In praise of... roads

[Norm]

I started a new job near Watford last week. The route options are:

1. Approximately 29 miles to drive on the motorways
2. Around 20 miles if I cycle direct with about 1000 feet of climbing
3. Around 22 miles if I use the Grand Union from Slough, with about 300 feet of climbing.

As I climb about as well as a rock would climb, I thought I'd try option 3 today, to see what the tow paths were like, a proof of concept ride to answer the question about whether the off-road route was a possible commuting option. I got an answer and the answer was "crap".

The first bit, the Slough Spur, is just over 3 miles with 8 gates like this along it. Each one requires you to dismount, the steps were of various heights and widths and at least three were so narrow that my rear wheel wouldn't fit through the gap, needing me to lift the bike through. It was a pain in the bum having to dismount every few minutes to go through them.

I got to the main Grand Union, near Cowley, and the place suddenly filled with people, which was kind of to be expected as it's a lovely route inside the M25 and today was gorgeous. But I didn't expect the surface to be crap, the tow path to be narrow and covered in glass and there were a couple of times when it went from one side of the canal to the other, without really being clear that it had done so as paths for house boaters meant there was a track of sorts on both sides.

Still, I persevered and made it through Denham, Uxbridge, past the Coy Carp at Harefield and to Rickmansworth where one of the bolts in my right shoe's cleat decided that it'd enough of being clipped and unclipped and came out. Luckily, I noticed at a point I had plenty of time to plan an elegant dismount but it still took about 30 minutes to free my shoe and remove the other bolt and the clip.

I checked my watch at that point, I was about 3 miles from my planned destination and it had taken 3 hours to get there! The words "balls to that" may have entered my mind at this point.

So, having proved that it wasn't a viable option, onto the tarmac. I cycled home the lumpy way with only one shoe clipped in and I was still back home in under 90 minutes.

 

[Tyke]

+1 for the road but if you need to do the gates just stick the bike straight up on the back wheel and walk it through.

 

[apollo179]

I regularly do uxbridge - watford via the guc towpath.. Its only benefit is that it is offroad and level. The negatives are poor surface , lots of those overhanging trees that whip you in the face as you go by and you cant go too fast (even if the surface allowed it) because of the liklyhood of encountering some other (pita) user. And the ducks that sit on the side can panic and end up running under your tyres.
+1 for the road.

 

[steve52]

a national network of cycle paths running along side canals? mmm gets my vote, and evey new road biult must ha a cycly path biult alongside, couldent be much increase in cost could there?

 

[apollo179]

Another hazard with canals is anglers , filthy trainspotter types , in a world of their own , totally oblivious to anyone else, who position their rods across the entire pathway while they play with their tackle. Thereby causing me to come to a complete standstill or risk causing injury to their rod (which i woudnt wish on anyone). Also loads of canoists out today .

 

[Klaus]

I work in Uxbridge right next to the GUC - don't commute to there but I do a ride every other day as I keep a bike at work. I am just too nervous riding along the canal, just a foot or less from the water's edge .... so I haven't been on the tow path for yonks, prefer to go up to Denham village.

 

[apollo179]

Everything considered the canal tow path is probably best left to the joggers, canoists, dog walkers and the strange little sub culture that lives on all those canal boats.

 

[Norm]

I'm wondering whether to admit that I got clonked on the head by someone who was fishing with a rod about twice as long as the GUC was wide. She saw me coming and I saw she was struggling but had no control over her rod at all. Even though I was stationary, she swung it round and got me.

I just wish that I'd been wearing rather than carrying my helmet at the time.

 

[noelmg]

I know what you mean, my route to work has some of those gates and they are a right pain in the backside - they must add a good few minutes to my journey to slow down, negotiate them and speed up each time.

I tried coming cross country once to work as the journey is about 2 miles shorter that way, but gave it up as a bad idea as it took nearly 2 hours to do 8 miles, on the road its 40-45 minutes.

 

[potsy]

I'm wondering whether to admit that I got clonked on the head by someone who was fishing with a rod about twice as long as the GUC was wide. She saw me coming and I saw she was struggling but had no control over her rod at all. Even though I was stationary, she swung it round and got me.

I just wish that I'd been wearing rather than carrying my helmet at the time.

Now that I would have liked to have seen

Tried a bit of off roading on the Secteur yesterday down the side of the Mersey, won't be trying it again in a hurry, 23mm tyres and sand don't mix

 

[Dan B]

+1 for the road but if you need to do the gates just stick the bike straight up on the back wheel and walk it through.

A good argument against mudguards, that

 

[Moodyman]

Interesting that Norm - I have the same predicament.

14 miles along a flat canal or 12 miles along busy roads with 800 feet of climbing.

I choose the roads everytime.

 

[Holdsworth]

I once tried cycling the Middlewich branch on the Shropshire Union back from near work at Barbridge on the A51 to Church Minshull. I will never try that again as the surface wasn't paved or even gravelled, just grass, and bumpy grass at that. It was much slower to cycle on and I got a tear in the tube near to the valve. A lack of spare tubes meant a 1.5 mile gentle ride on a slowly deflating tyre which I pumped up every couple hundred yards, then I decided it was a lost cause and walked the last 1.5 miles home.