Cobbles

[D-Rider]

Any top tips for cycling on cobbles?

I've adjusted my route to avoid them as much as possible.... but I live in Edinburgh so not so easy.

I ride a MTB so it could be worse, I guess. My strategy so far is to coast downhill, standing on pedals. Going uphill, my approach has been to wobble a lot and swear under my breath.....

 

[thomas]

I ride a MTB so it could be worse, I guess. My strategy so far is to coast downhill, standing on pedals. Going uphill, my approach has been to wobble a lot and swear under my breath.....

Sounds about right...I hate the speed bumps on campus - technically it's a 20mph zone but you can bomb a long a lot quicker - ruddy speed ups are uncomfortable and slow me down!

 

[marinyork]

Depends what sort of cobbles. If they are ye olde cobbles don't bother. If they are new fangled fake cobbles like there are here ride along at the edge where they aren't cobbled is what I do. Wet is another matter though. Wet bricks or cobbles = lethal.

 

[D-Rider]

Depends what sort of cobbles. If they are ye olde cobbles don't bother. If they are new fangled fake cobbles like there are here ride along at the edge where they aren't cobbled is what I do. Wet is another matter though. Wet bricks or cobbles = lethal.

They're "ye olde" World Heritage Site cobbles... They look nice enough but are damned annoying.

Yeah, I'm very careful in the wet at these sections!

 

[marinyork]

I think it's a 5mph job then. I found some of the cobbles in York hard enough to walk on let alone cycle on . I'm sure you'll become Jedi Cobble Master after a while.

 

[Tim Bennet.]

Having ridden Paris - Roubaix, I would like to tell you, that I know the secret to painlessly gliding over cobbles. But I don't.

On some stretches of pavé, I thought I had it cracked; pushing a big gear, arse hovering over the saddle, elbows bent would all seem to work, but on the next stretch, exactly the same technique would lead to the most violent and uncontrollable motion, where death seemed an attractive alternative.

 

[Black Sheep]

i ride my roadie over cobbles all the time, also ride the mountain bike on them

my trick is to be in a slightly lower gear than needed and sprint it lifting myself off the saddle a little bit (pulling with my arms slightly)

when down hill i rest my weight on my left foot and push back slightly with my right foot to lift me off the saddle slightly

works nicely for me

 

[Arch]

I think it's a 5mph job then. I found some of the cobbles in York hard enough to walk on let alone cycle on . I'm sure you'll become Jedi Cobble Master after a while.

Hey, yes, I rode round the corner to the post box the other day, first time I'd ever had cause to ride on the cobbles, and was very glad to be on my Big Apples.

 

[marinyork]

There's a cobbled cycle lane in Sheffield. The council actually spent money on buying in red cobbles (it's not a historically cobbled road, they just did it for the hell of it about 5 years ago).

 

[Night Train]

I can't avoid cobbles. My road is mostly cobbles, interspaced by patches of tarmac and concrete from utility repairs, of the most uneven and wobbly sort complete with depressions and bumps. The whole lot needs re-laying really but I haven't quite got enough spares to do a good job of it yet.
I usually just stand up and absorb the bumps through my legs.

 

[marinyork]

There are a few like that knocking around with decayed tarmac over cobbles. I don't find them too bad, even one on a steep hill. It's 100% cobbled I find problematic.

 

[HLaB]

Any top tips for cycling on cobbles?

I've adjusted my route to avoid them as much as possible.... but I live in Edinburgh so not so easy.

I ride a MTB so it could be worse, I guess. My strategy so far is to coast downhill, standing on pedals. Going uphill, my approach has been to wobble a lot and swear under my breath.....

Living in Edinburgh too, I share your pain. I usually avoid them too (its part of my reasoning behind using Dundas St) but when there's no choice I like to use the stand up approach too.

 

[ColinJ]

Any top tips for cycling on cobbles?

I've adjusted my route to avoid them as much as possible.... but I live in Edinburgh so not so easy.

I ride a MTB so it could be worse, I guess. My strategy so far is to coast downhill, standing on pedals. Going uphill, my approach has been to wobble a lot and swear under my breath.....

My tip for going up this one is... get off and walk! My tip for coming down this one is... also get off and walk! That's unfortunate because it happens to be part of the Pennine Cycleway!

 

[marinyork]

It won't make much difference to my average speed walking it .

 

[D-Rider]

On reflection after cycling home today I don't think it's really "ye olde" cobbles as you might get in York... More Georgian than Medieval cobbles!

As long as it's dry you can do more than 5 mph... One problem I had was turning into a one-way cobbled street I want to be in primary as I cross the junction but tend to be even further over to reduce my lean angle when I hit the cobbles.... on an adverse camber... One night last week WVM squezzed past on the inside, gave me quite a fright and made me wobble even more than usual.