Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
What was it at the time? A quiet leafy lane? A roaring dual carriageway?
Is cyclists allowed on the motorways?
- Thread starter Bhitucyclist
- Start date
-
- Tags
- cycling on motorways
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Aravis
Putrid Donut
- Location
- Gloucester
I think what happened was that a section, bypassing Rickmansworth and Watford, was built in advance of the rest of the M25 and temporarily designated A412. Otherwise it was exactly what it is now.
So for a few years the full-width hard shoulder provided the perfect cycle track. At least that's the way I saw it at the time.
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
I think what happened was that a section, bypassing Rickmansworth and Watford, was built in advance of the rest of the M25 and temporarily designated A412. Otherwise it was exactly what it is now.
So for a few years the full-width hard shoulder provided the perfect cycle track. At least that's the way I saw it at the time.
You can see the old maps online. There was nothing directly along the line of the M25 round there. It was all freshly dug up countryside back in the 80's when the M25 was built.
Aravis
Putrid Donut
- Location
- Gloucester
The M25 was built in stages, as Wikipedia confirms, though detail seems a bit sketchy. The section around Rickmansworth was a fully-functioning pseudo-motorway well before final completion of the M25 in 1986, and I know I rode that way a number of times in the first half of that decade.
The instances I can remember reasonably accurately were rides in the summers of 1981 and 1982. Also working up an appetite for Christmas dinner, probably in 1985, and there were one or two others. My recollection is that I always used what is now the M25 to bypass Watford and Rickmansworth.
If it can be proven this wasn't possible as early as summer '82 I'll have to accept my memory is faulty. Where's Strava when you need it?
iandg
Legendary Member
- Location
- Dumfries and Galloway
National Team Time Trial Champs were held on the M54 once (shortly before it opened)
Aravis
Putrid Donut
- Location
- Gloucester
Thanks @Dogtrousers. I dug out an old OS - 1:50,000 First Series (1974) - and took this extract. It shows the new road under construction on the line of the M25, but not at that stage continuing south of Rickmansworth:
As you say, the modern M25 takes a different course nearer Watford, leaving a spur where the 1970s "under construction" line terminates. For that reason, my estimate of riding 9 miles along the M25 was a bit high.
As you say, the modern M25 takes a different course nearer Watford, leaving a spur where the 1970s "under construction" line terminates. For that reason, my estimate of riding 9 miles along the M25 was a bit high.
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
According to this https://www.roads.org.uk/motorway/m25 (Click to expand the construction timeline)
J17-19 - the dashed section on your map - opened in 1976, in plenty of time for your early 80s Christmas rides. But the section from 19-23, which bodged together Ringways 4 and 3, joining the latter near Potters Bar, was the very last section to be opened, completing the M-way ring in 1986.
J17-19 - the dashed section on your map - opened in 1976, in plenty of time for your early 80s Christmas rides. But the section from 19-23, which bodged together Ringways 4 and 3, joining the latter near Potters Bar, was the very last section to be opened, completing the M-way ring in 1986.
Aravis
Putrid Donut
- Location
- Gloucester
That all seems to tally then! It seems my memory worked better then than it does now - not exactly a surprise.
srw
It's a bit more complicated than that...
https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=A405
It was the A405 between Ricky and Watford that later became the M25, not the A412. Old Maps has got a 1:25000 Russian map from 1985 which confirms the number.
Back to cycling on near-motorways - at about the same time I regularly used the A34 to get from Abingdon to Oxford. Traffic levels were light enough (this was before the days of European free markets and mass road freight) that it felt perfectly safe. Maybe in a few years time, after we've cut ourselves off from the pesky foreigners again we'll be back to the same levels of traffic?
It was the A405 between Ricky and Watford that later became the M25, not the A412. Old Maps has got a 1:25000 Russian map from 1985 which confirms the number.
Back to cycling on near-motorways - at about the same time I regularly used the A34 to get from Abingdon to Oxford. Traffic levels were light enough (this was before the days of European free markets and mass road freight) that it felt perfectly safe. Maybe in a few years time, after we've cut ourselves off from the pesky foreigners again we'll be back to the same levels of traffic?
EltonFrog
Legendary Member
Ah well, if that’s your game, I rode my Dawes Kingpin from jct 1 to 2 on the M3 which was under construction.
