Must've been Changeover Day?

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
niggle
Posts: 3435
Joined: 11 Mar 2009, 10:29pm
Location: Cornwall, near England

Re: Must've been Changeover Day?

Post by niggle »

Drove up to Devon, about 100 miles, with my beloved the other week for a camping holiday, bikes on the back of the car, we did some local riding for errands and visits and also had a ride on the Tarka trail. Bikes are for both leisure and utility in my world, cars are just the latter.
mercalia
Posts: 14630
Joined: 22 Sep 2013, 10:03pm
Location: london South

Re: Must've been Changeover Day?

Post by mercalia »

this practice has klled off cycle touring?
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Mick F
Spambuster
Posts: 56359
Joined: 7 Jan 2007, 11:24am
Location: Tamar Valley, Cornwall

Re: Must've been Changeover Day?

Post by Mick F »

...... and YHA?
Mick F. Cornwall
beardy
Posts: 3382
Joined: 23 Feb 2010, 4:10pm

Re: Must've been Changeover Day?

Post by beardy »

I have been cycle touring and YHA cycle touring.

Sometimes I ride from home, sometimes I drive, with my bike in the back, to the YHA or some other start point before starting riding.
Bike often goes in the back of the car to Audaxes.
Bike sometimes goes in the car to use when I have driven somewhere for some other purpose (like visiting people in hospitals).
If you have to drive somewhere you want to take the bike with you so you dont have to drive when you are already there as well.
MartinC
Posts: 2127
Joined: 10 May 2007, 6:31pm
Location: Bredon

Re: Must've been Changeover Day?

Post by MartinC »

mercalia wrote:this practice has klled off cycle touring?


No, nothing is ever that simple. I'm not sure I even accept the premise that it's dead but even if it is I'm not sure that carrying bikes on cars has made much of a contribution. The idea that if Niggle didn't have a bike rack he and his partner would've gone cycletouring in Devon without the car doesn't stand up for me. Of course he may contradict me! :D

There's a million other reasons for the decline that make more sense to me.
karlt
Posts: 2244
Joined: 15 Jul 2011, 2:07pm

Re: Must've been Changeover Day?

Post by karlt »

YHA decline is an interesting one. I think the number of people willing to trade comfort and privacy for cost has declined as society has become more affluent; moreover the impecunious young are no longer able to tour independently as I did when I was 14 - minimum age for solo overnight at YHA is 16 now, and most parents wouldn't dream of allowing it anyway - not entirely without reason; the roads in the early 80s were different to how they are now, and I suspect fewer youth are interested in long treks over mountains with YHA overnights - cultural change. It's a vicious circle; YHA has responded with higher prices funding cafeteria style catering and smaller rooms (ironically often cheaper for a group than individual beds in dormitories) but you can hardly expect them to keep catering en masse for a dwindling market. Young people these days seem more inclined to backpack on public transport between cities than to explore the wilderness, which is why for some decades the average age at somewhere like Helvellyn YH is probably around 40 rather than 25.

I think the same factors in society are probably behind the decline in cycle touring. It doesn't appeal to many people who have the option instead of a fortnight in Malaga. I'm sure many of the people who took it up in the 50s and 60s would have preferred Malaga as well if cheap foreign package holidays had existed then. They may have come to enjoy cycle touring, but may never have taken it up if they had had the option. Now folk do.

I get more saddened when I see cars laden with camping kit heading down the M5 with bikes on, but only kids' bikes. One can assume those bikes can only be used as toys at the campsite if the parents don't have them. That's a shame.

You can't make people be what you want them to be - Al Stewart.
niggle
Posts: 3435
Joined: 11 Mar 2009, 10:29pm
Location: Cornwall, near England

Re: Must've been Changeover Day?

Post by niggle »

MartinC wrote:
mercalia wrote:this practice has klled off cycle touring?


No, nothing is ever that simple. I'm not sure I even accept the premise that it's dead but even if it is I'm not sure that carrying bikes on cars has made much of a contribution. The idea that if Niggle didn't have a bike rack he and his partner would've gone cycletouring in Devon without the car doesn't stand up for me. Of course he may contradict me! :D

There's a million other reasons for the decline that make more sense to me.

Agreed:

Last year I went away on my own cycle camping for three nights, took the train to Plymouth, went up the coast to coast trail to Ilfracombe, over to the Lynmouth area and back to Exeter to catch a train home.

This year, for a camping holiday with my beloved, who is not an avid cyclist but does like pootling along trails and country lanes, it was always going to be by car, with or without the bikes...
dodger
Posts: 696
Joined: 28 Jan 2007, 9:33pm
Location: East Cornwall

Re: Must've been Changeover Day?

Post by dodger »

This is an exact parallel with all the surf boards on cars here in Cornwall. Lots of posers too, in the latest wetsuits, but rather less action in the water!
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