A406 North Circular

Gotta use the north circ from palmers green heading south (towards hangar lane etc etc) on wednesday. Whens the least busy time during the day? I was thinking around 10:30am - i reallyy dont want to ride in rush hour traffic, its my first time on that road on my own and I'm not very familier with it...

Matt

[Spiderman]

When is the north circ not busy? Errrm around the same time that hell freezes over yearly!!

Seriously, that part of the 406 is what they are constantly talking about widening so its pretty much congested all the time around that particular bit by palmers green way.
Saying that once youre past that its pretty smooth sailing from there, 3 lanes of flowing traffic all the way pretty much.
Also you dont need to come off anywhere so no turn off to look out for. Except at the Temple Fortune junction where you just gotta stay awat from the far right hand lanes (even if you go that way you wont get too lost, lol)

And when youre at Hanger Lane you'll know you're there.
I'd allow myself a good 30-40mins if i was doing that journey but i know those roads so maybe give youself about an hour+ and if you get there early then you can always pop into the Ace for a coffee to kill some time.

HTH mate.

Right-o, i'll remember that. I figured sticking in the middle lane will get me where I need to be! Where is the Ace anyway?

Matt

Matt, FWIW, I've been on the North Circular once (probably not near where you will be, but hey ho). Didn't have much of a clue as to where I was going, and it was almost complete gridlock.

Not a real problem, so long as you stuff a pair of eyeballs in the back of your head (in your a**e will help too).

Might be more traffic than you're used to, but you should be fine. I happily filtered whilst trying to read a tankbag map-list, just take it steady.

Good point dave, I'll try and grow a few more sets in the next few days. Got scared crapless by some chav in a BMW X5 the other day who himself was trying to filter

Lotsa room for filtering on the north circ

Matt

Sometimes the lanes get a bit thin (between the m1 flyover and ikea for one)
The Mrs got munched there by a rep-mobile.(she was fine-ish )

'Most' of the time if you avoid rush hours it flows pretty well and you shouldn't need to filter much if you're not in a hurry.(except for traffic light approaches naturally)
If you see the ace cafe on your right hand side, you've missed the turn off.
Think it's the 3rd turn off after the ikea lights - could be wrong as I've never been, but seen it 100's of times.
As I live in Finchley I'd rather come home and put my feet up with a cuppa there it's just too close to home to stop.

Take it easy - don't be afraid of the horn

[Red ones]

Originally Posted by Jools'SV Now

The Mrs got munched there by a rep-mobile.(she was fine-ish )

Take it easy - don't be afraid of the horn

It's a bit easier during school holidays. This week's been a bit quieter than usual so I guess that some (but not all) of the schools have broken up for summer. There's often a lull in the traffic shortly after 9am, but then it gets busier again. I guess that some people wait until after the main rush hours, which then creates more traffic after 9:30. Mid-morning can then often be quite busy. I've been riding between Finchley (Henly's Corner) and Hangar Lane every day for more years than I care to think about. Henly's Corner is the most dangerous junction, but you'll be going straight though, rather than turning, so you'll be OK there. Prepare to filter on or after the Brent Cross flyover, especially as one lane is closed at Neasden for roadworks. You'll also have to do some filtering up to Hangar Lane, but it's not normally too bad after 9am.

Originally Posted by wyrdness

Henly's Corner is the most dangerous junction

Have to agree there, it can be a right *****.

[Biker Biggles]

Whatever you do don't head south from Palmers Green as the North Circular goes East/West from there

Head West and if you start to see low flying aircraft you have probably gone too far.