Techniquest
Veteran Member
15/03/2022 - Hello and Goodbye Freebike!
I wasn't going to do a trip report for this adventure, or indeed for the following day, but the rain in Crewe on 16/03/2022 saw me camp out in the waiting room on platform 5. So I figured, why not get a trip report going? Something needed to occupy me, and I was not willing to get wet again. That's another story!
So, I had found myself on 350119+350258 from Winsford to Liverpool Lime Street, having gone north the day before to visit my little sister. Last minute organising and rolling with impulse, incredibly long story, nothing new there. I had expected to be treating her to a day out, but that had changed when I discovered her day off had changed this week. I had decided to look up the cycle sharing scheme in Liverpool, and it looked interesting, so why not? Well, there's a reason for the trip report title!
After treating myself to a Greggs breakfast, to top up what I'd had nearly 4 hours previously, and I do not recommend their hash browns but I do the vegan bacon roll, I went down to Pier Head for a bit of a wander while I consumed my coffee. The cycle sharing scheme seems to go by the name of both Citybike and Freebike, the app was called Freebike but I honestly don't know what to call it! Well, I have a few terms but none appropriate for sharing!
I found out while in the Pier Head area, upon opening the app to find a docking station with a bike available, that Three had gone down. No data signal, no network signal, but I had a walk active on Strava which needed logging. All the way around Liverpool my mobile network failed to work, so I returned to Lime Street station to use some free WiFi. With the walk logged, and I had not been willing to abandon it for the I Will Walk 500 challenge, I restarted the phone and thankfully it eventually picked up a network signal again. Phew!
So, back to the bikes, having discovered there were no Transpennine 802s out for a while that I wanted. The docking station just outside Lime Street station, where the app insisted a bike was available, is not there due to a load of roadworks, so I got on my way to the docking station near Liverpool Central station. No, only an electric bike there, no thank you.
Same applied to another docking station, and the one near Chinatown was also only filled with one electric bike. Now I was familiar with e-bikes from those used with Beryl in Hereford, and I'm not a fan of those. They work well in Hereford, but it just doesn't feel right to me. I prefer to use my legs! Well while unlocking the bike wasn't too awkward, but getting the stand to fold down was overly awkward! Don't ask me what happened to the motor, it certainly didn't seem to kick in much at all, although later on it seemed to want to push me forward when in traffic. I've counted it as a normal bike ride, that motor was barely worth the extra effort to pedal along with me quite honestly.
The ride eventually got me around the waterfront, and I found myself around docklands somewhere near Bootle I think. I gave up working out where that road would take me and turned back for the city. Eventually I found myself at Liverpool One Bus Station, and a docking station there. So I parked the bike up, number 2036 for anyone curious, and expected it to be an easy process.
Well not exactly. I plugged the cable in, squeezed the brake lever twice as it asked me to do, and that was supposed to be it. Well no, the app eventually figured out 9 minutes later that I had locked up, but trying to make it work out I had entered some combination code to make the app stop charging me was irritating. I spent nearly 10 minutes on the phone trying to get through to someone to sort it out, but then I saw it had stopped counting my ride in the app so hung up. I don't know if I was ever going to get out of the queue!
After all that, I was going for a walk but first ended up in TGI Fridays for a delicious lunch. It should go without saying that I thoroughly enjoyed my meal, and as is usually the case I had excellent service. Next up was looking to see if any 802s I wanted were out, not at that point and so I decided to do a walk that Kite159 had told me about, the Liverpool Loop Line. That will get discussed fully another time, as just before I committed to the ticket to Broad Green I decided to jump on 390127 for a leap to Runcorn. I had another idea!
After a quick and easy leap, over before I knew it, I was off at Runcorn and I see it's actually quite easy now to access the Jubilee Bridge. When I was up this way in October 2020, it was not as easy but this was a welcome plus (I've now had a look at the old road layout on my Sustrans map, it really was different a few years ago). I had wanted to do this bridge on foot for a long time, and I had also discovered I could do the walk to Widnes. So that was that, I was off! It was a nice and easy walk over the bridge, and onwards to Widnes was no challenge either.
