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Did my hour out from the house, luckily I have some decent riding right off the doorstop.
2 miles in, some morons had scattered drawing pins across the road entering the next 'village'. I don't know whether it was just a 'don't ride through out street' thing, but cue about 4 or 5 riders changing tubes and now not social distancing from pedestrians as far as they could have been if they were just riding along. The response from the police police patrol car who happened past was certainly NSFW. Anyway, quick inner tube swap later I'd..
- been given the international symbol of disgust by three van drivers
- saw several cars with bikes strapped to the top
- notice any drivers out seemed to think all speed limits had been abandoned
- a worrying amount of flytipping
- and more importantly, so many cyclists riding two by two that were obviously not from the same household (do they not get it?!).
On the bright side, there were as many more cyclists out that I can ever remember, dads with kids, families, a lot of women out riding, so it just goes to show possibly reducing traffic would get people out (plus obvious boredom/lockdown fever).
Sorry, its a poor quality rant, I'll do the next one with caps lock on, I promise.
Ok, I’ll say it.
Inner tubes? In 2020!
Whereabouts was this?
Behaviour I've seen the last couple of days here around Derby has been bang on the guidelines
Up in Newcastle.
And yes, tubless blah blah blah
Wow - seems that the response varies across the country. Here in Cardiff there's not really an issue. More cyclists around, far fewer cars, more walkers but still not busy by most standards.
I rode 60km yesterday on fire roads, saw maybe a dozen pairs/families, when I did the same ride a few weeks ago I saw no-one. A few more at Cwmcarn (which I rode through not on) but no cars parked up that I could see, so presumably all local and very socially distanced.
Round where I am in Kent, the fly tipping over the last few months has got so bad that it's really starting to detract from riding round there. Also a good amount of abuse dealt out from the traveller's driving flatbeds around the lanes in the same area. Suspect coronavirus has made them feel they can do as they like.
Spot on Joe. Rochester here and some of the country lanes and double tracks are absolutely full of fly-tipped crap. Very sad to see.
don't think road riding is any safer at the moment, even with less cars, On spec passes are now @ 99% regardless of corners/visibility. And the speeds dear god had one car pass me I shit you not on 2 wheels.
Exact opposite in BOLTON , thankfully I live across the border.
I’ve been SI for 14 days, first day back.
Never seen the place so free of litter/Flytip
I’m allowed to say this, shit shifting is my job 😕
Reply to joe ^ innit
Seen a lot more rubbish dumped in the street here in Kingston.
It's obviously no excuse, but the local tip is closed here. So I think we're hoping to set a lot more of it.
The speeding is very noticeable here. Far fewer cars but at least half are significantly over the limit.
One thing I've noticed on my normal running route, mostly off road down paths and what some may call a country park, is the massive increase in dog shit and bags of dog shit.
I'm guessing anyone who has a dog is using it as an excuse to get out. Does make me wonder where and when they walked their dog before lockdown?
But yeah the bags of dog shit properly boil my piss. I'm all for setting snipers up in the tree and going for headshots on the offenders. Although my family say that's a bit extreme.
Nah not a head shot.
Knees for a first offence.
Another side effect of this illness is that it seems to have hidden dog leads.
Went an evening walk down towards the beach last night with my wife and daughter, I won't be doing that again. It was like someone had burst a bag of idiots, they were everywhere.
Middle class dog owners really are the most entitled people in our society.
Hmm, might swing by Winter Hill on a ride, then - hadn't bothered lately because I was finding the litter and refuse so oppressive.
There's a footpath 152m long that begins behind where I live (and where I picked this up as part of my exercise allowance last week).
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There was a poo bag problem developing a few months back, so I started hanging all the bags at head height across the path like some kind of ghastly Xmas mistletoe. Anyone walking through had to limbo dance under the ****ing stuff. They got the message; bags removed and problem stopped.
We’ve noticed loads more dog walkers out, and loads more dog shit left around the place.
