Friendly warning about Sandbach roads

A friendly warning for other bikers who have the mis-fortune of having to pass through Sandbach, Cheshire.

If you come in to the area on the ‘by-pass’ you will first come throught the lights.

The road here is now 22 years old and starting to wear.

However, take care at the first roundabout you come to – there are several areas on this where chunks of tarmac are missing, other areas are polished making this a wobbly / slippery negotiation for any rider.

Ignore the route to Crewe and you will continue up said ‘by-pass’, past Waitrose to another roundabout. The story is the same here. Large chunks of tarmac missing, no attempt at repair.

In a car, they are just uncomfortable – on a bike, like the previous roundabout, they are dangerous.

Follow the route to Middlewich and after about 20-30 yards you will come accross a pedestrian crossing. In the normal fashion, the road leading to this crossing was dressed in a high friction surface – most of which has peeled away now.

Again, this has the effect of destabilising a bike due to the missing bits. Added to this is the problem of two different qualities of road surface in a braking area as a result of the missing patches.

All of these problems have recently been exacerbated by a ridiculous one-way system around the town which during rush-hour causes huge congestion and additional wear and tear on already poor quality roads.

I could go on but you get the picture.

I also ride a push bike in this area, and the surrounding roads in some areas are so bad they are positively dangerous for push bikes – forcing you to weave about just to miss the pot-holes and collapsing verges.

So there you have it – you want to ride to / through South Cheshire – take extra care. Better still, avoid the area and head straight to the peaks – our local authority (oxymoron) certainly seems keen on putting people off visiting the area if the roads are anything to go by.