Gravelly cycle tour...
 

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[Closed] Gravelly cycle tour ideas in the UK

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Looking for some ideas for my wife and I for a 5 day (ish) mainly offroad cycle tour, with some accommodation options so not super remote! (I'm picking through some 'established routes' but any alternatives welcome)

Big views and scenery wanted but I'm in the South so perhaps not the top end of Scotland 🙂

We've both done SDW in a day, Paris and back, wife has done JOGLE and I've done the Cambrian Way. Not looking for epic 100 mile days as its a holiday after all 🙂


 
Posted : 07/02/2022 8:38 pm
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King Alfreds Way
West Kernow Way
Great North Trail

Done the first one, doing the second one this march probably. Third might have to be done in chunks at a later stage...


 
Posted : 07/02/2022 8:40 pm
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thanks, first one is already on the list for a boys trip 🙂 Will check out the others...


 
Posted : 07/02/2022 8:48 pm
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Badger Divide is worth a shout as well, but trains are spendy from London.


 
Posted : 07/02/2022 8:50 pm
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you can just zig zag back and forth across the borderlands between scotland and northumberland/cumbria, loads of disused railways /drovers roads etc and lots of phenominally quiet roads


 
Posted : 07/02/2022 8:52 pm
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Yep coast to coast - Whitehaven (or White'Evan for the locals) - Newcastle - then back across on the border reivers route - grand.


 
Posted : 07/02/2022 8:55 pm
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http://bikepackingscotland.com/argyll/


 
Posted : 07/02/2022 8:57 pm
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Bangor to Port Talbot is a great trip. Stunning scenery, some of which you'll know from the Cambrian Way.


 
Posted : 07/02/2022 9:12 pm
 si77
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Wales C2C, various versions to choose from depending how demanding you want it. Enough B&Bs along the way to make it comfortable over 3 to 5 days.


 
Posted : 07/02/2022 9:14 pm
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How about the route of the Rapha Pennine Rally? It's up on komoot and I imagine you'll find it on Strava too. Edinburgh to Manchester, predominantly off-road. The idea behind it was a 5-day self-supported thing although I think some of the participants of the inaugural edition last year smashed it out in 3 days or so.


 
Posted : 07/02/2022 10:05 pm
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bikepacking scotland has some good suggestions


 
Posted : 07/02/2022 10:44 pm
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what @donald said


 
Posted : 07/02/2022 10:50 pm
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I pieced together a route over a few days from Bristol down to Salcombe using some of the longer old railway line cycle paths and up and over the Quantocks. Feel free to have a hack about with it.

https://www.komoot.com/tour/317672336


 
Posted : 08/02/2022 9:25 am
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Big views and scenery wanted but I’m in the South

Mid /west Wales? Anywhere between the Brecons and Snowdonia. A great mix of lanes, doubletracks and Sustrans and EuroVelo routes. Quiet, beautiful, wild but rarely too remote - just perfect for bike touring ime.

eg
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/36628143
Plenty more of these if interested. Jack Thurston'ws Lost Lanes Wales is a great resource. They're day rides not tours in the book but linking up a load of the points of interest and lanes + tracks he lists created a superb tour for me in 2020. I went back last summer for another week pottering around. Love it there.


 
Posted : 08/02/2022 10:34 am
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Maybe some useful ideas in these books?

Bikepacking England

Big Rides GB & Ireland

and Gravel Rides Scotland Not out until April though!


 
Posted : 08/02/2022 10:54 am
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Tour of the Cotswolds - it's hilly but nothing worse than the SDW.


 
Posted : 08/02/2022 2:48 pm
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Maybe some useful ideas in these books?

Bikepacking England

Big Rides GB & Ireland

and Gravel Rides Scotland Not out until April though!
Posted 3 hours ago

I've just been leafing through 'Big Rides' and it's relly well put together. It's given me a couple of ideas.


 
Posted : 08/02/2022 2:56 pm
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Not out until April though!

D'OH! 😣

I was looking forward to that book dropping through my letterbox any day now, needed some inspiration after a fairly depressing (in riding terms) Christmas and New Year. Hadn't realised it was pre-order 😥


 
Posted : 08/02/2022 3:58 pm
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My riding mate who's a very experienced cycle tourer did the Argyll trail in 2019, he was still going on how bad it was at the weekend.


 
Posted : 09/02/2022 3:46 pm
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this is a great ride, did it with @alex off here a few years ago.I'm sure he did a write up of it somewhere if you can be bothered to search.

https://www.sustrans.org.uk/find-other-routes/lon-las-cymru-from-holyhead-to-cardiff-or-chepstow


 
Posted : 09/02/2022 3:51 pm
 Alex
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Day 1 here: https://pickled-hedgehog.com/?p=4412, subsequent days via 'next article' button at bottom of this post.

TLDR; was a great route, last day very wet otherwise fab conditions and really good fun.


 
Posted : 09/02/2022 4:02 pm

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