UKC

More like hedge devastation debris than clippings though. Around here the farmers seem to prefer to massacre the hedge with a revolving chain rather than use something sharp. In this technological age when combine harvesters are remotely controlled etc, surely they could think of a way of sweeping up the hedge trimmings?

Ok I am ranting a bit. But my heart sinks whenever I see newly thrashed hedges at this time of year. One bright note though. For the first time in my experience I saw a sign placed on the roadside advising that 'hedge trimming' was taking place up ahead. That was considerate and allows cyclists to change route. Thank you that farmer.

To be honest I'm always quite amazed how little debris ends up on the road considering how much carnage is committed by the machinery! But agree it is very much a Russian roulette for punctures time of year.

Pisses me off. They flail the hedges, destroying habitat and costing cyclists and motorists a fortune in repairs and wasted time. 

We would all be wasting time travelling slower due to less visibility, fixing accident damage and scratched paintwork if the hedges were not trimmed.

So those are the only two options? Flail away and leave a mess or just leave it?

As I understand it the farmer gets a fee to trim back the hedges. Not sure how much that might be, but it won't cover buying new machinery that leaves the area pristine, or a team of people to brush the roads and verges.

If we want that then we'll have to pay for it.

No, obviously paying more for the upkeep of our roads is a third option. 

So rather than use the money to pay professionals who have dedicated machinery and can do a better job more quickly and tidily (as happens in France), the money is paid to farmers to botch it?

I once saw the road being swept afterwards.  

Recently after a long carry (Radnorshire), thought I was safe beyond the work area, put the bike down and scored a puncture before I even moved.  Not paying attention

A relative sells hedge trimmers!  He is also a bike hater, so unfortunately gets a lot of job satisfaction. I'm always telling him that I never get punctures.

The verges are cut by the council, usually pay  contractors to do the work.

The hedges are the farmers responsibility and I have never heard of a farmer receiving any fee for trimming them.

There are certainly other options, some are very labour intensive and others would probably be even more unpalatable on environmental grounds.

The usual answer is to fit a blower on the back of a hedge trimmer to blow the thorns onto the verge. 

I seem to recall one of our local farmers mentioning a payment, but that could well have been for the verge and not the hedge. I stand corrected.

Viz Top Tip. Come springtime, cycle your local lanes and note the hedges of blackthorn and hawthorn. Come autumntide, don't cycle on those lanes.

Rip the hedges out, have a clear 3m margin either side of the road, lay foot and cycle paths, or continue using pre victorian horse & cart tracks, where hedges skim your car mirrors, as trunk roads? 

It is however an offence under the Highways Act 1980 to deposit stuff on the highway - particularly if a danger/inconvenience  to users. 

Which is why farmers should be clearing mud and slurry off the roads, and directing the thorns etc. back into the hedge.

Let me think about that...

I think the cheapest possible option, which will be the latter.

I'd rather they removed the hedge(and replant) on one side of many roads, cambered them to drain properly into ditches, built proper paths and cycle lanes running parallel, but I know I've got zero chance. 

It would be win win, more people would walk or cycle, less traffic and less pollution. 

Flails aren't a problem per se, it's a combination of poor timing and poor operators. Many farmers don't need their hedges to do a job  so they just wallop them hard without thought to long term health, which means gappy smashed hedges. A good flail operator makes a massive difference

It would help enormously to cut less frequently and move cutting where practicable to after Christmas, but that's trickier because it gets in the way of some farming operations. 

When I started hedgelaying again in lockdown, I discovered hedgelaying twitter - lots of really interesting and experienced people having positive and constructive discussions! 

If hedge debris punctured car tyres it would be a different matter, and they would be swept up immediately. But because we cyclists are seen as insignificant life forms no greater than that found in the bottom of ponds, they are just left there to ruin their journey until car tyres pick them up or are washed away in the next rainstorm.

I see the advantages to farmers of flail cutting (fast and cheap) but this is far outweighed by the many disadvantages, namely poor hedge regeneration and detrimental effects on wildlife. Where I live, the nesting season is often ignored in spring, and in autumn the berries and fruit (that would otherwise be winter food for wildlife) get vapourised into an inedible pulp in seconds.

If a hedge is cut to the same height every year, it will only regenerate at that height with very little growth beneath. The result is a line of stems with a narrow thatch of growth on top. This is useless as wildlife cover. It isn't stock proof either, so farmers have to erect wire fences to make them so, to stop sheep and lambs squeezing through.

The answer is to lay hedges properly every 3 - 4 years to keep vegetation density high and stock proof throughout its height - and if a flail must be used, do that in between with a lot more sensitivity to the seasonal needs of wildlife. If this was done there would also be less hedge carnage littering the roads.

https://www.lowimpact.org/posts/environmental-damage-caused-flail-cutting-h...

