Need some local knowledge please?

And it doesn't matter where you are in the UK, you'll be local.

I am organising a charity ride, I guess similar in concept to the recent distinguished gentlemans ride.

Thoughts for a name were Backbone of Britain due to the route and the relevance to the charity, but Spinal Research UK are using that name for a fundraising campaign already so we might need to rethink.

The route so far is as follows, and will run from South to North, starting near Southampton, finishing near the aptly named "Hope" on the north coast of Scotland:

www.motogoloco.com/map?route=11623&key=bf89f37c

It'll be split into 3 days at about 250 miles per day. People could get sponsored to ride all three (don't forget that doubles the distance, as they've got to get from home, to start point, to finish point, then ride home again). Or people could just join in for 1 or 2 days, with donation or sponsorship as they see fit.

So the local knowledge I need is:

• What do you think of the route? Could it use better biking roads? Are there any pinch points where delays are likely
• Petrol will be needed about every 100 miles, at a petrol station with a large forecourt and plenty of pumps, pay at pump would also be a massive advantage
• A stopping and regrouping point will be needed every 50 miles, a place large enough to park all the bikes, no parking restriction, preferably somewhere that can be seen from the road so its obvious (will have markers but my last group ride 8 riders went straight past one of them), if there's a shop where people can get a bottle of water that'd be great
• Around 1/3 and 2/3 distance we need accommodation, possibly a town that has various accommodation options, so that a central evening eating and drinking point can be arranged

Just throw your ideas at me, I'll go check it out via 'tinterweb and Google streetview.

Thanks folks

[carelesschucca]

You don't ask for much really do you.

I'll have a look at the route when I get home and see what's what

Originally Posted by carelesschucca

You don't ask for much really do you.

I'll have a look at the route when I get home and see what's what

Thank you


I was hoping you'd reply, organising the GM all these years you've probably been through this pain on the Scottish section many times over!


Not asking people to look at the whole thing, if people could just look at their local section and suggest one stopping point or petrol station that'll be a massive help. Casting the net out to lots of people will hopefully give me the kind of local info it'd take me days to find through research on google.

[shiftin_gear98]

The A326 skirting the New Forest is one boring ass road. If you are just trying to finish your ride then it'll do, however if you are after a nicer ride then I'd Turn off the A326 at Loperwood pick up the A337 towards Lyndhurst, then Beaulieu Road B3056 past the motor museum. And onwards to Lepe.
As said it's slower, but much nicer views.


I grew up in Ashurst. Spent a lot of my youth cycling these roads. Lyndhurst can get busy, but you're on bikes!! Plenty of petrol stops Cadnam, Lyndhurst, even Beaulieu if I remember correctly.
Likewise plenty of places to stop for a cuppa.

[Littlepeahead]

Just watch out for particularly daft donkeys near Beaulieu! No road sense at all.

[yokohama]

The route you've chosen from Hawes to Kirby Stephen is a nice one, especially the bit that goes alongside the railway line.
However, you might consider going from Hawes to Thwaite over Buttertubs pass and then head west up Swaledale to Nateby. For me, it's a much more dramatic route.
Petrol....can't remember off the top of my head but there are 2 in Alston, on the a686, in the centre just a couple of hundred yards after the junction where you turn off onto the 689. the first one is pay at pump.

Thanks folks, I've made those route updates.

[Littlepeahead]

In Lyndhurst there's a pub just off the main road at Pikes Hill called the Waterloo Arms. Plenty of parking, a nice garden, and I'm sure that if you needed a place to stop early on for a regroup and a coffee this would be ideal. You'll go past the road the pub is on as you head out of the town.

http://www.waterlooarmsnewforest.co.uk/

[SIII]

Looking at my 'Bit'. from Gretna to weegie central.

A7 is not the most interesting of roads, better than motorway and decent pace can be made till you hit the towns. Getting through Hawick and Selkirk can be a PITA. Very easy to lose bikes in them both. Coming up to Moffat on the APR road that runs alongside the M74, then from Moffat across St Marys is a better road but of course a wee bit slower. Moffat a good town to overnight, Buccleuch Arms very bike friendly and petrol available.

Route

Thanks Ron.

TBH I've done the B7076 a few times before, it's boring as hell, and you sit there alongside the M74, in a 60 limit, wondering why your watching the traffic on the motorway zip past at 90mph.

So if I did use that route you posted, and I like the St Marys loch road. We'd jump on the M74 from Gretna to Moffat.

Do you think if we used the M74 to knock out that 30 miles in 20 minutes, would St Marys loch take any longer than the A7?

The other alternative of course if we do M74 to Moffat, is the A701 to Biggar, that's a great road. Carnwath to Whitburn to Linlithgow to Kincardine bridge is then an option too instead of rounding Edinburgh.



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