Cattle grids

[Sallar55]

This one will have your wheels for breakfast, check before trying.

 

[cougie uk]

Never had an issue with one yet but is that off the beaten path ?

 

[oldwheels]

This one will have your wheels for breakfast, check before trying.

View attachment 645099

It seems to vary according to which local authority they are in. Generally Highland is pretty good andArgyll &Bute are diabolical. I often just get off and walk over pushing the bike.

 

[DRHysted]

Before joining this site I never thought about cattle grids, I just rode over them (unless they had ice on them). But then there is quite a selection in the New Forest.

 

[Smokin Joe]

This one will have your wheels for breakfast, check before trying.

View attachment 645099

There are cattle grids and there are cattle grids.

I would NOT fancy that one.

 

[ColinJ]

There are cattle grids and there are cattle grids.

I would NOT fancy that one.

It DOES look iffy, but I reckon it should be okay if:

• Crossed when the cylindrical bars are dry
• Crossed in the middle where the metal is undamaged and looks more grippy
• Attacked fast enough to not have to pedal when crossing
• Crossed at right angles to the bars to avoid wheels getting deflected and eaten!
• Tyres pressures are high enough to avoid snakebite punctures
• Saddle is unweighted and impact shocks are taken through bent arms and legs

I have bunny-hopped over shorter cattle grids on fast descents but that isn't one of those!

 

[avsd]

I think I would revert to 'shank's mare' to cross that one. The normal rectangular ones are bad enough.
I hope the bike in the photo is laid down for the photo and not a crash.

 

[I like Skol]

Looks fine to me

 

[Fredo76]

Yikes!

I've never seen one that I can remember with round elements, nor that big in diameter and spaced so far apart. It looks as unsafe to walk across with the wrong shoes, as to ride across.

I do remember a stage in the Vuelta de Bisbee where it seemed that several riders started cursing after going over a cattle guard with an elevated edge, and I thought "That's what you get for running 9 oz. Medaille d'Or rims"...

It seems they were from California, and complained that they had not been warned about the danger. OTOH, others from California complained about the warning given them regarding the off-camber first curve in a time trial around Saguaro National Monument, saying it made them lose time. Just a home-field advantage, I would say. I may have been prejudiced; it was long ago.

Now, I'm sure that there were and are plenty of nice, friendly cyclists from California, too.

 

[Sallar55]

Fredo76 you have the correct country, up north in Cantabria.even walking across in cycling shoes was a challenge. Edit was thinking of the Sierra De Sagura region of Spain 🤔

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Looks fine for any bike with decent size wheels and width tyres

 

[Sea of vapours]

Whilst certainly not a thing of beauty, it doesn't look all that bad really. I mean, the key things are that: it appears to have no broken bits; both the road and grid are horizontal; and the grid has not dropped at the entry / exit. There are plenty around the Dales which feature one or more of those unfortunate characteristics. As to the spacing, it's alarmingly wide, rather like the final one on the Great Dun Fell road, but that always feels better than it looks.

 

[biggs682]

There are a few around here but all a lot nicer than that one

 

[roubaixtuesday]

The worst two in the world are on the car free road to Marchlyn Mawr reservoir, the top dam for the Dinorwig pumped storage.

They're sharp and ridged, and of course you'll be doing 40mph descending without traffic to worry about. Beware!

https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/your-ride-today.173254/page-1964#post-6522476

 

[Deleted member 1258]

That doesn't look to bad, there was one many years ago where one of the cross pieces had been replaced with a fence post tied into place with twine.