How's cycling around Lincolnshire?

[mjr]

I haven’t visited Boston recently (🤔 must visit family more often) and have not tried following NCN 1 through the town , Wednesday and Saturday are Market days and part of the shopping centre ( Strait Bargate) are pedestrian only .

It's a short stretch of Wormgate that is a problem. The only short alternative is Bank Street which is one way and closed part time. Unlike other NCN stupid no-cycling sections (NCN1 King's Lynn, NCN12 Peterborough, NCN13 Thetford, ...), the only alternative seems to be to bypass the town centre entirely.

Looking on the maps again just now, the County Hall car park is an alternative when the gates are open and streetview shows cyclists using it. Why the fark don't the naffing Lincs CoCo just pick one of the three routes and open it officially to cycling?

That's the sort of thing that annoys me about cycling around Lincolnshire. So often the councils do the difficult bits like build miles of cycleway from the Water Rail Way to Woodhall Spa and then fark it up by missing a few metres at one end and not putting a proper crossing at the other. For want of a ha'p'orth o' tar, the ship was lost!

 

[Saluki]

Lincolnshire is great. I would move back there in a heartbeat.
The wolds are challenging. There is a great, social, cycling club in Louth with all abilities including some real speed merchants.

I lived in Horncastle and quite miss it. On the Viking Trail and off to Woodhall Spa for the Rail Trail pretty much daily. There are a few hills, it is not pan flat unless on the fens. A headwind makes riding as hard as any hill, and the wind doesn’t give up.

Honestly, it’s a great place to live and ride.

 

[Juan Kog]

It's a short stretch of Wormgate that is a problem. The only short alternative is Bank Street which is one way and closed part time. Unlike other NCN stupid no-cycling sections (NCN1 King's Lynn, NCN12 Peterborough, NCN13 Thetford, ...), the only alternative seems to be to bypass the town centre entirely.

Looking on the maps again just now, the County Hall car park is an alternative when the gates are open and streetview shows cyclists using it. Why the fark don't the naffing Lincs CoCo just pick one of the three routes and open it officially to cycling?

That's the sort of thing that annoys me about cycling around Lincolnshire. So often the councils do the difficult bits like build miles of cycleway from the Water Rail Way to Woodhall Spa and then fark it up by missing a few metres at one end and not putting a proper crossing at the other. For want of a ha'p'orth o' tar, the ship was lost!

I can see now your very familiar with Boston town centre , so sorry for pointing out the obvious.

 

[mjr]

I can see now your very familiar with Boston town centre , so sorry for pointing out the obvious.

No worries. I've been there a fair few times but I struggle to understand how the council justified a road closure order that leaves no legal cycle route through the town centre on that side of the river (riding through a private-looking car park is a bit odd) so I feel I may be missing some route that's obvious to locals.

 

[Juan Kog]

Lincolnshire is great. I would move back there in a heartbeat.
The wolds are challenging. There is a great, social, cycling club in Louth with all abilities including some real speed merchants.

I lived in Horncastle and quite miss it. On the Viking Trail and off to Woodhall Spa for the Rail Trail pretty much daily. There are a few hills, it is not pan flat unless on the fens. A headwind makes riding as hard as any hill, and the wind doesn’t give up.

Honestly, it’s a great place to live and ride.

I agree 100% . The Wolds are great for cycling and the wind in fens . I have been in the granny ring and struggling to keep above 10 mph .

 

[fossyant]

FLAT....... FLAT...........................

 

[Juan Kog]

FLAT....... FLAT...........................

fossy I never had you down as a Troll

 

[Saluki]

FLAT....... FLAT...........................

Yeah, the roads when they are cutting back the blackthorn will do that.

 

[Gixxerman]

Yeah, the roads when they are cutting back the blackthorn will do that.

Aint that the truth. I swear some of those thorns would give a steam roller a flat.
For anyone who thinks Lincolnshire is flat, come with me to Normanby-le-Wold hill and I'll challenge you to ride up it in the big ring.

 

[mjr]

For anyone who thinks Lincolnshire is flat, come with me to Normanby-be-Wold hill and I'll challenge you to ride up it in the big ring.

Is it allowed to start in Baumber and do it mostly on the B road? Taking 18 miles to do a 1 mile climb softens it nicely

 

[Gixxerman]

It is 278ft in 0.5 miles which is an average gradient of 10% with a maximum gradient of 20%. So definitely not flat.

 

[mjr]

It is 278ft in 0.5 miles which is an average gradient of 10% with a maximum gradient of 20%. So definitely not flat.

And it does the usual thing for the hills around the Wash of steepening towards the top IIRC, making it very very difficult to judge your effort and not pop.

 

[Saluki]

Aint that the truth. I swear some of those thorns would give a steam roller a flat.
For anyone who thinks Lincolnshire is flat, come with me to Normanby-le-Wold hill and I'll challenge you to ride up it in the big ring.

That hill out of Old Bollingbroke is a bit of a bugger on a bike not running a compact.

 

[Gixxerman]

And it does the usual thing for the hills around the Wash of steepening towards the top IIRC, making it very very difficult to judge your effort and not pop.

Aye it does. If you turn right near the top towards the council houses, that last bit is bloody steep, and by that time you are blowing out your arse, so pacing yourself is key. That is a feature of most hils round the wolds; Short but steep.

 

[freiston]

That hill out of Old Bollingbroke is a bit of a bugger on a bike not running a compact.

It's certainly harder than Amber Hill