Cycling UK Forum

This new route constructed recently by Rother District Council with the aid of Sustrans opened recently. I had the chance to try it out today - what a mistake. The first half of the route has a loose gravel surface with the gravel several inches deep in places - back wheel spinning I ground to a halt. It must also be potentially dangerous. No child could ride it successfully. The second half - nearer Hastings is better ?? the surface is bare earth supported by a metal mesh. At least it is possible to ride it but I am not going to try it when it is wet. What a waste of an opportunity. Has anyone else experienced it ??

John

That's a shame.

Some folk enjoy leisure rides on MTBs, and they might enjoy that surface.

For practical commuting, utility, getting from A to B, a surface needs to be sealed, ie tarmac. I lobbied Cambs County Council about the busway cycle route. They said the initial rough sand/gravel/stone surface was good; I said it was slow, inefficient, impractical and dangerous.

They changed their minds and eventually sealed the surface. The money for doing it came from Sustrans, who got it from central government.

The moral is: get lobbying, and encourage local cycling organisations and individuals to do likewise.

I have just tried out the new cycle path today.. I am from Eastbourne and had heard that the path was really quite poor, and wanted to go and try it out for myself to see if it was true. Sadly it was true. Yes it is fine if you have a mountain bike but if you are on a road bike it is un-rideable. Surely the plastic grid system that that laid down with gravel in between would be more expensive than part 1 MOT and grade 2 tarmac? As i tried to cycle the first section of it, just like other people, my back wheel was spinning, so unfortunately it is back through the tunnel and back onto that very busy road for me.

I am very dissapointed in this outcome. Having lived in Hastings in the past I was involved in campaigning against the Hastings bypass, but we were actutly aware of the issues surrounding the A259 between Hasings and Bexhill. A decent cycle path was one of the things that was felt essential to offer viable alternatives to car use. A proper urban coastal rail system with more station stops was another startegy which has completely failed to get off the ground. All these progressive alternatives are essentially ignored by the town and county council's complete obsession with pursuing their prize of the new road.

I really hope that it's possible to get the route sealed with a proper surface. Who on earth specified these odd surfaces?
Or did they just run out of money and hope that nobody would notice?

The problem IME stems from a number of mistaken assumptions:

1. cyclists go quite slowly;
2. cyclists all ride mountain bikes these days;
3. cyclists don't mind taking twice as long if it gets them away from motorised traffic;
4. cyclists don't mind going twice as far if it gets them away from motorised traffic;

Any the above might be true of some cyclists at some points, but they are not generally always true. When commuting, they're quite likely to be all wrong.

So part of the new 2km route has been laid with Netpave 50, a type of plastic grid system. I don't think that I really know enough about this system to actually critisize it. It seems to have advantages over other surfaces as it probably has disadvantages too. So does anyone know what these are? Principally, as cyclists, we are concerned with skid resistance and rolling restistance/vibration.

Anybody kow much of the route is made up of Netpave? And what is this other metal mesh stuff mentioned? How extensive is that?

The experiences above of cycling over gravel sounds like the path hasn't been finished to me. I attempted to cycle it once on my tourer and with the existing surface being shingle it was of course impossible. So have they actually tried to 'improve' this shingle or is it left as is? Of course, being rounded agregate, it's like marbles, so no compacting of it is ever going to create a stable surface. This will have some bearing on what surface they have used. I imagine Netpave is designed to cope with this unstable surface. But how long will it stay stable?

Agreed to the above. In addition, hoggin and soil-stabilising grids are cheap and easy. IME grids don't create a smooth surface, and rain will still affect the underlying material, turning it to mud or whatever. A sealed surface is more complex and costly, needing machines and skilled labour. And the maintenance is trickier. (As if they'd bother, of course.)

Councils will give us rubbish unless we demand better. Politely but firmly.

If Sustrans were involved you would have thought they might have had a bit of a clue as to how to design the surface or is it that the local authority are going out of their way to design very slow speeds into the route.
If there's an accident on the lose surface I would have thought it would n't be difficult to show that the design was n't fit for purpose.
The good news must be that the track exists the Council just needs to surface it properly now.
Invite the Councillors and responsible officers to bring their bikes for an charity ride along the route that should do the trick, nothing like a bit of direct experience.

CREPELLO wrote:Anybody kow much of the route is made up of Netpave?

Apparently 2.2km long, designed by East Sussex Highways. The PDF on that page has some better photos that shows the arrangement -- before it is messed up by cyclists and pedestrians, of course.

I would expect the surface of the infill to degrade quickly, giving a corrugated feel to the ride. No problem with big soft tyres or suspension, I suppose, but a nuisance on road bikes.

NCR 4 between Laleham and Staines has sections with a surface of plastic mesh over turf. I suspect that getting a cycle route on a footpath here was politically tricky so this was seen as lowest intrusion.

The excellent path from Llanelli to Kidwelly starts off as 4m wide tarmac but the western end has gravel and mesh. Cheapness ?