set off at least 90 minutes before due to start, the commute takes just under an hour if no punctures. That gives half an hour to change and log in etc.

I carry 2 spare tubes, tyre levers, mini-pump and patch kit. Never had a problem that way, a fix typically takes around 5 to 10 minutes depending on how enthusiastic I am with the mini pump. One day last year when I still had the thin factory tyres on when I got 3 punctures in one 42km round trip commute, and did need to get the glue and patches out.

They are a pain though & hands got filfthy.

Then on the way home a Land Cruiser tried to kill me - I was riding along a road near home at 9pm with lights, I saw him coming to joining from a side road and assumed he would wait for me to pass, but no he pulled out directly at me. You ride or drive on the right here, I had to reflex-swerve all the way to the left of the road and actually clipped the left kerb but stayed upright. Luckily no-one was coming the other way.

I don’t think they hate cyclists, it’s just there are no cyclists so perhaps the subconscious filters them out or something. Think better not stay out here too long, it’s just a matter of time…

[Poet]

@joex

Am Wake up an hour late.

Seems like you woke up in a mood you never recovered from, to me

[joex]

Was I ‘manifesting’?

[r0bh]

I’ve noticed that quite a few of the A shaped barriers (can’t think of a better name, the ones that are wider at the bottom than the top) have recently been unbolted and knocked across to make them wider

[Cobbie]

Fingers crossed it’s a national trend.

The whole aim of a barrier is to keep people safe, the problem when a lot of these barriers originally went in is that (IMHO) the people doing the design didn’t really understand what that meant. So the barriers went in where they imagined there might be an issue.
I’m not sure they ever considered the fact that cyclists don’t really like crashing. If you’re heading towards a brick wall (as in the second pic I posted yesterday), you don’t need a barrier to slow you down beforehand.

In the 3 screen caps I posted yesterday, a cyclist is naturally constrained into going slowly except in the first picture - I find it ironic that, the point where a cyclist might not slow down (or even realise that there is danger) is the one without a barrier.
I can imagine someone inexperienced really struggling with the A frame (in the third picture) because it’s so severe. Making them wider means that a confident cyclist can carefully pedal through, someone less confident can unclip and wriggle through without dismounting.

There used to be a whole load of gates on the river Weaver path north of Winsford) which you had to dismount for and lift you bike over (about 5 in total). They were all on straight sections of path, it was utterly pointless. They had all been removed last summer so, like I say, fingers crossed that some common sense is being shown.

[awildt]

There’s a big backlash in terms of access for people with reduced mobility. Basically anyone in a wheelchair can’t access these “green lungs” or “beauty spots” so they are making changes.

The TPT through Lymm is now almost entirely that rubberised surface and wider gates I have mixed feelings about the surface, but the gate changes are great.

[Cobbie]

@awildt

There’s a big backlash in terms of access for people with reduced mobility.

That makes a lot of sense.

I was struggling with the idea that councils might do things out of the goodness of their hearts.