Which suggests these dogs don’t get walked much and if they do their owners don’t pick up after them.
Certain drivers seem to consider the roads are now their own private racetrack due lack of other cars. Morons.
Well done.
I saw used feminine hygiene products in a hedge yesterday as well as a huge amount of rubbish
People are scum
the massive increase in dog shit and bags of dog shit.
Yep, I think a load of dogs that dont get walked are being walked more and different members of the household may be walking them who dont pick shite up. Its still a mystery to me after all these years, why do some people bag it and then dump it, you've done the hard bit ffs.
Which suggests these dogs don’t get walked much and if they do their owners don’t pick up after them.
I'd imagine theres a lot of folk now working from home that in normal circumstances use a dog walker. Going by the complete lack of control or recall I saw last night, the ****s should get the dog walkers back pronto.
Yup more dog's eggs in little packages, waiting for the dog egg fairy. Hope she's not been Corona'd 😯
Yeah, the increase in non retrieved dog turds is massive and the drivers treating the roads like race tracks, eevn in town people are doing what seems like 60 in a 30 regularly. This links directly to the amount of punishment passes and other dangerous drive I am seeing. I am sure the kind of person who does those things couldn't care less about the lock down and is out an about everytime they feel like it.
I am sure the kind of person who does those things couldn’t care less about the lock down and is out an about everytime they feel like it.
You are bang on. The rules don't apply to these people, whether it's speed limits or staying home. They simply don't give a toss about other people.
I'll just make one point here.
I think it's way to get a it judgey on what's a house hold. I know I'm at risk of this
My son lives in a big house in Sheffield. All four of them are in their early 20s, so too old for normal under graduate students. All riding from the door in a group for their daily excercise. They won't look like a house hold. But they are.
Then they are sticking to the rules. Thats fine in my book, dont forget the populist press etc wont let the facts get in the way of a good article to get others foaming at the mouth with indignation.
That's a fair comment ampthill. Funny how many middle aged men in Lycra co-habit round here.
There are three grown up mountain bikers in our house, but we've all been out riding together for just that reason of perception.
As for dog poo - many of our public bins around here have been closed, which means that people have to, gasp, carry it all the way home. Assuming they walked to their dog walk...
Roads in town here are quiet, not ventured further than a mile from the house (on road, about two off road) for three weeks now though, so I don't know how the lanes are.
The vast majority of my riding has been lovely. Had one ill-judged overtake the other day but most are giving a good wide berth. It does help a lot when there's nothing coming the other way!
Also I've been riding either very early or quite late.
Went around Goyt Valley the other night and now that you can't park anywhere in it, it's deserted.
A few speeding cars here, people assuming that the roads will be empty (they're not) and they can have their fun. But not too many all in; having said that I'm mostly on the lanes not main roads.
Cops have taken to sitting in a gateway on one of my local lanes - either to stop people on the way to the forest car park or to catch fly tippers, not sure which. I've passed them loads on my bike and not been stopped yet.
100 yards into todays exercise and nearly wiped out by a 4x4 with his new shed poking 6ft out of his passager side window.
Be interested in where specifically. Been riding out of Gosforth, north and west, Hexham, Stamfordham stuff). Not had any grief and everyone is being more polite.
Not great if roads are being sabotaged.
The speeding thing is odd. I'm still out and about with work, but I'm driving super slow. There's no traffic so your journey time is still shorter. But you are not holding anyone up either.
What's the rush. It's spring take it all in.
I am in the chew valley south of Bristol and I saw two roadies at the weekend who were changing tubes after going over some tacks in the road.
Surely a mistake, no one would want to injure cyclists deliberately at a time like this.
Generally it's been great around me, cars giving plenty of room, cyclists of all stripes waving and saying hello.
Dog shit (bagged and unbagged) is defo more common, but as above I suspect members of households who don't often walk their dogs are probably to blame.
However, there are still idiots about.
