London - Northamptonshire

I know this is a bit of a long shot, but anyone ridden from London to Northants before and got some route tips? My folks live in Daventry (i.e., west of the county) and am planning on riding home next time I go back.

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/turing-100#

I have sent people to Coventry with this.

You may be able to ride along the Grand Union Canal for at least some of your journey. Slower than riding on the road, but towpaths are usually very quiet and peaceful.

thanks both.

fussballclub - that route just get you to bletchley... is it the maths geek route? either way, that's a great start, so thanks

Have a look at this and you are nearly there.

http://www.lfgss.com/post3436994-4762.html

national route 50 (previously route 70) runs from steeple claydon up to daventry, have a look on sustrans.org.
you can jiggle a back-lane link from leighton buzzard to winslow (route 51) thence a mile or two to steeple claydon.

There's a whole thread dedicated to the joys of Northants http://www.lfgss.com/thread32330.html

I've done London - Rothwell - I expect you'd want to peel off round MK and head NW cross-country

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/134240842

^ This is ace, thanks. Have also found a route on strava that goes basically 2 miles from my folks' house! Am going to merge all the best bits of the various routes I've found into one trip of homeward-boundness.

I'll instruct my mother to have dinner on the table within 10 minutes of my arrival.

There's a whole thread dedicated to the joys of Northants http://www.lfgss.com/thread32330.html

I've done London - Rothwell - I expect you'd want to peel off round MK and head NW cross-country

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/134240842

Hey KT, i'm doing this on Friday, and am pretty much doing your route, just amending bits here and there - were there any particularly unpleasant bits that I should look to re-route? i.e., grim busy A roads, long schleps through crappy boring towns etc?

I seem to remember that the bit round the edge of Watford was a bit weird / dull - but ok. Similarly the bit round Hemel. If you can find a nicer way to Hemel (perhaps via St Albans) that might take out some of the duller bits but suspect there aren't many alternatives. Once you get just past Hemel it's quite good - some lovely open roads. It climbs more or less constantly to Whipsnade, then a huge downhill, and cross country to Leighton Buzzard. The only bits I remember actively not liking were the little bit along the A421 and the bit round the A5 / A508 junction on the edge of Stony Stratford. My route is a mix of someone else's route to Billing, then my own to Rothwell, which means going round the edge of Northampton, along some not very nice dual carriageways. Depending where you're peeling off to Daventry you might want to tweak.

Let me know if you ever do this at a weekend and fancy company - I owe my Granny a visit,

Yeh, I certainly will. May not be heading back up there til May-June time after this weekend though.

I had a fiddle wit the route last night before seeing your comments above, this is what I came up with
http://connect.garmin.com/course/3051172

Not the straightest line ever, but have tried to avoid town centres (except Leighton Buzzard - thought it would probably be coffee and cake time around then) and taken a few detours to do a bit of climbing.

Will take another look at the route before I go and have a think about your tips. looking forward to it, it's satisfying riding from point to point rather than in a loop. Let's hope the winds going the right way!

KTBee

You should be able to cross the A5 just before the roundabout by turning first right in Old Stratford, Right again onto a path which crosses the A5 via a footbridge, then onto the Cosgrove Road, missing out that horribly busy roundabout.

good local tip skully, rep

Indeed. Let me know how the route goes for you Jim.

So, did this yesterday and it went great.

Left mine at pretty much bang on 9, went up swain's for a 'laugh' (got a new bike and so am testing it out), then cut across town to the A5. Was expecting the schlep to getting outside the M25 (on the A5 for a pretty long way) to be really grim, but it wasn't actually too bad - not too many lights, bus lanes to shelter in, and not too much traffic.

Once I'd skirted around the charms of Hemel Hempstead, the route was great - was a mix of KT's from above, another one i found on Strava, and a lot of my own invention. Super-quiet backroads the whole way, there were periods where I didn't see any traffic for 20 mins or so which was great. I took a bit of a diversion to do one of the really nice climbs in Herts (think it's called Ivinghoe Beacon or Ashridge), and then went through the middle of Leighton Buzzard, a pretty small non-descript town. Had planned it in as it was around the 50 mile mark, so thought it would be coffee time. Stopped there for 10-15 minutes, then jogged on. Was more of the same in terms of the route from there on, really nice back roads and super quiet.

The first half of the ride was largely pretty flat, but after leighton buzzard it was quite undulating, no 'hills', but felt like I was always going up or down, particularly in the last 15 miles through Northants (or maybe just coz I needed to HTFU at the end of the ride).

Had a cross wind on me most of the way, but when it was behind me could make some really good progress. Was lucky with the rain too - was dry up til the last 45 minutes or so, where there were some pretty heavy showers.

Clocked in at 89 miles in 5 hours riding time, doing 17.5mph average. Pretty please given the first stretch through London traffic. Needless to say, I spent the rest of the day working my way through the beer and food supplies in the house until I'd worked myself into a sufficient stupor to collapse in the bed that I slept in all through my childhood.

A very satisfying day.

Don't have a cable with me to upload the stuff off the garmin, but will post a link sunday / monday.

Nice one. Northants is surprisingly hilly - all the little ups and downs between Northampton and Rothwell nearly did for me last time

Here's the route and whatnot should you be interested

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/285674608