Cycle Parking Farcility

[rower40]

A very well-designed facility, let down by the local staff, wheeling out the huge trolleys of plants which almost completely surround the Sheffield Racks.




One Sheffield stand is just visible when one arrives at the store.  The Orange Bling is just visible at the extreme left of this pic, locked to one of the other plant trolleys.
The nice lady in the store came looking for me to find when I'd be going, so that she could water the plants without getting my bike wet.

[Ruth]

The B+Q in Darlo's the same rower40, except the cycle parking there is used to store those big customer trolleys.  You'd be hard pressed to get your bike in there.

How's you and the family anyway?

[David Martin]

I lock my bike across the front of the trolleys. Or last time, I just took the bike into the store with me. Nobody batted an eyelid.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The B+Q in Bristol doesn't even have any misused cycle parking. I don't go there very often but when I do, I lock my bike to the trolley bays.

[SlowCoach]

They've solved this problem at B and Q in Durham - they've put the cycle parking next to the store next door (Currys).

I've taken my bike in there and wheeled it round with me several times. I've only ever been stopped on one occasion. Then, they were unhappy about me wheeling it inside the store "on health and safety grounds". However they were quite happy to allow me to put it on a big sheet materials trolley instead and wheel that around It seems that 4 wheels are safer than 2.

[teethgrinder]

You should have put your bike on the trolley.

[SlowCoach]

You should have put your bike on the trolley.

Sorry - should have expressed myself better - that's what I did 

[EDIT] It was a bit of an overkill when the only thing I was buying was a packet of rawlplugs but it worked.

[Kim]

Similar principle to: https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=55441.msg1676313#msg1676313

Anyway, is that really you?  How's it going?

[mcshroom]

Two from me. The first on Whitehaven Harbour is not really farcical, as much as so disguised as a sculpture that no-one ever uses it.


The second is at Ravenglass Station. Some five black wheelbenders, but at least 50cm too high to be any use to anyone

[Torslanda]

The good, the bad and the ugly in Trafford.

[Little Jim]

The good, the bad and the ugly in Trafford.

Wow, some of those are so bad it makes you wonder if it was done on purpose, and it's even more depressing when you see the examples at the end where they've got it right - it just goes to show that with a modicum of thought it is easy to provide some really good facilities.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Good idea to include the positive examples too, and I'm really impressed that B&Q made it into that section as our nearest (now closed) had no cycle parking whatsoever.

[Kim]

Mr Sainsbury has molished a new emporioum of toothy comestibles in Silly Oak.  In keeping with Sainsbury's tradition^[1], there's something slightly wrong about the bike stands:



These ones are too high at the tall end, so they foul on the cables of flat bars (and are presumably a real pain with drops).  The short end is too low, so the bike falls over sideways when you add panniers of shopping to the rack.  You can't park the bike the other way round, because the stands are too close to the wall.

I've tweeted the above picture to them on the off-chance they might feel like sorting it out.


_{[1] They seem to find a different way of getting it not-quite-right at every store.}

[Cudzoziemiec]

Might be wrong without seeing them in the tubular steel but I'd say the last point is the fault; they're too close to the wall. If they're too close, they're too close whichever way round they are. That sloping design, which I've seen (or extremely similar) elsewhere, is good in some ways in that it allows for variously sized frames.

[Kim]

There are some identical stands on another part of the site, under a shelter without a wall restricting bike positioning.  They work perfectly well with the bike the other way round (although the sloped roof of the shelter means your natural inclination is to do the same as in the photo above, as you wheel the bike in forwards and so you don't have to duck to faff with rear luggage).

I *think* these would just about work (at least for this bike) if flipped 180 degrees, but it will depend on the precise locking strategy and front wheel to seat tube distance.  Here's a previous photo, with empty panniers so the bike hasn't fallen over yet:



As you can see, my bike does just fit alongside the stand, it's just that it's unstable in this configuration.  The other way round is better, but the wall means you can't get a lock through the frame and the stand.  The 26" wheeled mountain bike in the foreground has a bit more room to manoeuvre.


ETA: Looking at that photo, I think what's happened is the stands were installed with just enough room to the wall to meet the design spec (either by luck or by measurement), the tarmac was laid (the stands are embedded in it), and then the anti-trolley rail was installed (it's anchored to flanges on the surface of the tarmac), encroaching on the space available for bikes.