Cycling UK Forum

Mick F.: in response to your lament, I have started a new thread, a rare event for me. I thought we had already done "Favourite tea shops" but I cannot find the original thread. Appropriate enough anyway for The Tea Shop.

Horizon (the bike) found itself in Dorset this week and I thus came across this tea shop in the village of Moreton for the first time. I imagine though that it is very well known and frequented amongst cyclists in Dorset - it even has a large sign saying "CTC cycling centre". I asked a young member of staff what this exactly meant but they confessed that they didn't have a clue.

Tea shops to my mind should be like oases in the desert - in the middle of nowhere, a vast relief to have found it and capable of serving up large amounts of hot brown liquid. They should also be open in the winter. Talking of oases in the desert, this one has strong connections to Lawrence of Arabia who is buried in the nearby churchyard.

This tea shop is actually a converted schoolhouse and despite its humble appearance can accommodate a couple of coachloads of tourists. Personally I would convert all schools into "CTC cycling centres" as the children would learn more in a day on their bikes than they do in a day spent in a stuffy classroom.

My only other requirement is that tea shops should have a traditional element - anything from odd, patterned crockery to slightly fading chintz seat cushions would be fine.

I would like to hear of your own favourites but a picture I think is a must.

signola: three points:

1. In my, non legal opinion, you were right to take the keys to prevent the committing of a crime - i.e. not reporting an accident involving an injury.

2. You were wrong to throw them in the river and should have reported the accident immediately to the police and you should now have some lawyers working (for free) on your behalf for some compensation. I presume there were no witnesses.

3. The bus overtook you too closely. How did this come to happen? Surely this is something we have to discuss. I believe that on narrow roads you must ride in such a way that vehicles are forced to overtake on the other side of the road. I come across this time after time. I would love to make things easier for cars to pass slowly and carefully but they just abuse your moving over by passing too fast and too closely.

Hope your bruises heal quickly!

Not at all, thirdcrank. Before I came on this message board about a year ago, I was blissfully unaware of the significance of the cycle being a vehicle, that sustrans was held in some contempt and that cycles could conceivably be thrown off the road. It was my direct experience of cycle ways in recent years that started me thinking along these lines but I didn't expect to find the strength of feeling amongst other cyclists that I did. I find the Jon Snow debate particularly painful as I hold Snow in great regard and yet do acknowledge that he is espousing views that go right to the heart of cycling. No, your review of the original case was most enlightening and reminds us that our "right to ride" hangs on the slender thread of a case of advertising on a vehicle.

I was travelling home from Slough (!) last night when I was told by the guard that the last train to Liskeard no longer runs (since December 12th). I had planned to cycle back from Liskeard to Looe but now set out from Plymouth station at 11.30pm for the twenty or so miles back home. It's not a long distance but the hills, of which there is a constant succession, are trying, particularly with a bike heavily laden with work gear. Friday night was very cold and starlit so crossing the Tamar with the bridge to myself was magical. The roads soon cleared of traffic apart from the occasional petrol tanker. And then came the freezing, speeding run down into Notter Bridge and the hill up into Landrake from Notter Bridge that had to be walked, very slowly...

I suppose the thing about cycling at night is that once you have overcome the thought that you should be in bed, a different world opens up. From Trerulefoot to Looe, about eight miles, only two cars passed me, one in each direction and one of these was our neighbour's. So the road was mine. It was utterly quiet apart from the sound of wildlife and my own bike. And by Trerulefoot the moon had risen, setting off the mist rising in the valleys. I know that many people cycle every day by night in the cities, but in the country without cars or street lamps or strongly lit buildings, you experience the road and the landscape in a very different way. And in the middle of a moonlit night watching the steam from your breath in the beam from your cycle lamp and navigating your way by the shape of white painted cottages, which apart from the moon are the brightest things on the road, and which loom out at you like friendly ghosts, you just feel so, well, .... good to be alive!

I got to Looe at a quarter to three. This meant the ride had taken me three and a quarter hours although that included a half hour break at the petrol station at Trerulefoot for a drink and a sandwich (well I was making a night of it!). That's an average speed of about seven miles per hour. I did say it was hilly and that I was well loaded!

I was the only cyclist that night - rightly so, you might say. And yet what are people missing? An entry into another world perhaps; certainly a physical challenge in a winter environment that makes the average gym look sad and tawdry, a view of nature that most people miss and the chance to travel through a silent world unspoilt by TVs, traffic, bright lights and noise.

And all you need is a bike and an out of date time table.

Few people realise also that Captain Bower was also the inventor of the cycle helmet.

simon: there are two types of panniers, those that clip on separately to the rack on either side and those that flop over and tie on with straps underneath. Don't buy the latter - they are awful. All the regular panniers are otherwise fine but don't forget that they are not waterproof - keep your stuff in plastic bags unless you have waterproof covers.