Get tubeless tyres and stop moaning

Only puncture I've had on the road was when I didn't spot a 1ft deep trench on a descent in Corsica and didn't manage to clear the rear wheel with my bunny hop.

I even go on mtb tracks with my GP5000s, no problem

I agree, even if you ignore the impact on cyclists, the impact on wildlife is terrible.

Farmers always seem to be cutting hedges at the wrong time of year, often breaking the law while doing so as it's an offence to disturb nesting birds.

The mess that is left seems to suggest that the cutting edges of the flails they are using are incredibly blunt. 

Viz top tip, crap on the road in front of you, strap a sweeping brush to the front of your bicycle.

I am a farmer. Our hedge cutter blows most of the cuttings into the hedge. It would be possible to pick up all the smaller bits that end up on the road if we could close the road and then sweep it properly so we didn't get mown down by motorists. We leave some tops on hedges that have berries so the birds can feed on them. Most of our hedges are more than 100 years old and we take particular care to make sure the bottoms remain thick. Some sections on bends which are regularly crashed into by motorists who speed around the bend because there will never be another vehicle coming in the opposite direction have wooden fences and barbed wire.  

I doubt this very much, because otherwise car damaging potholes would be repaired.  Its just symtomatic of Britain's approach to infrastructure maintenance. 

It is all really easy actually. Hedge clippings are from flails which do a great job of hedging. Old fashion laying is not an option nowadays so a flail is the best option. It gives a nice dense hedge, brilliant for animals etc. Bear in mind the most important function is a boundary, not something for the gratification of those who know bugger all aboiut the situation. 

Now I can't claim to be a long term or long distance cyclist as I only started club type road riding 41 years ago and I doubt I knock up more than 6  or 7 thousand miles a year, all on rural roads, ideally single track , but I cannot remember a hedge inflicted puncture. 

Methinks this is a mounatin out of a molehill here. 

Mud etc is brilliant on the roads. It makes dimwits slow down. Biggest hazards are the idiots who can't drive a country road and won't pull on to the verge . 

If the comments above are from long term, experiencced rural residents then they may have some value. If not don't bother hey?

That sounds dangerously like pro-tax woke tofu anti-growth hate speech.

I cycle about 3000 - 3500 kms a year, not as much as some, but for me that's commuting three times a week to work for the school year, and then riding for pleasure, some weekends, evenings, during the holidays etc. I live in Derbyshire and there are lots of hedges that get cut from time to time. I can't remember ever getting a puncture from hedge clippings. Is that weird? Most of the punctures I remember getting when using tubes have been from glass in gutters, and one sharp stone on tow path that managed to burst a tubeless tyre that the sealant could seal.

I do remember on my mountain bike getting a puncture on a bridleway and pulling a big hawthorn thorn, with stick still attached, out - although it quickly sealed - but that wasn't from hedge trimming, just natural wind fall I guess.

Blackthorn is the one that punctures almost everything, including car tyres. If you ever have to remove blackthorn be careful not to scratch yourself. The scratches often need medical treatment, even for fairly minor wounds.

I'd love to know where you're riding or what tyres you are using because I ride nowhere near 6 k miles a year and just this morning repaired a thorn puncture.

My Schwalbe DURANO PLUS have proved very thorn-resistant (except to blackthorn).

I'm running Durano raceguard 28s, from what I can tell they're the predecessor of the "plus". The puncture I was fixing was actually picked up yesterday by my GFs but she probably covers less distance than me and has some quite heavy duty decathlon own brand things that feel pretty bomb proof.

Last 2 punctures in the car were blackthorn thorns. 

First one I did the classic...hmm...what's that sticking on the tyre, I can pull that out.....hissss....b*gger... 

I've got them on my old road bike and I don't remember getting a puncture with them since changing to them 8 years ago, although I haven't ridden that bike massive amounts since - hundreds of kms a year rather than thousands I guess. Until I went tubeless on my gravel bike, and on the CX bike I had before it, I used Schwalbe Marathon Plus and Schwalbe Marathon Tour Plus and got one puncture in about a decade or more of using them. That was over maybe 15,000 to 20,000 kms, divided between one pair of Tour Plus and two pairs of the normal Marathon Plus. I only wore out the first pair of the Marathon Plus, and it was the sidewalls that cracked. The second pair of Marathon Plus and the pair of Tour Plus are still in good nick and one pair is on the old CX bike which sometimes my kids use, or visiting friends etc. 

Compared to modern tubeless tyres, they're a less pleasant ride, but the Schwalbe PLUS tyres are impressively puncture resistant!