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UK Cycling

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LA_Imp

Vital Squad Member
I thought I would start a thread about road cycling and ask what it is like in your part of the world. At some point I might like to return to the UK but would definitely like to continue this hobby. I’m worried about road safety and in particular how motorists treat cyclists. Where I am at the moment it’s not bad, the roads are wide and many have cycling lanes. Motorists are mostly pretty respectful but there are idiots out there who can be very aggressive and dangerous.

I recall Lincolnshire roads were never that wide and sometimes motorists would speed unsafely with alarming frequency. So I guess my question is whether or not that has changed with wider roads, additional cycle lanes, and are drivers respectful towards cyclists by giving three feet when overtaking and not hooking them when turning etc.?
 
Cyclists imitating a peloton as they climb the very steep hill with 2 bends on it near me (thus meaning I have to crawl up the hill in first gear wearing my clutch out to avoid stalling) irritate me no end. The same cyclists coming down the hill at a huge speed on the wrong side of the road so they can maintain their speed through the same bends cause me nightmares as I will inevitably be blamed by the same cyclists when they bounce off my bonnet at a closing speed of around 80 mph...
 
LA_Imp said:
I thought I would start a thread about road cycling and ask what it is like in your part of the world. At some point I might like to return to the UK but would definitely like to continue this hobby. I’m worried about road safety and in particular how motorists treat cyclists. Where I am at the moment it’s not bad, the roads are wide and many have cycling lanes. Motorists are mostly pretty respectful but there are idiots out there who can be very aggressive and dangerous.

I recall Lincolnshire roads were never that wide and sometimes motorists would speed unsafely with alarming frequency. So I guess my question is whether or not that has changed with wider roads, additional cycle lanes, and are drivers respectful towards cyclists by giving three feet when overtaking and not hooking them when turning etc.?
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To answer your question: nothing much has changed in Lincolnshire in terms of roads and cycle lanes.

Lincoln itself is a traffic congested hell-hole that is something like 3rd worst in the country after London and, I think Birmingham.

You will find a *lot* more people driving "SUVs" that are the size of a Chieftan tank.

The guy to really ask, though, is Impede as I think he's a cycling afficianado and lives in Lincoln.
 
If you're returning to Lincolnshire you'll feel as though you're riding on a carpet compared the 'roads' in Kirklees - it's like the surface of the moon.
Pot holes, sunken man holes, cracked and decaying tops that instead of repairing properly, they just spray some liquid on then throw loose chipping onto it, leaving the cars to 'tread them in' and risk getting stone chips above 20 mph. These are then thrown from car tyres into the cycle lanes making them unusable.
Don't forget the assorted street furniture of speed humps, ramps & bollards and two lanes in each direction that are reduced to one lane so the traffic is forced to build up behind you. Frustrating to other vehicle drivers.
There's good and bad drivers on 2 wheels and 4.

After 50 years of road bikes I now have a hybrid I can ride on the road, the pavement (there are cycle lanes on some pavements) or the canal tow path and it's heaven. I can't ever see me riding a pure road bike ever again.
 
Thanks for the replies. Sounds a bit rough, with larger cars, congestion and poor roads.

I'm currently riding a Trek Domane with 32" tyres so heading onto light gravel or tow paths is not a problem, but the volume and congestion of the roads sound a bit hairy.

I follow the Lincolnshire cyclist Ricki Lake on Youtube and some of the rides he shares look great.

Agree with you Riiiiik that there are good and bad on 2 and 4 wheels.
 
Lincolnshire seems to have become quite a cyclists mecca over recent years. I am not a cyclist myself, but it has been the venue for a number of major events recently. One of the top blokes in cycling is (or was) a gentleman called Ian Emmerson, who has very close ties with the county.
Lincoln is hosting the 2021 Cycling Grand Prix, which is as big event as they come in the UK cycling world. It'll take place from the 14th to 17th October, 2021. Hopefully, there will be some top names in UK cycling taking part.
This year, apparently, there will be a new jersey in offer for the lucky (and I really do mean lucky) winner of the "most pot holes avoided" category.
 
Had a good ride yesterday, but it was on the cusp of being a bit too warm. 90 degrees, which was manageable, but any more and it gets very hot very quickly.

No bad drivers looking to pass too close which was a bonus, will try to go again after work tonight.

Glad to see that Lincolnshire is opening up to more competition cycling, hopefully that may lead to more urban planning for non-competitive cyclists.

Where do you cycle GermanImp?
 
I used to cycle a lot but not for a long time.
Mrs HGB though comes from a very keen cycling family and is close friends with the Boardmans (who were her neighbours when growing up).
 
