Bike Handling Skills, Bravery, and Stupidity

shaunos

Where do you draw the line.
Initially when this recent "cold snap" came along i looked upon it as just a test of handling skills as the roads got a little tricky.
Then it became a case of being brave as it got a little worse.
Stupidity reared its ugly head when i had to dismount over long stretches of road due to the inability to stay upright on two wheels (as it turned out, two feet as well!!).
After hitting the deck in slow motion on two occassions, the line was drawn, and i cowardly got a lift in into work with a colleague.
My eight mile commute is out in the sticks on totally untreated roads (in Bucks). Can handle the cold, but have "chickened out" now.
Can we have some snow please, now that would be fun!!!

biondino

I have, for the first time I can remember, decided to walk a section of my commute rather than ride it. For those who know, it's the Hammersmith one-way system - when I come home from work to my girlfriends, I dismount at the end of Hammersmith Road (just before the new bus station, and walk the bike past Hammersmith tube to King Street. Navigating the system involves too many lanes, too many lane changes, and too many impatient cars and buses.

biondino

Here's a diagram I just drew to show all the lanes, all the turnings, and why it's a death trap with cars changing lanes all over the place...

ChrisLS

...better to arrive in one piece than brave it out sometimes...

Feltup

biondino wrote:

Here's a diagram I just drew to show all the lanes, all the turnings, and why it's a death trap with cars changing lanes all over the place...

I see where you are going wrong, you should go the other way around it would be much shorter and quicker.

p.s. your saddle is too low.

tbh I hate that place in a car never mind on a bike.

Rich158

Fair play for even attempting that on a bike. There's a few dodgy junctions on my commute, I'd rather get off and use the pedestrian crossing than be flattened.

Mrs_Ragbrutty

LOL above. There are some junctions that I hate. Fast cars, slow cycles. It's getting close to ouch time I'm sure. Unfortunately there are no paths either.

Haven't seen any ice yet. It's the wind I have problems with.

biondino

I guess I stick to the assumption that if I have an accident, I want it to be definitely survivable - so, for example, coming off the bike forwards, not sliding into oncoming traffic and not being run over by traffic behind, I can live with. But when you have cars coming from left, right and behind, all at once, and there are multiple lanes and no ways out then if I come off, I might die, and that's why I can't deal with it any more.

always_tyred

I don't think I'd even drive round that. I'd have to park up, walk around and steal another car on King St.

lost_in_thought

I cycle round there quite a bit, haven't had any real problems, but then I'm coming from kensington going to chiswick (well, ealing) so it's probably easier. Mind oyu, my work has blocked Biondino's gif file, so I can't see what direction he's going in...

TBH I'm fine with roundabout-y type things, as long as they have lights so the traffic can't build up too much speed.

biondino

It's a one-way system, Livs... oh! Maybe that's where I've been going wrong!

Kensington - Chiswick is what I do too. Amazed you don't find it life-threatening!

rjeffroy

I do that route occasionally. At rush hour I find its usually gridlocked so it is just a question of filtering through the queues.

lost_in_thought

biondino wrote:

It's a one-way system, Livs... oh! Maybe that's where I've been going wrong!

Kensington - Chiswick is what I do too. Amazed you don't find it life-threatening!

I know, I know

I don't really mind it. I am very assertive though, not that I think you're not. I also don't find the Shebu one a problem.

The only roundabout I don't like is where South Ealing Road crosses the A4. The way the lights work it allows 2 streams of traffic in at once some of the time, one of which is stressed A4 drivers who regularly try to kill me.

skye3737

I do see your point about being to brave. I cycled yesterday but that's first time in 4 months, as my confidence has taken a bashing after a fall in August. (Also I couldn't ride as I was in plaster for 2 months lol)

As I live in Dorset cycling around London would give me a nervous brake down.

ansbaradigeidfran

Hats off to you for having navigated that one in the past. The scariest junction I've negociated is J19 of the A55. While bikes aren't allowed on the A55, the sliproads least to a big 5-way roundabout where the A470 and A547(W) meet. Then there's a second regular roundabout just south where the A547(E) forks away from the A470. (See here)

There are bicycle stubways along the pavement which suggest that you pootle along and then cross each exit individually. The first time I negotiated the junction I filtered past the traffic on the approach stubway, then realised that it was a bit deadly trying to cross between traffic accelerating off a large roundabout onto a 70mph dual carriageway. I now behave like a proper road user and cycle the roundabout.

