Speed on a Dutch cycle path

Dutch cycle paths are designed for real use. This includes supporting people who want to ride quickly as well as those who want to proceed at a more leisurely pace.

This video shows what I like to do on the weekend. Go out and ride as quickly as I can in these most excellent conditions for fast riding. I average better speeds between towns on Dutch cycle paths than ever I did on the roads in the UK, as on these paths I have a smoother surface, better priority over other traffic and fewer interruptions for road junctions.

The paths here have to be designed to a good standard, as they are used by people who have cycled every day of their lives and who are not remotely "slow" cyclists. Some children ride 20 km each way to get to secondary school. They turn into fast adult cyclists.

The Netherlands is the home of more recumbent bike manufacturers than anywhere else in the world. These bikes are fast, and their natural environment is the Dutch cycle path.

These paths are also used by racing cyclists and streamlined velomobiles which go considerably faster than I can manage. Velomobiles are used by quite a few long distance commuters in the Netherlands.

There are hundreds of km of cycle paths of this quality and better in Drenthe, the "Cycling Province" of the Netherlands ( Holland ).

http://hembrow.eu/cycling/

There is a blog post which mentions this video:

http://hembrow.blogspot.com/2008/09/speed.html

http://www.dutchbikebits.com
http://www.hembrowcyclingholidays.com

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• fietspad
• assen
• drenthe
• netherlands
• holland
• cycling
• cyclepath

[bennythewayfarer]

looks like your on 'bent, wot is it you ride? love the tune.

[DavidHembrow]

@bennythewayfarer I'm riding my Pashley PDQ in this video. I also ride a Sinner Mango velomobile - which is somewhat faster, especially over a longer distance. Both are also featured in some of my other videos and on my blog. The PDQ is doing pretty well at that speed. The music is something from the youtube "audioswap" feature, and I'm afraid I don't know how to find out what it is. It seemed appropriate.

[bennythewayfarer]

thanks David!

[bennythewayfarer]

would make appropriate music for a film of Chesterton's 'The Man Who Was Thursday" (would be a really cracking film, recommended.) must try to figure it out on my trombone

[OblivionStar07]

Looks just like the path I rode on when I visited. Only I remember it being much more peaceful XD

[bivvyfox]

a road giving way to a cycle path.. imagine that in the uk

[MewFushisDad]

Great Video.

Thanks