http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Topic: Worst cobbles in Edinburgh en Mon, 06 Apr 2026 05:08:06 +0000 http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651&page=2#post-99076 Mon, 04 Feb 2013 17:01:35 +0000 PS 99076@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>To be fair (and I should really have reported back on this) within a month of the above the Cooncil had dumped a line of tarmac over the offending cobbles. It wasn't pretty, but it did remove the tyre-trap danger. </p> <p>I wonder if they're just going to tarmac over all the cobbles? I kind of hope not, really, as long as they re-lay the cobbles right. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651&page=2#post-99075 Mon, 04 Feb 2013 16:56:05 +0000 Wilmington's Cow 99075@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>So in answer to, "<em>it will be interesting to see how long it takes to be sorted...</em>" - roughly a year... </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651&page=2#post-99062 Mon, 04 Feb 2013 16:12:04 +0000 Min 99062@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>It looks as if Eyre place is about to be resurfaced by the way. I noticed signs up 2/2/13. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651&page=2#post-36081 Mon, 25 Jul 2011 09:57:03 +0000 PS 36081@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>A warning flag for anyone cycling west along Eyre Place, just before the junction with Dundas Street - the cobbles on what would be my normal cycling line (approx the line of a car's left tyre track) are in a shocking state. They've always been pretty bad (presumably from bus use) but at some point in the last few months they have become very disturbed and there are gaps of a couple of inches between some of them. </p> <p>I reported it to Clarence last week, flagged as a danger to cyclists, so it will be interesting to see how long it takes to be sorted... </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651&page=2#post-32978 Thu, 09 Jun 2011 10:40:04 +0000 LaidBack 32978@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><strong>cc</strong> <em>I'd nominate George Square for worst cobbles in Edinburgh.</em></p> <p>You're right there. I forgot about them. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651&page=2#post-32961 Wed, 08 Jun 2011 20:59:53 +0000 kaputnik 32961@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>There's plenty cobbles in Edinburgh that you could stand a bike with a 23 or 25 tyre up in. Must take a photo of that... </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651&page=2#post-32955 Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:26:00 +0000 Min 32955@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Perhaps they could send all of the old "sub-standard" cobbles here? I, for one would be very grateful for them! </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651&page=2#post-32954 Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:24:13 +0000 cb 32954@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>"Hmm, I can't see the difference between the supposedly "rough" cobbles and the new smooth ones. :-/ "</p> <p>Amateur!</p> <p>(Actually, I had the same thought!) </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651&page=2#post-32953 Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:21:39 +0000 Min 32953@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Hmm, I can't see the difference between the supposedly "rough" cobbles and the new smooth ones. :-/ </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651&page=2#post-32951 Wed, 08 Jun 2011 15:22:54 +0000 cb 32951@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>"(Spotted in David Hembrow's superb blog)"</p> <p>Or very depressing blog depending on your point of view (i.e. a UK point of view!) </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651&page=2#post-32949 Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:50:53 +0000 chdot 32949@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>You just need the 'actual' URL http //www youtube com/watch?v=jkVBg_-OviI</p> <p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkVBg_-OviI" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkVBg_-OviI</a></p> <p>.<br /> Great vid.</p> <p>Of course you have to make sure that the sub surface is in good nick and then don't drive buses over it (e.g. Chambers Street)! </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651&page=2#post-32945 Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:24:17 +0000 cc 32945@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Drat, sorry folks, how do you embed a video? That worked OK in the preview!<br /> Here's the URL anyway:</p> <p><a href="http://youtu.be/jkVBg_-OviI" rel="nofollow">http://youtu.be/jkVBg_-OviI</a> </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651&page=2#post-32944 Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:23:01 +0000 cc 32944@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I'd nominate George Square for worst cobbles in Edinburgh. They're like Shane McGowan's teeth, all over the place. And that's on a road which links the Middle Meadow Walk cycle path with my work's cycle store, too.</p> <p>Talking of cobbles, has everyone seen this video? Apparently health and safety laws in the Netherlands have prompted the invention of an awesome cobble-laying machine, and here it is in action:</p> <p><code>&lt;iframe width=&quot;560&quot; height=&quot;349&quot; src=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/embed/jkVBg_-OviI&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</code></p> <p>(Spotted in <a href="http://hembrow.blogspot.com/2011/04/road-noise-cobbles-and-smooth-asphalt.html">David Hembrow's superb blog</a>) </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651&page=2#post-32890 Tue, 07 Jun 2011 19:08:10 +0000 LaidBack 32890@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>My personal 'favourite' is Buccleuch Place - a route I use when I get newbies to break free of the Meadows and connect to St Leonards. Part of the invisible core network!</p> <p>Mind you St Leonards Hill is also bad. Visitors think I'm trying to show how good the suspension is on the bikes and trikes - but some of the surfaces are too severe for anything (apart from Hamsters ICE with three 2.25" Big Apple tyres or maybe the Surly Pugsy)</p> <p>Back to the complete lack of decent connectivity as shown on the Inner Tube map. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651&page=2#post-32888 Tue, 07 Jun 2011 18:20:25 +0000 crowriver 32888@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Croft-an-Righ is dreadful.</p> <p>Another cobbled street sports both some of the worst, and I think the best cobbles in Edinburgh: Cambridge Street. The section from the Lyceum theatre to Grindlay Street is bone-shakingly, filling-looseningly, wrist-fracturingly poor. However the new flat cobbles that go around the Usher Hall and past the Traverse down to Castle Street are wonderfully smooth. </p> <p>So it can be done right, given the correct materials and the will to do so. