Manchester to Leeds - 80miles, 4 canals and no beer )-:

[steveoo]

i must admitt we,ve done quite a few towpath rides and only had one or two incidents mainly with dog walkers and other cyclists who expect everyone to make way for them.
I agree early starts are the best especially on sundays when it can become busy.

 

[wiggydiggy]

i must admitt we,ve done quite a few towpath rides and only had one or two incidents mainly with dog walkers and other cyclists who expect everyone to make way for them.
I agree early starts are the best especially on sundays when it can become busy.

Grrrr pet hate - cyclists who 'train' on towpaths - just slow down boardman its not a race lol

Dog walkers I don't mind, it would be easy to get annoyed but I normally just shout 'Out the way dopey' if a dog is being a bit dum, raises a smile and in the grand scheme of things I dont mind slowing for muttley and his pals.... That and the % of dog walkers who make the effort to control their dog is very high IME

What other canals have you done? I did the Leeds/Liverpool from Blackburn > Leeds which was very scenic in places and a good ride, I'd love to do the Huddersfield Narrow but cycling is barred on that one..... To the west there is the Lancaster Canal which I'd like to do as well - its an 'isolated' canal pretty much, there is the Ribble Link but its still isolated IMO.

 

[growingvegetables]

Grrrr pet hate - cyclists who 'train' on towpaths - just slow down boardman its not a race lol

+1

I've done the Huddersfield Narrow - a few years ago. Lovely ride. I didn't find out that cycling was barred until after I got home

 

[wiggydiggy]

+1

I've done the Huddersfield Narrow - a few years ago. Lovely ride. I didn't find out that cycling was barred until after I got home

Hehe I was reading up on the website and it says so unfortunately, I'm tempted to wait for the next winter 'down time' on the canal and do it one early sunday morning..... It does have the awesomeness of the Standedge Tunnels.

 

[steveoo]

I never knew the huddersfield canal was closed to cyclists,and i was only thinking about doing it the other day!
I ve done the leeds liverpool canal umpteen times never the full length just in stages aithough i have toyed with the idea of doing it all in one stint.
the salter and hebble navigation is a good one although it can get awkward when fishermen use roach poles and leave them across the tracks.we have done some others down south a few years ago no idea of the names just used to take the bikes with us come across a ride and pedal away.
A good ride is sowerby bridge to wakefield using the salter and hebble navigation link up to the leeds liverpool canal on the other side of wakefield and upto five rise locks in bingly.

 

[dslippy]

I have run the Brighouse to Mirfield towpath several times. Yes, bikes are forbidden, but there seem to be an awful lot of tyre tracks.

 

[wiggydiggy]

The nice thing for me about the canals in this area is many of them link with each other and can be strung together, theres a really nice map at Dowley Gap locks on the Leeds Liverpool (just past Saltaire before Bingley) thats shows several canals up as far north as the Ripon canal (York>Ripon). I haven't been able to find it online so next time I'm going past I'll take a picture lol

 

[wiggydiggy]

That's my area. Next time ... ask!
.....

Gonna take you up on this - it is next time only a year later lol

I'm planning on re-running this route as far as Brighouse in the next couple of weeks, but then instead of continuing east to Wakey I'm going to use the Calder Valley Greenway and Spen Valley Greenway to go North to Bradford then down into Leeds.

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=ha...ifax,+West+Yorkshire,+United+Kingdom&t=h&z=17

So in that picture when I reach Anchor Pit Lock House at the SE end of Brighouse I need to cross the railway and M62 to reach Lower Quarry Road which I think will take me onto the greenways.

I can see a tunnel under the railway and another under the motorway but have no idea if they open to public, other than that route I can only think that from Brighouse I need to divert south on the A641 and then east on the A6107 to reach the same point.

Is that possible/what do you think?

 

[DCLane]

I can see a path there - it should be possible. I know the canal - and there's a path which is walkable through the whole way. If it's walkable, then a bike should get down it.

 

[wiggydiggy]

I can see a path there - it should be possible. I know the canal - and there's a path which is walkable through the whole way. If it's walkable, then a bike should get down it.

Ok, I've been down routes like this before and found them un passable as they turn out to be a private access road but hopefully this will not be.

Cheers for info