As a car driver, one of the scariest I've known is the Gabalfa Interchange between the A470 and A48 in northern Cardiff. Another 5-way roundabout, but this one is about two to three cars wide, with no lane markings. (No traffic lights either.) You've got to have your wits about you on that one. :?

lost_in_thought

In a car I am utterly flabbergasted and terrified by the Arc de triomphe 'etoile' roundabout in Paris. No lanes, no lights, utter carnage.

It is literally insane.

And bl**dy scary.

spursn17

I lost my bottle on the A13 eastbound at Beckton where the A406 (north circular) joins it, walked the bike across the 2 lane slip road.

iain_j

Scariest bit of road i've been on is the A55 "cycle path" between Conwy and Bangor. Starts off going down the narrow pavement of the dual carriageway alongside the 70mph traffic (it might as well be a motorway). Pavement is so narrow, if 2 cyclists met going in opposite directions, one would have to step out into the road to get past. It's an NCN route FFS- aren't they meant to be safe, family-friendly routes?

A mile or 2 later, the carriageways split around a rocky headland. Now the cyclist has to get across the carriageway to the central reservation, at a blind bend (reminder: there's 2 lanes of 70mph traffic to cross). After crossing the headland on a proper cycleway, you're back on the central reservation, crossing the road again, this time at a blind bend out of a dark tunnel! Then there's one more mile down the dual carriageway itself to a roundabout where you can finally get off the A55.

There's no alternative roads along this stretch either, unless you go about 15 miles inland through the Conwy Valley and through the hills.

skye3737

I'm not sure if it's bravery?

I was driving to our works Xmas on Friday and it was an terrible night high winds and hard rain. I was on the A35 which is the main road to Poole & Bournemouth and we meet a cyclist just out side a village called Bere Regis on an up hill section.

The guy did have 2 rear lights and reflective gear on but it's surprising in those conditions how ineffective the cyclist lights had become. I thought of this tread when we past him.

I know we can all get caught out by the weather but I'm not sure I'd keen on cycling that route in the dark in good conditions as it's a fast bit of road.

The Chingford Skinhead

lost_in_thought wrote:

In a car I am utterly flabbergasted and terrified by the Arc de triomphe 'etoile' roundabout in Paris. No lanes, no lights, utter carnage.

It is literally insane.

And bl**dy scary.

Nerdy fact - no cars in france are insured for that roundabout. Th erisk is deemed too high so if you crash / get hit you foot the bill.

Worse road I went on was when visiting a mate in York. We were cycling back from (the other ) Stamford Bridge to York. There is a cycle path alongside parts of the dual carriageway. Occassionally it stops and you are back on the main road with HGVs thundering by and then back on the path. On one of the carriageway sections there is a no cycling sign :shock: :!: FFS bit late now A few hundeered yards later back to a path. No idea if I missed some magical underpass (I didn't) or a sign for me to cross the carriage to use a path on the other side (in which case see Iain's route above)., Pretty scary - esp as the rest of York is quite cycle friendly so my defences were down.

prj45

biondino wrote:

Here's a diagram I just drew to show all the lanes, all the turnings, and why it's a death trap with cars changing lanes all over the place...

I sometimes walk across the top if the cars are too stacked up on the east side, quicker than filtering but if it's free I actually enjoy the chance to practice negotiation skills.

Down by the bus bit was were I witnessed one of the most horrific examples of bad/agressive driving by multiple people ever. A load of kids and three or four teachers were trying to cross the road (to get to the Apollo presumably). The lights went red and they started out, but then the other lights went green and the cars roared off, scattering the group, some cars carried on ("get out of MY road") and some stopped, but then some cars behind the stopped ones roared around them and found themselves face to face with now disperate groups of kids and teachers. Everbody made it back to one side or the other, but there were a lot of crying kids, and at least a couple of crying teachers.

