How far cycling has fallen in such a short timescale ...

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bovlomov
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Re: How far cycling has fallen in such a short timescale ...

Post by bovlomov »

hondated wrote:It would be great if you could sit down with her and record her cycling memories which her family and friends can enjoy long after she has gone.
Good idea! It's worth a try.
thirdcrank
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Re: How far cycling has fallen in such a short timescale ...

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bovlomov wrote: ... For some reason, I imagined the bit approaching Bridlington was hilly. The internet tells me that the hills are rather small.

Hmmm, must be going mad. Still - 60 flattish miles and a day out with the boys ain't bad either.


I felt a bit churlish mentioning that. I would say that you don't need to venture far inland to get some climbs. Not Tourmalet stuff, but probably memorable to a teenager. The main point about cycling and the independence of young people is absolutely right. As I keep saying, that independence was still normal till at least the mid 1960's. eg In those days young people of limited means could still use youth hostels unaccompanied from at least the age of thirteen - which was when I started - and maybe younger. It just needed parental approval with signature on the membership card. Nobody ever checked to see if my dear old dad's signature was genuine, although it was.
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The utility cyclist
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Re: How far cycling has fallen in such a short timescale ...

Post by The utility cyclist »

bovlomov wrote:
thirdcrank wrote:Every cyclist knows that nowhere is flat when you are on a bike, but I think the terrain twixt Hull and Brid is generally as near as it gets.

For some reason, I imagined the bit approaching Bridlington was hilly. The internet tells me that the hills are rather small.

Hmmm, must be going mad. Still - 60 flattish miles and a day out with the boys ain't bad either.

My neighbour and I did Hull -Brid along the A165 in 1984, I was 15 and had my Raleigh Winner, he was 14 and did it on his BMX :shock: It is pretty flat though not totally as per the East of the city. We stopped along the way to get water from someone's house, spent a few hours in Brid then rode back, I don't recall much but never felt threatened despite it being the main road, would I suggest a 14/15 year old ride on that road now, on their own, no way :(
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Wanlock Dod
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Re: How far cycling has fallen in such a short timescale ...

Post by Wanlock Dod »

thirdcrank wrote:...The main point about cycling and the independence of young people is absolutely right...

This is what really strikes me when I go to the Netherlands, the kids seem to have so much freedom compared to anywhere else that I've ever been. One of the things that disappoints me the most about UK society is that I don't know any parents of teenage kids that think that there is anything wrong with the status quo over here, yet they all seem to spend inordinate amounts of time having to provide an on-call taxi service for their kids. :?

Does anybody know what current levels of cycling (to work) are like in the Hull, N. Lincs, E. Yorks areas for comparison? I've been back a few times cycling in the area of late, and certainly recreational cycling seems pretty popular on some of the back roads, but I expect that most of the roads that would be useful for commuting (i.e. main roads) really wouldn't be suitable for cycling on at the appropriate times.
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Re: How far cycling has fallen in such a short timescale ...

Post by thirdcrank »

Wanlock Dod wrote: ... Does anybody know what current levels of cycling (to work) are like in the Hull, N. Lincs, E. Yorks areas for comparison? ...


Highwaymen are trying to ban cycling on the A63, the main road into Hull from the West

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Re: How far cycling has fallen in such a short timescale ...

Post by bovlomov »

hondated wrote:It would be great if you could sit down with her and record her cycling memories which her family and friends can enjoy long after she has gone.

Thank you for the suggestion. I spoke to her on the phone today, and she agreed to do just that when I next visit.

A few doors up from me is a lady of 103. She is rather confused these days, but she can still remember things. And directly opposite her, there was a lady who died a couple of weeks short of her 103rd birthday. At her 100th birthday party I asked her about her earliest memory. She said her mother had taken her to Finsbury Park and they could see the glow in the sky from a Zeppelin raid. I'm not sure what year that was. Possibly 1915. I realise I should have asked her about bicycles.
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Re: How far cycling has fallen in such a short timescale ...

Post by Cyril Haearn »

An interesting book about life in Hessle near Hull during WW2
From Our Home Correspondent by Philip Chignell
He was a church organist, cycled a lot, had been to Germany and admired Merkel (a popular composer)
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Re: How far cycling has fallen in such a short timescale ...

Post by bovlomov »

Cyril Haearn wrote:An interesting book about life in Hessle near Hull during WW2
From Our Home Correspondent by Philip Chignell
He was a church organist, cycled a lot, had been to Germany and admired Merkel (a popular composer)

Looks interesting. Thanks for the tip.
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Re: How far cycling has fallen in such a short timescale ...

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The utility cyclist wrote:my old man was a deep sea fisherman from the mid 60s through to the very early 80s, screwed over by the common market :evil:

Good trick that, being screwed over by the common market in the mid 60s, years before we joined in the early/mid 70s or the common fisheries policy started in 1983. :roll: The basic problem is that the UK eats white fish but since we lost the cod wars (1958-1976), we catch more fish we don't eat much ourselves - now over four times as much mackerel as cod, for example. Both that and increasing mechanisation probably contribute to why we no longer see swarms of cyclists leaving the ports... so there's now a cycle track from the old fishing quarter of King's Lynn (North End) to the Fisher Fleet maybe because the remaining fishermen leaving at scattered times as the small fishing boats return probably can't just swamp the A road, critical-mass-style.
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The utility cyclist
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Re: How far cycling has fallen in such a short timescale ...

