2025 - Our Rides in Words, Photos, Maps and Videos

Just visited Preston, a city about 30 miles up from us, built on the River Ribble.
My goodness, you can see what the Victorians built, now its a decaying corpse of itself, the architecture, the parks ,the tree lined paths.
Stunning hilltop mansion estate, just abandoned to the kids wrecking it.
Squatters in massive Victorian houses.
Obviously theres a lot more to the place than that, but the addition of souless corporate blandery, half demolished neighbourhoods and boarded up beauty.
Well it can all be fixed I suppose.
 
The Ride to Preston
I made a lot of mistakes at the start of the ride, getting across this bridge was ludicrously difficult.
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Can some one tell me why cows love to congregate around the fence, I had to throw the bike over the fence while the big one watched my every move.
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It never gets easy
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OK so I made it to the rivers edge and followed a path all the way to the city, there were two huge bridges and one was a cycle path, it took me directly to the
Estate, I didn't know if the delivery guy was admiring or sizing up my bike, he gave me along cold stare 😂
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I have no idea of the history, it seems to be maintained and the fountain working is a good sign, but the building is just left to be destroyed.
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I have no idea why I posted this pic.
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The main shopping street, that black guy on the right jumped out of his skin when he saw me, I think he was expecting a hit
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We just loved Greek pillars back then didn't we, but why is it boarded off.
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There seems to be a new approach of pretty young police officers in the UK, I'm not complaining, but I sort of feel they like the uniform, this whole square felt scruffy, and out
of shot were several police vans with their lights flashing.
The saddest thing for me is that war memorial on the right had a large sign, 'please respect this memorial'
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Around the corner was a very run down squatter area, I didn't film it but, they ran out and were shouting at me, it didn't feel threatening, more too many drugs.
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I scooted off only to find it was a complete dead end, so I waited till they got bored and wandered back in, then I nailed it past, which started them off again.
It was like a zombie movie.
Preston is well known for large Indian immigration and the jokes are always based on the smell of curry, I'll have to say many areas did stink of curry, really pungent.
I guess everyone gets used to it.
This whole area I was in was very run down and slightly sketchy feeling, but 40 years ago it was full of the nicest Lancastrians you could imagine.
Absolute friendly, salt of the Earth people, the ones left here all look a bit lost and unsettled , their part of the city has completely changed.
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It was this guys birthday, he was smoking a spliff and we were both watching the kids smashing entire window frames out to let them fall to the ground.
I'll have to say, given the sprawl of classes and races in the area, it was white locals who were doing it.
The whole city was based on a long gone industry, the money has left and its probably destined to be rebuilt by Indians, they were everywhere enjoying the sun and the parks and
brushing the streets outside their houses.
I'm only showing a tiny part of Preston here, I might go back to get a bigger picture.
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Hey, @Chargeride how much does your HaiBike weigh? It’d be a bit of a struggle for me to toss Fättie over a fence.

Great pix, by the way!! Lovely ride.

Oh, and yeah, unfortunately the way some people ride, it’s true that e-bikes have developed a rep and scare some pedestrians. Usually it’s the morons who have their heads buried in their phones.

edit: Oh, and what was difficult about the bridge crossing? Were your handlebars resting on the side of the bridge? Wow, that sucker is narrow.
 
Hey, @Chargeride how much does your HaiBike weigh? It’d be a bit of a struggle for me to toss Fättie over a fence.

Great pix, by the way!! Lovely ride.

Oh, and yeah, unfortunately the way some people ride, it’s true that e-bikes have developed a rep and scare some pedestrians. Usually it’s the morons who have their heads buried in their phones.

edit: Oh, and what was difficult about the bridge crossing? Were your handlebars resting on the side of the bridge? Wow, that sucker is narrow.
It was the wooden strut across it about 12 inches high, you couldnt get past the bike to lift the front wheel over, I had to climb over the bike, lift the wheel.
Then climb back to do the same with the back wheel.

It weighs 53lbs
 
It was the wooden strut across it about 12 inches high, you couldnt get past the bike to lift the front wheel over, I had to climb over the bike, lift the wheel.
Then climb back to do the same with the back wheel.

It weighs 53lbs
Oy. You’re talking about that plank at the end of the bridge, right? What do you think? Is that to keep the cows off it?

Well, 53 pounds is a haul, Charge, but I’m glad you were able to manage it. That’s significantly (20 pounds) less than my RipCurrent. I’m not quite sure how I’d have maneuvered my bike to get over that. Probably do that same as what you did. As for getting mine over the cattle fence. Well, I might’ve given up there.
 
It was the wooden strut across it about 12 inches high, you couldnt get past the bike to lift the front wheel over, I had to climb over the bike, lift the wheel.
Then climb back to do the same with the back wheel.

It weighs 53lbs
Well, 53 pounds is a haul, Charge, but I’m glad you were able to manage it. That’s significantly (20 pounds) less than my RipCurrent. I’m not quite sure how I’d have maneuvered my bike to get over that. Probably do that same as what you did. As for getting mine over the cattle fence. Well, I might’ve given up there.
The issue I often experience here are the lifts at train and metro stations. While some are big and nice, others (made for wheelchairs only) require me to raise the bike's front wheel so the bike is on the vertical. Sometimes, a lift is out of order so I need to carry the e-bike upstairs or downstairs. With an e-bike of 56 lbs (Vado 6.0), it is not easy.

That's why I appreciate my Vado SL (37 lbs without extra batteries). When I meet deep sand on my rides, I prefer just to carry my Vado SL, even if I can barely walk... Same with staircases.
 
The biggest issue is the wheel turning as you lift, the drop on the other side is the biggest effort and the front tyre banging into the fence pushing the bike further away from your balance point.
I have thought of a simple device to hold the headset stiff that can be engaged and disengaged quickly.

Or stop going down trails with gates.
 
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