How to work out best route through Manchester?

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Beaker39

Well-Known Member
I really want to try and cycle to work a few times a week but I am struggling to get the best route. I have tried plenty of other sites like Sustrans and the like but they all seem a bit useless.

Checking the "Commuting" forum it has made me a little aprehensive with some of the scary commuting stories so I now want a fairly safe-ish route also!

The only thing I can think of doing is say set out early Saturday morning, when i'm not in work, and try and find the best/safest/only route as I go. It's from Atherton to Guide Bridge, Audenshaw if anyone knows of the best way.

Can anybody offer me some help or advice :sad::biggrin: ??
 

4F

Active member of Helmets Are Sh*t Lobby
Location
Suffolk.
Beaker39 said:
Checking the "Commuting" forum it has made me a little aprehensive with some of the scary commuting stories so I now want a fairly safe-ish route also!

You have to take the "commuting stories" with a pinch of salt
I have commuted 4 - 5 times a week now for nearly 10 years and in that time probably had 10 or so instances where I have nearly been taken out and 2 of those were by a pheasant.

Stay alert, stay confident and stay safe and you will be fine

I have no idea of a route so will leave that to our resident Mancs to answer
 

Rohloff_Brompton_Rider

Formerly just_fixed
manchester is fine. i've been commuting there since 7th march and whilst they get a bit close, in general the drivers are pretty sensible and most give you room. there has been a few close do's but they were genuine mistakes rather than malice. i use a builders hi viz jacket and i am pretty confident. go for it you will be fine. just keep your wits about you, tbh tho you should always be careful on a bike anywhere we mix with other road users. good luck.
 

Sh4rkyBloke

Jaffa Cake monster
Location
Manchester, UK
It does look rather disconcerting in the Commuting section with all the stories of close calls etc.... but there are loads more (no idea of the stats) "regular, boring" journeys for each one of the bad ones.

I post vids of close calls, but am not put off cycling as I know that the vast majority of my cycling is trouble free, another portion is due to doziness and can easily be avoided (no real danger to me, just annoying as I have to slow down/take action to avoid someone). Only twice that I can remember has something been so scary/scarily close that I've had to think twice about whether I could have done anything differently or whether it was bad luck or simply a f*ckwit driver on the phone (as happened last night, as it happens).

In the main it's all good, and certainly a whole heap more pleasant than being stuck in a cage in traffic!
 

Sh4rkyBloke

Jaffa Cake monster
Location
Manchester, UK
Ooops, as for the route, probably easiest to put postcodes into Google maps and then drag the route to where you want it, and then view sections on streetview if you want a clearer picture of the types of roads you'll be using etc.
 

400bhp

Guru
Do you live in Atherton?

If I thought hard enough, having lived in Swinton for my first 20 years and hanging around Walkden, I could probably direct you in. Happy to help you with this.:wacko:

There is a local cycling initiative, www.cyclegm.org where, you can order free fold up maps They are very good, and I initially used it to commute from Timperley into Manchester. It has different colours for the broad friendliness of roads and tracks.
 
OP
OP
Beaker39

Beaker39

Well-Known Member
Thanks for ALL the info folks. I am determined to give it a go just need to map out a route and go for it!!

Cheers 400bhp I haven't seen that cyclegm web site, it looks ok. Yes I do live in Atherton for my sins and any help with a possible route would be great. So far I guess my best bet is straight down the Lancs but after that it gets a bit murky!!!
 
Location
Gatley
I'd be inclined to try something like this route - Although I might use the A6 (Manchester Road) instead of the East Lancs.

You could shorten it by coming closer in to the city centre (using Trinity way) but I would definitely avoid the city centre - simply because it will be so slow even with confident filtering.

I know some of the roads quite well (around Pendlebury and Cheetham Hill) and they're mostly fairly typical city roads which present no unusual problems to an experienced cyclist.

I would make sure you allow plenty of time to try different routes (and get lost occasionally) - and potentially use different routes on the return journey. On my commute I do a subtly different route each way because there are certain junctions I just don't like to approach from a particular direction at a given time of day...

Alex
 

Unikprodukt

New Member
I ride Tyldesley to Manchester quite a lot and have tried out loads of routes.

For an on-road route I would probably do something like this:-
http://tinyurl.com/32vney6

The roundabouts at Worsley are really easy on your way in to Manchester as you are going downhill and you can keep up with traffic, on the way out of Manchester I would take the A6 instead. Those roundabouts are not so much fun in the uphill direction. The A6 is a good road to ride on, but it's a bit dull, the Worsley route is good for a change sometimes.

It might help to write a little audax-style route card if you worry about getting lost the first time you try a route.

Also, remember that Google Streetview has pretty much all of Manchester covered now, it's really useful for checking out junctions and roads before you use them, it's easier to remember which turns you need to take if you have seen what they look like first!
 
OP
OP
Beaker39

Beaker39

Well-Known Member
Thanks guys for that, I sort of know both those routes but never on a bike. I will definately try it early one Sunday morning as a trial run just to see how it goes though.

More miles in the tank awaits and a few extra quid in the pocket!!!
 

skudupnorth

Cycling Skoda lover
Bloody hell,never knew so many of you lived so close to me ! I'm in Astley and ride to Bolton every day but i have done the Timperley run many times to visit the Bid (far quicker than driving)
Hello all !;)
 
Top Bottom