I need to plan a route from London (Marble arch ish) to Portsmouth (ferry terminal) but I don’t really have any knowledge of most of the places or roads on the route.

Route needs to be as direct as possible, avoid major roads but not be too difficult to navigate (but GPS can assist us here).

Here is my starter for 10

http://goo.gl/maps/lZeHe

So where am I going wrong?

The route needs to be suitable for people on road bikes. My experience of almost all national cycle routes is that they are OK for road bikes with one or two exceptions. Are the sections on this route OK. Is the route out of London the best way (we will be going mid morning on a Friday)? Any other bits where another road will be a lot nicer to ride on? Etc?

The bit past woking is on the canal path, i don’t think that bit is paved but not 100% sure.

Thanks – Is it worth taking the canal to stay away from the traffic or just an unnecessary complication.

In my experience all canal tow paths are fine on a road bike if it’s dry. No need to 6″ of travel for those!

Thanks – Is it worth taking the canal to stay away from the traffic or just an unnecessary complication.

In my experience all canal tow paths are fine on a road bike if it’s dry. No need to 6″ of travel for those!
I rode on that bit of canal path about 4 years ago and i can’t remember what the surface is.

Any locals know?

I know the bit from farnham to portsmoth is all good and there are some nice bits of road after petersfield.

Most of the river/canal paths around there are either tarmacced or hard-pack however they get swampy fast when it’s either rained or flooded or both with all the foot-fall. If it’s wet, I’d get back on the road if I was on a road bike.

That goes right past my door, have a look at the 2boats charity route from putney to pompey dockyard for a few tweaks, http://www.2boats.org/cycle-routes/, it cuts a couple of unnecessary bits from your route at the southern end.

bugpowderdust – Thanks. That 2 boats route has been really useful.

Anyone else? My main fear now is the bit in London before we get to Putney bridge. I guess we just need to be brave and go for it.