Lincoln to Nottingham IKEA, or, The Devil's Day Ride

Recently I've moved house and though my attempts to secure a pleasant
commute to work came to naught as my new house is off the bottom of Lincoln
High Street I did get the opportunity for some purposeful cycling last
weekend; especially welcome as I'd not been on a long ride for many, many
weeks. I needed a bed, a bookcase and a draught excluder snake, being
somewhat skint and lazy this meant buying from IKEA, Swedish for "We'll suck
out your soul!".

So, bright and early Sunday morning, I awoke, stretched, yawned, decided I
was far too comfortable and went back to sleep, eventually rising at the
crack of noon to eat a large breakfast and unearth my good cycling clothes
from the morass of boxes in my room, departing from Lincoln at about 20 to
one.

As usual, the usual Lincolnshire headwind was lying in wait, complete with
some nice rainshowers and the usual Sunday afternoon traffic. As there is no
nice, direct route to Nottingham from Lincoln I ended up going straight
down the A46 through Newark and then onto the A52 into Nottingham town
centre. Luckily the headwind wasn't too strong, clocking about 12mph or so
according to the BBC forecast I'd checked that morning.

Roadwise, the A46 dual carriageway between Lincoln and Newark was very
pleasant and smooth, though once it dropped to single carriageway between
Newark and the A52 junction it became rather unpleasant. Nottingham remains
a grimy postindustrial mess; thankfully my navigational luck held and I
managed to make it through to the A610 and from there to the well signposted
"IKEA RETAIL PARK!!!!" along a truly horrible urban dual carriageway which
tangled with the local M1 junction just to make matters "interesting"

Despite the journey between Nottingham and IKEA being as cycle-unfriendly as
possible, there were cycle lanes in the carpark and yet a distinct lack of
designated cycle parking. There were plenty of posts and things, so I still
got to smirk at the merry-go-round of cagers looking for a parking space at
that time on a Sunday afternoon. Of course, later on they got to smirk in
return as I forked over 45 quid to get my purchases shipped back to Lincoln.

So from there I was in, bouncing on mattress, bemoaning lack of cuddly
snakes, collecting purchases and leaving all in about an hour and a half.
Spending too long in Ikea makes my brain hurt.

Then, onto Nottingham for a bite to eat and a cup of coffee bought from the
railway station[1] since it was the only place open. Feeling refuelled, I
took a slightly longer route back, along the A612 to Southwell, then back
into Newark on the A617 and finally back to Lincoln on the A46. By that time
the rain had gone, the sun was shining and I was being blasted along at a
good 20mph by the same wind that annoyed me on the way out. Moreover,
Nottinghamshire is so much prettier than grotty Lincolnshire; lots of little
chocolate box village and pretty houses.

Despite such a long ride (about 90 miles round trip) being rare for me at
the moment, I didn't feel too dreadful the next day. The poor bike needs a
bit of maintenance; a month with my good tools packed away in storage has
manifested itself in the form of many rattles, squeaks and clicks.

Hope everyone else had such a good weekend.

Regards,

-david

[1] Just as well I didn't need to bail out; the trains from Nottingham to
Lincoln had been replaced with busses that day

David Nutter wrote:
> Recently I've moved house and though my attempts to secure a pleasant
> commute to work came to naught as my new house is off the bottom of Lincoln
> High Street

Isn't there a street in the middle of Lincoln called Steep Hill? You
could get a good workout by riding up and down that a few times.

d.

"davek" <dk@nospam.net> wrote in message
news:ce5dgl$kf8$1@sparta.btinternet.com...
> David Nutter wrote:
> > Recently I've moved house and though my attempts to secure a pleasant
> > commute to work came to naught as my new house is off the bottom of
Lincoln
> > High Street
>
> Isn't there a street in the middle of Lincoln called Steep Hill? You
> could get a good workout by riding up and down that a few times.

I think it's cobbled though amd possibly peds only, he might lose a few
fillings on it!
--
Simon

David Nutter typed:
> the A610 and from there to the well
> signposted "IKEA RETAIL PARK!!!!" along a truly horrible urban dual
> carriageway which tangled with the local M1 junction just to make matters
> "interesting"
>
> Despite the journey between Nottingham and IKEA being as cycle-unfriendly
> as possible

We, thankfully not now, used to live just behind Ikea .. and I concur that
the particular road, being a part of an irregular commute for me, is indeed
quite horrible. It _is_ nicer in a car, which can't be said of many places
I've been ..

It isn't so bad if you know the (roughly parallel) route via Aspley and
Kimberley etc, avoiding the A610 dual-carriageway abortion completely .. In
fact it's very pretty in places and has a good cycle track ..


--
Paul ...

(8(|) ... Homer Rocks

davek <dk@nospam.net> said:
> David Nutter wrote:
>> Recently I've moved house and though my attempts to secure a pleasant
>> commute to work came to naught as my new house is off the bottom of Lincoln
>> High Street
>
> Isn't there a street in the middle of Lincoln called Steep Hill? You
> could get a good workout by riding up and down that a few times.

Yeah

Unfortunately it's cobbled and not that long. Very picturesque though.

Regards,

-david

Simon Mason <simon@simonmason.karoo.co.uk> said:

> I think it's cobbled though amd possibly peds only, he might lose a few
> fillings on it!

Fillings! I'll have you know I have all my own fangs, with a few extra free!

Whether this will still be the case after riding up and down Steep Hill a few
times I do not know.

Regards,

-david

Paul - xxx <notcheckedever@hotmail.com> said:

> We, thankfully not now, used to live just behind Ikea .. and I concur that
> the particular road, being a part of an irregular commute for me, is indeed
> quite horrible. It _is_ nicer in a car, which can't be said of many places
> I've been ..

Heh.

> It isn't so bad if you know the (roughly parallel) route via Aspley and
> Kimberley etc, avoiding the A610 dual-carriageway abortion completely .. In
> fact it's very pretty in places and has a good cycle track ..

I was considering working my way though Aspley but since my map was one of
the small scale O/S road maps I wasn't able to pick out a suitable route.
Consequently I stuck to the major road on the way out simply because it was
well signposted. If I go back, I'll check out the parallel route through
Aspley.

Regards,

-david