What is a pavement bike!!!

[Rickshaw Phil]

I don't travel a lot and have never been outside the US but I have been given two travel tips that seem to be given consistently by many of my friends that do travel. In Mexico, don't drink the tap water and in Scotland, don't eat the haggis.

There's nowt wrong with haggis.

The problem is that people tend to get put off the idea because there has never been a secret about what goes in it. Unlike, for example, sausages, meat pies and supermarket burgers.

Think you've never eaten eyeballs?

 

[coffeejo]

Think you've never eaten eyeballs?

I ate a fish's eyeball at school. We were doing a dissection and somebody dared me.

 

[byegad]

I find that if you leave haggis meat.

FTFY.

 

[ASC1951]

It's easier to say that it's legal to pedal on the pavement than to wrestle, with an untrained eye, the syntax of the legislation.

That example is absolutely appalling, isn't it? Even with my 'trained eye' it took me a while to work out that s129 (5) means that it is not legal to cycle along Scottish pavements - and that is definitely the position, although it is no more enforced than it is in England.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

Sorry just got onto pc, and have seen all your comments and all duly noted , positive as well as some not so, I want initially to be able to go from home to local town centre just to get me used to being around these mad road users, then as time goes on maybe a little further using the canal paths maybe. Not sure I am really up for the tougher stuff like proper off road and up down hills lol, Col I initially posted this in cycle chat but the nice man Shaun migrated me to hear for beginners are there were a couple in there not very nice and certainly not very helpful.

statistically and in reality this is far from the truth, but if this is the perception you have of other road users then it will taint your feelings towards getting back into cycling and you'll be onto a loser before you even start. It's human nature to remember the 1 dodgy pass in a rush hour commute and not the 9,999 vehicles that passed you without you even blinking an eye and to report it here etc. Also the local media aren't going to get many sales running a story that Shouldbeinbed rides home perfectly safely for the 675th day running.

by all means as a returnee to riding, exercise caution and it will take you a wee bit of time to build up your confidence and experience, but please do not believe the hype and natural moaners instinct that the roads are terrifying places full of ranting homicidal bike hating lunatics.

as for a bike, depending on what you envisage you will do with it, as others have said a Hybrid, or a dutch bike, (u shape frame that you can step through - Edinburgh Bikes Revolution Heritage type thing) its a very stable and quite sedate bike type, great for a beginner

 

[dorothy]

Right I think I need to clarify things, where I lived in Scotland we had proper use of cycle lanes, either on road or part of pavements as we used a vast network of disused railway lines that from where I lived, I could either ride all the way to Girvan or the other way to Glasgow, the road was marked off at exact 1/3 of the road for cyclists and road hogs could and often did get pulled by Renfrewshire police for abusing this, if caught over the lines, this meant that cyclist were not pushed into gutters by other road users. I am in the black country and half the road users are not licensed, insured or even have proper tax on their vehicles and despite all this they seem to think they own the whole road, now as a driver I have on more than one occasion observed cyclist coming or nearly coming croppers as drivers tend to ignore them and think they ARE ALL A BLIDDY NUICANCE AND HAVE NO RIGHT TO ANY PART OF THE ROAD, infact one recently nearly took my partner off his bike and he was a driving instructor with a pupil behind wheel, I was almost tempted to get out my car which was infront of him and tell him to read his highway code and that his instructor nearly caused the accident, he had moved out to give room , but immediately swung back in , just missing the back wheel of my partners bike, and had the cheek to mouth off at my partner for being on road, so you can see why I am perhaps wary of using roads round here. anyway as shouldbeinbed has said a bike with step thro frame is perhaps the best way for me and that is what I am now looking at, as at my age its not easy getting your leg over lol

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Dorothy, cycling around Glasgow city can get a wee bit maniac too.
Cycling along disused railway paths and canals is more pleasant if you are not a road racer.
If you want to go places for shopping or work you will need to get used to the roads.
Alternately, forget riding to town for now, load the bike in the back of the car to the start of a traffic free path.
It's still good exercise and a way to explore new places.

 

[potsy]

I ate a fish's eyeball at school. We were doing a dissection and somebody dared me.

You'll eat that but you won't eat jaffa cakes?

 

[dorothy]

Dorothy, cycling around Glasgow city can get a wee bit maniac too.
Cycling along disused railway paths and canals is more pleasant if you are not a road racer.
If you want to go places for shopping or work you will need to get used to the roads.
Alternately, forget riding to town for now, load the bike in the back of the car to the start of a traffic free path.
It's still good exercise and a way to explore new places.

Pat, if I done that as you suggest, then I would be as well taking car all way in, as the path only starts at the bottom of the lower high street lol

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Pat, if I done that as you suggest, then I would be as well taking car all way in, as the path only starts at the bottom of the lower high street lol

Find another traffic free path, a 50 mile one. Attack it, report back

 

[shouldbeinbed]

Find another traffic free path, a 50 mile one. Attack it, report back

Dorothy, this, in spades.

You don't always have to ride for a purpose, just getting out there and turning the cranks for the sheer fun of it is enough and it is amazing how quickly the joy of riding and fitness and technique will come back to you.