Manchester commuters

[biking_fox]

Zombie thread, but I've moved since then so I'll keep the up-rising going.

Chorlton - fallowfield loop - A34 - North campus. Good mix of pretty and fast. Very hard on road tyres though the fallowfield loop is paved, but cuts up very heavily. Switched to marathons. It's also starting to get quite dark!

 

[BRounsley]

Never one to miss an up-rising.

Chorlton – Upper Chorlton Road - Chorlton Road – Deansgate

Genesis Day One (currently sounds like a train when braking in the rain)

8:30 out 5:30 back

 

[clf]

Timperley to Eccles, Canal to Stretford, then through Trafford Park, over the New bridge to Eccles. Brand new to commuting, and not really cycled since being a kid. Still finding the best route. Might be a bit more canal when they've finished the works at the back of Kellogs. Don't fancy the A56 at all.
Spesh sirrus, 7:45 and half five ish.

 

[Origamist]

Timperley to Central Manchester 7:15am (ish) and back 4:30 (ish)
I have used the canal between Brooklands and Talbot Road since a collision on Chester Rd - seems like there's a lot of us.
Good commute usually but met a nutter yesterday on way home at Dane Road. He was on one side of the towpath, his dog on the other side, a lead in between, and wouldn't budge until I stopped. Shouting match ensued, started by him even though I'd already slowed down and then stopped for him!! Be careful. He was mid 40s, green jacket, loud voice, high blood pressure, black dog,.

Sounds vaguely familiar - will keep a look out.

"Could Manchester ever be as bike-friendly as Copenhagen, where almost half of people now cycle to work? The experts say it's a long road ahead"

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co...chester-ever-bike-friendly-copenhagen-7876948

Call me a pessimist - but I'm going to say "no".

 

[McrJ64]

Sounds vaguely familiar - will keep a look out.

"Could Manchester ever be as bike-friendly as Copenhagen, where almost half of people now cycle to work? The experts say it's a long road ahead"

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co...chester-ever-bike-friendly-copenhagen-7876948

Call me a pessimist - but I'm going to say "no".

I'm afraid I think the same. It's just too crowded because we all have to live/work in the same conurbations and many insist on belonging to a 'group'. They're either a cyclist, pedestrian, car driver, bus driver, taxi driver or van driver. Whichever group they're in, all the others are wrong. I listened to a report on Radio 4 the other week about increasing number of fueds between fishermen and rowers over shared use of the water!

 

[potsy]

Well my commute has changed since I first replied to this thread, have been doing a new route for the last 6 months, similar distance (9 miles)
Wythenshawe park- Gatley- Cheadle- Cheadle Hulme- Bramhall.
6am ish, have got a couple of people I see fairly regularly, one guy coming down Cheadle road who has his saddle way too low and another that wears his 'security' jacket that I usually overtake up the same hill.

 

[fossyant]

Zombie thread, but I've moved since then so I'll keep the up-rising going.

Chorlton - fallowfield loop - A34 - North campus. Good mix of pretty and fast. Very hard on road tyres though the fallowfield loop is paved, but cuts up very heavily. Switched to marathons. It's also starting to get quite dark!

You may see me steaming down from Denton to Alex Park on the loop. Bright red road bike and megawatt lights..... my revised route goes via hyde and denton, down the loop and up to Hulme.

 

[clf]

There seems to be a few here that use the Bridgewater canal between Timperley and town, what do when the night draw in, do you still use it in the dark to get home after work?

 

[fossyant]

There seems to be a few here that use the Bridgewater canal between Timperley and town, what do when the night draw in, do you still use it in the dark to get home after work?

Course you do, invest in some good lights, but respect others coming the other way as you may vaporise their eyeballs.

 

[400bhp]

There seems to be a few here that use the Bridgewater canal between Timperley and town, what do when the night draw in, do you still use it in the dark to get home after work?

It's fine (up to Stretford Marina) and is a great route when the roads are icy. The type of surface seems better than roads when very cold. And the only people milling around are a few drunks (usually "fishing") and other cyclists.

 

[400bhp]

Course you do, invest in some good lights, but respect others coming the other way as you may vaporise their eyeballs.

You don't need really good lights on it as there's plenty of ambient light from around.

 

[fossyant]

You don't need really good lights on it as there's plenty of ambient light from around.

Spoil sport !

 

[Exile]

Zombie thread? I'll bite.

I can be found riding a B'Twin Nework 5, in black, fitted with butterfly bars, to which I've added bar-ends out front to give me somewhere to (try and) hide from the worst of the headwinds ("poor-man's aerobars" as my O/H calls them).

As for routing, generally it'll be Home - Newton Heath - A62 - Portland Street - Chester Road - Talbot Road - Work or Home - Newton Heath - Bradford Road - Whitworth Street - Chester Road - Talbot Road - Work headed in, generally setting out about 0745, give or take quarter of an hour. Going the other way I tend to do Work - Stretford Road - Grosvener Street - Piccadilly Station - Old Mill Street/Bradford Road - Newton Heath - Home, and tend to make a break for freedom about 1730, depending on who I end up chatting with at the bike racks.

If I'm fancying a longer route to or from, I can end up anywhere. Gone to work by such convoluted routes as Ashton - Oldham - Middleton - Failsworth - Denton - City Centre - Eccles - Stretford, and home via Trafford Park - Eccles - Swinton - Prestwich - Bury - Rochdale - Oldham - Ashton - Clayon, so I can pop up just about anywhere from time to time, but most of the time I'll be on my usual routes, being a creature of habit.

 

[Origamist]

I'd probably avoid the canal path very late at night, but in the early evening it's fine, IME. That said, there are gates in the hedges and you have to watch for people exiting onto the path. I've only been caught out once, but I was v nearly swimming with the tyres, trollies and tampons.

My commute: Sandbach, Middlewich, Knutsford, Hale Barnes, Stretford, Salford Quays.

 

[clf]

That's good to hear, I'd be home by 6 and the canal between Stretford and Timperley doesn't show much evidence of scroates hanging around.