North Sea Cycle Route

[MichaelW2]

In practice, A roads connect large towns and cities, B roads connect smaller towns and villages.
B roads are often commuter routes used by people who know ever corner, many have fast traffic on narrow tarmac. You can usually tell from a map if a B road is a main route.
Route maps from Sustrans are very useful, esp in the urban parts and on trails. The route is well signposted and it is possible to ride with no navigational skills. I only got lost once.

 

[CopperBrompton]

Route maps from Sustrans are very useful

Mostly for identifying routes to avoid at all costs – most Sustrans routes are dreadful.

 

[subaqua]

In practice, A roads connect large towns and cities, B roads connect smaller towns and villages.
B roads are often commuter routes used by people who know ever corner, many have fast traffic on narrow tarmac. You can usually tell from a map if a B road is a main route.
Route maps from Sustrans are very useful, esp in the urban parts and on trails. The route is well signposted and it is possible to ride with no navigational skills. I only got lost once.

dont fall into the number trap http://www.cbrd.co.uk/articles/road-numbers/allpurpose.shtml if you a proper nerdy geek ( one for the pedants) its a brilliant site

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Bumpety thread bump. My brother, who lives in Canada where he can't get whelks, has just written to me to ask about the Yorkshire sections of the North Sea Cycle Route. Has anybody done it and, if so, what's it like?

 

[mjr]

As well as the well-signposted A and B roads, we have rarely-signposted C roads and almost-never-labelled D, U and Y ones.

Mostly for identifying routes to avoid at all costs – most Sustrans routes are dreadful.

I think that's going too far. Most Sustrans routes are just quiet roads. Of the rest, even in the best areas, I'd say it's 50-50.

North Sea Cycle Route - England, heading north/west:

• Wells-next-the-Sea to Holkham is a choice between two different kinds of not-quite-right: the northern option includes deep sand or the southern includes a stone road (think an ill-maintained strada bianchi). Of those, I prefer the southern, but it's usually worth trying the gate off the bend in the A149 on Mill Rd near the hospital because then you'll get to ride past Holkham Hall and the obelisk. The B1105 or A149 can skip the bad bits of the southern and northern options, but both are often very busy.
• Holkham to Sandringham is mostly-lovely back roads along the ridge just south from the coast - the last resurfacing debacle should have bedded in by now.
• Sandringham to King's Lynn was described as one of Britain's great countryside cycle routes - quiet roads from Sandringham, cycle track from the A149 (partly the former A149) to quiet roads from Castle Rising, cycle tracks from South Wootton to King's Lynn stations.
• The route signs then stupidly direct you into a zone in King's Lynn that's currently signed as no-cycling in one direction. There are two easy alternatives, marked as N1 and Walks on www.hikebikemap.org cycling routes and other OSM-based maps, but they're not yet signed.
• King's Lynn to Long Sutton goes on a bit of a big meander to Wisbech instead of taking the obvious coastal back roads and tracks across Sutton Bridge. It's mostly OK except for a pointless kink off Waterlees Road to use a dangerous cycle track that jumps off a high kerb as it enters Wisbech. I'd Ignore the narrow cycle lanes on the short stretch of Lynn Road, too.
• Long Sutton to Boston is mostly mostly-lovely back roads, kinking inland a few times for Holbeach and Fosdyke.
• Boston to Lincoln is mostly the Water Rail Way which I've yet to ride but I'm told is pretty good, albeit as flat as a railway alongside a river.

I've also ridden from the Hook of Holland to Noordwijkerhout junction 86, mostly on the NSCR but not slavishly so (a couple of detours into towns) and that was all as fine as you'd expect from the Netherlands IMO. I expect it's similar for most of the Dutch section.

 

[Debade]

Here is our Crazyguy journal. I should say my wife's journal. https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=1fs&page_id=408627&v=Go

Not the best tour we have done but it was still a great ride. We have come to the conclusion that a sea ride often means a view of the levee. Lots of levee views and a few sea views.

 

[steveindenmark]

I did the whole thing in 2008, IIRC, on a fixed hybrid with 32 mm tyres. At that time, the ferry from Bergen to Scrabster (on the northern Scottish coast) was running so it was easy to complete the loop. A Roubaix bike would be fine, although most of the continental tourers you'll meet will be on trekkiing bikes - flat or butterfly bars, hydraulic brakes, hub gears, maybe front suss, 40mm Marathon tyres.

My memories of the trip? Boring, boring, boring. Fussy, fussy, fussy. Far too many cycle paths (with gates) on the landward side of big dykes through the Netherlands and Germany and tortuous detours to avoid tunnels on proper roads in Norway. With one or two short exceptions, surfaces were smooth and good. Denmark was fabulous though - I've been back there since.

Lots of people love the route though, but I get impatient with meandering "infrastructure."

Caveat: I didn't have the proper route maps as I thought they were too expensive and you need a lot of them.

Enjoy!

You surprise me. I think the Denmark section of the route is boring. It looks like you are near the sea, but it is hidden a lot of the time. Any of the east coasts or the Southern Islands are far more interesting.