https://road.cc/content/news/266089-cycling-uk-launches-800-mile-great-north-trail-peak-district-north-scotland

Not near a PC at the mo, but I suspect the top bit is along the lines of the Badger Divide?

Badger Divide/HT550 ish. There are two North options. One goes to Cape Wrath, the other to John O’Groats.

Great . They just need to go from peaks to Brighton next.

There is a LEJOG project. I assume this is part of it.

This is just bloody brilliant. Getting access like this should be sung from the rooftops.

Brilliant. I feel a home to home trip coming on.

Looking forward to having a bash at that when I get back from Oz

Brilliant news. Might give this a go next year, late spring/early summer.

Getting access like this should be sung from the rooftops.

Agree that it’s great, but most of it is in Scotland where access isn’t really an issue. Grab a map and you could draw any number of routes from the borders to the north. But fair play to them for planning (and publicizing) this one.

Could have done with this last week!

Some interesting route choices, its definitely a mountainbike route with some* hike a bike.

*just looking at the bits ive ridden its a fair proportion if youre bikepacking.

Anyone have any steer on what sort of bike you’d want for this? Based on the route info I guess a hardtail MTB which is comfy for longer-haul pedalling would be ideal, right?

And how long do you think this take for a normal rider?

Hmm. I’m an idiot, they actually addressed my question of “what bike for” on the website:

https://www.cyclinguk.org/route/great-north-trail-full-route-cape-wrath

The ‘right’ bike will depend on the rider, and your abilities and priorities – efficiency, comfort, or to ride and enjoy the more technical sections at speed.

Some experienced riders who would want efficiency and to tough it out on the more challenging sections could use a gravel bike, although we would suggest tyres with around 40mm width as a minimum. A hybrid bike, with 50mm-wide tyres with reasonable tread would also suffice for much of the route, but our recommended choice of bike overall would be a hardtail mountain bike or short travel (100mm) full-suspension, for comfort, enjoyment and security on the rougher terrain and descents.

So there you go.

@scruff — they also have some suggested durations for each stage of the route on that page, not sure if you’ve seen it?

Hmm. I’m an idiot, they actually addressed my question of “what bike for” on the website:

650b gravel bike then init, and just skill through the tough bits 😉

Bear in mind the few bits ive ridden include:

The boggy bit at the top of the border trail in keilder.

Innerleithen Red descent.

The path over the Pentlands.

Id say it sounds more akin to the ht550 than say the GBdivide which does something similar but with a lot more road and an intention that the off road is gravel-bike-able.

From experience if its a mix of easy and tough bits then going 1-2 mph faster on an easy bit is written off when it takes you a whole morning to do the 30 miles from Peebles to Edinburgh pushing up the hills.

Great work by Cycling UK. A jaunt up to see the folks in Edinburgh seems like a good trip.

I have next week off and I have been looking & planning a 2 night, 3 day trip as all the previous trips have only been single nighters, always straight from the house, its just easier to manage time, home etc.

But this looks good, its great that they are promoting it and I am sure it will get used !

The section of the Pennine Bridleway between Gisburn (the village) and Long Preston is bad enough that even the horse crowd don’t use it. Last summer there were substantial sections
covered in chest high grass! Better to route yourself between those two points by the nearby lanes.

As for which bike: Roych Clough, Mt Famine and the like on a gravel bike? I’ve done around 50% of the route on various trips on a fully rigid hardtail and that was fine. Front suspension would be nice but full suss might feel a bit over-biked.

The BD/HT550 route as far north as Gobernuisgach is pretty much the best option in town for heading north without a lot of detours.

As for which bike: Roych Clough, Mt Famine and the like on a gravel bike? I’ve done around 50% of the route on various trips on a fully rigid hardtail and that was fine. Front suspension would be nice but full suss might feel a bit over-biked.

Ive done Roych, Mt Famine etc loads of times on a CX / gravel bike. Admittedly far slower than I’d do it on an MTB but it’s doable.

To me this is a rather cycnical way of trying to create something like HT550, NC500 etc but without actually doing much “work” to the trails – it’s not like it’s a family touring route so I’m struggling to really see the appeal. In the same way that people set out to do LEJOG on National Cycle Network routes and then invariably bin the idea off after a couple of days because it’s shit – a disjointed patchwork of roads, tracks, trails and swampland some of which won’t be waymarked, much of which will have anti-motorbike gates all along it and will end up taking you 5 miles out of the way just to avoid 100m of road.

The advantage of establishing this trail is that it will highlight the worst/missing bits so that authorities can do something about them. The option to wait around until a whole new trail can be built and developed is a pipe dream.

Edit; my “concern” is that we seem to be doing away with the notion of sitting down with a map and coming up with your own route. You can hardly go anywhere in the Highlands now that isn’t a part of some long distance walking, cycling or driving route.