When I see people trying to cross to the Apollo these days I often shout out "don't cross there, it's suicidal".

They should restore than place to two way working, but apparently Boris Johnson's transport spokesman likes gyratorys.

prj45

skye3737 wrote:

I thought of this tread when we past him.

Wow, were you time travelling?

linsen

biondino wrote:

Here's a diagram I just drew to show all the lanes, all the turnings, and why it's a death trap with cars changing lanes all over the place...

I'm not sure what impresses me more, Blondie - the fact you can navigate this in any way shape or form or the fact that you can put a picture of in on the interweb.....

londonlivvy

You're right - H'smith roundabout is a truly scary place on a bike and best avoided. I do go round it sometimes but usually end up terrified, vowing "never again" (and several other unrepeatable swear words).

Petromyzon

Biondino, have to agree, I used to do that regularly and will probably go that way tomorrow morning- I do ride it, (principally because my SPD-SLs make walking round a 10 minute job ) but it scares the crap out of me. I ride it super-assertively (what white van man would call "like a twat".

To make matters worse I've just swapped my Langster to fixed and I *know* I will get spooked, try to freewheel by force of habit, and chuck myself off. Still, adds some spice to life!

prj45

londonlivvy wrote:

You're right - H'smith roundabout is a truly scary place on a bike and best avoided. I do go round it sometimes but usually end up terrified, vowing "never again" (and several other unrepeatable swear words).

I've been doing it for years, never had a problem.

And King Street is great, good smooth flat surface, enclosed (so you really feel like you're whirring along), and pesky peds to dodge.

Hammersmith Gyratory and Kingstreet, hardcore video game for cyclists, with real results if you get it wrong!

biondino

I was in Hammersmith yesterday and today and I got the lane layout a bit wrong - it's actually more complicated than that as the number of lanes changes arbitrarily on a number of occasions...

Linds, we have a scanner at work (it's one of the functions of the photocopier) so I scanned my map, opened the pdf doc, copied a screenshot to paint.net, cropped it and saved it as a gif. Not hard

ansbaradigeidfran

iain_j wrote:

Scariest bit of road i've been on is the A55 "cycle path" between Conwy and Bangor. Starts off going down the narrow pavement of the dual carriageway alongside the 70mph traffic (it might as well be a motorway). Pavement is so narrow, if 2 cyclists met going in opposite directions, one would have to step out into the road to get past. It's an NCN route FFS- aren't they meant to be safe, family-friendly routes?

A mile or 2 later, the carriageways split around a rocky headland. Now the cyclist has to get across the carriageway to the central reservation, at a blind bend (reminder: there's 2 lanes of 70mph traffic to cross). After crossing the headland on a proper cycleway, you're back on the central reservation, crossing the road again, this time at a blind bend out of a dark tunnel! Then there's one more mile down the dual carriageway itself to a roundabout where you can finally get off the A55.

There's no alternative roads along this stretch either, unless you go about 15 miles inland through the Conwy Valley and through the hills.

Hear hear!

I have yet to cycle to Bangor for this very reason. However, there are bridges being built to allow cyclists to cross over the A55 on the 'proper cycleway', which happens to bethe original road, built by Thomas Telford.

See http://www.cyclingnorthwales.co.uk/pages/new_nwales.htm and http://www.cyclingnorthwales.co.uk/page ... _c_brs.htm for more details.

As for when it'll be done, the original (June) estimate said roadworks for 32 weeks, but some reports later in the summer suggested that it could roll on into 2010.

iain_j

ansbaradigeidfran: finally - it was 5 years ago I "encountered" that bit of road, I found that site with their campaign to get something done about it shortly afterwards. It's insane it's taken so long to get some bridges put in - surely it wouldn't have cost much to do this when the roads were built in the first place?