Frequently Asked Questions

Find the answers to the questions we often get asked here.

Contents

What kind of rides do you do?
Where can I get a second-hand bike?
I’ve got some unwanted bikes to get rid of. What can I do with them?
Where can I rent a bike in Sheffield?
I have had an accident on my bicycle and require legal advice.
Where can I get insurance?
Does anyone do weekday rides for retired people?
Why do Sheffield Cycle Routes seem to stop and start all the time?
Why are Sheffield’s road surfaces so awful?
Should cyclists be forced to register their cycles and have licence plates?
Isn’t Sheffield too hilly for cycling?
Does anyone run bike maintenance courses/workshops in Sheffield?
Why do cars park on the Glossop Rd/Clarkehouse Rd bike lanes?

How long does it take to cycle to Sheffield from….?

What kind of rides do you do?

We normally organise a Tuesday night ride and a seasonal Sunday all-day ride – one for each of the seasons. Our biggest ride of the year tends to be our Wednesday night ride during National Bike Week. Additionally we organise occasional rides informally, when one of us feels like it, or when there’s something interesting we’d like to take a look at, like a new cycle route or a new bridge. Obviously you need lights for our winter night ride, and the brighter the better!

We usually meet at Barkers Pool, outside the City Hall at 6:o0 p.m. but please email cyclesheffield to confirm. We use Twitter to notify members when there’s a ride – follow @cyclesheffield.

We have rides to suit all abilities. Sometimes we just take a short ride to a cafe or pub in town, and sometimes we set off further afield. Sometimes rides are mainly off-road, and sometimes mainly on, although we try to avoid major trunk routes as far as possible – they’re just no fun. We pace our rides so that no-one gets left behind, and sometimes we can’t keep up!

When we’ve decided on a ride we put it on our Events Diary.

Where can I get a second-hand bike?

Re-cycle, based at Heeley Development Trust, Heeley. Phone 0114 2500613 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              0114 2500613      end_of_the_skype_highlighting. Website

Remar: Office 160 Matilda Street, Tlf. 44-114-2730443

Classified Ads in the Star, also Cycling Weekly (mainly sports cycles), the CTC magazine and Cycling Plus all have free adverts

Free-Ads Magazine

The Peak Park Cycle Hire centres sell off re-conditioned hire bikes at the end of the season.

Try Ebay?

Ask to place a wanted advert on our mailing list

I’ve got some unwanted bikes to get rid of. What can I do with them?

Re-cycle, based at Heeley Development Trust, Heeley. Phone 0114 2500613.

Remar: Office 160 Matilda Street, Tlf. 44-114-2730443

Classified Ads in the Star, also Cycling Weekly (mainly sports cycles), the CTC magazine and Cycling Plus all have free adverts

Free-Ads Magazine

Try Ebay?

Freecycle

Where can I rent a bike in Sheffield?

Regrettably there are no bike hire facilities in Sheffield. The nearest ones that we know of are the leisure ones in the Peak District – Fairholmes and Parsley Hey. Cycle hire is also available at Rother Valley Country Park and Clumber Park.

I have had an accident on my bicycle and require legal advice.

Firstly we are sorry to hear about any accident and offer our sympathies.

Make sure you get the other party’s insurance details, address, phone, & name.

We keep a confidential log of accidents to cyclists which we use to press the council for improvements to cyclists safety. If you’ve had an accident please let us know either by email to ppmail at shu dot ac dot uk or by phone to 07854803195. Also you should report the accident to the police and insist they fill in a STATS 20 form.

The Sheffield Cycle Campaign cannot offer legal advice. However, this is our understanding of the Legal_Situation

If you are a member of the CTC contact them for free legal aid.

Alternatively we recommend Howells solicitors. Many of their staff are cyclists and have an intimate knowledge of the problems cyclists face.

You can contact Peter Mahy or any of the staff there and they may be able to take your case on a no win no fee basis.

If you have an accident on the Supertram tracks we strongly recommend that you see a solicitor and consider taking legal action. The Supertram network is is regulated by the Office of the Rail Regulator’s Her Majesty’s Rail Inspectorate, so they should be informed of any serious accident – see http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/nav.1353.

Where can I get insurance?

CycleSheffield does not offer insurance as part of its membership.

The best way to obtain bike insurance is by joining the CTC -

http://www.ctc.org.uk

You automatically get 3rd party insurance on joining and can upgrade if you wish – see

http://www.butterworthinsurance.co.uk/

If you think you may want to try racing or time trials you may be better joining the British Cycling Federation

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/BC/bchome/home.asp

Does anyone do weekday rides for retired people?

Try Autumn Tints. They have rides on Wednesdays across Yorkshire. Their S.Yorks contact (& chairman) is Colin Brewin – 01302 728288.

