Must've been Changeover Day?

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
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Mick F
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Must've been Changeover Day?

Post by Mick F »

Out riding yesterday and we saw loads of cars with bikes on the back, or the roof, or both. We saw ten times more bikes on cars than we saw being ridden.

Are these people cyclists, or people who take their bikes on holiday? :wink:
Mick F. Cornwall
Mark1978
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Re: Must've been Changeover Day?

Post by Mark1978 »

Mountain bikes? Pretty much necessary to drive them somewhere if you want to get a decent ride in the environment they were intended for.
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easyroller
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Re: Must've been Changeover Day?

Post by easyroller »

Last day of school holidays, maybe many returning from a trip away?
Grandad
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Re: Must've been Changeover Day?

Post by Grandad »

A very common sight on roads near a Centr Parc.
MikeF
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Re: Must've been Changeover Day?

Post by MikeF »

Mick F wrote:Are these people cyclists, or people who take their bikes on holiday? :wink:

Well don't bikes need a holiday as well :lol: :lol: . What better place than Cornwall!
"It takes a genius to spot the obvious" - my old physics master.
I don't peddle bikes.
TonyR
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Re: Must've been Changeover Day?

Post by TonyR »

Similar experience. Had a fabulous day off-road riding in the Lake District on Tuesday - beautiful sunny day, dry trails and nice temperatures. Didn't meet a single other rider on the off-road bits and only a couple of roadies on the road bits. Yet there were plenty of bikes on cars and bike racks on cars to be seen. So quite what they do do with their bikes is a mystery but riding them on or off road doesn't seem to come into it.
Postboxer
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Re: Must've been Changeover Day?

Post by Postboxer »

Carry them up to hotel/into the caravan, get the turbo trainer out of the boot, get some training in the evening whilst the kids sleep, in the absence of a baby sitter.

Or maybe take bike on holiday with big plans, then the weather's bad so they don't go out. If they do go out, maybe just one short ride around the holiday park or on a shared use path?
iandriver
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Re: Must've been Changeover Day?

Post by iandriver »

So many people see cycling as a leisure activity. Transport is by car. One of the major challenges in cycle campaigning is getting authorities to see the difference. They so often think that rambling the long way round on an unsuitable surface is cycle provision. Great for a Sunday saunter maybe, but as a serious commuter link, just about useless.

This sign near my work is typical. http://www.hembrow.eu/cambridgecycling/ ... etsign.jpg
Check out the distances to Newmarket on the two signs. And this is a 10 minute cycle from the supposed cycling capital of the UK.
Supporter of the A10 corridor cycling campaign serving Royston to Cambridge http://a10corridorcycle.com. Never knew gardening secateurs were an essential part of the on bike tool kit until I took up campaigning.....
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Vantage
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Re: Must've been Changeover Day?

Post by Vantage »

Mark1978 wrote:Mountain bikes? Pretty much necessary to drive them somewhere if you want to get a decent ride in the environment they were intended for.


Depends on either where you live, how lazy you are or both.
Round the corner from Horwich is the West Pennine Moors and all the knarly mountain biking tracks you could ever wish for. 7-8 miles from my home.
Bolton Mountain Bikes club in the late 90's once held a downhill race there from Rivington Pike which was covered by iirc, Mountain Bike International and they compared it to Cap D'Ail in Monaco, a world class downhill venue back then.
A 20 mile ride to Littleborough opens up more rough tracks.
I never owned a car. If I wanted somewhere new to ride, I rode there and then rode those tracks.
Bill


“Ride as much or as little, or as long or as short as you feel. But ride.” ~ Eddy Merckx
It's a rich man whos children run to him when his pockets are empty.
Mark1978
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Re: Must've been Changeover Day?

Post by Mark1978 »

I don't own a MTB because I like cycling from my front door most of all. There's some excellent MTB riding near where I live, but MTBs are not designed to do miles of road riding at either end, if I had a MTB I'd be wanting to use it on MTB surfaces, which means whacking it in the car.
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NUKe
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Re: Must've been Changeover Day?

Post by NUKe »

What wrong with transporting your Bike somewhere to ride?
We've just visited the in laws in Northern Ireland, I took mine and my 2 sons bikes are people suggesting that we should have ridden from Suffolk to there? And yes we did use them not only for Liesure rides, but for trips into town. So cutting down onthe car use whilst there.

As for Big plans yes we had them and yes we achieved them. We did the Portadown to Newry cycle path, and I rode lap the loch.
NUKe
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Ron
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Re: Must've been Changeover Day?

Post by Ron »

Broken down bikes being taken to Halfords for repair.
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Mick F
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Re: Must've been Changeover Day?

Post by Mick F »

NUKe wrote:What wrong with transporting your Bike somewhere to ride?
Nothing at all.
The point I was making, was there were more bikes being transported, than seemed to be being ridden. This included many many road bikes and hybrids rather than exclusively MTBs.

I was suggesting that people were taking their bikes on holiday with them, then taking them home again. Meanwhile, I've not seen many holidaymakers riding their bikes anywhere at all.

Hopefully, I've not been looking in the right places, and they've actually been riding them and I've missed them.
(benefit of the doubt) :wink:
Mick F. Cornwall
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Vantage
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Re: Must've been Changeover Day?

Post by Vantage »

NUKe wrote:What wrong with transporting your Bike somewhere to ride?


Nothing.
What I disagree with is that it is pretty much necessary to transport a mountain bike to an environment in which it was intended for to be enjoyed. Which isnt the case. I never needed to transport my MTB to the wilderness to ride it, I rode to the wilderness, rode that and then rode home again.
Mountain bikes are also known as all terrain bikes, which sums up their uses. I used mine for travelling to work 15 miles both ways 5 days a week in every weather you could get in the UK and then at the weekend it (and the others) was used for training rides, rides with the bike club and even raced. All on the same knobbly tyres.
To suggest that an MTB cant be used on tarmaced roads is like saying a touring bike cant be used for daily rides or pootling about because it isnt touring.
Apologies to the op for taking the subject off topic.
Bill


“Ride as much or as little, or as long or as short as you feel. But ride.” ~ Eddy Merckx
It's a rich man whos children run to him when his pockets are empty.
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Mick F
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Re: Must've been Changeover Day?

Post by Mick F »

In NUKe's defence here, he wasn't suggesting that he was transporting bikes from Suffolk to Ireland for the fun of it, he was transporting them there to actually use them.

I'm suggesting that people take their bikes on holiday and not use them much at all, then take them home again ............. and possibly store them in the garages ready to take them on holiday again. I'm sure the bikes enjoy the rest.
Mick F. Cornwall
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