This makes me feel good about switching from BC membership to Cycling UK. All the BC literature was pretty irrelevant to me but Cycling UK seem to be doing great things and aimed at your average (so perhaps not singletrack mtb pros) cyclist.

(although a friend did try LEJOG via the national cycle network and was reduced to sobbing and cussing after a few days!)

I’ve spoken to loads of LEJOGers as part of my job. Most are OK with using the Sustrans recommended route. Most also comment that the Scottish section is better than the English segment but I think that only reflects the sparser population through most of the country.

@crazy-legs: I wasn’t meaning that it wasn’t possible on a gravel bike but that sort of terrain day in, day out won’t be pleasant for the general cyclist.

Doing “something” about the worst sections suggests “sanitisation” of trails and we all know how that goes with STW’s riding gods.

I’m not sure who this is aimed at, most who are likely to ride it would have ridden it anyway.

There’s a definite honeypot effect from “creating” and naming a route. It could see some towns and villages en route with more through traffic, always good for business, especially out of season. If some bits are “improved” as a result then it’ll be because they are being used. That might upset some of the purists* but that’s a rather selfish and elitist attitude.

I’ve seen a huge interest across social media, with many folk saying they are keen to ride this.

(* I’d put myself in this category)

whitestone

…Doing “something” about the worst sections suggests “sanitisation” of trails and we all know how that goes with STW’s riding gods…

My take on that is a bit of sanitation makes it easier for the less able to get the same enjoyment out of the trails.

I ride for the scenery and generally don’t care what the trail is like, from HaB to smooth hardpack.

But I’m not a riding god… 🙂

Comments taken from the SDA Facebook page:

Dress appropriately wear a wet suite 10 months a year the drainage is terrible a light shower is turning large areas of this into a slurry of mud and rock let’s see what winter brings to it.

It’s a brilliant idea and they will make mistakes in a year or two I’m sure they will iron out the problems

having looked at the route through the pentlands, and having done the first bit of it in reverse, i can attest that its a total mudfest, there is NO clearly defined path for 5 miles, and then the final bit where it takes you diagonally northwest back across them, is a total hikeabike, especially the decent off WhiteHill, which is well into solid black downhill run territory, i am willing to bet the designer didnt bike these themselves. Based on my local knowledge, i would not be trying anything else anywhere else on this route.

If this is what downhillers are thinking then what is your average weekend “adventurer” going to think? I agree that this just highlights what needs sorted but from what I read there there are things that should never have made it onto the the route that are just going to put folk off.

Yeah, the problem with crowd-sourcing a route is lack of consistency. It really needs to be audited, either by the same small group of people or with strict, documented criteria.

the decent off WhiteHill, which is well into solid black downhill run territory,

I’ll have another look but I don’t think that’s correct.

aye, I recall a sloping off camber traverse but not a DH descent. There *is* DH tracks there and some steps lower down, but not as described above ^^

Might have all changed though!

Dunno how it fares in the winter, it was dry last month, but i cut out big section in favour of getting where i needed to be (it was a 12h day on the bike).

I think the bigger problem is the climbing. You really would want a low gear and light kit if you were bikepacking it.

That and i thought the route choice was odd. If im planning a <40mile ride then i’ll pick all the interesting trails and string them together with plenty of views and summits. If im riding a->b then im more inclined to take the direct route over a pass and down the other side, not then turn 120deg and go back up the next valley however nice the ride is because uts demoralizing riding away from your overnight stop!

The PBW has quite a few sections that weren’t bridleways before, a lot of the delay and cost was persuading landowners to allow legal access across the route, in at least one case this still hasn’t been fully resolved despite the trail being in regular use by both horse and bike riders for over a decade.

You also limit yourself if you want a route that doesn’t turn to a quagmire at the hint of rain, in most cases the PBW has solved that so it makes sense to use it.

North of Kirkby Stephen I suspect that the route mostly follows what was going to be used for the northern section of the PBW.

Colin and Brian – the sanitisation was a dig 😉

From the cyclinguk website:
https://www.cyclinguk.org/route/great-north-trail-full-route-cape-wrath

There are overview maps in the guide which give an overall idea of where the route goes, but paper maps or GPS will be needed for accurate navigation as the majority of the route is not signed. Each route page has a link to the guide and downloadable GPX files. The routes can also be viewed on the Ordnance Survey website.

Basically someone has just sat down and gone “oh look we can link this bit with that bit, call it a long-distance trail…”

No auditing, no consistency and most importantly, no signage! It’s like they’re desperate for a bit of “look what we’re doing for access” publicity without actually doing any of the work. Bet the first person to ride that in it’s entirety posts back that it’s not a long-distance trail at all, it’s a random collection of wildly varying standards…