CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting

Yay! Back on the bike!

(11 posts)
  • Started 11 years ago by Wilmington's Cow
  • Latest reply from Baldcyclist

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  1. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    After the monstrously-kaputnik-paced run out to the air show a little over a week ago I took some time out of the saddle. Not that ride that did it, just that happened to be my last. Thought the bike might have been aggravating my shoulder/back trouble sine the fall three weeks ago.

    A week of walking and bussing and no, the problem is just the same (if not worse some mornings), so I'm back on the bike. Bliss!

    Brakes need sorting (springs seem to have lost their... spring...) and the Molteni cap I bought is too tight (especially under the helmet). But Idon't care. I'm back on the bike (amazing how long a week off can feel).

    Posted 11 years ago #

  2. DaveC
    Member

    Glad you're back on the Iron Horse WC.

    I'm also back on my bike after a week off. I was on holiday for the last two weeks and did an Audax and one other shorter ride round North & East Yorkshire, while we were away in Leeds. I feel a little unfit but non the worse for my ride in today.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  3. Smudge
    Member

    Good isn't it? :-)
    Back on the Surly, have discovered a sad lack of fitness and some annoying squeaks/rattles that need sorting but nothing some oil and spanners won't sort, and in the case of the fitness, nothing towing no1 son up the hill home won't cure! :-D

    Even getting the weather to give my glam CCE cycle shirt an airing B-)

    Posted 11 years ago #

  4. LaidBack
    Member

    Good to hear that the 'race' to the airshow didn't stop your enthusiasm for long! Whilst LRT run a very good bus service I don't think I could commute that way every day. Cycling, walking and running seem better (well first two anyway!)

    Posted 11 years ago #

  5. chdot
    Admin

    "well first two anyway!"

    Well the first one anyway.

    Pavements too crowded with people not following any sort of code (and occasional illegal bike riders).

    Need better, direction segregated, continuous infrastructure with, enforced, minimum speed limits.

    Build and they will come.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  6. Baldcyclist
    Member

    "
    Need better, direction segregated, continuous infrastructure with, enforced, minimum speed limits.

    Build and they will come.
    "

    Must admit I wondered after my 'jokey' comments about Livingston the other day...

    You know, I actually think I miss Livingston! I never realised it until I moved away, (from a cycling without getting killed perspective) but Livingston is a 'model' cycling town. Livingston really is a perfect example of a place where you can get to any corner of the town on a bike, without even having to cross a road.

    Maybe we should look to 60s/70s newtown planners as inspiration in creating high quality segregated shared infrastructure.

    Unfortunately though with regard to the 'build it and they will come', Livingston is a good example of that not working.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  7. sallyhinch
    Member

    There's been a fair bit of discussion about this in the context of Stevenage - an attempt to actually create a Dutch style network in a UK new town, with similar results. Certainly with Stevenage although it's easy to get around by bike (except for the later additions to the town where the usual UK rubbish infrastructure was implemented) it's even easier to get around by car. My husband used to visit there for work meetings - the first time he went he took the train and walked to the office along the pathways but found it a bit creepy. After that he just did what all his colleagues did and drove there and claimed massively on expenses.

    I've not been to Livingstone (although I remember it fondly from O Grade Geography) but I wonder if it's similarly easy to get about by car?

    I also wonder whether in a town like Livingstone you could actually get a boost in cycling rates through the sorts of measures like training, encouragement, social rides and so on, that tend to have only a limited effect in places where the infrastructure isn't in place. There was a piece a while back on Portland that showed that the cycling culture lagged well behind the investment in bike lanes - it took things like bike festivals, to actually encourage people to think about cycling. And once that had happened, people actually started moving to Portland because it was a cycling city and a virtuous cycle developed

    Posted 11 years ago #

  8. Baldcyclist
    Member

    "
    I've not been to Livingstone (although I remember it fondly from O Grade Geography) but I wonder if it's similarly easy to get about by car?
    "

    In that respect it really is quite good, all modes of transport catered for. Main dual carriageway down one side of the town. Main road on other. Estates are catered for by a 'S' shaped road system (if you were looking from above) between the two main roads which connect all of the estates. Walking / cycling is catered for by a 'core path system' which is essentially 3m wide straight paths which form a grid pattern, and bisect all of the main estates, and are no where near the road system, where they do meet, there is an under/over pass system which means you never actually cross a road.

    The 'new' private estates which are more car centric though, but they are still connected to the 'core path network'.

    Must admit it was a bit of a shock moving to Burnisland where I can practically cycle all the way to Edinburgh on a path, but I can't get to my local shops half a mile away without having to go on a main road!

    Posted 11 years ago #

  9. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I'm back on "a" bike, as in using the touring bike for the first time since the winter. Had to take of the studlies, give the chain and whatnot a good clean, replace middle chainring and the front brake pads and holders, however it seems to be exactly as I remember it - comfortable and steady, but a sluggish pig to stop and start.

    I have also picked up an annoying creak, think the cranks need pulled off and the BB spindle greased. At least I hope it's that and not the BB itself.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  10. fimm
    Member

    My office in Livingston is new and is impossibly car-centric to access. You cannot walk there from the nearest houses or bus stop without walking along a grass verge alongside a 40mph road. There is a nice 'away from the road' path behind it, but the only access to that is on a little muddy informal path, which I don't use because I don't want to get my shoes or bike muddy, and anyway the 'away from the road' route from here to the station is a huge loop compared with using the road.

    This isn't my employers' fault, but that of the people who built the office - and the people who allow it to remain with a nice pavement to nowhere directly in front of it that connects to nothing. Oh, yes, those people also decreed that there should not be too many car parking spaces, so as to encourage people to use other forms of transport. Gues what, we have a massive car parking problem - we've had the police round because of the way people have parked on the access roads.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  11. Baldcyclist
    Member

    @fimm is this at Eiliburn?

    Posted 11 years ago #

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