Re: Riding country roads (was: Re: Let's hide the bicyclists behind parked cars. What could go wrong?)

On Fri, 17 Jan 2025 13:55:12 +0100, Wolfgang Strobl
<news51@mystrobl.de> wrote:

Am Mon, 13 Jan 2025 12:41:40 -0500 schrieb Catrike Ryder
<Soloman@old.bikers.org>:
>

On Mon, 13 Jan 2025 18:27:09 +0100, Wolfgang Strobl
<news51@mystrobl.de> wrote:
>

Am Mon, 13 Jan 2025 11:24:29 -0500 schrieb Frank Krygowski
<frkrygow@sbcglobal.net>:
>

"Traffic traveling as much as 90 kph" is usually much less problem for
me than John pretends, in part because most of the roads I ride have
slower speeds, chosen because of aesthetics. Less traffic and less road
noise is more pleasant.

>
Exactly.  An quite a lot of roads with no limit (meaning limited to 100
km/h outside of highways) are wide enough or have little traffic, so
that overtaking slower vehicles is not much of a problem.  I a driver is
able to overtake another that only drives at 80 km/h, he or she is
certailny able to overtake a cyclist doing 30 km/h only. Most probably,
the latter is much easier to do, for obvious reasons.
>

>
And even those with 55 mph cars seldom have continuous platoons. One or
two motorists at a time are easy to deal with. In either case, when
motorists see me at lane center, they seem to realize right away that
they will have to adjust their speed, their lane choice or whatever.
It's rare to even get a horn honk.

>
Time to show this short video again
<https://www.mystrobl.de/ws/pic/20210710/L113.mp4>

>

We have used that road quite often, because it is the best connection to
get out of the larger Rhine valley and into the low mountain range
called "Eifel".  Narrower roads, especially those with a sidepath are
both more unpleasant and more risky. Motorists can sniff "bicycle
infrastructure" even when there isn't any. Any rotten footpath is good
enough. :-(

>

Looks like a nice ride.

>
I was indeed a nice ride. Rode that segment often enough. Last time was
in June last year, on a longer ride to a local hill, 140 km and almost
1900 m of altitude gain.
>

A little like the country roads where I use to
ride in Wisconsin, but much flatter. The flatness is like where I ride
here in Florida.

>
Well, the part shown (L113 video) is from a flat stretch of landscape
about 100 m above where I live.
>
Data for this ride was
2021-07-10: 02:59:08   67.4 km  582 m up, 22.6 km/h average. Going up
from ~ 60 m up to ~400 m. The steeper part begins after leaving the
L113. See the following map. E key or clicking the icon on the bottom
right displays the profile.
>
<https://brouter.m11n.de/#map=12/50.5933/6.9267/OpenTopoMap&lonlats=6.94417,50.609543;6.946192,50.578493&profile=fastbike>
>

I ride mostly bike trails here, but occasionally on
country roads like your video.

>
I avoid bike trails if I can (too risky for my taste and I don't like
riding on trails), but I don't ride on country roads like the L113 only,
either.

The bike trails I mostly ride are not heavily used and there are only
very occasional non bicyclist users. They are rural and almost
exclusively used by recreational riders. I often go several miles
without seeing another person.

--
C'est bon
Soloman