Cycling Norwich to Wales
 

Hi,

I am planning (well trying to plan) a cycling trip from Norwich to
Tywyn (the middle of the Welsh coast) in August. Does anyone have
suggestions as to how I should go about planning a route, any good
maps or any advise in general? I've never done a long distance trip
before so am a bit Clueless. Has anyone ever done a similar trip and
could suggest a good route? Thanks,

Hannah

Cycling Norwich to Wales
 

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi,

I am planning (well trying to plan) a cycling trip from Norwich to
Tywyn (the middle of the Welsh coast) in August. Does anyone have
suggestions as to how I should go about planning a route, any good
maps or any advise in general? I've never done a long distance trip
before so am a bit Clueless. Has anyone ever done a similar trip and
could suggest a good route? Thanks,

Hannah


St David's to Lowestoft is the best I can offer ... but could be adapted I'm
sure - go to www.beewee.co.uk and the Side to Side link

.... and while you're about it look at www.macride.org.uk ... for a really
worthwhile ride

RG

Cycling Norwich to Wales
 

wrote on 11/06/2007 17:31:
Hi,

I am planning (well trying to plan) a cycling trip from Norwich to
Tywyn (the middle of the Welsh coast) in August. Does anyone have
suggestions as to how I should go about planning a route, any good
maps or any advise in general? I've never done a long distance trip
before so am a bit Clueless. Has anyone ever done a similar trip and
could suggest a good route? Thanks,

A friend did Skegness-Porthmadog a few weeks ago (I joined him for a
bit of it - see bike link in my sig if you're interested).

I think he nipped down to the library to study the OS maps but then just
photocopied a road atlas with a proposed route highlighted linking
pre-booked B&Bs. It was fine, I think, apart from the canals not being
depicted correctly (not entirely surprising as it was a road atlas
rather than an OS map, but it was inconsistently marked - so we got lost...)

I'll point him in the direction of this thread...

Regards

Peter

--
http://www.scandrett.net/lx/
http://www.scandrett.net/bike/

Cycling Norwich to Wales
 

I think he nipped down to the library to study the OS maps but then just
photocopied a road atlas with a proposed route highlighted linking
pre-booked B&Bs. It was fine, I think, apart from the canals not being


Did he/you check out the cyclabilty of the canals before going? How?

TerryJ

Cycling Norwich to Wales
 

TerryJ wrote on 11/06/2007 22:18:
I think he nipped down to the library to study the OS maps but then just
photocopied a road atlas with a proposed route highlighted linking
pre-booked B&Bs. It was fine, I think, apart from the canals not being

Did he/you check out the cyclabilty of the canals before going? How?

No :-)

The canals weren't supposed to be on the route as such, but we knew the
Llangollen and Montgomery were around. We crossed it and thought we'd
follow it; the atlas, however, showed only part of the canal.

It's difficult to describe but basically we thought we'd follow a canal,
as per marked on the map. Turned out the map didn't actually mark the
canal properly so we ended up going in the wrong direction.

We spotted it with my GPS (hurrah for new-fangled gadgets pretending to
be a compass!). We weren't lost as such, more not where we wanted to be!

Peter

PS IME the towpaths of BW-maintained canals are generally pretty good.

--
http://www.scandrett.net/lx/
http://www.scandrett.net/bike/

Cycling Norwich to Wales
 

It's difficult to describe but basically we thought we'd follow a canal,
as per marked on the map. Turned out the map didn't actually mark the
canal properly so we ended up going in the wrong direction.



That's a proper cycle tour that is.
I often just set off with the wind behind me .

TerryJ

Cycling Norwich to Wales
 

On 11 Jun, 23:18, TerryJ wrote:
It's difficult to describe but basically we thought we'd follow a canal,
as per marked on the map. Turned out the map didn't actually mark the
canal properly so we ended up going in the wrong direction.

That's a proper cycle tour that is.
I often just set off with the wind behind me .

On which point Ms Griffiths should note that the prevailing wind is
westerly, so all other things being equal (which they usually arn't,
of course) there might be something to be said for cycling from Wales
to Norwich instead...

Are the national cycle routes any good for this sort of thing?
Presumably the idea is that you can plan a long distance trip along
them (eg NCR 63 covers much of the ground between Norwich and Wales).
Does this work in practice or do you end up fighting the routes as
they twist and turn to avoid stretches of perfectly good road before
dumping you onto a motorway roundabout because that's the only way to
cross it?
The bits of national cycle route that I come across seem to be
somewhat contrived. Some stretches are fine but they just don't join
up properly- is this a systemic issue?

Cheers,
W.

Cycling Norwich to Wales
 

Cycling Norwich to Wales
 

in message .com,
(' ')
wrote:

I am planning (well trying to plan) a cycling trip from Norwich to
Tywyn (the middle of the Welsh coast) in August. Does anyone have
suggestions as to how I should go about planning a route, any good
maps or any advise in general? I've never done a long distance trip
before so am a bit Clueless. Has anyone ever done a similar trip and
could suggest a good route? Thanks,

Start with a good map that covers the whole journey at small scale - I'm a
fan of Michelin maps for this. Get a rough idea of your route. Then plan
in detail using larger scale maps as needed.

You want to avoid:

* main roads (tiring and stressful)
* major conurbations (very hard to navigate except on main roads)
* (where possible) big climbs
* extremely twisty roads

There will be places where you have to choose one or the other.

Work out how far you can do a day, and don't exceed that. When I was 16 I
rode Edinburgh - Cheltenham, at around 60 miles a day. I wasn't very fit
but was used to cycling regularly (although nothing like that distance).
It all went fine except for one day when I'd planned a 100 mile journey,
and that was too much. The difference between 'OK' and 'too much' is
surprisingly sharp.

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; no eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn.
;; Jim Morrison

Cycling Norwich to Wales