Pedal Power at Pride

Looking at the floats lining up in Liverpool Road I only found one pedal powered participant.



I like the fact that there's a fire extinguisher on board, was someone not confident of the state of their wiring...



Sadly all the other floats on wheels were lorries or cars.

Irwell River Path - complaints work!

This morning my ride to work was interrupted by two pink & yellow vehicles in the cycle lane and on the pavement.



As soon as I got level with them I realised that there may have been progress on the path maintenance.



Sure enough, down under the bridge was a little pink street cleaning machine and several operatives dressed in yellow trying to remove the silt from the Irwell River Path.



By the time I returned in the evening the vast majority of the silt had been removed and the path was left with just a thin layer of sand...



There were patches that had been missed.





With piles of sand in the corners.



However, the vast majority of the silt had been removed.



And the look of the path has been considerably improved.



This has taken two emails and two blog posts with pictures, but it just goes to show that suitably targeted complaints do work, so get complaining about problems in your area!!

Irwell River Path - where is the path maintenance?

Well over a month ago I reported the coating of mud and silt on the Irwell River Path to several officers at Salford Council.

Over a month later I emailed them again to ask why they had done nothing about it....

I won't publish the embarasing email chain on this blog, but needless to say there has been no work done at all here, despite what some might claim.



Whilst some of the finer silts have been blown away by the wind, the mud still remains in many places.



On a wet morning the mix of fine sant and mud sticks to the bike and provides a nasty grinding paste for your brakes to eat into your wheel rims. It also sticks to the inside of mudguards and generally gets everywhere, no doubt shortening the life of various bike components.



Further along even this patch of crap has yet to wash away in the rain.



However, it's not the only part of the path that is being neglected.

All that gardening work earlier in the year that involved the closure of the path? Nothing but a patch of weeds.



A bit further west, mind how you go as the railings have gone...



All this work on the Irwell River Park seems to be going to waste. It seems to be easy to gain capital grants for major pieces of work. However, once that initial work is done there seems to be no money to carry out routine path maintenance.

This is not just a problem with the Irwell River Park. The Trans Pennine Trail is nothing but a muddy track in places, only suitable for mountain bikes. Maintenance is a serious problem for the National Cycle Network and other bike routes. I will post more about other routes in the coming weeks.

Fallowfield Loop - Broom Lane Bridge Puddle...

If you ever find yourself faced with this puddle under the Broom Lane Bridge on the Fallowfield Loop, then think twice before cycling through.

I discovered that this is a lot deeper than it looks. The tide marks on my bike showed that this was around 50cm deep, once I'd cycled through it.



From the other side it looked a lot less inviting.



The shoes took a whole day to dry out...


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Salford's Bridge Barrier Design

Local councils seem to be free to dream up all kinds of idiotic barrier designs to try and put people off cycling. Salford council seems to have a unique brand of bridge barrier which I came across on Sunday.

These two bridges are both part of National Cycle Network Route 6, but both of them are marked on the Salford Cycling Map as footbridges where you should get off and walk.





You would be hard pressed to get a tandem though this barrier, let alone a handcycle or trike!



The National Cycle Network is a bad joke, particulally for people who cannot ride a conventional bicycle. It's time that this country stopped pissing about with discriminatory token gestures and started taking cycling as transport seriously.


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"Why Bradley Wiggins is so wrong"

From the Road Danger Reduction Forum.

But first that embarasing moment when he calls for people to wear helmets so that cyclists who are killed can't be blamed...



Why should we give a platform to racing cyclists on cycle safety any more than we would give a platform for F1 racing drivers on car safety?

Why Bradley Wiggins is so wrong: Part One: Sport, Transport and Role Models


Why Bradley Wiggins is so wrong: Part Two: “Road safety” ideology and the culture of cyclist subservience

Why Bradley Wiggins is so wrong: Part Three: Should cyclists be allowed to wear helmets?

“Disaster waiting to happen”: The London Bike Hire Scheme and why Bradley Wiggins was so wrong (Part Four)



3 minutes into this he slags off "Boris" bikes and the people who ride them. He seems to be on the side of the drivers in London...

Kivilev and how Bradley Wiggins gets it so wrong (Part Five)

The Bridgewater Canal - north from Stretford

This is the section north from Stretford to Trafford Park.

Just ignore Trafford Council's umpteen Cyclist Dismount signs, this really is a good route, while it lasts...



A nice decent from Edge Lane gets you down onto the tow path.



You are here...



Riding North there are no stupid barriers, A frames or any other impediments.



It really is this good.



Even the clearance under the bridges is pretty good.







However, all good things come to an end, and as the canal splits this does.



It is a nasty mud track to the north and not recommended.




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