Manchester Bike Hire

[mjr]

It's not actually,

Curious. Those threads didn't appear in a search for "bikeandgo".

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Sustrans website shows a cycle free route right behind the airport. I thought about cycling to Liverpool and back, as again Sustrans map shows a completely car free route there. My friend won't have done much cycling but is a big Liverpool FC fan, so hoping that'll be enough to drag him out for a few miles! If I can get a plan together then I'll get him out for a fun runs over here over the next few weeks.

The velodrome certainly sounds good. I was on looking at Manchester Bike Hire earlier. Have you had good experiences with them? I'll go and have a look at bikeandgo now.

Thanks for all the suggestions thus far!

Manchester orbital cycleway in all its user friendly glory:

 

[Sixmile]

Ha!

Here's a picture of that route... which I can't find right now. It has 81 steps to push your bike past, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I'll try and find the photo later.

However, it is possible to rapidly get into the Cheshire lanes:

- take thorley lane which turns into runger lane from the airport (ignore the supposed cycle lane which is crap and makes you stop at every side road)
- turn left onto Wilmslow Road
- take the first right on Mill Lane.

You're now on quiet lanes and can stay on such until the peak district or even Wales! I'd highly recommend heading for tatton park to start with.

Thanks for that. The post of mine which you quote is over 3 years old and my trip has been and gone, but in the event of visiting that side of the pond again I will keep your recommendations in mind.

 

[classic33]

This seems to be the only mention on this site of bikeandgo, so this is where I'll note that the website now says "Bike & Go will no longer be operating from 30 September 2019. The scheme was launched in 2014 to provide seamless door-to-door solutions in the form of bike rental at selected railway stations across England and Scotland. Unfortunately the number of rentals and members meant that the scheme was not self-sufficient and the decision has been made to close Bike & Go across the UK."

A cynic would say that the cumbersome registration and rental process combined with the patchy coverage of bizarre rental locations (for example, Manchester Oxford Road but not Piccadilly, Ely but not Cambridge or Cambridge North, Edinburgh Haymarket but not Waverley - yet loads of bikes at London Liverpool Street despite so many competitors there) implied that it was a gimmick to help win rail franchises rather than a commercial service attempt.

Possibly more to do with all Arriva rail services being put up for sale in March this year. "May" in January became "will" two months later(March).
http://railnews.mobi/news/2019/01/14-db-may-sell-arriva-to.html