Tag: annoyance

June 28th – Oh dear. A short train journey mid-afternoon, and I found myself sharing the bike space with this nice, well engineered Specialized hybrid commuter bike.

Nothing wrong with it, and it looks like a nice ride – decent tyres, nice wheels and gears – but oh my, those mudguards are annoying my snobby sense of order.

Clearly fitted as an aftermarket add-on, the spacing between the guards and wheels is… all over the place. Also, the carrier tilts up to the back of the bike, and I notice another of my pet hates: seat post mounted rear lights – easily obscured by closing or objects on the rack.

Sometimes when you see other people’s bikes, it’s hard not to whip out the tools and start fixing them up…

May 4th – This is, as they say, boiling my piss. 

Pardon my language, but these signs have been put up recently by Sustrans rangers (who are volunteers) maintaing the cycle route through Brownhills. The aim is innocent enough, I guess.

The cycleway runs along Wharf Lane, onto the canal at the old bridge, then as far as Anglesey Wharf (fifty yards or so), then alongside the new bypass on the embankment, and on to Pool Road at the top of the dam. As a route, it’s crap, frankly.

Far better is to ride straight up the canal, past the basin and up the slope to the dam. It’s a fifth of the distance, on wide, well made tracks, and makes perfect sense. 

Likewise one can head to Brownhills along the very good towpaths and find a much better route than the Sustrans National Cycle Network one.

These signs only indicate that the route beyond this point is not part of the National Cycle Network, but they look like – and people are reading them as – cycling prohibition notices.

Why bother with them at all? The routes have functioned for 15 years without them. These are just a waste of time, money and effort.

Sustrans are supposed to be supporting and promoting cycling. This is a whole bag of fail.

Rant over.

January 24th – Speaking of rubbish… On the way to Chasewater, I noticed this discarded inner tube in the scrub on the canal embankment at Ogley Junction. I found this depressing, particularly in light of the previous post. A synthetic tube like this won’t biodegrade, and will present an entrapment hazard to wildlife. It was clearly replaced for another, so why toss it? Put it in your pack and take it back home.

The same goes for your bottles and wrappers. You brought it with you, please take it back.

The scumbags who do this really piss me off. One of the joys of cycling is the environment. What’s the point if you just foul it with your own rubbish? Arseholes.