Panniers are a wonderful piece of kit but they are pricey and a full set of four with racks will probably cost you more than the bike iself. But if you are thinking beyond LEJoG, they are a great investment (birthday present?). Ortlieb panniers by the way are waterproof but do cost. You could think about borrowing a set of panniers but better still get some on ebay - expect to pay £40 - £50 for Karrimors.

Do take Paul's advice and do a trial run and, it goes without saying, ditch the rucksack! I would go for panniers initially even if later you might prefer a trailer. If you are camping you should fit everything in four panniers with the the tent on the rear rack and with some room to spare for food etc.

WARNING: Panniers are seriously addictive - they open the door literally to the world so think carefully before taking the plunge.....you might never look back.

I voted for petrol tankers.

dave: it may be a help to you if it saved your life.

Thank you Megan for re-raising this topic. This is a cyclists' message board and for the touring aspect of cycling, youth hostels were indepensable and would still be so if they existed in the same way as they used to.

There are lots of reasons to be sympathetic to the YHA - such as the fact that hostels are expensive to run, are little used in the winter and the devastation of foot and mouth. But the general suspicion appears to be that the whole ethos of hostelling has changed and while some of this is may be financially necessary, much of what is happening is a reflection of the values of the YHA management: car based, catered for, group travel usually based in one centre.

This is quite different from the hostel to hostel, independent touring (whether walking or cycling) that the YHA was so good for. For the price of a mile of motorway we have lost a national asset.

There is still much to be enjoyed about the YHA - the current management use that as a defence (Black Sail is always wheeled out as an example) but the wholesale closing down and selling off of the most remote, interesting and idiosyncratic hostels is a monument to narrow minded, short term thinking.

Well said, Greg - just get right out in front and stick there, box or no box.

Talking of Blacks, they are about to introduce the £7.49 tent. Although not designed to be disposable, it will effectively be so - it will be more trouble than it is worth for many people to pack up and take home. This probably means many thousands of nylon tents kicking about (there's been one blowing down our street for weeks now). Can someone tell me what one does with a nylon tent at the end of its useful life, or in the case of a sub-£8.00 tent, at the end of its first outing?

I always imagine commuting in London to being akin to "off road" - pot holes, drain covers, bumping up pavements, asphalt ramps, speed humps etc - very different from commuting in the suburbs or out in the sticks. So my choice would be a Thorn Sherpa in that price range, or a Dawes Sardar if they still did it. Mudguards plus rack plus bell (horn?) plus mirror plus drops.

jac: If you don't know where all the wealth is in the UK, you are obviously mixing with the wrong people! Wealth in the UK is private wealth, not public wealth.

Anyway, why should cyclists be interested in road pricing? Without road pricing (of some sort) there will be congestion. A bike beats congestion - being on a bicycle, one is completely unaffected by the fears, problems and worries that affect other people - no tracking, no petrol tax, no charges, no pricing, no trying to use-the-mobile-while-driving-while-sitting-in-a-traffic-jam. Bliss.

My own theory is that road pricing is driven, amongst other things mentioned above, by the prospect of a very large contract for the company that will run it. After all, road pricing could happen now by putting a man in a white coat and flat cap in a garden shed next to the start of the M1. No profits in that though.

Final point: we have had road pricing here in Cornwall since 1961. It costs 50p to drive into Plymouth every morning (for those that commute) or £1 for occasional travellers. I didn't notice the petition.

Back in 1977 and still an inexperienced cyclist I was heading from Clermont Ferrand to Montpelier for the grape picking on a fairly rusty bike. In the middle of the journey and in the absolute middle of nowhere I heard the pinging of spokes breaking one by one on the back wheel. To my immense relief and to the great credit of French cyclists, there was a well equipped bike shop in the centre of the next and very out of the way village. I explained my predicament (and lack of funds) as best I could in French to an unsmiling man behind the counter and negotiated with great difficulty a very small reduction on a new wheel, the old one being beyond repair. I left the shop with the new wheel and just a couple of francs and two days of travel ahead of me. The grumpy old proprietor was clearly pleased to see the back of this unsportslike, scruffily dressed young Englishman, particularly one who had the temerity to haggle over the price of fine French equipment.

I set to work with gusto on the upturned bike on the pavement outside his shop and soon had the mechanicals in place again. But it was the strange feeling of a tyre that willfully and repeatedly slipped from the rim that sent a shiver up my spine as it slowly dawned on me that 27" was not 27" in France. Somewhat shamefacedly and nervously I presented myself and the mismatching wheel and tyre back at the counter. The situation was obvious to both of us. My laconic friend grabbed the wheel and disappeared behind a curtain at the back of the shop. He reappeared a few minutes later with a fully assembled wheel, tube and tyre and thrust it in my hands with a "Voila!" and a very slight glimmer of a wink and smile that I have never forgotten.