Where would I cycle in this situation?

[mjr]

What's the point in putting no animals on the signs, animals can't read them?

It's so motorists can claim for damage caused to their vehicle while killing the trespassers more easily, or claim off the Motor Unsurers Bureau if the animal had failed to take out insurance(!)🤡

 

[Dogtrousers]

It's so motorists can claim for damage caused to their vehicle while killing the trespassers more easily, or claim off the Motor Unsurers Bureau if the animal had failed to take out insurance(!)🤡

It would seem that animals are pretty well clued up on insurance. They seem to run the industry - meerkats, bulldogs ...

 

[icowden]

There is an assumption in UK law that everybody knows the law.
Not really a rational assumption, but it is there.

It is based on the legal position that ignorance of the law cannot be a defence for breaking the law. "

Oops - I didn't know murdering someone was illegal m'lud but I will know better next time"

Therefore anyone riding on the road is subject to the laws of riding on the road.

 

[blackrat]

Thanks for all the helpful hints and suggestions. Please leave your telephone numbers with the receptionist, and if I get into difficulties and find I am heading for the M5, I'll send you a text for a pick-up.

BTW, if ever you find yourselves on this side of the pond, you might be interested to know there are many interstate highways (Motorways) that do allow cyclists. The state of Colorado and others included.

FYI: All Interstate roads in America have wide shoulders on both sides in both directions. In more rural areas - of which America has plenty, there will also be a wide ditch between the travel lanes just in case of blow-outs. No camping is allowed there, though.

 

[blackrat]

Rather than be dismissive, as some other posts have been, I'll try to help.

The first point is to emphasise it would be incredibly difficult to join a motorway but not impossible. I wouldn't worry about this. Saying that only yesterday as I joined the M65 (a local motorway) near Preston a car came towards going the wrong way on the motorway! Scary!

As for general navigation your cue sheet suggests you've used mapping software of some form. Can you put this on a GPS unit? It will be the simplest solution.

I once rode from home to Bordeaux without using a GPS unit. I carried maps. Each evening I would study the next day's route, noted the road numbers and village names and approximate distance between each village in a small note book (about 2" x 2"). I carried the notebook in my jersey pocket and simply referred to it when needed.

It sounds to me as though your cue sheets offer every minute detail, possibly the routing is diverting on to very quiet or traffic free lanes. I would advise against carrying reams of paper. If you do get lost, miss a turn it will quickly become apparent and quick reference to a map will correct you.

Going back to cycle lanes. In the UK we have a huge range of cycle paths varying from very good to utterly disastrous. My buddies and I do use them if it suits us. We would ignore the example you posted.

The good ones will be fairly obvious. Broadly speaking the decent ones will be signed on the lines of these below. The signage is generally good but can be difficult to spot. I rode the Pennine Cycleway, 350 miles, using only the signage. I had maps as backup but hardly used them, if at all.

View attachment 743115

To be honest, I suspect I am going to be more irritated at the need to be constantly checking the cue sheets for turns than enjoying the scenery and I may start looking for obvious routes regardless whether they are quiet roads or not. I do use cue sheets rather than any GPS device - although many of my routes are designed on RWGPS - whence I get the cues. I carry a Wahoo on the bike which I use for miles and history but it is impossible for me to read routes on it, it having far too small a screen. So I develop cue sheets from various sources and attach them to the space between my aerobars.
Most of my routes on this trip have been created by Peak Tours, and they have kindly provided them to me. As you say, they are designed to keep their riders safe - it's a nanny thing. Too late now for any change there - all rooms booked. However, their routes are pretty economical in terms of distance. The route between Street and Bewdley for instance at 114 miles compares to 139 miles mapped out on CycleTravel.
Again, thanks for taking the time to offer your suggestions and advice.
Ken.

 

[All uphill]

Thanks for all the helpful hints and suggestions. Please leave your telephone numbers with the receptionist, and if I get into difficulties and find I am heading for the M5, I'll send you a text for a pick-up.

BTW, if ever you find yourselves on this side of the pond, you might be interested to know there are many interstate highways (Motorways) that do allow cyclists. The state of Colorado and others included.

Interesting that cyclists are allowed to join interstate highways. Do any survive to leave them?

 

[matticus]

"cue sheets" are a perfectly workable form of nav.

Audax events (often brevets or randonées in other nations) have used them for decades. Typically they will be about 1 page of very readable A4 for 100 miles* in the Uk, although the same paper can cover 200miles in Wales or rural Scotland .
It helps to use an economical key. AUK got this about right in the 80s. If you can make sense of

R@T
L sp Newtown B1459

... then you'll be fine. It's hardly rocket science. Or greek. Or cyrillic ...


*[Town centres obviously add more text, but cyclists generally minimise urban riding, and there are tricks you can use.]

 

[annedonnelly]

"cue sheets" are a perfectly workable form of nav.

Audax events (often brevets or randonées in other nations) have used them for decades. Typically they will be about 1 page of very readable A4 for 100 miles* in the Uk, although the same paper can cover 200miles in Wales or rural Scotland .
It helps to use an economical key. AUK got this about right in the 80s. If you can make sense of

R@T
L sp Newtown B1459

... then you'll be fine. It's hardly rocket science. Or greek. Or cyrillic ...


