Cycle routes - how do you find yours?

[prestonhere]

Early 1920s

 

[Conrad_K]

The various local city and county governments have created and maintain an astonishing number of "dual use" walking/biking trails, both dirt and paved, but they're poorly documented online. About half of them I either discovered by accident - I keep an eye out for telltale road crossings, which have fairly standardized curb cuts - and the other half, by asking people if they know of any trails. Even the places that have web sites talking about their parks and trails, seldom have all of them listed.

I'm not crazy enough to ride on the street without at least a hundred horsepower connected to my right twistgrip. Frankly, I'm wondering about getting a bigger truck...

 

[Willd]

Use an online version of OS maps / MapMyRide and take an actual OS Landranger map if going somewhere new. Currently been to bits of Landranger 128, 129, 139, 140, 141, 150, 151, 152, 153, 164 & 165

 

[mjr]

I generally start with cycle.travel or cyclOSM and string together stretches of marked/signed routes with linking trails (preferably hard or at least firm = solid or long dashes on cyclOSM) or minor roads. I'll often take shortcuts if I can't see a reason for the signed route doing what it does.

Often I'll throw some untested bits of route in there, either at the furthest extreme of my loop on a day-trip, or on the return leg. Ideally with a safer bail-out option ready for if the route fails the test and I've had enough or need to get a move on.

 

[Jameshow]

I wing it or use Google maps, both led me up a mountain at the end of a day in numerous occasions!🤣

Good thing about os maps is they display topography much better.

 

[Mike_P]

Useful to track a route in unknown parts on Google streetview so you can id for example any potentially dodgy junctions

 

[wakemalcolm]

I used to rely on my experience but there's been such an increase in engineered cycle paths and trails opened up by regular use that I've started using Cycle.Travel. It's really opened my eyes to new pathways.

 

[Ian H]

I find a lot of cycle routes are worth avoiding. Maps help me do that.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

We have quite good off road tracks here (a joined up combination of old railway, canal or just simply paths) leading to (and through) Glasgow, so no issues here and the surface is usually not too bad (not any worse than a road (except for the canal sections, which are those tiny, gravelly stones and not always conducive to road tires, but there is more than one route you can take anyway)).

I could, in theory, cycle from Tarbert, on Loch Lomond to Carlisle and beyond. Ok, some sections are on the road, but a large bit isn't.

 

[raleighnut]

I find a lot of cycle routes are worth avoiding. Maps help me do that.

Yea there's one (NCN 6 I think) out the back of Shepshed that takes you on a 3 mile loop to avoid a short (100yds) section of A road, tried it once til I realised. Now It may be on quiet back lanes but 3 miles of meandering ain't my idea of getting somewhere

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Yea there's one (NCN 6 I think) out the back of Shepshed that takes you on a 3 mile loop to avoid a short (100yds) section of A road, tried it once til I realised. Now It may be on quiet back lanes but 3 miles of meandering ain't my idea of getting somewhere

Sounds like a box ticking exercise to me.

Having grown up with the (largely great) tracks on the north side of the Clyde, hearing some descriptions of other tracks just staggers me!

 

[mjr]

Sounds like a box ticking exercise to me.

Indeed. It's worth remembering that the millennium NCN had some target of being within x miles of y% of the population, so some detours are to help hit the coverage target as much as avoiding motorists.

 

[Andy in Germany]

I tend to make fairly detailed plans and generally follow them closely: usually I use maps after experiments with GPS based navigation worked well until the phone firstly lost a signal then announced it didn't have a sim card in the middle of nowhere.

The way I see it, this way I get to have the ride twice: once planning and once out on the road.

 

[Jenkins]

Local rides I'll do based on how far I fancy going, what bike I'm using and which way the wind is blowing and mostly made up on the go knowing the area.
Other rides ouside the local area or one way rides out for beer & food followed by a train ride home will be done by following a saved route on the Garmin. I've got a lot of these saved routes, many of these made up months in advance just in case.

 

[Bristolian]

I only ride on roads, my bike isn't really suited to trails and I don't intend to damage it trying.

I guess I'm fortunate that I live in roughly the same area that I grew up (and used to train in), so I know where the quiet lanes/roads are and which roads should be avoided. I also generally ride circular routes, starting and finishing at home and moving out into the countryside north of Bristol; I have them ranging from 12 to 50 miles.

If I'm going to venture into unknown areas I use OS maps to plot them and download onto my Garmin. After the first time I can repeat the route without the Garmin's help - I have a good memory for routes and directions (it's just rubbish for anything else).