It's a surprisingly big town, I was quite surprised at that. I stopped off at Greggs for a coffee, and discovered Victoria Park was nearby. It would not hurt to go and have a look, I had tons of time until my planned departure from Runcorn. It's a really nice place, full of school children during my visit frustratingly but any other time it would be great. My endpoint was Widnes railway station, and with nothing of particular interest due through any time soon I returned to Victoria Park.
Looking at the map on Strava, I had noticed I could walk down to the waterfront, and that took all of 5 seconds to confirm my interest. Through suburban Widnes I went, which gave way to an industrial estate and a future site of many, many new houses. Eventually I reached the TransPennine Trail, also known in these parts as National Cycle Network Route 62.
In this area, the trail follows the disused St Helens Canal, and I soon enough reached Spike Island. As I reached the Jubilee Bridge, I decided to go with the flow and continue the exploration for a bit longer. Soon though, I decided that part of the TransPennine Trail could wait until I returned to the area with my beast. In case you're wondering why I didn't have it with me, it was in for repairs after what I believe was a bottom bracket break. After a little over 5,400 miles and an awful lot of intense riding in 14 months, it did well to get that much done before its first major issue (with labour costs, new brake blocks and two other new parts, it cost me £130.99). As I type this on 16/03/2022, I had received a call to say it was ready to pick up, so I was looking forward to getting the beast back in my possession!
Eventually then I turned off and headed back towards the railway, and I was soon back at Jubilee Bridge. I decided to record a video of the experience, stopping for 66423 on a southbound empty car train after what turned out to be 350265+350104 heading to Liverpool as they headed over the railway bridge. I still had plenty of time, so I went to have a look at something else I'd seen on the map, Runcorn Hill. I had considered going around Runcorn itself, but I did that on a ride in October 2020 and didn't recall anything particularly interesting. Hard to believe that ride at 41.38 miles was my longest one, less than a year later my longest ride had been almost doubled! Just thinking about the October 2020 ride has me feeling exhausted, and remembering the September 2021 ride has me remembering the aches as I sat on the train out of Norwich! (You know, I really should do the trip report for October 2020, it is on my list of things to do!)
Good call, as the Fosters adverts at least used to say (are they even on any more? I haven't seen or heard one in a long time), as Runcorn Hill Park is really nice. I think I saw a sign saying it was something to do with a landfill site? Either way, it was a really beautiful area and a place to go back to one day for a fuller exploration. Time was now getting a little tight, I didn't want to get back to Winsford too late, although I got to the house later than planned. Jumping the gun there, I will get to that!
When I got to a Premier shop, where some Lucozade Sport was a most welcome purchase, I got to Greenway Road Bridge just in time to get a photo of 390117 as it left Runcorn. With a few minutes to spare at the station, Strava reported that I had done 11.96 miles of walking, which is by some measure my biggest single walk in quite some time! I do reckon, as I blast Brisk and Trixxy's Eye Opener (some proper old-school happy hardcore!) into the ear canals that some quality tunes would have kept the body going for even longer on that walk. Nothing quite like some fast-paced, bouncy music on an exercise mission to keep the motivation going. For the record, my longest single walk is 16.25 miles which I think was nearly a year ago. I think it's time to look at smashing that record!
350104+350258 were in charge of taking me to Winsford, and the journey was over in no time. Now I should have got myself back to the house straight away, but I was determined to make something nice for tea. So I went on a mission to Morrisons, including some new coverage in Winsford which had the bonus of giving me an insight into some roads for future cycling missions, and not far from Morrisons I could feel the body getting ready to quit. The second bottle of Lucozade soon came out, and sadly Morrisons didn't have much of anything I actually wanted, so the chippy was to get a visit when the sister returned after all!
Once in the house, an Earl Grey and several Rich Tea biscuits got devoured. That was better! The large chips, mushy peas and onion rings really sorted out the body's desire for nutrition, and by half 9 I was falling asleep.
Stay tuned for the trip report from elsewhere in the North West! I have many more photos to share yet, I will have to add them to another post!
I wasn't going to do a trip report for this adventure, or indeed for the following day, but the rain in Crewe on 16/03/2022 saw me camp out in the waiting room on platform 5. So I figured, why not get a trip report going? Something needed to occupy me, and I was not willing to get wet again. That's another story!