Post by The utility cyclist »

mjr wrote:
The utility cyclist wrote:my old man was a deep sea fisherman from the mid 60s through to the very early 80s, screwed over by the common market :evil:

Good trick that, being screwed over by the common market in the mid 60s, years before we joined in the early/mid 70s or the common fisheries policy started in 1983. :roll: The basic problem is that the UK eats white fish but since we lost the cod wars (1958-1976), we catch more fish we don't eat much ourselves - now over four times as much mackerel as cod, for example. Both that and increasing mechanisation probably contribute to why we no longer see swarms of cyclists leaving the ports... so there's now a cycle track from the old fishing quarter of King's Lynn (North End) to the Fisher Fleet maybe because the remaining fishermen leaving at scattered times as the small fishing boats return probably can't just swamp the A road, critical-mass-style.

Clearly you have read it in your own slanted way, my father was a deep sea fisherman from the mid 60s to the early 80s, the EEC/Common market screwed over our fishing industry massively when we joined it in the early 70s, or are you blind to the events that unfolded and how unfair the situation was which even went against the previous agreement by extending the no fishing zone by a factor of 50!

Don't talk to me about the cod wars unless you actually really know what was going on and how we were completely and utterly sold out by Heath AFTER NATO had even not ratified Iceland's unilateral decision in the 50s to extend it's no go area from 4nmi which had previously being agreed. The 200 mile exclusion zone is and was utterly ridiculous, I look forward to NATO and the EU recognising our 200 mile exclusion zone around our Island for our fishing vessels to exclusively fish :roll:
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Re: How far cycling has fallen in such a short timescale ...

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The utility cyclist wrote:
mjr wrote:
The utility cyclist wrote:my old man was a deep sea fisherman from the mid 60s through to the very early 80s, screwed over by the common market :evil:

Good trick that, being screwed over by the common market in the mid 60s, years before we joined in the early/mid 70s or the common fisheries policy started in 1983. :roll: The basic problem is that the UK eats white fish but since we lost the cod wars (1958-1976), we catch more fish we don't eat much ourselves - now over four times as much mackerel as cod, for example. [...]

Clearly you have read it in your own slanted way, my father was a deep sea fisherman from the mid 60s to the early 80s, the EEC/Common market screwed over our fishing industry massively when we joined it in the early 70s, or are you blind to the events that unfolded and how unfair the situation was which even went against the previous agreement by extending the no fishing zone by a factor of 50!

No - are you blind to other interpretations than your father's one? Don't you think UK demand not matching the UK catch has something to do with the problems?

Don't talk to me about the cod wars unless you actually really know what was going on and how we were completely and utterly sold out by Heath AFTER NATO had even not ratified Iceland's unilateral decision in the 50s to extend it's no go area from 4nmi which had previously being agreed. The 200 mile exclusion zone is and was utterly ridiculous, I look forward to NATO and the EU recognising our 200 mile exclusion zone around our Island for our fishing vessels to exclusively fish :roll:

The 200 mile exclusive zone is enshrined in United Nations agreements. It's not under EU control. I'm not sure why you seem to suggest the EU wouldn't recognise it: where sea is within 200 miles of two countries, the default is for it to go to the nearest country unless negotiated otherwise, which means that if our government doesn't negotiate well, we could lose access to a lot of Atlantic waters which would be in Ireland's zone by default... and with the UK government's apparent negotiating skill level, I can understand why people might be worried!
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Re: How far cycling has fallen in such a short timescale ...

Post by Cyril Haearn »

The utility cyclist wrote:
pwa wrote:1989 was about the time I spent a year working as a postie in Bolton. The sorting office was big with lots of employees, but I was one of only two or three who came to work by bike. Cycling to work was not common.

Hull is and was fairly flat. Easier for cycling than most northern towns. Maybe that is part of why cycling to work was popular there. But why a decline since? Does it coincide with the loss of the fishing industry?

It's more than fairly flat, it's positively pancake flat, literally aside from the flyovers over the railway lines and the golf course at Sutton which rises a monumental 36 feet above sea level on one of the holes (Officially called East Mount)
Th flatness and the compactness of the city, industrial works where never that far away and lower car ownership/generally due to lower incomes.
Fishing industry was pretty much done before this survey, my old man was a deep sea fisherman from the mid 60s through to the very early 80s,..
..

I took a guided tour on the Arctic Corsair, very good, huge blocks of frozen fish were stored in the hold. The guide had worked on a trawler
'Was the money good?' I asked
'Yes, very good!' he said
Under further questioning he admitted he had only done one voyage, then got work as a brickie

Was the money good? Were jobs on trawlers sought after?
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Re: How far cycling has fallen in such a short timescale ...

Post by Mike Sales »

I once toured a retired trawler in Fleetwood, also giuded by a retired trawlerman. The story I remember was that the skipper would keep on shooting the nets and hauling the fish as long as the fish kept coming. Eventually the crew would mutiny, and be told they would never work on a boat again. However the threat would prove empty.
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Re: How far cycling has fallen in such a short timescale ...

Post by Grandad »

From cycling to the cod war - is this a record topic drift(er) :)
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Re: How far cycling has fallen in such a short timescale ...

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Grandad wrote:From cycling to the cod war - is this a record topic drift(er) :)

I am trying to tyre-lever it towards Hull
We had to do an essay about the cod war at school, didn't understand it all, maybe I should do a wikicheck

Did manage with others to drift b****t to forestry :wink:

Just realised, there is only one consonant between cod war and cold war!
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