Riding up the A1, Would You???

jellybellywmb

Driving North from Stevenage and came across a rider going up the A1 and thought there is no way I would do that with all the foreign (and British) lorry drivers using you as sport to break the boredom.

Would you run the gauntlet of a major A road/dual carraigeway??

lugster77

used to do it when i was about 13 no worries!

redddraggon

jellybellywmb wrote:

Would you run the gauntlet of a major A road/dual carraigeway??

Nah, I attempt to avoid even minor A/major B roads, and aim for the quietest roads possible.

tonywar

I rode one junction of the A1 , scared the sh*t out of me. Lorries very close by and travelling at high speed, the shockwave they push in front and the vacuum they drag behind very scary.

luke2792

I've ridden along the A20 between Folkestone and Dover

Lets just say i was doin 30 most of the way i was so scared :shock:

geoff_ss

I lived in Welwyn Garden City in the late 50s and regularly cycled to what was then Hatfield Tech to go to night school with my brief case hanging over the top tube. There was very little traffic in the evening and I never gave it a thought. Would I do it now? NO!

A woman visited my landlady (I was in digs) who was a former lodger and told me her husband was in the North Road Club and their Easter tour comprised of a ride from Marble Arch all the way up the A1 to Edinburgh and back via the Peak District! I guess they've abandoned the practice now They were tough in them days.

Today we rode alongside the A38 near Burton for a short distance and were glad of the cycle track. I never thought I'd say that. Trying to make long place to place journeys by bike at a reasonable pace (ie not on canal tow-paths etc) is getting very difficult.

Geoff

Red Rock

The A556 from the M6 near Knutsford is the scariest road I've ever been on. A dual carriageway full of lorries trying to squeeze past me at the last second. After just a minute of riding I got that scared I pulled off the road and waited for a gap in the traffic. Then I sprinted to the next set of lights and turned off onto a quieter road.

Red Rock

pedylan

In the 90's I traveled from Carlisle to York pretty well every other Saturday. On summer nights around 7pm a time trial ran down the southbound A1 carriageway approx from the A168 and then back up the north bound. Even then I thought it was a suicidal, not to say irresponsible practice as car drivers passing trucks would suddenly realise truck was not kidding when he started to pull out.

The road has been re-engineered and the roundabouts have gone and M way sections inserted but even so I think it took a death to stop it. Never known which club was doing this.

Would never ever go near any part of the A1 on my bike.

gazza_d1

cyycled the A1 from Ripon to Scotch Corner once on a weekday, and also the A19 from Sunderland to Middlesborough 20 years ago.

scared me to death then - now in the words of Amy W - No No No.

Btw The Cumberland Gap between the end of the M6 and the start of the M74 between Carlisle and Gretna is also truly short fillingly scary. worst bit of both end-to-end rides I've completed.

Gaz

OffTheBackAdam

Eeeeeeeeeeeh, by 'eck, when I were a lad, I used to ride t' O2 & O10/2 as regular as owt, did mi personal of 22-07 when I were 18, mi clubmate Mick Gadsby broke t'Junior Comp Record that evening. T' wind were blowing one way but you were bein' dragged t'other by all them lorries!
When they've finished taking out all the roundabouts from Peterborough to Blyth, it'll be a cracking course again.
I must say that at busy times, I'd be a tad worried about riding it, unless I'd got one of the tractors that uses it as regular as clockwork behind me. The chances of me being able to reach, let alone maintain, 24mph are, however,remote these days. :oops:

yorkshireraw

I believe I saw the same guy on the A1 last night also, between Biggleswade and Sandy - I was tempted to open the window to let him know theres a road that runs parallel to the A1 at the same spot on the west, or some nice country roads to the east, but I had a 20T truck up my rear and traffic flying past...

Salsiccia

One for the Taffs, I used to ride on the A470 from Ponty to Cardiff as a teenager (*ahem* nearly 20 years ago), late evenings with the old dynamo lights going... :oops:

Not something I would advocate now.

Bronzie

I've raced time trials on the A1 around Sandy in the past - not too bad at 6am on a Sunday, but wouldn't attempt on a weekday. Not really in favour of this fast course chasing anymore - it's a bit too stupid even for me now.

When I did the end-to-end a couple of years back, my and my mates accidentally rode the 6 miles of the A74 between the end of the M6 and the start of the A74(M) - now that was proper scary!