So, I had found myself on 350119+350258 from Winsford to Liverpool Lime Street, having gone north the day before to visit my little sister. Last minute organising and rolling with impulse, incredibly long story, nothing new there. I had expected to be treating her to a day out, but that had changed when I discovered her day off had changed this week. I had decided to look up the cycle sharing scheme in Liverpool, and it looked interesting, so why not? Well, there's a reason for the trip report title!
After treating myself to a Greggs breakfast, to top up what I'd had nearly 4 hours previously, and I do not recommend their hash browns but I do the vegan bacon roll, I went down to Pier Head for a bit of a wander while I consumed my coffee. The cycle sharing scheme seems to go by the name of both Citybike and Freebike, the app was called Freebike but I honestly don't know what to call it! Well, I have a few terms but none appropriate for sharing!
I found out while in the Pier Head area, upon opening the app to find a docking station with a bike available, that Three had gone down. No data signal, no network signal, but I had a walk active on Strava which needed logging. All the way around Liverpool my mobile network failed to work, so I returned to Lime Street station to use some free WiFi. With the walk logged, and I had not been willing to abandon it for the I Will Walk 500 challenge, I restarted the phone and thankfully it eventually picked up a network signal again. Phew!
So, back to the bikes, having discovered there were no Transpennine 802s out for a while that I wanted. The docking station just outside Lime Street station, where the app insisted a bike was available, is not there due to a load of roadworks, so I got on my way to the docking station near Liverpool Central station. No, only an electric bike there, no thank you.
Same applied to another docking station, and the one near Chinatown was also only filled with one electric bike. Now I was familiar with e-bikes from those used with Beryl in Hereford, and I'm not a fan of those. They work well in Hereford, but it just doesn't feel right to me. I prefer to use my legs! Well while unlocking the bike wasn't too awkward, but getting the stand to fold down was overly awkward! Don't ask me what happened to the motor, it certainly didn't seem to kick in much at all, although later on it seemed to want to push me forward when in traffic. I've counted it as a normal bike ride, that motor was barely worth the extra effort to pedal along with me quite honestly.
The ride eventually got me around the waterfront, and I found myself around docklands somewhere near Bootle I think. I gave up working out where that road would take me and turned back for the city. Eventually I found myself at Liverpool One Bus Station, and a docking station there. So I parked the bike up, number 2036 for anyone curious, and expected it to be an easy process.
Well not exactly. I plugged the cable in, squeezed the brake lever twice as it asked me to do, and that was supposed to be it. Well no, the app eventually figured out 9 minutes later that I had locked up, but trying to make it work out I had entered some combination code to make the app stop charging me was irritating. I spent nearly 10 minutes on the phone trying to get through to someone to sort it out, but then I saw it had stopped counting my ride in the app so hung up. I don't know if I was ever going to get out of the queue!
After all that, I was going for a walk but first ended up in TGI Fridays for a delicious lunch. It should go without saying that I thoroughly enjoyed my meal, and as is usually the case I had excellent service. Next up was looking to see if any 802s I wanted were out, not at that point and so I decided to do a walk that Kite159 had told me about, the Liverpool Loop Line. That will get discussed fully another time, as just before I committed to the ticket to Broad Green I decided to jump on 390127 for a leap to Runcorn. I had another idea!
After a quick and easy leap, over before I knew it, I was off at Runcorn and I see it's actually quite easy now to access the Jubilee Bridge. When I was up this way in October 2020, it was not as easy but this was a welcome plus (I've now had a look at the old road layout on my Sustrans map, it really was different a few years ago). I had wanted to do this bridge on foot for a long time, and I had also discovered I could do the walk to Widnes. So that was that, I was off! It was a nice and easy walk over the bridge, and onwards to Widnes was no challenge either.
It's a surprisingly big town, I was quite surprised at that. I stopped off at Greggs for a coffee, and discovered Victoria Park was nearby. It would not hurt to go and have a look, I had tons of time until my planned departure from Runcorn. It's a really nice place, full of school children during my visit frustratingly but any other time it would be great. My endpoint was Widnes railway station, and with nothing of particular interest due through any time soon I returned to Victoria Park.