I was close passed on a blind corner, with oncoming traffic, this morning.
Then the **** got caught at some roadwork lights. He wasn't happy about me stood in front of his car asking him for an apology 😆
He decided to drive off around me and through the lights. One of the workmen was watching the incident and said he'd got the reg no and would report him to the plod. Hopefully he'll get a knock on the door and a good bollocking.
One of the guys that rides with us got a slashed tyre road riding over some scatter Stanley knife blades that had been dropped at the top of Pebble Hill (40-50pmh descent) just near the M25 in the Surrey Hills. Really! putting someone potentially in hospital by doing this - there are some brain donors out there.
It's great that a lot of people are getting more exercise as a result of this virus.
But if someone was a dick before lockdown it seems to be magnified by the virus. I swear some drivers just assume there's no-one else on the road, was out with the kids the other day and a car took a junction on the wrong side of the road - if we'd been 5m further down the road it could have got messy. Equally there's people in the park and others meeting up for rides or runs threatening to ruin it for all of us.
I’m on the road for an hour and it’s very nice at the moment. I’d be a roadie if it was like this all the time. All my usual off-road cut throughs are busy as loads of families out so just avoiding them at the moment. No complaints from the Wirral from me. It would be great if this whole period reduced people’s short car journeys and got them back on foot or bikes all the time.
Just been out for a spin here in / around Edinburgh. We avoided the busiest paths and used a bit more road than usual. Everyone was being polite and nice, observing social distancing, it was actually more pleasant to ride the old railways than usual. Not a single car driver being a twerp either
I've seen an increase in flytipping on back the back roads 🙁
I did see another rider go by me with two large water bottles on the bike and another one in his back jersey and his jersey pockets rammed full of stuff. I know he's only out once for exercise but should it be for hours on end? He did seem happy though.
Trying not to visit a farmer's yard near me at the moment, so went the way I normally avoid. Ended up up to my elbows in stinking bog with my bike on top of me after grinding to a halt and keeling over sideways!
Today I had a close pass by a chap in a transporter on his way to a dog walk, who then close passed the next chap up the road from me too. As he was folding his wing mirror in he had a courtesy close pass from me to return the favour. Not big, not clever but satisfying.
There were 5 other cars parked at the walking spot. Not sure how they are going to practice distancing on what is a small area of woodland and heath.
@breatheasy I'd also be interested where this was so I can avoid it as all of the people I've seen out have been behaving better than usual?
I've been out from my door most days, TBH it's been fine here. The roads aren't super busy, and drivers don't seem to be going much faster. I've heard the odd bike go up the road on the other side of the valley at high speed, but they used to do that before the lockdown as well.
Haven't noticed a huge amount of increase in dog poo or fly-tipping. Did get questioned by a family about riding (whether I should be or not) but a woman just walking along the same bit of road at the same time corrected them before I could! I meet the same dog walkers and horse riders that I normally do, and we've exchanged our hellos from a safe 2m distance! It's all v laid back and pleasant.
don’t think road riding is any safer at the moment, even with less cars, On spec passes are now @ 99% regardless of corners/visibility. And the speeds dear god had one car pass me I shit you not on 2 wheels.
Yes and no, I've been road riding at 'off peak' times out in the sticks in Berkshire.
Once you're out of town and off the frequently used A and B roads you'll barely see a car, but on the more typically busy commuter routes a significant proportion of dickheads are going full Clarkson, driving like ****ers but haven't got the imagination/local knowledge to use the quieter roads hence this sort of thing:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-52184303
We also happen to live near a footpath that's a been getting an increasing frequency of foot traffic, and from what I can see rolling over the bridge across the kennet tow path it's full of dog walkers with animals off the lead, so we're neither walking or ridng down it.
I also see people who probably aren't used to the concept of going for a walk, wandering back into town all over the, less busy (but still in use) roads, having clearly decided the tow paths are a bit crowded, so now they're cluttering up the roads with dogs and kids, while utter Sockets play Mariokart in their Corsa...