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651#post-32879 Tue, 07 Jun 2011 10:12:12 +0000 wingpig 32879@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I went along Croft-an-Righ last night. Hadn't been along it for a while. Won't be going along it on the bike for another while. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651#post-28385 Fri, 01 Apr 2011 20:15:49 +0000 wingpig 28385@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I hope they washed the mud (or at least "the possibility of mud") off before heading round the vélodrome.</p> <p>Though they're reasonably flat I'm starting to quite dislike the Canongate/Jeffrey Street/St Mary's Street cobble-junction. If you're not going straight over you have to watch the ground rather than the other traffic to avoid mishap. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651#post-28384 Fri, 01 Apr 2011 19:54:07 +0000 Arellcat 28384@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Obviously based on pseudoscience. Load is always measured in Newtons, not kilogrammes. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651#post-28382 Fri, 01 Apr 2011 19:51:03 +0000 chdot 28382@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>"(note date)"</p> <p>"Working in tandem creates what sports scientists refer to as a ‘Dual Optimum Performance Environment’" </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651#post-28381 Fri, 01 Apr 2011 18:38:09 +0000 kaputnik 28381@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>While we're linking Rapha, how about <a href="http://www.rapha.cc/climbing-lead">this</a> for those that struggle with the climbs?</p> <p>(note date) </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651#post-28371 Fri, 01 Apr 2011 15:55:11 +0000 chdot 28371@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/21638450" rel="nofollow">http://vimeo.com/21638450</a></p> <p>.<br /> <a href="http://www.rapha.cc/roubaix-recce-into-the-fight" rel="nofollow">http://www.rapha.cc/roubaix-recce-into-the-fight</a> </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651#post-16236 Mon, 08 Nov 2010 14:49:19 +0000 Rabid Hamster 16236@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>When setts (cobbles) are lifted and sometimes taken away, they never get re-laid in the same place, hence all the hundreds of years of wear by hooves/cartwheels etc and planar bedding is lost, and it is like starting again from new; so it takes time for setts to gain that worn, polished and weathered topface; this takes many years, meantime our bikes get burst to bits!<br /> This is not an excuse for not laying them right though! or for bad re-instatement and poor foundation preparation. 50% of sunken setts are related to bad utility re-instatement, excessive axle weights, poor prep of foundation, or undermining by water etc! </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651#post-16227 Mon, 08 Nov 2010 13:58:54 +0000 Wilmington's Cow 16227@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>The section of cobbles on Randolph Place, uneven and gappy, with a couple of manhole covers thrown in for good measure, seem almost deliberately set to catch out unwary cyclists being, as they are, positioned right at the dropped kerb for the national cycle network sponsored cut-through to Charlotte Square. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651#post-16223 Mon, 08 Nov 2010 13:50:13 +0000 smsm1 16223@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I'd love to see a motorway with cobbles, and see how the motorist react to that. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651#post-16212 Mon, 08 Nov 2010 12:24:03 +0000 wingpig 16212@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>It's unfortunate that there's no way of making a cobbly road surface which causes cars to go more slowly whilst still being pleasant to cycle along.</p> <p>I've never gone down it by mistake but occasionally forgetfully turn up Howe St and spend the next minute wondering if it's worth U-turning and going somewhere else. Like Bell's Brae, even at uphill-speeds the surface irritates, unlike St Mary's Street and the High Street which are quite tolerable at 15mph or less, though I do find myself tending to try to stick to the longditudinal stones at the edge. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651#post-16208 Mon, 08 Nov 2010 12:04:04 +0000 carltonreid 16208@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Tons of good quotes here for my next book 'Asphalt: A Love Story' (not kidding, I'm really doing a book with that title).</p> <p>It's a book on the history of roads and good surfaces. Naturally, setts will be part of the book.</p> <p>Cyclists in US and UK played a big part in getting better road surfaces, from 1880s, long before motorists came on the scene.</p> <p>If I use any quotes I'll get back to forum members asking if they'd like to use real names. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651#post-16202 Mon, 08 Nov 2010 11:18:51 +0000 Arellcat 16202@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><em>2) to be in keeping with Edinburgh's status as a World Heritage site.</em></p> <p>Hence my earlier comment about Edinburgh's "traditional cobbles", which bear no relation to the smooth ones I encountered in London, and which I find hard to believe were as bad a hundred years ago. No-one could ever have had eggs or crockery delivered intact by horse and cart.</p> <p>The Princes Street section is almost <em>intentionally</em> anti-bike. There are any number of other ways the tram stop could have been demarcated, such as a single peripheral line of setts, and even given the desire for full ground cover, why couldn't they have bloody well laid them properly? *fume* &gt;:-( </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651#post-16201 Mon, 08 Nov 2010 11:16:09 +0000 kaputnik 16201@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><em>hey used this layout to 1) mark the tramstops</em></p> <p>Perhaps ASL boxes demarcated in red cobbles would prove more hard wearing than the current paint / tarmac options! </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651#post-16200 Mon, 08 Nov 2010 10:48:13 +0000 rosscbrown 16200@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I've got to agree with wingpig, the cobbled section on Princes Street is, in my book, a bad planning move.</p> <p>They used this layout to 1) mark the tramstops and 2) to be in keeping with Edinburgh's status as a World Heritage site.</p> <p>But introducing another hazard for cyclists?! Meh. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1651#post-16199 Mon, 08 Nov 2010 10:45:19 +0000 rosscbrown 16199@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I'm not one to often make sweeping statements, however:</p> <p>Leith - Good; City Centre - Bad. </p>