Cycling UK Forum

Having stood in 3 canals freeing the prop of my non swimming friends canal boat while he and the girls watched as they drank G&T's i can assure you there not to deep !
On the 1 occasion i rode into the Chesterfield canal i retrieved my bike and waded to the bank.
it's a canal , not victoria falls. . . Deal with it
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I did meet a family along the canal in Sheffield. All cycling, both young kids with automatic co2 powered lifejackets. " they keep falling in" said mum.
Makes you proud to be British ! !

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landsurfer wrote:Having stood in 3 canals freeing the prop of my non swimming friends canal boat while he and the girls watched as they drank G&T's i can assure you there not to deep !
On the 1 occasion i rode into the Chesterfield canal i retrieved my bike and waded to the bank.
it's a canal , not victoria falls. . . Deal with it
.
I did meet a family along the canal in Sheffield. All cycling, both young kids with automatic co2 powered lifejackets. " they keep falling in" said mum.
Makes you proud to be British ! !

Automatic life jackets are a menace. I had one go off when I was changing a sail once. The shock nearly put me in the drink.

jb wrote:I don't know why you think I've a problem with others using them ,I've just pointed out you use them at your own risk.

Maybe this

I would just like to point out that the toe path isn't there for the benefit of cyclists

I think that's where you put your foot in it

Oh dear the wrong tows, toe bad

As a teenager I fell into the Surrey canal. It was cold (I was walking home from the Den) and I made the mad mistake of trying to walk around long enough that my mother wouldn't notice my wet clothing. So I froze to no effect - she could see what had happened at fifty paces. Youth. I think the bit where I fell in is an industrial estate now.

A friend of mine used to be a policeman and rode a police motor bike. He still gets jibes 20 years down the line about riding it into the local canal

My wife had a painful fall into the Chichester Canal, via a bramble bush. A wasp flew inside her glasses, and the resulting alarm caused her to lose control and fall off. She fell through the brambles which separated the towpath from the water, gaining lots of scratches, and landed on her back in the water. I pulled her out, inflicting more scratches as she was still entangled in brambles. Fortunately it was a hot day and she soon dried. Miraculously, she did not lose her glasses.

About ten years ago a colleague of mine told me that he had nearly ridden into the Kennet and Avon canal near Bath. He had been nearing one of those twisty bits under a road bridge when a crazed cyclist travelling the other way came round the corner at speed. The culprit was Ruby Wax!

jb wrote:As one of the `thasands' who regularly use the canals for what they are meant for I would just like to point out that the toe path isn't there for the benefit of cyclists , They may not have too many horses on them at the moment but boats do need access to the bank for a great deal of reasons. Cyclists and walkers are there by licensed permission only, and should bear in mind that too much moaning could result in them being banned all together from large stretches of toe path. We boaters certainly wouldn't want long stretches of railings requiring having to look for `special' gaps complete with safety gates and wotnot.

Just to clear this point up. From the FAQ page of the Canals and Rivers Trust:

Do I need a permit to cycle on your towpaths?

No. You don't need a permit to use your bike on any of our towpaths.

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/contact-us/faqs/cycling

Depends who owns the canal. And it's almost never a right of way.

nez dans le guidon wrote:Depends who owns the canal. And it's almost never a right of way.

Do any still require permits for cycling?

They are not generally rights of way but I'm not going to worry about the prospect of my right to walk along them being removed. The prospect of cycling bans is a much more real and worrying prospect and why we must all remember to be courteous.

Technically not all sections of towpath are open to cyclists but nobody seems to know for definite where it is or isn't permitted. After numerous communications with British Waterways and the C&RT and trying to make sense of all the conflicting no cycling signs and barriers, cycling facilities, sections of NCN and published lists of canal sections with permitted cycling, I now just cycle where I want on the canal network at my usual leisurely pace, showing courtesy to others.

So do I

Bicycler wrote:The prospect of cycling bans is a much more real and worrying prospect and why we must all remember to be courteous. .... I now just cycle where I want on the canal network at my usual leisurely pace, showing courtesy to others.

Which makes good sense. That is what they are fit for. The trouble arises when varies powers that be then suggest that towpaths are fit for use for normal commuter & utility cycling rather than gentle leisure rides, and put them on route maps, etc, as such.

For example, as an experiment I've just asked Google to plot a cycle route near me in outer west London from Southall (canal bridge at Norwood Road) to Rickmansworth (lock). It has suggested riding along the Grand Union towpath and gives a journey time of 1hr 20mins for the 16.8 miles. I.e. it is claiming that the towpath is fit for averaging 12.5 mph.

Well anyone who has been on the bit of the Union that runs through Hackney/Victoria Park to Millwall Dock on a warm day is taking his life in his hands. Lots of people strolling and lots of Mr Toad cyclists. I'm surprised half of them don't end up in the drink.