Why do Sheffield Cycle Routes seem to stop and start all the time?

There are many reasons for this. One is that many cycle lanes and paths are paid for by “planning gain” – a developer puts money in the pot to help pay for a section of route that goes near his development, and the rest of the route has to wait until more money becomes available.

However, sometimes people misunderstand the nature of cycle routes in Sheffield. Neither the Sheffield Cycle Campaign nor the Council believe that segregated off-roads paths are always essential. Where speeds are slow and traffic is light cyclists can normally be catered for on the road. Dedicated cycle routes are fine when they take where you want to go by a reasonably short route, but we do not believe that cyclists should have to take circuitous routes just because they might “hold up the traffic”. The Dept for Transport has a hierarchy of provision (see links below) that suggests for example that shared use on the pavement should be a last resort.

Off-road routes if poorly designed can be more dangerous than cycling on the road, and can lead to cyclists losing their road skills, and motorists failing to be bike-aware.

So when you are cycling in Sheffield and you leave a cycle lane, don’t assume you have left the “route”. All roads are potential cycle routes, although some are plainly more suitable for cycling than others.

A council officer comments further:

The old highway engineering attitude used to be: “we’re resurfacing 200m of Smith Street, there’s no point in providing cycle facilities ‘cos it doesn’t join up with anything”. The current starting point is “unless there’s a good reason for not doing it, do it anyway because next year we’re doing the next 200m and the year after….”. This is also why you see lanes leading to ASLs at one signalised junction, but not the next or the next and then there’s another. Eventually these will join up to create a whole route.

Lastly, short lengths of cycle lane may be put where the road narrows (at a ped or traffic island say) and then nothing until the next island. The point here is to say to mr driver ‘if there’s a cyclist here s/he needs at least this much room (between islands there’s usually enough space to safely over-take)’. Further, if there’s only room for one lane at an island (‘cos the road’s not wide enough) put the lane in the uphill direction – cyclist pedalling hard, more wobbly, greater speed differential (downhill direction cyclist has a better chance of keeping up with motor vehicle, less speed differential).

Links: (under construction)

DfT Cycling Guidance for LA’s

CTC Briefing Note

Why are Sheffield’s road surfaces so awful?

It’s a age-old question! The short answer would be “because they always have been” but there’s a bit more to it than than. Chronic under-funding particularly during the Thatcher/Major years, left the city’s roads in a very poor state, and although they improved a bit under New Labour, the severe weather we are now having (floods in the summer, heavy snow in the winter) has been taking it’s toll. The PFI programme that was set up by the previous Labour administration is supposed to sort out the problem once and for all, but we question whether a PFI is really the best Value-for-Money way to do it. In the interim, you can report specific problems to Street force – 0114 2734567, streetforce at sheffield dot gov dot uk.  If the road surfaces were better cycling would certainly be a lot easier (see here)

Should cyclists be forced to register their cycles and have licence plates?

No. Cyclists are readily identifiable because you can see their faces and other physical characteristics. This is not the case for example with cars that have tinted windows.

Isn’t Sheffield too hilly for cycling?

Only if you are overweight and smoke. Give up the coffin nails, start eating proper food (this includes vegetables) get a decent bike and possibly go to the gym or swimming pool now and again. You will soon find yourself zooming up and down the hills.

Does anyone run bike maintenance courses/workshops in Sheffield?

Wood Lane Countryside Centre used to do ‘em – see http://www.woodlanecc.org.uk/cycling.htm

Re-cycle in Heeley are now doing them as well.

Why do cars park on the Glossop Rd/Clarkehouse Rd bike lanes?

These are part time bike lanes. They only operate during the rush hours. This is because local businesses objected to them being made full-time when they were put in, and the council thought it was better to compromise and at least have them some of the time rather than not have them at all. We have been trying to get the council to extend the hours of operation to match the new times on the bus lanes on Abbeydale Rd & Ecclesall Rd and we are told that this is in the pipeline. If you find that cars are parked in them during operational hours please contact Parking Services.

How long does it take to cycle to Sheffield from….?

Sheffield is about one hour’s drive from  some of the major conurbations in the north and midlands of England. For an averagely fit cyclist, this translates into 3-4 hours cycling from Leeds, Huddersfield, Manchester, Derby and Nottingham but this would entail cycling on busy main roads at times. For cyclists with more time, there are quieter routes from most of these places, mostly on the National Cycle Network, but these can take substantially longer. Our routes pages are here or order a copy of the cyclists route book by sending a cheque for £3.50 to Simon Geller, 19 Greystones Close, Sheffield S11 7JT.

If your question hasn’t been answered please use the contact details on the web site to get in touch.