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Where in Edinburgh is definitely off-limits to handcycles?

(22 posts)
  • Started 7 years ago by Wilmington's Cow
  • Latest reply from Cyclingmollie
  • This topic is not resolved

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  1. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Figured I'd ask this here, given the experience of those with trikes or trailers will likely match up.

    I'll be giving my Spokes map to my friend with the handcycle*, and we're meeting up at the Shore for dinner next week specifically because he can easily-ish get onto the NEPN with a big loop to get there. But he wants to explore more. As off-road networky, or very quiet roads, as possible, given his relative uphill speed to traffic, and still finding his feet (if you'll pardon the pun) with the handcycle (he managed to crash a borrowed one on Cumbrae a couple of weeks ago and bashed up his already-mobility-limiting ankle).

    So where are there barriers and so on that will definitely make it too troublesome to ride?

    * he's now got two - the monster MTB, which felt very odd, and a new road bike, which he lies back on about 2 inches off the ground. He's started doing Arthur's Seat laps on a Sunday (when the road is closed) to build up the arm muscles, and we compared Strava times - we're perfectly matched on the downhills, but the up sounds like a heck of a drag, taking ten minutes more!

    Posted 7 years ago #

  2. gembo
    Member

    towpath would work contour wise but all the wee cobbles and the like would be a 'mare

    Posted 7 years ago #

  3. wingpig
    Member

    The Straiton Pond path with the silly narrow gate?
    Possibly some of the spurs off the Pinkhill path, where chicanes might not accept something long and double-tracked.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  4. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Crawford Bridge (the one between Albion Road and Bothwell Street).

    I seem to recall there being those awful narrow-bike width-get-narrower-towards-the-top Sustrans devices on the Pencaitland railway path and also on some of the access to the Dalkeith - Penicuik path (particularly at Smeaton)

    Posted 7 years ago #

  5. algo
    Member

    Yes indeed there are those things on the Pencaitland path and they're a pain... through the park in Dalkeith and also going past Hopetoun house there are those enclosed gate things which are a nightmare for trailers..

    Posted 7 years ago #

  6. Frenchy
    Member

    The Straiton Pond path with the silly narrow gate?

    Indeed. If you somehow got past that, there are equally bad obstacles on the Loanhead-Roslin path.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  7. chdot
    Admin

    Except that the Straiton Pond path now has a massive bypass -

    Not properly connected of course.

    (Pond behind trees.)

    Posted 7 years ago #

  8. Frenchy
    Member

    Not properly connected of course.

    Do you know when/if this will change? The connection to the Loanhead Railway path is quite tortuous just now.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  9. chdot
    Admin

    Nope.

    At present you just go down the new road and cross a rough bit of verge onto 'old' path.

    This is quite rough in the section before you join the tarmac Lasswade Rd - Loanhead path.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  10. chdot
    Admin

    Posted 7 years ago #

  11. LivM
    Member

    Getting up onto Ravelston Dykes from NEPN. Horrible hill, narrowish barrier.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  12. LaidBack
    Member

    The back route from Magdelene to Portobello over the bridge at Hope St bridge / Craigentinny. Barriers are too close together - despite the intervention of the forum!

    Other rubbish route is the extended bit of prom running east towards Granton. This now has been shifted to meet a barrier that we had to lift trikes over earlier in day. Bikes could just slip through a 0.5m gap. Visitors had just been in NL and thought it was amazing how such a route could end in a barrier to bikes. Been reported but would be nice to sort this summer.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  13. fimm
    Member

    Depending on how much of a campaigner your friend wants to become, he does have the option of complaining about some of the barriers under the Disability Discrimination Act...

    I agree about Ravelston Dykes from the NEPN. I go that way regularly because it is convenient for me, but I always push my bike up the slope. There isn't a dropped kerb at the top, either. To be honest, I would put that pretty low on a list of priorities to fix: reducing the steepness would be very expensive!

    Posted 7 years ago #

  14. chdot
    Admin

    "To be honest, I would put that pretty low on a list of priorities to fix: reducing the steepness would be very expensive!"

    Yes.

    But, the steepness was compounded by the atrocious surface caused by tree roots.

    This was dealt with moderately successfully years after it needed doing!

    HOWEVER the insane ironmongery near the top (sidepath to Craigleith View) which is bad enough for normal solo bikes just shouldn't have been there for the last 30 years!

    Posted 7 years ago #

  15. drnoble
    Member

    Is this something that we should be capturing in CycleScape? Perhaps good to add these issues to a map?

    http://edinburgh.cyclescape.org

    Posted 7 years ago #

  16. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    the insane ironmongery

    Is it madder than the lunatic scrapheap at the bottom of the canal to Gogar Station Road ramp? That's my favourite.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  17. chdot
    Admin

    Very similar

    BUT

    Seem to remember the canal version is easily bypassed(?)

    Posted 7 years ago #

  18. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    The ease of bypassing is part of its unhinged beauty.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  19. gembo
    Member

    Ah now, one day there might be a huge queue of people needing to get onto the canal to spot a kingfisher and that gogarstation road turnstile arrangement will come in very handy

    Posted 7 years ago #

  20. threefromleith
    Member

    Not sure you'd get a handcycle through the chicane barriers at the Balgreen end of the tram path, so he'd have to avoid that.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  21. neddie
    Member

    Both ends of Ladiebridge (part of CEC quiet route 9):

    https://goo.gl/maps/yCx1FZMCkZ62

    https://goo.gl/maps/QtS7sWGantJ2

    Posted 7 years ago #

  22. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    There is an overlap between the places that are inaccessible to wheelchairs and places that are inaccessible to handcycles. From memory the zoo is tough to deal with for wheelchair users because of the steepness. There are streets in the New Town which have pavements with double-kerbs and those will defeat any wheelchair.

    complaining about some of the barriers under the Disability Discrimination Act...

    The DDA was replaced by the Equalities Act in 2010. The reasonable adjustment that implies that service providers remove barriers to wheelchair users probably doesn't extend to handcycle users but it's an interesting grey area.

    Posted 7 years ago #

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