Anyone else like riding though tunnels?

[LeeW]

On Saturday I rode 115 miles just so I could ride my Quest though some tunnels. I rode though Oxendon tunnel (418 meters) and Kelmarsh tunnel (294 m). See pictures here: http://sports.webshots.com/album/571702345LrGQOb and here: http://sports.webshots.com/album/571495594EpVFzi
Anyone else here been though either of those tunnels or any other tunnels?

 

[cheadle hulme]

I cycle under Runway 2 at Manchester Airport quite a bit, the picture doesn't do it justice. Its more like a space hangar, especially at night.

 

[snorri]

These look like tunnels for beginners.
Ever tried cycle touring in Norway?

 

[oxbob]

SHAUN !!!!, we have moles!!!!

 

[Dayvo]

Ever tried cycle touring in Norway?

Yep! I fell in the Nordkapp tunnel on a 10% decline and broke my collarbone going about 35 mph pulling a trailer!

 

[Dayvo]

Anyone else like riding though tunnels?

Yes!

Must be a Freudian thing!

 

[fossyant]

Runway 1 Manchester Airport - on the road bit though....whoooooooooooo

 

[HLaB]

I think I must be claustrophobic, I prefer the open air.

 

[gavintc]

My only experience is in Europe in the summer and you often enter them with eyes adjusted to bright sunlight, often wearing shades to hit a black wall. Cue; remove shades and start peering. Whilst I do not overly worry about my own cycling, I worry more about the prat in the car who may have a similar problem with adjusting to the darkness and takes me out from behind. So, they tend to make me a little nervous.

 

[longers]

There's a good tunnel on the Transpennine Trail. Brilliant for echoes, so good I rode through it three times making daft noises

 

[LeeW]

Would that be thurgoland tunnel?

 

[Mr Pig]

That tunnel is for whimps! ;0)

Just above the Falkirk Wheel, on the Union Canal, there are two canal tunnels. The first is quite short and quite well lit. The second is long, I'm guessing but maybe about a mile. So on the cobbled towpath you've got a stone wall on one side and and hand rail on the other between you and the canal. Depending on the time of day it can be pitch black in the middle of the tunnel, you can't see your hand in front of your face. You are not supposed to ride through it for obvious reasons. The cobbles are wet, water pours out of the roof at parts, if you fell over you might well go over the hand rail into the pitch black water and the only thing to keep you going straight is the light you can fleetingly make out on the top of the hand rail!

The first time we went through this tunnel we all got off and walked, there was about eight of us. We cycled into the tunnel but very soon started getting disorientated and bumping into each other etc so got off. Even then as we all walked through it was still hard.

There were just three of us the last time we went through it and we cycled it! I'll be honest, I really didn't like it. The other two were in front of me and they just kept peddling. We'd been against the wind for miles, we were fed up and we just wanted to get back but if it hadn't been for them I would've gotten off and walked. The only reason I stayed on the bike was that I didn't want to end up way behind.

As it was I went slower than them. It was very disorientating and you had to try and look at different things to keep you straight. If you just looked at the light at the end, or at the rail, you got kind of dizzy and wobbly. It wasn't nice.

The tunnel now has lights, but it's still scary. Now that is a f****** tunnel! ;0)

 

[dellzeqq]

I've done the Rotherhithe Tunnel a few times, and it's no fun, but a looooong time ago I did the Blackwall Tunnel, and it was fantastic. As in really stupid, but fantastic. And don't.

I've asked about the Limehouse Link, but, sadly, the owners say that they would shut it, and send you a bill for the expense incurred, which would, by the time m'learned friends added their little bit, be a fortune. And I've always wanted to do the Strand underpass, but haven't worked up the courage.

Some thirty years ago I went on a pass busting mission to the Pyrennees with my brother. We were so anxious to save weight that we took one front light and one rear light between us. And so we found ourselves in a completely unlit and unlined tunnel on what is now the N-260. And we couldn't see squit. Only a little hole of light a long way off to steer by. And halfway down, my brother, who was in front, braked and said...'this is silly'. I was in no position to disagree, as I'd just run in to the back of him. A truck appeared at the end of the tunnel behind us, with a roar that shook our bones. We shot out of that hole in the ground like champagne corks...

 

[Proto]

One bright and sunny morning I thought I'd circumnavigate Lake Garda. No preparation, just looked like a decent ride. I started from the south east corner, Peschiera. Wound my way up past Garda and Malcesine and stopped for a coffe in Riva. Not long afterwards, my troubles started. Tunnels, lots of them, some of the long and unsurprisingly, very dark. And I had no lights.

I knew that I'd be riding along 'covered roads' on parts of the north west sections, sort of like snow and rock protection, open sided I thought, but I never expected blooming tunnels. So there's muppet boy (me!) riding along without lights. Too far from home to just abandon and go back, so in true British spirit just got on with it. Idiot.

Traffic moderate. Trouble with the tunnels though is that the car noise echoes, and you can hear the cars for ages before they appear, and it's impossible to tell whether they are coming from ahead or behind. Then you realise it's behind, and you sort of get over as far as possible and brace for what seems to be an inevitable impact. Terrified. I was really, really frightened. Worst time was when white van man coming towards me overtook the car in fron of him. Right over onto my side of the road when he spots me at the last minute. Arghhhhh!!!!

Finally cleared the last of the tunnels and wandered down the lake and homewards. Never, ever again!!

BTW it was farking hot (except in the tunnels). Had to keep stopping at cafes for water bottle re-fills. Fabulous welcome and attitude from all I met, including a Dutch bloke who wanted directions. He told me I was barking mad for riding a bike that far in that heat. He was right.

 

[rich p]

I cycled similarly with no lights from Lake Garda to Lago d'Idro over the mountains and encountered a half mile black as your hat tunnel. As Proto says the noise is very disconcerting but in a narrow tunnel the lorries have to get pretty close to the sides which was terrifying.
There was only one way back so I had to do it again later to get home.