Graham, Tom and Ian

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New bike shop to open in Gatley

by Lib Dem team on 27 February, 2014

A new bike shop, Bikehaus, will open on Stonepail Road, Gatley in April if all goes to plan for cyclist owner Andy Hilton.

Andy’s come on the Gatley Facebook page to tell everyone about his plans and he’s set up a Bikehaus Facebook page here.

We wish Andy every success with Bikehaus. Not only is Gatley a regular haunt for road cyclists (often to be seen taking a break at Coffee Fix) but we’re also seeing the biggest ever investment in cycle infrastructure around Gatley and Cheadle.

Last week I tried out the new cycle-friendly route from Gatley to Cheadle, made possible thanks to recent improvements just over the last few months. It’s not quite as quick as the busy road road (though because there are no traffic lights, it’s not as big a difference as you might think – you can cycle a long way while other people are waiting for the lights to change at the Gatley junction!).

The road starts at Gatley station. Walk your bike through the alleyway to South Park Road, then cycle along South Park Road, under Kingsway and round the new cycle path up alongside Kingsway. There are a few steps you have to get down onto the path past Barnes Hospital, but from then on you’ve got a tarmac path onto Mill Lane and from there either down to Brook Road and Cheadle village centre, or to the Alexandra Hospital and onto Manchester Road.

Additional work to improve routes into Manchester along the A34 should be done soon, with work on Manchester Road and upgrading the Trans Pennine Trail to give an off-road route all the way into Stockport will be done in the next year.

https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z3MfJMDBApO0.kRQEVhBPjhUk

   8 Comments

8 Responses

  1. Alex Masidlover says:

    I have an another route which also avoids that junction… Down Springfield Road, Beech ave or Delamere to Foxlands Road then follow the signed cycle route under the A34 underpass to Broadway, the left on to Wilmslow Road and into the centre of Cheadle.

    However, I’m not sure I’d class either as cycle routes when you have to dismount and walk. They’re fine if the journey is short enough (or you have enough time) that you could have walked anyway, but if you’re commuting to work then they’re simply not practical.

    And as for steps on a cycle route!! I frequently take my boys out in the trailer behind the bike, and was considering using the ‘558’ cycle route to take them Swimming at Grand Central. Thankfully I used the route to run to work as an experiment and discovered it had a flight of stairs over a railway bridge which would have been completely impassable with the bike and trailer… Clearly whoever designated that a cycle route is into cyclocross and quick dismounts followed by shouldering the bike and running up stairs…

  2. Iain Roberts says:

    Hi Alex,

    You’re right about steps – we want to avoid them wherever possible and if either money was no object or we could start with a blank canvass, we certainly would.

    The 558 was particularly frustrating – the hope was that Network Rail would agree to putting a running ramp on the bridge but they always refused, so for that section of the journey we’re stuck with the options to go over the bridge, round the Morrisons roundabout or via a much longer detour.

    It may be that we’ll have the money to sort out the (much smaller) number of steps on this route sometime, but in the meantime whilst it won’t be something that a cyclist like yourself would use, it could well be a good route for anyone who doesn’t want to cycle along the main roads.

  3. Alex Masidlover says:

    I do think it would be worth some warning signs early on the route, if I hadn’t tried it on foot first I would have arrived there with bike and trailer and had to turn round and go home…

    It would have been a bit like the chicken/boat/fox parable – I could hardly leave a 15 month old at either the start or end while I carry the bike then trailer up and then down 2 flights of stairs.

    2 or 3 steps or those silly double fences used to stop cars are a minor irritation, but having to turn round and go home with disappointed children would not have been good!

  4. Chris Leuty says:

    Re: subway tunnel under A34. At the top of the ramp on the Gatley side there is a blue circle indicating a shared pedestrian and cycle path. There is a sign on the Cheadle side saying cyclists dismount. A similar sign is on the wall facing into the tunnel at the bottom of the steps to the Kingsway School grounds. I would not expect a cyclist coming from Gatley down the slope to necessarily see this sign. So does this mean it’s ok to cycle through the subway from Gatley but not Cheadle?

  5. Iain Roberts says:

    I agree the signage is confusing, Chris – I’ll ask for it to be sorted out.

  6. David Johnson says:

    As a regular walker around Gatley/Cheadle/Heald Green the problems with wheeled transport is formidable and dangerous. The passes under the A34 near Barnes and more so that near Kingsway School (often massed with pupils) are not suitable for wheels. Too many drivers & Cyclists ignore the laws and rules (knowing that prosecution or censure is unlikely in the absence of effective policing or Wardens. Encouragement of walking is needed by provision of more safe and feet only routes and road crossings!

  7. Carolyn Minkes says:

    I don’t cycle any more but I used both the routes and the subway and it’s approach are difficult and squalid and the steps were difficult. Not all cyclists are lithe and Lycra clad

  8. Andy Hilton says:

    Thankyou for the mention! The shop will be jointly owned and run by myself and GB Paracyclist Jon-Allan Butterworth. We hope to be open 7th April and would love to become part of the community.

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