Hedge cutting.

[john59]

Nipped out for an hours training ride and I only get a third of my way around to find I’d picked up two thorns from hedge cuttings. Why don’t the farmers who cut the hedges clean up after themselves? Rant over.

John

 

[winjim]

Move to Yorkshire, no hedges, it's all dry stone walls.

 

[welsh dragon]

Farmers do tend to pick up after themselves, but they can't clean and clear up every single thorn and stick that can cause a puncture. Lets face it how many miles of hedges do they have have to cut.?

 

[Amanda P]

Move to Yorkshire, no hedges, it's all dry stone walls.

I beg to differ. I can assure you that the Vales of York and Pickering are full of hedges, most of them hawthorn, whose thorns are just the right length to remain intact but be detached from the hedge by a flail mower and prop themselves point-end upwards in the road.

Some flail mowers are equipped with a big fan which effectively blows most of the cuttings off the tarmac and into the verge, so no sweeping is required (although on windy days, the clippings may simply blow back into the road).

Other flail mowers are not so equipped. It's vanishingly rare for a farmer to actually sweep anything up with a broom or another machine; so much easier to simply allow motor traffic to do it for you.

 

[raleighnut]

This is the first week they're allowed (by law) to do it (bird nesting time is over) but I wish they'd use the guarded versions instead of one they've had for decades that spray clippings like confetti.

 

[Glow worm]

Farmers do tend to pick up after themselves, but they can't clean and clear up every single thorn and stick that can cause a puncture. Lets face it how many miles of hedges do they have have to cut.?

Hardly any around here- they grubbed most of the hedges up in the 70s and 80s.

 

[ColinJ]

@Globalti has just suffered this problem on a C2C with his son. Their group suffered 17 punctures between them!

 

[welsh dragon]

Hardly any around here- they grubbed most of the hedges up in the 70s and 80s to make a bit more profit Those new Range Rovers won't pay for themselves!

We have hundreds of miles here. Not just the main roads, but all the small country lanes as well. We don't have ordinary fences or stone walls here.

 

[Glow worm]

We have hundreds of miles here. Not just the main roads, but all the small country lanes as well. We don't have ordinary fences or stone walls here.

Sounds idylic. And an excuse to use my favourite Welsh word I learnt in my Aberystwyth days 300 or so years ago - bendigedig!

 

[welsh dragon]

Sounds idylic. And an excuse to use my favourite Welsh word I learnt in my Aberystwyth days 300 or so years ago - bendigedig!

Unfortunately I have no idea what that means

 

[Glow worm]

Unfortunately I have no idea what that means

I think it means lovely- or maybe that was hyfryd- bear with me I'll have a look.
Edit- it means fantastic according to google

 

[welsh dragon]

I think it means lovely- or maybe that was hyfryd- bear with me I'll have a look.
Edit- it means fantastic according to google

That it definitely is.

 

[jarlrmai]

Yeah the roads around here are either full of thorns or getting surface dressed atm.

 

[ayceejay]

Once upon a time farm labourers would spend their winters hedging and ditching and in some areas dry walling. All these skills have fallen by the wayside. Here in Quebec where I live the idea is to use machines as big as houses to work the fields so if they can avoid turning too often that is ideal - trees and hedges are considered a nuisance so out they go. The benefit of a hedge to a cyclist is that it cuts the wind and blowing snow - sans hedges you get the full blast.

 

[mysticmeg]

I agree with that #ayceejay
Quebec was wonderful but we so so wanted some hedges... though not just for windbreaks