LA_Imp said:
I thought I would start a thread about road cycling and ask what it is like in your part of the world. At some point I might like to return to the UK but would definitely like to continue this hobby. I’m worried about road safety and in particular how motorists treat cyclists. Where I am at the moment it’s not bad, the roads are wide and many have cycling lanes. Motorists are mostly pretty respectful but there are idiots out there who can be very aggressive and dangerous.

I recall Lincolnshire roads were never that wide and sometimes motorists would speed unsafely with alarming frequency. So I guess my question is whether or not that has changed with wider roads, additional cycle lanes, and are drivers respectful towards cyclists by giving three feet when overtaking and not hooking them when turning etc.?
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Lincoln has a fantastic provision of cycle lanes, cycle paths and shared paths. Unfortunately they are more bumpy even than our potholed roads and pedestrians see a wider path that means they can spread 3 across the footpath and cycle lane......so I cycle on the road as I always have.........much to the annoyance of uneducated drivers banging on about a road tax that has not existed for more than 80 years apparently unaware that VED would render a bicycle exempt anyway.....just like my (wife's) 1ltr Fiesta which is also exempt.

It is very annoying the amount of anger at cyclist due to the select few that do ride on the pavement, don't have lights or jump the lights but even then I would bet there is a higher percentage of drivers that see red lights as a 10 second warning, enter junctions they know they won't be able to clear, speed or any other array of other "offences."

I actually broke my hip in January when I went sideways on some ice and slapped the floor pretty hard and was back on the bike first week of April, although taking it easy, accelerating at a (to me) snail's pace and being very wary of any white lines in the wet..........not to mention the several drivers who are about to hit me and then gesture to me that it was my fault but hey ho. I love cycling.

I'm not so much a hobbyist cyclist. I don't do it for sport or group rides. My bike* is my vehicle of choice.

*I currently have a vintage 80s Holdsworth steel frame which is kitted out with ultra modern carbon everything else and SRAM Red 10spd groupset but my favourite ride is an '89 Raleigh Quadra series II. Again steel frame which was a sight to see in terms of rust spots etc when I bought the frame but I have faithfully stripped and restored the original finish and fitted it with period kit. Was Shimano EX400 except for some Campag calipers but last week the front mech gave up the ghost so I replaced it with a Campag Veloce one:
IMG_4153sm.jpg
quadsmall.jpg
 
GreenNeedle said:
Lincoln has a fantastic provision of cycle lanes, cycle paths and shared paths. Unfortunately they are more bumpy even than our potholed roads and pedestrians see a wider path that means they can spread 3 across the footpath and cycle lane......so I cycle on the road as I always have.........much to the annoyance of uneducated drivers banging on about a road tax that has not existed for more than 80 years apparently unaware that VED would render a bicycle exempt anyway.....just like my (wife's) 1ltr Fiesta which is also exempt.

It is very annoying the amount of anger at cyclist due to the select few that do ride on the pavement, don't have lights or jump the lights but even then I would bet there is a higher percentage of drivers that see red lights as a 10 second warning, enter junctions they know they won't be able to clear, speed or any other array of other "offences."

I actually broke my hip in January when I went sideways on some ice and slapped the floor pretty hard and was back on the bike first week of April, although taking it easy, accelerating at a (to me) snail's pace and being very wary of any white lines in the wet..........not to mention the several drivers who are about to hit me and then gesture to me that it was my fault but hey ho. I love cycling.

I'm not so much a hobbyist cyclist. I don't do it for sport or group rides. My bike* is my vehicle of choice.

*I currently have a vintage 80s Holdsworth steel frame which is kitted out with ultra modern carbon everything else and SRAM Red 10spd groupset but my favourite ride is an '89 Raleigh Quadra series II. Again steel frame which was a sight to see in terms of rust spots etc when I bought the frame but I have faithfully stripped and restored the original finish and fitted it with period kit. Was Shimano EX400 except for some Campag calipers but last week the front mech gave up the ghost so I replaced it with a Campag Veloce one:
View attachment 50071
View attachment 50072
Click to expand...

Love the pics GreenNeedle and you've done a fantastic job on the bikes. They look great. For me I just love the feeling of being out in the open and putting in the miles. It's not really a commute option for me in the LA area, although it's not a bad area to cycle in depending on where you live. I'm lucky that my area has a bit of everything, cycle paths, cycle lanes, wide roads, and some big mountains if you want to get some climbing in.

One of my favorite runs takes you on a cycle path for 20 plus miles and drops you down at the beach, about 45 miles round trip so perfect for a half day ride, no cars, and it's flat so not too hard. There are some youtube clips of the Santa Ana bike trail. It used to have a huge homeless encampment around one part of the trail, but that got cleaned up a couple of years ago and is much better now.

