Bike rides

[whenskiesaregrey]

So, if someone goes on a 30, 40, 50+ bike ride, what explicit reasons can I give for why they can't do it?

Just for clarity, I don't think it should happen. But when challenged, people say there is no contact, routes are quiet etc. Just wondering how to respond to this.

. I suspect many battered old cars I see are worth less than some bikes owned by some particularly if a family owns several

It's certainly easier to get around by car, but I don't own one and if you do your own maintenance and avoid the latest shiny shit that costs £2000 and more to maintain it's much much cheaper to bike. £200 for a serviceable bike, if you shop carefully , and maintenance is about £20/year. Panniers for shopping and no need to go near public transport (trains excepted)

I’m just pointing out the unfairness. The rules should allow driving 50 miles for exercise if cycling 50 miles is ok. Not sure there were rules on having an opinion.hmm

Cycling is exercise, driving is not.

ShootsFruitAndLeaves Exactly. Walking and running where we do poses a negligible risk to us or anyone else. I could walk for ten hours a day and not see anyone. Fresh air is good. Exercise is good.
It’s the being in proximity to others and fomites that create transmission risk.

Walking from a second floor flat around a mile block and popping into a shop carries far higher risk than my 78 year old neighbour getting her electric bicycle out and cycling twenty miles.

Berating others for no good reason isn’t helping reduce the death toll.

No shiny shit here but a bike that can do tough terrain and city roads. We need a car too as couldn’t manage without one. Our public transport is shite.

I’m just pointing out the unfairness. The rules should allow driving 50 miles for exercise if cycling 50 miles is ok.

The rules are there because clearly many can’t determine for themselves where the risks sit and are ignorant of the impact of their behaviour on others. Allowing driving means places fill up with day trippers cavorting around in large groups, leaving litter for someone else to pick up, not respecting the countryside of risk to others. It means more people using filling stations, shops, gates, stiles and play equipment.
Driving is not exercise. Walking or cycling can be done without driving. Even in a large city there are nice places to walk freely.

No we could drive to our remote walking areas quite easily. There are hoards of them. They are easier to practise social distancing in as huge and plentiful. They are all shut with car parks closed, verge side parking prohibited.

There are no filling stations, play areas or shops in these areas. You never see litter. They are closed.

If cyclists can cycle 50 miles others should be allowed to drive 50 miles. Cycling is transport.

That's what I don't understand. Why can't we drive 50 miles but we can cycle the same 50 miles, to the same place?

aut0replenish there is no extra cost associated with a bike that can do tough terrain and city roads. You just need wide-ish tyres, which are cheap. The things that add costs are fancy suspension systems, which are for people doing extreme MTBing, not just riding to work or the shops, new-and-expensive-to-maintain gearing, and lightweight exotic materials (which are contraindications for commuting since you want something durable and ugly looking so people don't want to steal it)

Your local places are shut because of people from the wider area driving the 50 miles or whatever to get to them on previous weekends. It's a shame if this means locals can't still access them.

I take my ds for a bike ride every other day. We're up to about 15 miles a time. No contact with anyone else, along country lanes. Yesterday we saw a couple of people in their front gardens - maybe 20m away - the post van and two delivery trucks. No other cyclists.

Why would you want to prevent that?

Mintjulia

Because, going out for that long and that far increases the chances of you interacting with people? You might need the toilet, get a puncture, damage a wheel, have an accident...

I’m just pointing out the unfairness. The rules should allow driving 50 miles for exercise if cycling 50 miles is ok.
It’s not unfair. The cycling is the exercise, if it’s done from someone’s front door. I don’t have a car or a bike. My exercise consists of walking around the streets for a bit - because that is what I can do from my front door. Driving a car is not exercise.

That's what I don't understand. Why can't we drive 50 miles but we can cycle the same 50 miles, to the same place?

Because when I've cycled 50 miles some place, I've been the only person who has done so. I've taken my kids to the beach by bike, to the play park, to the petting zoo, etc., and there was just us on the bike, and 5000 cars.

If you restrict isolated beauty spots to cyclists, then they will be quiet and there won't be a high risk of transmission. If you allow people to drive there they will be teeming.

Many people want to drive somewhere nice to walk. Few people want to cycle somewhere nice to walk.

Besides which you can very easily stop cars since they are big and take up lots of space whereas bicycles just don't.

Car owners are usually quite oblivious to the impact of their transport choices.

That's what I don't understand. Why can't we drive 50 miles but we can cycle the same 50 miles, to the same place?

Car parks mainly. Everyone starting from the same point. Touching the same gates and stiles, using the same loos. (Families on a day out are very likely to need them).

Shoots he got it on the bike to work scheme and got a lot of advice and one that would last. It wasn’t extortionate but not cheap. He has had cheaper bikes that had continuous issues.

So, if lots of people decide to cycle long distance then they would stop it?

What about the increased risks that come with cycling though? What do you do if you are 25 miles from home and damage your bike? Or have an accident? Or need the toilet?

ErrolTheDragon

But that assumes that we are all going to the same places. I want to drive 50ish miles to drop shopping off to my DD. No.one else will be driving to hers and parking there will they?

I’m sure the aim of closing beauty spots wasn’t with the view to them being kept open for cyclists. They’re shut to everybody and everybody is supposed to keep exercise time outside to a minimum. It doesn’t mean a long bike ride and time in a beauty spot for some because cycling families are special.

Genuine dilemma: I'd just started trying to lose some weight and had joined a gym for the first time in my life. Spinning classes were really starting to have a positive impact on my weight and mental health.

I've really missed it and have ordered a normal bike to pick up from Halfords tomorrow. I'm worried I won't get to use it? I DEFINITELY won't be able to do miles and miles as I'm not fit enough but hoped to cycle 30 minutes then turn around a d cycle home.

Dies this sound ok?

I noticed cyclists sweating and panting as they passed close to me (pavement split into cycle path). That's really not what anybody wants at the moment. Within rules perhaps, absolute pisstake though.

But that assumes that we are all going to the same places. I want to drive 50ish miles to drop shopping off to my DD. No.one else will be driving to hers and parking there will they?

If she's in a shielded group or whatever that might well be deemed a 'reasonable excuse'. People are allowed to travel if they've got a good reason for it. Parents collecting kids from uni, people having to do things for elderly relatives etc.

Amused at the amount of people who think all the cyclists in lycra middle aged men or men trying to avoid looking after their own kids or that bikes regularly break down. dh and I used to take turns cycling when the kids were younger. I regularly cycle over 10,000km a year, can fix my own punctures and havent had a bike breakdown in years.

Alot of waffle spoken by people who havent a notion imo

If she's in a shielded group or whatever that might well be deemed a 'reasonable excuse'. People are allowed to travel if they've got a good reason for it. Parents collecting kids from uni, people having to do things for elderly relatives etc.

She isn't in a shielded group and the info from uni has been that going home is not essential travel. Students who are still there should stay there.

It still remains though, why is driving 50 miles only allowed if essential travel, but cycling 50 miles is considered exercise and not travel? You can cycle for 50 miles around roads local to where you live - that's exercise. Cycling twenty five miles away from home is travel.

What about the increased risks that come with cycling though? What do you do if you are 25 miles from home and damage your bike? Or have an accident? Or need the toilet?

That's why some of us are suggesting choosing routes which don't get too far from home. Sensible compromise rather than 'thou shalt not'.

As for loos ... we were social distancing for weeks before the 'lockdown'. Part of that was only choosing places within bladder capacity - so a longer walk only if sufficiently quiet and with trees or walls for DH.