Right,
With summer here I'm thinking off putting some miles in my legs by cycling to work and back once a week.
Only problem is I live in Burton and work in Brum. Anyone know a good bike route that I can take? I know all the good car routes and I know how busy they get so I would like to avoid if possible!
Any suggestions - or shall I just keep letting the car do the work
try using the AA route planner & tick all the 'avoid' boxes.
How far is it anyway?
I did Baildon, W Yorks to Darton, S Yorks, one day a week last summer.
I'm not the greatest hill climber by anybody's standards, but at 24 miles each way it would've been much easier without all the flaming hills. 2 hours 16 seconds was my best time.
well it is 32 miles from home to work via the A38 which is my most direct route
Hopefully it won't be too much further by taking quieter roads (or the canel if poss). If it starts to get over 40miles then I might sack it in. An 80+ mile commute and a full days work may just knacker me out abit!
try this:
drive in one day with your bike & gear in the back; change into riding gear, ride home.
Leave everything you can at work. You don't want to be carrying a change of clothes & a laptop for 32 miles.
Ride in the next day - you don't have a choice if you want your car back! Then drive home at the end of the working day
FWIW I'd recommend a road bike & pick the most direct, yet quietest possible, road route. You won't mind riding home off-road & making an evening of it, but trust me, you won't enjoy a fun day's work after a 4 hour fun/commute ride in
johnhoo
Thats exactly what I was planning to do. The main bit of the problem is getting through the birmingham traffic at the end of the day without being knocked down or someone stealing my bike from me!
Was planning to go toward Sutton the head through the lanes toward Alwaras. I will get a route off AA and drive the route in to check it out
PS - don't have a road bike - will be on my hardtail! 
see if you can borrow one from any of your mates, honestly, if you haven't done it before you may be in for a shock.
what's your average speed on a MTB ride. 6-8mph over a 12 mile route? now how long is it going to take you to do 32+ miles?
I'm slow as said before, I managed 11-12mph on a hilly route on the road bike, depending on headwinds.
Let's say you've got a route that would make Holland look mountainous - average 14mph on a road bike over that kind of distance & you're looking at 2hrs 20+ - manageable.
Add knobbly tyres & they'll slow you down to say 10mph at a conservative estimate - and there's a lot of drag there - 3 hours plus. Still manageable?
Try before you buy. You can get a reasonable road bike for under £400. You'll be surprised how quickly you can get the money back by not spending it on petrol...
Well I was going to try it, as the MTB training at the moment is going well. We have a local 15mile on/off road route near burton and i've got the time for that down to a hour. (although me and my mate do share the work load)
Thought with less hills and on the road I could average 20miles and hour and do it in around and 1.45 hours - may have to have a re-think. Didn't want to buy a road bike as I am saving up for a P7.
that's a pretty good pace for mixed off/on road on off-road bikes. Can you keep it up for 2+ hrs?
don't buy; (beg steal or) borrow one. Try it on a borrowed bike if you can get hold of one. See if your LBS will let you try one - "sale or return". Explain exactly what you're trying to do, they might be very accommodating.
Then try it again on the hardtail - I'd advise the homeward leg. Then put some slicks on the hardtail and try it a third time. Compare the times
Unless you work flexi-time you'll be under pressure to get to work for a certain time, and you don't want to be getting up at dawn-o'clock to go to work...
What i generally do for my commutes when I change site, is quickly find a quietish looking road route and do that with a GPS. Then I get home and upload the route and start looking on tracklogs where I can make some bits offroad, go for a quieter road and so on. When I commuted to Liverpool I did the whole route by road the first time and by the time I left there I had it down to about 80% offroad, and that's over 20 miles each way, it's amazing what you can string together. You can find some real gems doing it this way.
have a look at sustrans. They have low traffic routes.
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