Looking at the map on Strava, I had noticed I could walk down to the waterfront, and that took all of 5 seconds to confirm my interest. Through suburban Widnes I went, which gave way to an industrial estate and a future site of many, many new houses. Eventually I reached the TransPennine Trail, also known in these parts as National Cycle Network Route 62.
In this area, the trail follows the disused St Helens Canal, and I soon enough reached Spike Island. As I reached the Jubilee Bridge, I decided to go with the flow and continue the exploration for a bit longer. Soon though, I decided that part of the TransPennine Trail could wait until I returned to the area with my beast. In case you're wondering why I didn't have it with me, it was in for repairs after what I believe was a bottom bracket break. After a little over 5,400 miles and an awful lot of intense riding in 14 months, it did well to get that much done before its first major issue (with labour costs, new brake blocks and two other new parts, it cost me £130.99). As I type this on 16/03/2022, I had received a call to say it was ready to pick up, so I was looking forward to getting the beast back in my possession!
Eventually then I turned off and headed back towards the railway, and I was soon back at Jubilee Bridge. I decided to record a video of the experience, stopping for 66423 on a southbound empty car train after what turned out to be 350265+350104 heading to Liverpool as they headed over the railway bridge. I still had plenty of time, so I went to have a look at something else I'd seen on the map, Runcorn Hill. I had considered going around Runcorn itself, but I did that on a ride in October 2020 and didn't recall anything particularly interesting. Hard to believe that ride at 41.38 miles was my longest one, less than a year later my longest ride had been almost doubled! Just thinking about the October 2020 ride has me feeling exhausted, and remembering the September 2021 ride has me remembering the aches as I sat on the train out of Norwich! (You know, I really should do the trip report for October 2020, it is on my list of things to do!)
Good call, as the Fosters adverts at least used to say (are they even on any more? I haven't seen or heard one in a long time), as Runcorn Hill Park is really nice. I think I saw a sign saying it was something to do with a landfill site? Either way, it was a really beautiful area and a place to go back to one day for a fuller exploration. Time was now getting a little tight, I didn't want to get back to Winsford too late, although I got to the house later than planned. Jumping the gun there, I will get to that!
When I got to a Premier shop, where some Lucozade Sport was a most welcome purchase, I got to Greenway Road Bridge just in time to get a photo of 390117 as it left Runcorn. With a few minutes to spare at the station, Strava reported that I had done 11.96 miles of walking, which is by some measure my biggest single walk in quite some time! I do reckon, as I blast Brisk and Trixxy's Eye Opener (some proper old-school happy hardcore!) into the ear canals that some quality tunes would have kept the body going for even longer on that walk. Nothing quite like some fast-paced, bouncy music on an exercise mission to keep the motivation going. For the record, my longest single walk is 16.25 miles which I think was nearly a year ago. I think it's time to look at smashing that record!
350104+350258 were in charge of taking me to Winsford, and the journey was over in no time. Now I should have got myself back to the house straight away, but I was determined to make something nice for tea. So I went on a mission to Morrisons, including some new coverage in Winsford which had the bonus of giving me an insight into some roads for future cycling missions, and not far from Morrisons I could feel the body getting ready to quit. The second bottle of Lucozade soon came out, and sadly Morrisons didn't have much of anything I actually wanted, so the chippy was to get a visit when the sister returned after all!
Once in the house, an Earl Grey and several Rich Tea biscuits got devoured. That was better! The large chips, mushy peas and onion rings really sorted out the body's desire for nutrition, and by half 9 I was falling asleep.
Stay tuned for the trip report from elsewhere in the North West! I have many more photos to share yet, I will have to add them to another post!
Thanks to a dose of caffeine kicking in hours later than it should have, I've been busy catching up with my trip reports!) I might as well post yesterday's trip report. I have more to post next week as it is!
I did a Helicopter tour down the Grand Canyon from Vegas in 2015, I would strongly recommend it and it means you can cover it in half a day too so it is quite time-efficient. 
Yes indeed, Santorini I have heard is very expensive. Fortunately, I'd only be going for a short visit, with the majority if not all the tourist things getting ignored in preference to a good explore 