Cycling UK Forum

I am OK .... I have a Kettwiesel!


Unfortunately whilst the wife agreed to the Kett, she didn't agree to the admirers

I've been in too. Up towards Aston Locks heading into Birmingham on the Brum & Frazeley. There are lots of side channels with narrowing bridges over them. The bridges have "heritage brickwork"....bricks down the centre of the path that stand proud by a cm or two - enough to make riding on them with road tyres really uncomfortable. While going over one such bridge I hit some debris (going too fast....own fault), moved to the side a little and the handle bar end caught the wall, flipping the bars round. I went over the bars, slid down the ramp, fractured my elbow by hitting it on one of these raised bricks and ended up in the cut. Fear not, I managed to push the bike the other way so it stayed on the path!

So, a cold, wet 5km ride home with a fractured elbow. then had to face the wife-to-be.......it was two weeks before our wedding day. Luckily got out of the sling the day before the wedding day. Lots of jokes about having my arm twisted so much to get married that my elbow got fractured!

Cunobelin wrote:I am OK .... I have a Kettwiesel!


Unfortunately whilst the wife agreed to the Kett, she didn't agree to the admirers

Recumbent trikes are ok until you try to cycle through a flooded bit of road.
It was either ~40 mile around the flooded bit or ~400 yards through it.
I could see fence posts the whole way through and it was mostly standing water not flowing fast.
So I started in ...........
I found out that when the flood water got around two foot deep .......
The trike started to float.
I was sitting on it a the time ..........

24" would submerge the whole of the front wheels.

I know it would be harder for you than many (especially with the trailer) but I thought no I'd have walked, in fact I know I would have done, because I walked a lot earlier than that a couple of years back!

An acquaintance of mine fell into the canal several times on one walk home. I understand he had enjoyed an evening of fine dining earlier

I have ridden loads of the canals in and out of Birmingham, - Worcester, Stratford Upon Avon etc.. never fell in or come close, I have bumped my nogin on a few very low bridges and scraped my shoulder or hands going through them nothing to serious though Some of my cycling partners have come very close though, it's more of a risk when your clipped in hehe but that adds to the excitement.

Depending on the canal, some of the tracks can get bumpy and theres a section from Birmingham to Worcester where it's just slippy tree roots that's a fair old test of your nerves/balance for mere mortals!

Canals are great fun and everyone should give them a go!

As a canoeist of long experience, I have spent a considerable amount of time immersed in the Bristol Avon. It is indeed a death trap if you don't know what you are doing, but I am not dead yet. This is because:

1 Weil's disease is not a particularly high risk. Lower I would guess, than tick borne Lyme Disease is on land. It is easily treated if caught early. Read kayaker's or fishing person's info on the subject if really concerned. Try not to fall in immediately after heavy rains when the risk is highest. (It washes all the crap out of Ratty's house into the river.

2 I tend to avoid falling in in really cold weather. If I do, then a merino base layer works almost as well as a wetsuit . . .

3 I wear a lifejacket. Not really practical on the bike, but knowing a few things about currents and how to work with rather than against them is a big help.

4 I don't drink. In an alarming number of the drownings in the Avon, water was not the fatal liquid . . .

Rofl - i can just imagine cycling along in a lifejacket

DarkNewt wrote:Rofl - i can just imagine cycling along in a lifejacket

At least they have retro reflective bits

Not actually a canal but similar ending. Years ago when I was a fit racer, I also did a lot of cross country running (mainly a winter activity). I was out training one dark night running along an unlit country road. A car came up behind me so, as a precaution, I skipped onto the narrow path at the side of the road. The next thing I knew I was up to my waist in mud and water together with an assortment of nettles and brambles. It seemed that the "path " was actually a 4 foot deep ditch. Don't laugh.

On another occasion a few mates and I were on a railway bridge throwing stones into the river below. We did not notice the approaching train until it hooted at us. In a panic we all jumped over the bridge parapit supposedly onto the ledge at the outside of the wall. Unfortunately, one of my mates missed the ledge and plummeted into the river below. We all ran down the bank to rescue him as he was screaming that he was drowning (he couldn't swim). We all plunged into the river at once only to discover that the water was only less than knee deep. You can laugh now, we all did.

PS Don't try any of these as home.

I came off riding the towpath at Skipton once, it was a quagmire and I was on Marathons. Fortunately I went the other way, then fell head first down a grass embankment and landed upside down in a rhododendron bush with the bike on top of me.

One of our canoe club had Weil's disease, not nice.

I once capsized in a weir in freezing February weather, and I was about as ill as I ever want to be. I spent the whole night sat on the loo with a bucket between my legs issuing from both ends at once.

Slightly off topic, but it came to mind when discussing Weils disease and swimming in the Canal. My partner is Brazilian, she recently went home on holiday and refused to swim in the Amazon even though she had spent her youth on the shores... She explained to her friends that after watching all of the English documentaries she now knows whats actually lurking in there.... Ignorance is bliss...

I cycle alongside the Avon every work day on my commute into Bath.
I no more feel that I'm going to ride into the river than I think I'm going to ride into the oncoming traffic whilst on the road.

There have been a number of deaths in the Avon in the past fews years. These tragic incidents all had a number of things in common. Late at night, young men, lots of alcohol.

We have a 'project boat' moored on the Aylesbury Arm of the Grand Union. The towpath is pretty rough, which doesn't stop people cycling on it. For one summer, our regular Saturday afternoon entertainment while working on the boat was the occasional 'plop' as yet another cyclist encountered the massive towpath pothole opposite the yard, and ended up in the canal. Shouldn't laugh but...

I've never fallen in myself, but I've got pretty wet while cycling the Rochdale Canal. Partly because there are weirs that overflow the towpath, and partly because the water levels are a bit erratic and have a tendency to overtop the banks. This is my father-in-law, on a 16in folder, lock-wheeling through Miles Platting:

Thankyou all - interesting.

Commenting back, I think it is probably important to me to talk about risk, not 'danger'; I am used to quantifying the former and dealing with it.

I'm sure that I will get used to towpath cycling with time - my guide on the Nottingham ride pointed out that he had taken months of commuting to work to start riding under certain bridges with narrow towpaths.

In contrast to canals, rivers such as the Avon have little or no way out again - high banks or ladderless walls, 12-15ft depth, fast currents and little rescue equipment, so paths right on the bank of those are perhaps beat avoided altogether. There there needs to be space to fall off before the bank.

Rgds

Ferdinand