At the moment, I'm enjoying my Trek Domane. I had a fitting and it is really comfortable for when I try to go on longer trips now. It's not the fastest or the lightest, but then neither am I so we seem to be a good match.

The drivers here are mostly pretty good but there are always a few that think they own the road and cannot understand if there are potholes around the edge of the road you need to take the middle to be safe, or that they simply must speed past you so that they can proceed to cut in front of you to make their right (left equivalent in the UK) turn while forcing you to hit the brakes. But you learn to watch for them and as I said most are ok. I just don't understand the anger of some people.

I would love to cycle around Lincoln and Lincolnshire at some point, but I remember the much smaller roads and sketchy edges and how that might affect the experience. I watch Ricky Lake on Youtube, he's posted a bunch of clips of these really long rides he goes on around the county. Pretty interesting.

Glad to hear you are back on the bike after the ice slip. Hopefully the summer will be much kinder to you. I'll see if I can post a couple of pics of some rides in SoCal.
 
1625844767791.png

This is from a ride around the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

1625844790420.png

This is Northern California, Monterey Bay area.

1625844842075.png

This is Paso Robles - I needed an early start because it was going to be so hot.

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This was near Solvang, really nice ride with rolling hills.
 
GreenNeedle said:
Lincoln has a fantastic provision of cycle lanes, cycle paths and shared paths. Unfortunately they are more bumpy even than our potholed roads and pedestrians see a wider path that means they can spread 3 across the footpath and cycle lane......so I cycle on the road as I always have.........much to the annoyance of uneducated drivers banging on about a road tax that has not existed for more than 80 years apparently unaware that VED would render a bicycle exempt anyway.....just like my (wife's) 1ltr Fiesta which is also exempt.

It is very annoying the amount of anger at cyclist due to the select few that do ride on the pavement, don't have lights or jump the lights but even then I would bet there is a higher percentage of drivers that see red lights as a 10 second warning, enter junctions they know they won't be able to clear, speed or any other array of other "offences."

I actually broke my hip in January when I went sideways on some ice and slapped the floor pretty hard and was back on the bike first week of April, although taking it easy, accelerating at a (to me) snail's pace and being very wary of any white lines in the wet..........not to mention the several drivers who are about to hit me and then gesture to me that it was my fault but hey ho. I love cycling.

I'm not so much a hobbyist cyclist. I don't do it for sport or group rides. My bike* is my vehicle of choice.

*I currently have a vintage 80s Holdsworth steel frame which is kitted out with ultra modern carbon everything else and SRAM Red 10spd groupset but my favourite ride is an '89 Raleigh Quadra series II. Again steel frame which was a sight to see in terms of rust spots etc when I bought the frame but I have faithfully stripped and restored the original finish and fitted it with period kit. Was Shimano EX400 except for some Campag calipers but last week the front mech gave up the ghost so I replaced it with a Campag Veloce one:
View attachment 50071
View attachment 50072
Click to expand...
I have a saved eBay search for vintage Holdsworth's and Ribble's. I do not care what state they are in n as I want a project and correct period groupsets and decals are relatively easy to get. Yours are beautiful mate.
 
impede said:
I have a saved eBay search for vintage Holdsworth's and Ribble's. I do not care what state they are in n as I want a project and correct period groupsets and decals are relatively easy to get. Yours are beautiful mate.
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The Holdsworth was complete apart from having no brake calipers. I bought it off ebay. Looked like it had hardly been ridden since new. price? £110 delivered.

All the period gear off that went onto the Quadra once I bought it.

Its a bit silly really. People would rather pay £300 for a Carrera from Halfords than £100 for a quality steel frame with quality kit. Carreras might look nice and shiny but wait until the day you need to replace the bottom bracket and find a cheap Chin Hua Shimano copy hidden away in there rusted up and that's if you can get the thing out in the first place. lol.

I find it amazing how many Carreras there are around when second hand bikes go for such little money. You can't beat a nice Reynolds 531 frame. Might be heavier than the aluminium ones but so much nicer to ride absorbing much more bumps.

I went back to steel about 5 years ago after years of trying to budget weight weenie with aluminium frames. Got my main bike down to 7.2kg at one point.

The 2 above, The Holdsworth is 8.8kg which is pretty good considering the frame/fork weight is heavy. I think it is 3kg combined including the headset.

the Raleigh frame though is lighter in the 2.6kg region and the geometry feels better to me. I have toyed with the idea of swapping the SRAM and carbon onto the Raleigh and putting the period stuff back on the Holdsworth but TBH the Raleigh just feels so nice with the older heavy stuff............which is probably why I'm riding that all the time at the mo and the Holdsworth is being jealous in the shed.

I do have to admit though that the Quadra above has period Wolber 20C tyres on it......just for the photo. It has modern Conti 25Cs on it for riding.
 
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