Best route- anywhere in England

Ive been looking at the london-Paris routes that everyone talks about, i have very limited holiday time from work soooooo i was thinking why even leave the UK... or England?

Is there any places people would recommend? What routes have people done?

just set off with an a-z some money for food and accommodation, obviously your bike and some clothing tools ect (anything else you need) and head for a destination, making the route up on the way,
i want to do a ride down to dartmoor national park soon stopping at new forest national park and exmoor national park ( i dont know when but i will document it for others to ride if there interested) but im just gonna plan a route as I ride

Check out the coast2coast website. It goes through a few natioanl parks and the Pennines and can be done on a long weekend.

If you can avoid the crappier areas of Newcastle when getting to the East coast then all the better but the fish and chips when you arrive in Whitley Bay taste great. Quite a few varaitions of the trip on the website.

i did a 3 day ride along the lea river/regents canal/grand union canal which went from walthamstow to wendover in bucks all along towpath. total distance was about 66 miles, not much until you consider the amount of pubs and country vistas to check along the way... easily done on a fixed or SS MTB as there's no hills to tackle but plenty of bumpy towpath so small rims/road/track frame is a no-no unless you've got a pub ride that you don't care about... You can ride all the way to birmingham in a couple of days if you go for it but we were taking it very easy staying at hotels etc... I've got a google earth .kmz file if anyone is interested in doing it...

From Bath to south Devon along the sustrans routes is quite nice. We did it staying at B&Bs along the way, and drinking lots of cider. Fun.

+1 for a cider tour of the South West.

A few of us did this in May:

If you're going for a short time the lake district would be the most rewarding destination area as it has the most variation in terrain and most beautiful scenery. Some easygoing coasting rides possible as well as seriously challenging ones. I go there every summer

Depends on what you are wanting to do - lots of short rides, or 1 long one as has already been suggested. However, if you are wanting the former - then North York Moors has some of the best singletrack in the country IMO... Post back for more info.

CHeers

Stu.

i did a 3 day ride along the lea river/regents canal/grand union canal which went from walthamstow to wendover in bucks all along towpath. total distance was about 66 miles, not much until you consider the amount of pubs and country vistas to check along the way... easily done on a fixed or SS MTB as there's no hills to tackle but plenty of bumpy towpath so small rims/road/track frame is a no-no unless you've got a pub ride that you don't care about... You can ride all the way to birmingham in a couple of days if you go for it but we were taking it very easy staying at hotels etc... I've got a google earth .kmz file if anyone is interested in doing it...

There are plenty of canal towpaths giving traffic free cycling, some of them are in better condition than others though. I've been thinking of doing some of the grand union canal, the bits I've visited in Nottinghamshire have really nice scenery.Also check out the Sustrans website for routes in any areas you're interested in.

If you wanted to start or end near London, we cycled a short part of the Ridgeway, as a cheat when trying to cycle the Thames source to sea. Someone described it to us as a Monolithic Motorway, and is a ridge that runs across the centre of England - starts, i think, in Chilterns, North of London, n ends near Avebury. Is a prehistoric path, and passes lots of interesting ancient monuments. Is only about 90 miles, but the bit we rode was chalky, and if wet all gets a bit gunky, so good to have clearance round the wheels n brakes, but really good for short, beautiful and interesting.

http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/ridgeway/

Otherwise, anywhere in Wales! Taff trail in the South is beautiful, and lots of canal paths, so not too hilly.

Josephine, I think you meant neolithic !
The Ridgeway is a great day out - train to swindon then 15 miles to Avebury then 45 beautiful offroad to the Thames at Goring, which is easy if dry with great monuments including Waylands smithy where legend has it that if you left a horse overnight with payment it will be shod in the morning by Wayland the Smith to the gods - I haven't tried it with a bike.
The northern half to Ivinghoe can be done on bridleways but is wetter & a bit more fiddly as you've got to hunt the route.

There's a beautiful cycle along the thames from goring to whitchurch also. head out of goring past station and you come to off road path. follow that - beautiful

just set off with an a-z some money for food and accommodation, obviously your bike and some clothing tools ect (anything else you need) and head for a destination, making the route up on the way,
i want to do a ride down to dartmoor national park soon stopping at new forest national park and exmoor national park ( i dont know when but i will document it for others to ride if there interested) but im just gonna plan a route as I ride

Heh, just spotted this. Done it yet?

I'm cycling down to Dartmoor next Tuesday for a weeks climbing/cidering. I'll sort out some sort of a route-map + photos once I'm back.

Frankly, chapeau to me:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3119636
Amazing, amazing ride - The route on GMAP isn't one hundred percent simply because I can't figure out how to go back on myself so if it says I cycled down a motorway at some stages - that's a dirty lie but the gist is there.

c2c up north. easy best ride. far better than down south-east. plan plan plan - stupid to say 'head off with a-z'.

Texas +1 for northern rides, loads of good stuff in the Pennines/Lakes

A few of us did the C2C fixed at Easter. You'd need thighs of steel to avoid walking up some of the climbs.

Was totally worth it though for the ascent and amazing view/fat lunch at Hartside top where we cruised up past the mountain bikers and roadies fiddling with their gears.

Ran 48/20 and balanced out ok, although rode a few of the bigger passes on road bikes a couple of weeks ago and not entirely surprisingly, the 4 mile descents were a lot more fun.

Coast to coast

dont forget fish and chips from Crosbys by the harbour

up the lee valley isn't bad

Wharfdale in particular imho, have lunch at a black sheep pub too.

Where I was today!

Leeds to harrrogate indirectly, chevin hill is i m m e n s e.

Will add a bit more detail later but 3hr45 riding time 61 miles distance top speed 48.9 mph

top speed of only 49 ed? i did that on the a10 before 8...:)

We got caught behind a lorry on the biggest descent if the day, was still wicked though, can you say burning brakes?

We got caught behind a lorry on the biggest descent if the day, was still wicked though, can you say burning brakes?

I was out the two mornings before that, geared for sure, did a run from Cookridge through poole up Norwood edge and round back through Otley before hitting the old chevin hill in time for rush hour, sucking in car fumes whilst coaxing myself up there was less than fun.

Next day just ran out to Norwood's summit turned round and nearly ended myself on the way back down, narrowly avoided drystone wall for breakfast going round the penultimate bend!Had been at a wedding all day previous, not sure i would've been fit to drive...

sounds like we did quite a similar ride.

you a local?

our sunday ride was out from headingly, out to ilkley then to bolton abbey, and then back via ottley, but the others didnt fancy Chevin again, as we'd done it the day before so we went up another hill next to it that wasnt as steep but was still tough as i spent the whole think trying to close a gap on a friend who sprinted up the first section!

sounds like we did quite a similar ride.

you a local?

our sunday ride was out from headingly, out to ilkley then to bolton abbey, and then back via ottley, but the others didnt fancy Chevin again, as we'd done it the day before so we went up another hill next to it that wasnt as steep but was still tough as i spent the whole think trying to close a gap on a friend who sprinted up the first section!

If you're out that way again, I did this earlier in the year, absolutely stunning ride.

http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=10549