*[Town centres obviously add more text, but cyclists generally minimise urban riding, and there are tricks you can use.]

That's the sort of thing I do if I'm going somewhere unfamiliar in the car. I look at the directions before I go and write shorthand notes similar to the above - often noting street names & "just past the co-op", etc. Though I take the notes with me often I don't need to refer to them because I remember what I've written.

 

[MontyVeda]

I don't know how they got there, but last year, coming back from visiting my daughter in Scotland, we passed a family of five cycling on the hard shoulder of the M6 somewhere near Lancaster.

some people will go to great lengths to avoid the place

 

[blackrat]

Interesting that cyclists are allowed to join interstate highways. Do any survive to leave them?

You will find them mostly in area where there is limited roadways. I 70 through the Rockies being one - I have ridden it several times en-route to Loveland Pass - and I 25 which stretches north/south alongside the Rockies.
Interstates going east/west have even numbers, those going north/south have odd numbers.
Interstates are numbered from the Pacific to the Atlantic. I 5 is in California, I-95 is along the eastern seaboard.
and from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. I 10 (where for my sins and not paying attention when the job offer came) is south and
I 94 is up near Canada. Apart from Interstates, there are many other major roads which resemble them.

 

[raleighnut]

some people will go to great lengths to avoid the place

Many years ago I was camping with my ex in the Lake District when she fell on her bum 'overextending' her knee so couldn't drive so we rang the insurance company and got them to add me to the policy (bike licence acts as a provisional for a car too) bought some 'L' plates at a local garage and I drove her to the nearest hospital where they strapped her knee up, went back and packed the tent etc. up and set off for Blackburn where her parents lived and spent the night there. Next day set off for Leicester but first to get through Manchester................all road signs disappeared apart from motorway signs and despite having a road atlas* with maps of major cities Pamela turned out to be a crap map reader, i'd pull up at a junction and say "Well right or left" but she hadn't a clue. Eventually I saw a sign that said Knutsford xx miles, now my Dads job moved and they now lived in Knutsford so I followed those signs knowing I could get home on the A6

* 35 yrs ago so no 'Sat-Nav'

 

[blackrat]

"cue sheets" are a perfectly workable form of nav.

Audax events (often brevets or randonées in other nations) have used them for decades. Typically they will be about 1 page of very readable A4 for 100 miles* in the Uk, although the same paper can cover 200miles in Wales or rural Scotland .
It helps to use an economical key. AUK got this about right in the 80s. If you can make sense of

R@T
L sp Newtown B1459

... then you'll be fine. It's hardly rocket science. Or greek. Or cyrillic ...


*[Town centres obviously add more text, but cyclists generally minimise urban riding, and there are tricks you can use.]

Very true, and in spite of so many navigation routing devices, many over here still use 'old school' cue sheets.
Me: Audax # 17297. RUSA # 3759

 

[Brandane]

Interesting that cyclists are allowed to join interstate highways. Do any survive to leave them?

It's probably similar to UK cyclists being allowed to use major "A" road trunk routes. I have the A9 Perth to Inverness road in mind here. Or the A75 Stranraer to Carlisle. Yes, you are allowed to cycle on them; but why anyone would actually do it is beyond me. Only for those with a death wish.

 

[oldwheels]

It's probably similar to UK cyclists being allowed to use major "A" road trunk routes. I have the A9 Perth to Inverness road in mind here. Or the A75 Stranraer to Carlisle. Yes, you are allowed to cycle on them; but why anyone would actually do it is beyond me. Only for those with a death wish.

Add on the A85 to Oban. If you want to cycle from Oban to the cycle track starting at N.Connel using the cycle path from Oban to Dunbeg then you have no alternative. Nobody so far as I know has been killed but I would not attempt it.

 

[grldtnr]

Indeed! But looking at the EDP site - I'm from Norwich, so nostalgia? - I saw this and wondered if it might have any bearing on my upcoming slog northward as a potentially typical example of current British road situations.
On an aside note, the main concern I have is how to avoid missing a strategic turn on my route and ending up on a motorway, so wondering about the conditions shown in the photo, I posted my plaintive worry, here.
For example: one line on my cue sheet is:
'A sort distance along the road bends to the left with 'Cedars House' in front of you and Wells Cathedral School. Turn R at the bend in the road down the one-way-street at the "School sign".
What happens if the "School sign" as disappeared, or Cedars House' is now a migrant centre called Alibaba?
For example: On the day I travel the 114 miles from Street to Bewdley - over the Bristol Channel - there are 100 cue changes of direction. Very easy to miss one - or more cues and finish up on the 'Safe Lane' of a motorway.

Are you a British national ? Or been domiciled overseas for some time?
It's very unlikely you will end up on a motorway, you may stray onto a fast A road, but even then you have a legal right to ride on one, even if it is really not sensible to do, unfortunately sometimes you will have too in places.
Any way ,your sense of self preservation will lead you to avoid these roads and generally there will be alternatives, even if it's case of getting of and pushing.
I say this after over 50 years of cycling, YES , there are idiot motorist out there,even with all my cycling experience I still'find' them, but the way to deal with this is to ride defensively, and take 'command' position on the road, if you don't feel you can do that ,then I must question your intention to do this 'Long Slog' north.
Having done the LEJOG , and other expeditions , it's just as much a mental thing as it is a physical challenge.