Zebee Johnstone wrote:
> Be going from Campsie to North Sydney.
Ok, that would more or less force you onto major roads. I'm doing Ashfield
to Pennant Hills, which doesn't have anything like your sort of traffic, except
in certain sections that I easily route around anyway.
> So that seems to be up Frederick St - probably wide enough to lanesplit
> - then the City-West link, which has a breakdown lane for most of it,
> across the Anzac Bridge which might get a bit tricky given the speeds
> were 60kmh or so the time I crossed it in roughly the right timezone,
You should be able to do at least 40 odd on a trike or recumbent, which would
be reasonable in traffic. I've found cars are pretty tolerant of trikes so at
least for short stints like that you won't have any trouble.
> and there's a bunch of lanechanging involved.
> Then down, through city streets,
You shouldn't have any trouble in the city. In peak hour, it's probably
faster if you walk...
You can certainly get away with more WRT
lanesplitting with an upright bike though.
> and up the Bridge bike lane,
You mean the bike path with the stairs at the northern end? No way you'd get
up or down that on a trike, there isn't nearly enough clearance for that. You
might be able to get away with a recumbent bicycle, but would be a bit of a
scary trip going down the first time. I've only done it on a mountain bike
(down the stairs bit with a dualie) once, and it was fun, but wouldn't want to
do it as a regular commute. I sure as hell don't want to carry a trike up
there on the way home...
Last I checked, bicycles aren't allowed on the car bridge lanes, and you
wouldn't want to either. Crazy people use the bridge, I know, I used to be one
of them many years ago...
> then into North Sydney.
> Judging how much I had to split on the motorbike, I definitely want to
> split on a pushbike.
From experience, among traffic on a trike would have plenty of room, people
generally give you lots of room to move, and in some cases overtake you on the
other side of the road, double centre lines and all.
On a normal upright bicycle, they overtake you with 2cm to spare. Actually,
you may as well wear a target sign on your back. (relative to a recumbent)
The situation would obviously be different on _your_ commute, since it's
mostly bumper to bumper car traffic, I only get moderate traffic worst case,
and even on the uphill sections, I could *probably* get away with riding on the
road, but would rather not hold up traffic if I don't need to.
> another reason for using a CWLB is the height - easier to see, and
> possibly easier to be seen. A trike is low enough that planning your
> splits might be hard.
Possibly. I've never been on a recumbent bike (only trike), so don't know
how maneuverable it would be around traffic like that. Keep in mind it's
probably longer than a normal upright, so you'd need a bit more room than an
upright, even if you can see where you're going.
I don't need to do a lot of lanesplits, but I can do a sit-up and look ahead
if I need to, so it hasn't been a real big problem for me. Might be a bit
frustrating if you need to do it all the time though. At least your abs would
get a workout.
As already mentioned in the discussion link a few messages back in this
thread, transporting a trike would be an effort if you needed to get over some
particularly troublesome obstacles.
I make an effort to take the path of least resistance. Basically, I get on
the trike when I leave the house, and don't get off it till I get to work.
While I've done my commute mostly on the trike, I've used my dualie some of
the time. It appears to be *marginally* faster, but only because I can jump
curbs and swerve around obstacles without slowing down on the MTB, where on the
trike, I need to route around driveways or smooth sections which slows me down.
Again it depends on the path, if I only stay on the major roads, the trike
would be no doubt faster than the MTB.
In your case, especially for the bridge stairs bit, I'd stay on a
two-wheeler. Much easier to carry up on the way home.
As an alternative, you could go up via the gladesville bridge, it'll add an
(estimated) 3Km to your ~20Km trip (guessing the start/end locations), but you
wouldn't have to battle with the bridge.
Going on my memory, bridge traffic is *NOT* fun regardless of the mode of
transport, and victoria road, though busy, has enough room to move, certainly
very doable on a trike or recumbent bicycle.
Personally, I do (each way) about 30Km on bike vs a 25Km trip by motorcycle,
to avoid traffic and major roads. A much more pleasurable ride. Try to be a
little open-minded with the exact path you take, as even if it's longer, it can
add up to a much more favourable experience.
You really have to experience the difference in driver attitude between an
upright and a trike to believe it. So if you don't have any curbs to jump, a
recumbent (of any flavour) would be the way to go.
Don't get swayed by comments people might make that low-rider trikes are
impossible to see. I live on it, and it's all ********. Not only do
cars/trucks/buses etc see you, they give you a LOT more room, offer a LOT more
tolerance, and the overall response is a LOT more favorable than a standard
upright bike.
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