Cycling UK Forum

fausto copy wrote:Great coments guys.
I sometimes wonder if some of you should be on stage, with the witty remarks and wotnot!

I think Feidr is basically road or more likely, lane.

It just effectively means Church Lane I think.

It's VERY popular around here (Oxfordshire) and is just about the only road surfacing you will see. Most days in the summer they are applying it to roads.

It works OK on rural low-traffic routes, after an initial few stony days they're absolutely fine for cycling, after a while you wouldn't even know that it wasn't any other surface.

On busier roads it more often than not fails as show on that web link and they have to mess about with remedial work. It can leave very rough roads for cycling when the stones haven't set properly and/or smooth areas of bare tar. And they rarely fill in any of the holes before applying it.

They often dress the same road over and over again which never seems to work and is not recommended. But it's cheaper than digging the road up and doing it properly I suppose.

Is this different to the normal surface dressing (chippings) that is very commonly applied to roads? i.e. http://www.highwaysmaintenance.com/sdpics.htm

Gisen wrote:I would imagine that the project is collaborative like wikipedia and if you know that a particular route is/ is not good then you can add this information to their database.

It's as good as whoever does the mapping in OpenStreetMap (http://www.openstreetmap.org/) which is freely editiable by anyone. I've done some mapping for OSM in my area and have tagged up routes I know are cyclable, tagged roads with cycle lanes etc. So if you know good cycle routes in your area, you can join OSM and map them. I was glad to see that CycleStreets used the sneaky A420 avoiding route (on a wide paved bridleway) that I mapped a while ago which is 100% cyclable on any bike and 100% preferable to cycling on the A420.

Gisen wrote:Yes I agree about putting the route onto footpaths, seems very strange.

Presumably whoever mapped those footpaths has tagged them as cycles allowed. I'll see if I can find some and check in OSM. It will use bridleways which although correct isn't necessarily the best route as most bridleways I know around here wouldn't be that much fun on a road bike!

John

I think one of the problems it has is that it is based on OSM mapping, the quality of which varies across the country. I'd already added cycle lanes etc. around my area and it does a pretty decent job of routing sensibly.

OSM is still missing a lot of data/roads and it needs local people to update cycle information. Tools like this will then become more useful.

John

openstreetmap just twittered this new site...

http://www.cyclestreets.net/

Creates cycle routes based upon OSM. Seems to work pretty well, it'll route according to the quietness of the roads using NCN routes etc. Maximum distance of 35km at the moment is a bit limiting though.

Worth keeping an eye on maybe.

John

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7954641.stm

Picture 5.

Oops. Hope they were OK.

John

2Tubs wrote:On our JOGLE, we rode Fort William to Luss (on the shores of Loch Lomand) passing through Glasgow.

Plenty of camping to be had at both ends (and don't orget that Wild Camping is legal in Scotland).

Dunno if that helps.

See my signature below for links to our site.

Oh, and as for spotting other e2e'rs on your way, you betcha life. I met Mick F within the first 20 miles of our e2e and plenty of others along the way. Even in the Midlands they weren't hard to spot. >;o)

Gazza

Cool, thanks. I'll take a look. We'd like to camp near Luss as it's such a lovely area. I think we'll just play it by ear in the Kilmarnock area and then get through Glasgow and to Loch Lomond. We're not planning to book in advance and be pretty flexible on stopping places, I'd like to have a good idea of the route though before we go so we don't end up on some horrible roads.

John

Gulp. Maybe I shouldn't have put the countdown on the website!

http://www.jochta.com/lejog/

Less than two months away now. Training is going well though, still need to get some more equipment. And I still haven't worked out the best way to get past Glasgow and still be able to camp. Current favourite (thanks to these forums) is to go via Dumfries towards Ayr and Kilmarnock and then use the NCN routes to get us to Loch Lomond. But there appears to be a distinct lack of campsites in that corner of Scotland. Maybe we'll have to B&B.

We're planning a camping E2E with about 16 or 17 days cycling. I've been borrowing route advice from this forum (thanks everyone ) and intermingling that with the CTC routes. We would rather avoid the islands route and the Stirling route if possible.

Seems there are quite a few here planning LEJOGs or JOGLEs around the same time as us. Maybe see a few of you on the road!

Cheers

John

TBH I think if you had a 3 foot pole sticking out of your bike you are more likely to be thrown off of your bike and into the road if it were hit by a passing motorist. Imagine a car hitting something like that at 30mph, reckon you could hold on? I'd rather be missed by 18" I think!!

The little red things with a reflector on the end are still available I believe. My wife still has one on her bike from when she carried our little ones in a seat on the back as a little extra incentive for cars to give room. That was a few years ago now though.