I reckon BoJo/Raab will be more than happy to step things up in the next couple of days. I'll be getting an extra ride in this evening before further measures come in...
The roads are quieter, but the remaining traffic seems to be old people/dog walkers who don’t seems to be aware of what they’re doing/where they’re going. Teenage chavs who should be at home, but are racing around with their mates/girlfriends in the car and van drivers/builders. The latter two groups are definitely driving like there are no rules. I rode to work on Friday and the number of fast, close overtakes I got was disproportionate to the amount of traffic on the roads, especially given they could now easily move further out.
Also seen a fair bit of fly tipping, also in Newcastle. The spot just past the turn off to Blagdon Cheese Farm, and then later on the same road in the lay-by just before the bridge over the burn, there was a lot.
Just back from 20 miles or so up to Tranwell, so many cyclists - I preferred it when it was niche sport, but hey.
Four pairs riding two abreast, they could have just caught up I suppose, no way of knowing if they’d set off together. Interestingly, two of the two abreast stayed on my side of the road as I came towards them, keeping a distance from each other but not me (narrow country road, no markings).
Everyone was polite, but way too many cyclists on the roads for me to feel like I’m escaping... Meldrew, I know.
Another request for specific location so I can avoid it please OP. I've not been further than a few K from my house since lockdown, but in restricting myself to this, I'm coming close to far more people than if I just went out for a couple of hours on the road, which others seem to be doing.
Have just returned to work after 3weeks isolation & wfh.
Nice quiet 6.5mile bike commute - no close passes. Wish it was like this all the time.
Couldn't care less about how far solo roadies are spinning round the countryside on their jack jones.
The dogshit and fly tipping boils my piss.
Be interested in where specifically. Been riding out of Gosforth, north and west, Hexham, Stamfordham stuff). Not had any grief and everyone is being more polite.
Not great if roads are being sabotaged.
Jonba - Just going into Dinnington on the bend past the end of the runway is where they scattered the tacks.
Dog poo bag stringing across the track to send the message genius :oD
Was commenting to my missus on a walk today I think it was better in the days before turd bags when dog turd wasn't picked up at all.
I must be lucky where I am or maybe it's just the times that I'm riding. There were LOADS of cyclists out in the lanes around Tatton Park (the park itself is closed) but all lone riders, maybe one or two obvious couples.
But outside of the towns - Knutsford, Alderley Edge and Macclesfield - there was virtually nothing on the roads.
Saw a Cheshire Police car out and about, he didn't give any of the riders a second glance.
Much more visible police presence round here, I'm assuming some sort of regular sweep pattern, kind of like old fashioned neighbourhood patrolling.
But zero interest in all us solo cyclists, as we aren't doing anything wrong.
Definitely less traffic in and around towns. M1 was quiet when I rode over it, vast majority was HGVs
Dinnington, probably built up rage from buying a house near an airport, they probably complain about the noise of that. 2 weekends back I saw a few groups out but last weekend I went from Bedlington west for ~15 miles or so and only saw individual roadies and a higher percentage than normal said hello, this despite me riding an MTB on the road 🙂
Dog shit everywhere on paths though as mentioned. Did these poor dogs never get walked before all this or did they run around pub gardens where their owners spent all weekend and evenings?
I still have to go in to work. On the upside the commute is far better. Everyone is in so much less of a rush and seem to treat me like a human for a change. There's one exception, and I normally try to avoid stereotyping, but a strange trend has developed where 100% of my close passes since lockdown have been from nearly new BMWs taking issue at me moving out to keep distance from pedestrians!
Despite the roads definitely being quieter I've noticed a definite increase in asshattery from drivers.
All my local routes involve at least a short section of road and despite there being almost no traffic cars still manage to close pass me for no reason, or like the clown yesterday in an XC90 try to squeeze past me at a traffic island despite there being 400m of empty road on the other side of it.
