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Video: Does the Cinder Track require extensive renovation?
The man who founded bike accessories firm Crud has uploaded footage of himself riding the Cinder Track and invited people to decide for themselves whether it requires extensive restoration. Pete Tomkins opposes Sustrans plans for the old railway line between Scarborough and Whitby, arguing that the work will fundamentally alter its character.
Tomkins says that the video was shot the morning after heavy rain when a number of local roads were closed due to flooding.
“The line was completely passable. What you see here is minor drainage issues, mostly cured with a bit of spade work.”
However, he adds that those of a nervous disposition should look away because, “some of these puddles are up to one inch deep.”
Sustrans unveiled draft plans for restoration of the Cinder Track last month. The council had been due to review them earlier this week but Yorkshire Coast Radio reports that it was felt that too much information was lacking. A task group is to be set up.
Tomkins is adamant that extensive work is unnecessary.
“I vehemently oppose the scheme. The track is absolutely beautiful as is. It has not seen any basic maintenance for years, but is perfectly rideable.”
He is particularly concerned by plans to increase the width of the path.
“Sustrans proposes a 3m wide hard surface with 1m drainage ditch plus a further metre either side for verges. In total, a 20ft wide, 20-mile long development to basically turn the track into a cyclists’ highway.
“This would involve habitat destruction on an epic scale. Sustrans cost the works at £7.2 million plus VAT.”
Nor is Tomkins alone. Over 4,300 people have signed the Help Save Our Cinder Track! online petition with several thousand more also signing a printed version.
Speaking about the draft plans when they were first unveiled, Rupert Douglas, Sustrans Network Development Manager for Yorkshire, said that the track would be ‘sympathetically restored’.
“We are very clear that a tarmac surface is not suitable and is not appropriate for the whole 21.5 miles, so we have provided information about alternative surface options for consideration at sensitive locations such as in the North York Moors National Park. There’ll need to be more consultation with local communities about these options in more detail as part of the planning process.”
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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49 comments
I agree that the path looks great in terms of naturalness and lets you get close to nature - would love to CX that (though I sold my CX bike!).
However, for any other type of riding, it looks a bit... pants
Seems like he likes it the way it is because it suits his style of riding. It doesn't seem to provide an all year safe cycling route for all abilities that is supposed to be part of a national network. There are still no end to the number of bridleways and MTB trails available if that is what he likes.
+1
He's also mistakenly conflating the scenery with the riding surface IMO. See for example...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev7e9s0vups&t=8m25s
(watch until about 9 mins for the variety of people that can use a properly sealed and drained surface in a rural setting)
Yep, totally agree. A very blinkered and selfish 'protest' in my opinion. Just wants to keep it for his style of use and bugger everyone else! It should be open to all abilities, even wheelchairs etc. It needs upgrading but perhaps not so wide - consultation is the key.
Whatever the outcome I'm confident it will be better than my local council's latest effort. They re-surfaced a three-mile section of cycleway using gravel compressed into a shingle base, which, to be fair, is cheaper and lower maintenance than tarmac. Unfortunately, in a spectacularly inept moment of madness, they chose as the top layer millions of tiny flint arrowheads, leading to dozens of punctures and dozens of cyclists avoiding the place. I remember meeting a group of three riders all hunched over their upturned bikes fixing a total of four flats. Only the knobbliest of off-road tyres proved safe.
Pleas from experienced cyclists to remedy the situation were fobbed off with the excuse that if it was a suitable surface for Kew Gardens it was good enough for us. When it was repeatedly pointed out that Kew's paths were for walkers and not bikes they retreated into their bunker and took a full year to send out the sweepers to get rid of some of the offending gravel. You couldn't make it up.
Yeah, unfortunately I suspect this is replicated throughout the country - I know two fairly local 'upgrades' to towpaths and stretches of the NCN that went exactly the same way. The sections of path were closed for months as they did the work, then it was puncture central.
From chatting to riders on the road diversions while the paths were out of action, and to those afflicted by punctures (and while I was fixing punctures myself), I expect the end result is that a lot of previous path-riders gave up with them in favour of the local roads.
Two tyre changes later, I found some knobbly Armadillos that weigh a ton but just laugh at the surface. They are the Batfink of tyres.
It clearly needs to be accessible to all cyclists able and not so able and not just sporty cyclists with spotty bikes.
100% agree. Stop taken away spaces from people and start reallocating road space to cycles.
Even with his Crud mudguards he swerved all over the place avoiding potholes and puddles.
It looks to me like it needs to be repaired and widened slightly to make it easier for cyclists to pass each other. 3m wide tarmac and two 1m wide ditches is overkill though.
Looks proper shit tbh
Thanks for this, and the link to the petition, which I have just signed. If you love this track, or just appreciate peaceful cycling and walking routes with abundant wildlife at your shoulder please sign it too.
Not every cycleway has to be a linear velodrome!
I shall be contacting Sustrans also, to ask that they spend the money somewhere it's needed.
If that path is perfectly rideable then I can only assume that he finds it extremely difficult to ride in a straight line, why else would he keep swerving from side to side, after all it couldn't be to avoid the ruts, pools of water and large stones eroding out of the path surface could it.
Why do you insist on being able to ride in a straight line without the odd adjustment for the road surface?
Even on a road surface you've got be able to adjust for variations and irregularities in the road... there's just a few more of them on this path... which is lovely as is. If you want a high-speed, low variation surface then there's already an extensive network of them blighting the land.
You might be happy to, but I, and I guess many elderly potential riders, don't want to spend all the time looking at the ground to plot a course - I and they want to pootle along enjoying the scenery. And when with kids I don't want to constantly be their eyes for them either.
Since it's a bridleway, tarmac is inappropriate but there are a number of other surfaces that are - the bridleways on Epsom and Ashtead common have been resurfaced in the past 5 years as 2-3m wide paths with well-drained compact surfaces of uniform composition that now attract wheelchair users and people on ordinary uprights at all times of the year, whereas before they looked like some of the narrower sections of the video, and you only saw Goretex-bedecked "enthusiasts", CX/MTB-ers and horse riders (you still do).
PS The pic prefacing the video at the top of this article show a man who seems to be standing on a badly eroded and sterile embankment. In the video itself, at around 1:15 the walkers step off the track for the rider - very polite but it shows there's inadequate width even with only 3 people around, and you can imagine that if a less I-have-to-be-friendly-because-I have-an-agenda-to-film-but-still-fairly-accommodating rider came through there might well be perceived conflict because of that.
Pootling would be a perfect speed for that sort of track. It's the sort of thing I grew up riding on. As a kid it taught me to watch where I was going.
Also, w.r.t scenery, a 2-3m wide track created by hacking down the trees, hedges and bushes in an orc-like frenzy seems counterproductive. I suppose a wall of hi-def LED billboards powered by solar panels could be created alongside the track to project images of a countryside, long since vanished under wheelchair friendly "bike" paths. At appropriate intervals robotic mannequins of dogs and ramblers and farmers could shout at the eco-cyclists.
there's gotta be some sub-clause to Godwin's law that includes references to Tolkien in internet threads!
Thorin's Law?
Well, it's already better than a lot of Sustrans paths. Not sure I'd want to commute on it every day, but us that a real usage?
Also better than a road I used today.
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