Tarmac surfaces on former railway lines

[andymiller]

The reason why I posted this is because the crushed limestone is unsuitable for road bikes and the type of bikes many people bought under the Cycle to Work scheme. For this reason, you often have to go on the road!

I always wonder about this. If you look at the pictures of riders in the Tour de France or Giro d'Italia in the post-war years, the riders are riding on the roughest of unsurfaced roads on bikes that aren't that dissimilar to modern-day road bikes.

Most non-tarmac ex-railway paths I've come across have been fine aggregate that is easily rideable on (say) 25mm tyres and definitely rideable on hybrid/city-bikes. You might prefer to ride tarmac as it is smoother and involves less effort, but the surface is still perfectly rideable.

The Downs Link when I did it several years ago looked like it might get muddy.

I have a vague recollection that google were going to do a bike equivalent of Streetview - or did I imagine it?

[gentlegreen]

I have a vague recollection that google were going to do a bike equivalent of Streetview - or did I imagine it?

I only noticed today that they at least have now labelled the Bristol to Bath path.

[boliston]

ive seen some cycle paths covered by street view - just been looking at the otterton to budleigh salterton path (national cycle route #2) on street view

[Richard Fairhurst]

I'm working on an OpenStreetMap-based map that shows cyclable paths differently based on their surface: paved cycleways in a red casing, gravel or compacted surfaces with long brown dashes, grass/dirt/sand/whatever with short brown dots. Attached screenshot shows all three. It depends on whether the surface has been tagged in OSM, of course, but you generally tend to find that making a rendering available is a great way to encourage people to add the tagging. Should be ready in a few weeks...

[PJ520]

Old railway tracks tarmaced over are always going to have a problem with what I call "root bumps" which can make them less than a joy to ride because the sides of tracks appear to be ideal places for growing trees. Even tracks that are still in use have a tree problem. In the days of steam hot cinders set the vegetation (including sprouting trees) on fire before it got big enough to be a nuisance.

[Mark1978]

The main issue is one of consistency. There are many railway paths which are perfectly fine to ride on road bike, even mine with 23mm tyres and tight clearances. But the surface can vary dramatically from almost tarmac like smoothness to rocks as big as your hand within a very short space, and you never know which it's going to be until you've done the path before.

At least when you have a tarmac surface you can be sure it's at least going to be ridable, although I've encountered a few poor tarmac jobs where the new tarmac has been bumpier than the gravel path it replaced, Sunderland Council I'm looking at you