The local curtain twitcher facebook page also had a post from a woman who had been verbally abused while waiting at the traffic lights on her bike. Some arsehole was screaming at her in the street that she shouldn't have been out.
So yeah, plenty of arseholes about.
Agree with crazy-legs, Alderley, Mottram, Poynton, etc. pretty quiet and nice riding. As we set out yesterday a police helicopter flew over making me wonder if a local curtain twitcher had grassed us up. But no, it didn't follow us all the way round.
Riding out of western fringes of Gateshead into the Hills around Kibblesworth, Beamish and towards Sunniside there is an increase in flytipping but more than anything else every hedge and verge seems to be covered in tins of Fosters cans for miles. Just depressing.
On the main roads round here speeding seems to be something that has increased, now the roads are empty it seems you can do what you like.
I do enjoy hitting the roads and not having to look over your shoulder every 30 seconds to find somebody sucking your wheel in a car but when they do pass it seems it must be at 70.
This fascinates me. Just who is drinking all the crap lager and throwing the cans on the verges? I see plenty of empty cans when out riding. I've never seen a person drinking though.
Based on that ^^, one thing I have noticed is how much cleaner the verges are. Most fast food places and coffee chains are now closed and there's far less driving in general and this has resulted in significantly less litter strewn around the verges.
Not seen any flytipping yet near me but I've seen pictures posted online from elsewhere. 😥
Pains me to say it but some parts of Gateshead are like land fill now.
What I couldnt understand with the fosters everywhere was they were almost metre markers on my ride, it was as if somebody had hundreds of empties and was chucking them out of a car window as they were driving along. You wouldnt head up these places for some anti social drinking on foot, its totally rural.
Thanks, there's some discussion going on the NDCA facebook page right now about Stamfordham and Matfen residents complaining.
Most of my rides go through Dinnington either out or back as there aren't many other roads. Will keep an eye out.
Poo bags everywhere round here
It's grim
When you mentioned Newcastle and a village, Dinnington was my first thought. Most of my road rides go through as well, and past the airport is the worst bit. 🙁
On the subject of interesting coronavirus related things on rides:
On a gravelly spin across Machen Mountain yesterday I saw a couple of police cars at first on the roads up there. Guessed they must be patrolling it as it's a semi popular spot. Then I saw they'd got the chopper out and were circling my rough location. Not overly worried at this point cos I'd seen a few other riders, maybe they are looking for MXers. Carried on for a bit and I saw a large motorhome and a car parked up in a bit of old workings, with people sat outsideclearly socialising. Then I met a cop Land Rover coming the other way towards the motorhome. He just gave me a wave but I think the motorhomers were gonna be in trouble.
Strange times when your barbecue get two cop cars, chopper and off road response! But good work from South Wales Police. I was wondering if I'd have my collar felt but no.
took the gravel bike out yesterday and noticed quite a lot of dirt bikes and quads out on the byways, most unlicensed. i think one of the quads broke down which left them completely stranded when the local police turned up in their 4x4. i think if i was a copper i would have an even more tainted view of humanity having to deal with these types of nobs every day.
Went out around Derwent Resevoir today and saw lots of police. All seemed cheerful enough. Probably enjoying the relatively easy job of cruising nice empty roads in the sunshine.
Out towards Brenkley/Seaton Burn my wife was taking the horse for a walk (vet's orders, he's injured). There's loads of fly tipping. Van pulled up in a lay by acting suspicious. Obviously waiting for her to leave. SO she took some photos and he got in a drove off. 101'd it.
The best thing about bags of dog eggs is that apparently, if you hang them off your rear windscreen wiper before you drive home, they magically vanish mid route and you don't have to put them in your own bin.
People astound me.
Litter building up badly at one of my local loop destinations, that'll be tomorrow's job. Filled my panniers at the shop on the way home, including a copy of the Times:
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While we're at it...
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