How about the A3 near Guildford - that is a 3-lane motorway without a hard shoulder to all intents and purposes but there are still the little cycle lanes to take you across the slip roads - never actually seen anyone riding on it though.

nasahapley

I was driving down the A1 not too long ago (couple of years max), and came across what looked very much like a proper organised time trial going on - must have seen 20 riders with aero bars at fairly regular intervals. It wasn't first thing in the morning either, loads HGVs swerving about the place. You've got to be a bit bonkers to ride a time trial down the A1 just because it's a fast course, but who in their right mind would organise one? Asking for trouble.

I do quite enjoy riding the A65 Settle-Ilkley, makes a good fast run home after 50 miles or so in the Dales, but I don't think that counts as a 'major' A road!

MrKawamura

To quote from Point Break:

"Nobody's been out and nobody's going out. You'ld have to be ••••••' crazy mate."

plug1n

I remember in the early 80s with the Redmon club in SW London we used to time-trial on the A3

But at 6AM on a Sunday.......

portuguese mike

When i lived in Kingston in the early nineties i used to ride on a section of the A3 from Tolworth to the Ace of Spades (not actually sure if that's what it's really called roundabout before turning of towards Chessington & Boxhill.

I remember overtaking a scooter once - madness. There is absoulutely no way i would do it now even with the myriad speed cameras they have now.

Adamskii

Point Break? Quality film

stevekosky

I live in Stevenage and remember some years ago time times or races on the northern section of the AI on the way to Sandy. Not any longer.

I recently rode from Biggleswade to Stevenage on the A1 one Sunday afternoons. I would never do it again.

Some time ago a chap who had commuted from Biggleswade to Stevenage for years was caught under a lorry and died.

My club gives very serious thought to crossing ANY major road on a Sunday club run. We witnessed a high speed collison at a junction on the A10 last year - had we been there a few minutes earlier it could have taken out half the club.

Fortunately this part of Hertfordshire has plenty of quiet back roads and lanes and it is more conducive to peace of mind to keep to those.

Does this mean we are being slowly forced off the roads?

portuguese mike

stevekosky wrote:

Does this mean we are being slowly forced off the roads?

It looks like it doesn't it

nasahapley

stevekosky wrote:

Fortunately this part of Hertfordshire has plenty of quiet back roads and lanes and it is more conducive to peace of mind to keep to those.

Does this mean we are being slowly forced off the roads?

I used to live in Hertfordshire, right up near the border with Essex and Cambridgeshire, and it's a brilliant place to ride. Herts has got some seriously busy arterial routes (A1, A10, M25 etc), but I think the quiet lanes will always stay that way! You probably already know this Stevekosky, but go east of the A10 and north of the A120 and there's pretty much nothing but quiet lanes, rolling hills and picturesque villages, my particular favourite being Anstey (coz that's where I lived). My folks still live there so I'm looking forward to having a blast round some of my old routes this summer.

toontra

The guy who shattered the world record for cycling round the world seems to have stuck to major roads (equivalent to our A roads) for the full 20,000. The only accident was an old biddy in Louisiana who ran a red light at a junction and he went into the wing.

I regularly use the A4 from London - Bath without problem, but I'm sure the A1 is more busy.

The (London) north circular, on the other hand, is a motorway to all intents and purposes on some stretches. I once wandered onto it by mistake and had to go to the next junction. It was like being on a race track and the left side of the road was covered in glass, broken plastic and shredded tyres.

Mike Willcox

Plug1n wrote:

I remember in the early 80s with the Redmon club in SW London we used to time-trial on the A3

But at 6AM on a Sunday.......

Right up until they opened the M25/A3 junction.

The 10 mile TT course started in a lay bye just before the junction going North and then went up Pains Hill along the A3 to the junction at A244 down the slip road turn at RAB and retrace A3 to just past the junction M25 (down slip road to RAB). I did 20.30 on that course in 1982 and only finished 3rd on the day. I previously held course record @ 21.38 a couple of years earlier and won about 6 races or so on that course altogether.

Not much traffic around at 6.00am but it got busier by 8.00am.

Bronzie

stevekosky wrote:

I live in Stevenage and remember some years ago time times or races on the northern section of the AI on the way to Sandy. Not any longer.

They still run TTs on the A1 - look on Cycling Time Trials website for London North (division F). All courses with a course code of F1/.... are based on the A1 around Sandy.

CTT rules state that racers must be clear of the A1 by 9am on Sunday I think, hence the start times of 7am or earlier.

Fast courses are still very popular and it's not unusual to get fields of over 100 willing to battle the jugernauts at 6am :shock: