Kerb query

Paul057
Paul057 Posts: 167
edited July 2011 in Road beginners
I've recently started commuting from St Helens to Manchester, and the route is down the A580 East Lancs for pretty much the entire journey. There is a cycle path that is mostly in pretty decent condition, but in parts it is cut across by adjoining roads. I'm just wondering how you all deals with full height kerbs, and also, is it the 'done thing' to go across small sections of grass/path on a road bike with 23mm tyres? They are literally 5 or 6 meters in length. At the minute i try to avoid the kerbs where i can, but if i have to go up them i slow right down get up them as gently as possible. As for the grass/path sections, they have caused me no problems so far, but it just feels a bit wrong going 'off road' on a road bike.

Comments

  • outcastjack
    outcastjack Posts: 237
    as long as there is nothing sharp in the grass then a taking a short cut across will do you no harm at all.

    I keep meaning to learn to bunny hop to deal with curbs. and i guess i might help in cyclocross too!
  • brin
    brin Posts: 1,122
    What on earth are you doing riding in cycling lanes???? trying to give us 'proper cyclists' a bad name or something! :wink:
  • plowmar
    plowmar Posts: 1,032
    Kerbs in cycle lanes? - shouldn't they be graduated as per pedestrian crossings. This is the case even in this backwater.
  • mattrixdesign2
    mattrixdesign2 Posts: 644
    Stanley222 wrote:
    If you're on a road bike shouldn't you be on the road!?!

    Its not a road you really want to be riding on - very fast/busy traffic.

    The section I ride is fine for my road bike, but the other day I was on a section further a long and it was narrow and up-down up-down for some way, annoying! If I ever do come a across a kerb I slow right down, raise off the saddle (loosen legs and arms) and go over it.
  • Lycra Man
    Lycra Man Posts: 141
    If you don't ride on the road, how will motorists ever learn to share the road with cyclists?

    I commute 15 miles each way, and do not use the short stretches of dual use footpath because it would be slower than riding on the road.

    As for kerbs - pull up on the handlebars to clear to front wheel, and later learn to bunny hop. There's an illustrated tutorial in this month's Cycling Active.

    Lycra Man
    FCN7 - 1 for SPDs = FCN6
  • king_jeffers
    king_jeffers Posts: 694
    Lycra Man wrote:
    If you don't ride on the road, how will motorists ever learn to share the road with cyclists?

    Riding on ped path is one thing but you can't have a go at someone for riding on designated cycle path, the key is in the name :shock:
  • joshtp
    joshtp Posts: 3,966
    honestly?! As an mtb'er I am always amazed by some roadies view of properly minor things.. but a curb?! Really?

    I purchased a road bike yesterday... a stunning, mint, 1980 Carlton Pro-Am 12.

    Bought on a whim, at a killer price - it's stunning.

    rides amazingly, and I loved doing a lightening 30KM (not very far for a roadie, I know, but hey) But the first thing I did was work out how to bunny hop the thing... kurbs should be hopped or (if going slowly) popped up. Or at least the front wheel should be lofted and the back unweighed so as to "float" over...

    I dont like to be harsh... and I'm not criticizing road bikes or roadies... but a kurb really is nothing to worry about. man up and hop it! If your using SPD's then it's dead easy too!
    I like bikes and stuff
  • Paul057
    Paul057 Posts: 167
    It is a seriously busy dual carriage way and it's used by a lot of HGV's too. I have moved over to cycling from MMA and boxing because i was getting injured too much and i can't afford the time off work. I've got a wife and kids that i want to come home to at night and there is no way i'm putting myself at risk of serious injury or death for the sake of going a bit faster and avoiding kerbs - especially when there is a cycle path running parallel to the extremely busy road. I realise that this may make me an inferior man to some of you macho guys out there, but that's something i can accept.

    That aside, thanks for some helpful advice. Guess i need to learn to bunny hop!
  • Cleat Eastwood
    Cleat Eastwood Posts: 7,508
    Paul057 wrote:
    It is a seriously busy dual carriage way and it's used by a lot of HGV's too.

    Its an absolute feckin madplace. You'd be a tit to even try and ride it especially during commuting times.

    I use the cycle path from where I live to up by wigan way, and in all the time i've been out there I've seen only one fella on a bike on the east lancs itself, and that was a sunday morning. Better to be safe and just slowly bump off the kerbs.
    The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns
    momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.
  • Wacky Racer
    Wacky Racer Posts: 638
    +1 for the bunny hop!

    Coming from a MTB background I also bunny hop the kerbs, it's easier and safer than any other method. Plus, bunny hopping a lightweight carbon road bike is a doddle.
    Ridley Orion
  • mattrixdesign2
    mattrixdesign2 Posts: 644
    If a cycle path is there, and it goes on for more that a 1km or so then use it, the ones that get on my nerves are those that are about 10mtrs long, then suddenly stop :lol:
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,463
    There should be dropped kerbs and if not it is yet another shoddy afterthought facility!
  • Paul057
    Paul057 Posts: 167
    To be fair most of the kerbs are dropped, it's just the odd one that isn't. Some of them are dropped quite a way in to the adjoining road too, so it's just easier to go up and down the kerb - as long as that wouldn't damage my wheels, which was the point of the thread in the first place.

    Not tried a bunny hop since i was about 15 and riding a BMX. Couldn't do it then but hopefully being clipped in and having a lighter bike will help. :D

    Thanks for the advice

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