Has Anyone Completed Sustrans Route One

[mikey951r]

I cycled on Sustrans Route One yesterday from Scarborough to Whitby and back after the obligatory fish and chip lunch. Whilst I saw quite a few cyclists I didn't see anyone who looked like they were completing the whole route from Dover to the Shetland Isles. Contrast this with the Loire Valley where I was two weeks previously and where there were hundreds of through cyclists with panniers, trailers, kids, families etc.

Has anyone actually completed this route and what do they think of it. I did LEJOG a couple of years ago along the West Coast and thought this might be an interesting East Coast bottom to top variation?

 

[screenman]

If you do it make sure you wave as you go past.

 

[berty bassett]

i done bits of it last week - on and off it from northants to scarborough - on the whole it was good the bits i used but 1 part near barnetby le wold was just stupid . it was just an overgrown bridle track not suitable for road bike at all - luckily i had hybrid but would have been in trouble with good carbon and a rainy day

 

[byegad]

Too many stretches like that on NCN1 Just North of Beal there's a muddy field which is part of NCN1. Totally impassible other than in drought conditions and then only on a very good MTB.

I was a Ranger for NCN for 5 years and gave up because:-
A. Their idea of a cyclable route and mine were poles apart.
and
B. They were enthusiastically blocking access to off road sections of the routes with barriers that will stop a loaded tourer or anything larger, like a trike or wheelchair, 'In order to deter kids on motorbikes'. This stopped all but unloaded bikes and motorbikes from getting on the routes as the first could squeeze through the stupid barriers and the second merely smashed down a couple of fences and rode across ploughed fields to get onto the route!

 

[mjr]

Has anyone actually completed this route and what do they think of it. I did LEJOG a couple of years ago along the West Coast and thought this might be an interesting East Coast bottom to top variation?

I'm sure some people have done most of it and I've read at least one blog but I can't find it now. Even more have done the Harwich-Aberdeen part because that's also part of the EuroVelo 12 North Sea Cycle Route.

However, you'd need to be a pretty hardy tourer because of things like the mud fields mentioned above and the deep sand west of Norwich. It may not actually be possible to complete it in one go, what with the frequent closures without diversion, which again west of Norwich is currently suffering with the construction of the Northern Disruptor Road.

 

[mjr]

B. They were enthusiastically blocking access to off road sections of the routes with barriers that will stop a loaded tourer or anything larger, like a trike or wheelchair

Officially, Sustrans now oppose such barriers, but they seem unwilling to apply pressure or to reroute to avoid them (which I feel they should do while issuing a press release noisily insulting the relevant council or landowner as they go, in the hope of shaming them into removing the disability-discriminators) and I'm sure there's still the occasional rogue Sustrans officer suggesting/accepting barriers on new routes.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I cycled on Sustrans Route One yesterday from Scarborough to Whitby and back after the obligatory fish and chip lunch. Whilst I saw quite a few cyclists I didn't see anyone who looked like they were completing the whole route from Dover to the Shetland Isles. Contrast this with the Loire Valley where I was two weeks previously and where there were hundreds of through cyclists with panniers, trailers, kids, families etc.

Half a mo. How many of your Loire Valley cyclists were riding from the source to the Atlantic?

 

[mjr]

Are you sure that this would be a good way forward?

Nope but it seems better than continuing to fark disabled people, doesn't it?

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Half a mo. How many of your Loire Valley cyclists were riding from the source to the Atlantic?

But EV6, the ''Loire Valley'' route, doesn't go to the source, does it? (Brother did St Nazaire to Basel this summer. He now wants to finish the last 1300-odd km to Budapest.)

Incidentally, they've removed nearly all the barriers and gates on the NCR1 parts between Erith and Greenwich (along the Thames) but not all - the hazards of youth with 2-wheeled motors seem to have been got rid of but you still won't easily get a recumbent past the Crossness sewerage works concrete chicanes and you wouldn't want to have to stop there. You wouldn't even want to breathe there.

 

[albal]

I did the British coast earlier this year, parts of the NCN 1 were crap. I did the bit into Beal, muddy fields. Says it all.

 

[NorthernDave]

As @mjr says, someone must have done it, simply because it's there to be done, but sections of it are frankly terrible. And without in depth research / local knowledge it's difficult to know what to expect when planning a journey - certainly there is nothing I've been able to find on the Sustrans website and I've come unstuck on routes near me as a result.

This bit of R1 near Seahouses in Northumberland was nice (on road, surface a bit patchy in places but easily rideable and made up for by the view):

But aren't issues with the surface pretty standard for most Sustrans NCN routes?
R66 near me switches between cycle path / cycle lane, on road (with no demarcation), shared space, decent bridleway, woodland trail and a rocky and frequently muddy bridleway* that is only really passable on a decent MTB all within 7 or 8 miles - so anyone doing even a relatively short run on it is going to be on the 'wrong' type of bike for a good chunk of their time.
R65 (the Solar Cycle) and R665 are both former railway lines that feature a lot of tarmac - but it's so ridged due to tree roots and surface erosion that it's positively uncomfortable on a road bike in places, even at the moderate speeds these shared paths demand. And despite being on the former route of the East Coast Main Line, the tarmac on R65 is also surprisingly narrow in places.

* - given recent rain, the section through Parlington Woods will now have several inches of standing water on it in places and that's likely to be the case right through the winter now as it simply won't dry out

 

[mjr]

Sadly, the NCR is plagued with bad surfaces. Some of the worst near me now are nominally roads, but they've been potholed to hell and the highways authority (Cambridgeshire county council) doesn't seem to prioritise cycle routes.

We're adding surface quality information to osm.org when we can (help welcome!) and http://cycle.travel/map shows rough stuff on a route in green on the map and with a cobbles symbol on the directions.

 

[Blue Hills]

And despite being on the former route of the East Coast Main Line, the tarmac on R65 is also surprisingly narrow in places.

t

Educate me dave. The east coast mainline was rerouted? When?

 

[oldstrath]

South of Berwick on Tweed is horrible, even on a Krampus. God knows how you're supposed to ride it on a road bike.

 

[NorthernDave]

Educate me dave. The east coast mainline was rerouted? When?

When the Selby coalfields were being developed, the section of the ECML that passes over them was thought to be at risk of subsidence, so was rerouted a bit further West to the current alignment.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selby_Diversion

https://www.sustrans.org.uk/ncn/map/route/york-to-selby

There are still the odd bits of railway stuff alongside R65 if you know where to look - and the Sustrans place / cafe at Naburn is the former station.