Viewing 33 posts - 1 through 33 (of 33 total)
  • The dark side!!
  • bedwasboy
    Free Member

    Don’t know if anyone can point me in the right direction, i’m planning a road cycling challenge next year cycling between the 5 UK capitals. I have started using google to try and find the best routes between each city and it’s a minefield!
    Obviously these routes have been cycled before possibly by members of this forum, would anyone know where I might get these routes?

    Thanks in anticipation

    Rockape63
    Free Member

    London, Cardiff, Edinburgh……Belfast ?

    Wot have I missed?

    samuri
    Free Member

    Clitheroe.

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...
    Latest Singletrack Videos
    bedwasboy
    Free Member

    Just realised it was a long time since I did geography, should have said GB which would include Dublin.

    Junkyard
    Free Member

    IIRC ireland [ at least that bit] is free from the yoke of imperalism- you can add politics to your list of poor subjects 😉

    bedwasboy
    Free Member

    School was a very short lived time!

    Junkyard I have no idea what you just said 🙁

    molgrips
    Free Member

    5 capital of the British Isles will do 🙂

    Good project tho.

    jekkyl
    Full Member

    If I were you I’d do it on a hybrid or a MTB with semi slicks. A very good place to start looking for a route would be here:
    sustrans map

    good luck, enjoy.

    bedwasboy
    Free Member

    making me wish I sat my 11 plus now!!

    Junkyard
    Free Member

    dublin is the capital of ireland which is another country and not in GB

    bedwasboy
    Free Member

    Any how guys, thanks for all your help 😯

    bedwasboy
    Free Member

    Jekkyl thanks, I have looked on Sustrans, some of these routes use cycle paths. The event is time critical (5 days) and we do have the luxury of safety bikes and vehicles for the busier roads.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Route help.. well, there are websites for tourers and such, but to be honest you might as well just look at a map. I presume you’re starting from Cardiff, going by your username? You could make a loop of it for not much more distance I reckon. Cardiff to London, then Edinburgh, across to Belfast (Glasgow is it?) then Dublin, ferry back to Wales via Holyhead.

    Use bing.com/maps for unlimited online OS maps. I can’t recommend much personally, but getting to London should be ok, from Bristol eastwards is lovely rolling countryside all the way to Reading. You could opt for NCN route 4 which goes from London to near Cardiff. Not sure about getting to Edinburgh though, but you could try this.

    bedwasboy
    Free Member

    Molgrips cheers for that, spot on with the route. We are looking for the shortest rideable distances to keep time in saddle down.

    jonba
    Free Member

    sustrans is a good call, as is strava heat map.

    Bikeroute toaster will let you save routes as GPX. You have variety of options including OSM cycling which is quite good.

    Google where’s the path for a website that lets you run two maps side by side. You can then use a standard road map and satellite so you can see the road in question.

    Edinburgh to Newcastle can be covered on the coast and castles. From Newcastle there are many routes west which you could probably head south on.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    I didn’t know you wanted the shortest.. don’t take the NCNs then!

    A4 is probably your best bet for most of the Cardiff to London bit.

    willyboy
    Free Member

    Join the ctc and get access to all their mapping and route planning.

    bedwasboy
    Free Member

    jonba, some good ideas there. One of the team is pretty good with the type of suggestions you make so will pass this to him.Thanks

    MoreCashThanDash
    Full Member

    Check out the CTC – they will probably be able to advise you on that kind of thing – though they prefer to do it in longer than 5 days….

    Edit: or read the post 2 up from here. D’oh!

    kennyp
    Free Member

    Just realised it was a long time since I did geography, should have said GB which would include Dublin.

    Err, no. If you had said British Isles then that would have included Dublin. Great Britain only has three capitals.

    MoreCashThanDash
    Full Member

    And will this be before or after the Scottish Independence referendum?

    bedwasboy
    Free Member

    You guys are good

    jekkyl
    Full Member

    If you’re after quickest you do realise you can legally cycle on dual carriageways, wether you’d want to or not is a different matter.

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    I plotted a Celtic Capitals route that I still plan to do. It only covers Cardiff-Dublin-Belfast-Edinburgh though. The ferry to Troon makes the section to Edinburgh pretty straightforward/short/quick.

    john_drummer
    Free Member

    I regularly see people cycling on the A168 / A19 dual carriageway between Dishforth & Middlesbrough. Often time triallers. Wouldn’t be my choice of route but I suppose it’s better than the A1 (or A1M, which, being a motorway, is not allowed)

    Great Britain is the big island & all the associated tiny islands that go with it.
    UK is the United Kingdom of Great Britain (see above) and Northern Ireland.
    Eire or The Republic of Ireland is indeed an independant country.
    together they make up The British Isles – although some of the more militant Irish might take offence at the use of the word ‘British’

    So shall we just call them “that overcrowded group of islands north of France” ?

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    John – how could you forget the Isle of Man?

    shermer75
    Free Member

    Geography lesson:

    [video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10[/video]

    bedwasboy
    Free Member

    Scotroutes, did you plan yours using the shortest distances?

    Shermer75 I switched off when I saw the word lesson and started staring out the window haha..

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    I played around with the route from Cardiff to Fishguard but just let Garmin Basecamp decide the route through Ireland. The legs I have are;

    Cardiff-Fishguard – 170km
    Rosslare-Dublin – 164km
    Dublin-Belfast – 176km
    Troon-Edinbugh – 121km

    My plan was to do that in 4 days but ferry times make it a bit problematic.

    john_drummer
    Free Member

    damn, I knew I would’ve missed something. or maybe it comes under “all of the tiny islands associated with it” ?

    can I stick to my original plan of “the overcrowded islands north of France” ?

    bedwasboy
    Free Member

    scotroutes, we are doing Dublin to Holyhead to miss out on the leg to Rosslare. We are hoping to boat from as close to Glasgow as we can on a previous challenge we used a private boat to support us over the water to Belfast.

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    Cool. Depends what your aim is I guess. With no “challenge” aspect in mind, I’m looking to get a decent look at Eire. I may also ditch the Troon idea and head for Stranraer too.

    bedwasboy
    Free Member

    Plan is to get a group of us between the 5 cities in 5 days and raise a load of money for charity.
    scotroutes your idea sounds great no clock to watch, thanks for the advice.

Viewing 33 posts - 1 through 33 (of 33 total)

The topic ‘The dark side!!’ is closed to new replies.