Just zis Guy, you know?
July 17th 03, 09:08 PM
Today I are been mostly working in Oxford, so I thought I'd take the
bike up on the train and ride back [to Reading] along NCN route 5.
It is definitely the scenic route. The most direct route door to door
is a little under 25 miles, along the highly unpleasant A4074 (not
recommended). Shortest reasonable route is probably the B480 / B481
(via Watlington and Nettlebed) at something under 30 miles. NCN5 was
39 miles! And being a Sustrans route quite a bit of it was "traffic
free" (i.e off road or footpaths) so it was difficult at times to
maintain a sensible cruising speed - I only managed to average a shade
over 15mph, which is considerably slower than I woudl have expected.
The gale-force wind didn;t help much either :-/
Signage was generally good and the surface tolerable apart from
Oxford's comedy cycle lanes and a couple of stretches of Quiet Lane (a
funny road which seems to join lots of small villages in Oxfordshire -
unless I've misunderstood and it's a euphemism for "road the council
can't be arsed to maintain").
I lost the route twice, once at Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, where I ended
up on a fast piece of A road (I think the NCN takes in a bridleway)
and once between Ipsden and Checkendon which is an area I know pretty
well anyway so wasn't a problem.
The route is mostly flattish, in as much as that is possible in the
Chilterns, and the roads were forthe most part very quiet. Lots of
bunnies round Scenic Didcot Power Station, and a bit of humorous
signage - an NCN routemarker labelled "London" pointing into the
station :-)
A slow but generally pleasant ride. But next time it's the B480 I
think.
Guy
===
** WARNING ** This posting may contain traces of irony.
http://www.chapmancentral.com
[currently offline awaiting ADSL transfer to new ISP]
bike up on the train and ride back [to Reading] along NCN route 5.
It is definitely the scenic route. The most direct route door to door
is a little under 25 miles, along the highly unpleasant A4074 (not
recommended). Shortest reasonable route is probably the B480 / B481
(via Watlington and Nettlebed) at something under 30 miles. NCN5 was
39 miles! And being a Sustrans route quite a bit of it was "traffic
free" (i.e off road or footpaths) so it was difficult at times to
maintain a sensible cruising speed - I only managed to average a shade
over 15mph, which is considerably slower than I woudl have expected.
The gale-force wind didn;t help much either :-/
Signage was generally good and the surface tolerable apart from
Oxford's comedy cycle lanes and a couple of stretches of Quiet Lane (a
funny road which seems to join lots of small villages in Oxfordshire -
unless I've misunderstood and it's a euphemism for "road the council
can't be arsed to maintain").
I lost the route twice, once at Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, where I ended
up on a fast piece of A road (I think the NCN takes in a bridleway)
and once between Ipsden and Checkendon which is an area I know pretty
well anyway so wasn't a problem.
The route is mostly flattish, in as much as that is possible in the
Chilterns, and the roads were forthe most part very quiet. Lots of
bunnies round Scenic Didcot Power Station, and a bit of humorous
signage - an NCN routemarker labelled "London" pointing into the
station :-)
A slow but generally pleasant ride. But next time it's the B480 I
think.
Guy
===
** WARNING ** This posting may contain traces of irony.
http://www.chapmancentral.com
[currently offline awaiting ADSL transfer to new ISP]