SV-Wolf's Bike Blog

[sv-wolf]

Thanks for the insight mr sv . I might have asked this before but are you anywhere near Bishop Stortford? I used to work for a company called Cable & Utilities as their IT guy. I would travel from there over to Luton, Stevenage, and Cambridge. That was... jeez, more than 10 years ago now.... I feel old all of a sudden

Oh blimey! Yes I know Bishop Stortford, pb. I'm nine miles from Luton, 20 from Cambridge and I work in Stevenage. But I remember now. You did ask me before when we had that serious discussion about how many pubs there were in England called 'The stick'. [Edit, Groan - i.e. THE chicken - ignorant autobot!]

But what, of all the goddam awful twists of fate, took you to Stevenage? I can think of a lot better places to be.

When I think of 10 years ago, it scares the living dodo out of me. I know EXACTLY what you mean. I have more things I want to do now than I did in my 20s and I now have only the smallest and creakiest part of my life left to do them in. "Gotta get on! Gotta get on!"

[sv-wolf]

I think the reason the US's density is so low is because while the cities assimilate everything around them with seas of parking lots, big-box stores and chain restaurants, everything outside of their amoebiac (word?) reach is made up of places like this:



This is three miles from my house, and pretty typical of where I live...and Michigan has small farms...the real breadbasket of the US laughs at our tiny little farms...real farms are too big to see all the way across...

(Motorcycling content?) The real shame is that all of this space was laid out to optimize farming -- all of the roads are straight unless there's an impassible natural feature (like a lake) to go around. Other than that, the roads are all laid out in a one-mile grid...yawn.

[pigsbladder]

But what, of all the goddam awful twists of fate, took you to Stevenage? I can think of a lot better places to be.

The company had an office where they did the cable TV installations. I had to go out there and setup a bar-code tracking system because the installers were stealing the set top boxes.

I remember going down town and the place was dead, my boss told me that a lot of places where closed down, I remember seeing this enormous industrial area with like nobody there at all... very weird... I also remember stopping at a greasy spoon for awesome sausage sarnies

So I did the math and that was 13 years ago.

[sv-wolf]

Hey, hold on guys! I can hardly keep up with you all.

Noodle and Mr S. I started to reply but logged into Google Earth to take a look at Traverse City and Lumberton and just got hooked on the site. It was my first time. Amazing!

I see what you mean Mr S. That long NE/SW axis along the line of the NJ turnpike and beyond - Phew! Relentless. And I didn't realise that Philadelphia was that far east. You seem to be caught right up in its orbit.

Traverse Cty, though, is just a blur. You don't by any chance get a lot of snow clouds over there do you, Nood? (I nearly wrote, 'up there', but I've been told off by the Canuckers before for that.) It looks like a stunning location though, on the edge of the lake with those amazing-looking peninsulars.

Hunting around my home territory I noticed that Google has labeled the local pubs but located them all in the wrong places - a serious error.

Definitely coming over Mr S as soon as I can afford it. I would have come this year but got wowed into spending all my money on going to India again.

pb

Someone nicking things! Yep, that sounds like Stevenage all right. Thirteen years ago the town was hit hard by the recession. Unemployment rocketed sky high. Like you say, the industrial area was like a ghost town. It has recovered well since then and though I don't think I could bring myself to say that it is 'thriving,' it has been doing OK.

The town was built as a 'New Town' in the '60s to house people from East London who were left homeless because of the party Blitz. Stevenage is like a little bit of London in the middle of Hertfordshire - hard edged and with a lot of problems.

Now it looks like we have another recession on the way. Oh well!

[noodlenoggin]

Traverse Cty, though, is just a blur. You don't by any chance get a lot of snow clouds over there do you, Nood?

Nope, only seven months of the year.

Right around the lake, the roads are awesome for riding...twisty, hilly, and with scenery on par with anywhere in the world. One mile away from the lake, and the roads are arrow-straight, laid out in a grid to accommodate as many farm-fields as possible.

[sv-wolf]

Apart from the capital, there just are no huge cities in the south of England at all. There aren't even that many big towns. What you will find are lots of small towns and thousands of villages. The towns are joined up by a generally good network of 'A' roads, while the villages are connected to each other by a dense web of gorgeous twisty little lanes. It makes for some brilliant riding with plenty of choice

To illustrate:

Home sweet home.



We're looking at about thirty miles east to west here and about fifty, north to south.


The only bits of straight road in the UK were originally built by the Romans who were a damn sight more single minded that the native Brits were or have ever been since. The rest of the roads are wonky (often very wonky) and entirely native. As in your part of the world, Noodle, their lines are determined by the needs of farming, only over here, it is medieval strip farming we are talking about. Being very local roads they are in no mind to go anywhere of any importance, or to get you there very quickly. And they squirrel about worse that the squiddliest kid on the ropiest bike.

There is a high density of population in the area, but it is entirely concentrated in small towns and villages, not in cities. If you go south towards London (which is just off the bottom of the map) the number of towns increase. But if you go east, towns get fewer and fewer and more and more rural until you hardly find any at all. So, although the south of England is very densely populated, that doesn't mean you feel crowded in as you do in cities - that makes for a lot of good riding.

If you like the twisties especially, all those little back roads will wiggle for you at any time of day or night. Many of them are a real joy on a bike. Sometimes I just ride out east with friends without planning a route and get lost in the countryside for the whole of a day.

Having said all that, some of the A roads are so congested that riding a bike is just a chore - unless you are belligerent and like a challenge. Can't have everything, I suppose.

[dr_bar]

Here's one of the best loops in southern BC. Best done in 2 - 3 days, but do-able in a long hard day ride...

The start of that loop is right outside my front yard.



Sorry for the Hi-jack, will delete if you want...

[sv-wolf]

Interesting, doc. What are we looking at? Forest and snow? And I guess a bit more open space than you will find round here.

Is this a challenge?

[dr_bar]

Interesting, doc. What are we looking at? Forest and snow? And I guess a bit more open space than you will find round here.

Is this a challenge?

Gee, I haven't sold the Valk yet, wanna test ride a heavy cruiser???

All on the Duffy Lake loop:

http://www3.telus.net/drbar/pics/Duffy_Loop.jpg

http://www3.telus.net/drbar/pics/Duffy_lake.jpg

http://www3.telus.net/drbar/pics/setonlake1.jpg

Yes that's the road beside this lake...

http://www3.telus.net/drbar/pics/Marble%20canyon.jpg

[Nalian]

Not to hijack your blog, sv-wolf - but it's really neat to see how different the areas we all live in are. The US is so spread out, geographically - and culturally. Where I grew up on the west coast, we're very attached to open spaces and green area. Now living in Boston - people are very attached to the idea of open spaces and green area, but not so good at putting it in to practice or sacrificing convenience for it. For anyone who thinks that the US doesn't sprawl the way jstark mentioned...take a look at Boston:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&g ... 8&t=h&z=11

I live near the middle of that, and I usually have a 30 minute ride to get to a half-way decent road.

I wish we could get folks in New England to take the idea of green areas as a religion.[/i]