Easy Southern England Mini-Tour?

[PeterJ]

A couple of friends and I are contemplating a short tour. We'd like something which:

- is circular
- starts near to Oxford
- about 120-150 miles long
- on-road
- not hilly (one of my friends is very unfit)

Is this possible? Any suggestions would be most welcome!

[ANTONISH]

M25 hard shoulder?

[PeterJ]

I think I need to revisit my criteria.......

[foxyrider]

Banbury, Stratford, Cheltenham, Cirencester, Lechlade - about the right distance, stuff to see and avoids too much climbing. It's easily adaptable from 3 to 5 days and whatever accomodation you are thinking of, there's plenty to be had.

Plenty of loops you could do but some will be much hillier, others much busier. It's not my neck of the woods but I did ride through last year so have a feel for the area.

[whoof]

Banbury, Stratford, Cheltenham, Cirencester, Lechlade - about the right distance, stuff to see and avoids too much climbing. It's easily adaptable from 3 to 5 days and whatever accomodation you are thinking of, there's plenty to be had.


Plenty of loops you could do but some will be much hillier, others much busier. It's not my neck of the woods but I did ride through last year so have a feel for the area.

+1
That's pretty much what was produced by Cycle Travel when I put in Oxford-Cheltenham round trip and the pulled a couple of waypoints North and South on each leg.

Some lovely places to see and good riding.

[al_yrpal]

From there I would go to Stow on the Wold YHA, down to Lyme Regis, along to Lymington and onto the Island, ride to Wooton Creek and cross to Pompey. Then back through tbe Meon Valley, across Reading and up Sustrans 5 to Oxford. I have done this, its a nice route and there are some hills. When I began touring I just tackled them.

Al

[foxyrider]

From there I would go to Stow on the Wold YHA, down to Lyme Regis, along to Lymington and onto the Island, ride to Wooton Creek and cross to Pompey. Then back through tbe Meon Valley, across Reading and up Sustrans 5 to Oxford. I have done this, its a nice route and there are some hills. When I began touring I just tackled them.

Al

Think you missed the 'no hills- bit of the OP! And stretching the distance a bit too.

[whoof]

From there I would go to Stow on the Wold YHA,
Al

Unfortunately I think it's joined the growing number of closures.

[al_yrpal]

Ah! I thought Stow had been repreived, apparently not. As for the hills I did see the OP but you cant avoid every hill. Planning with something like cycle.travel helps you avoid the most difficult ones.

Al

[mercalia]

I was thinking if taking a train from London down to Brighton and cycle around the coast a ) back to london eastwards or b) westwards to where ever. any comments?

[PhilWhitehurst]

M25 hard shoulder?

You clearly don't know where Oxford is.

[whoof]

I was thinking if taking a train from London down to Brighton and cycle around the coast a ) back to london eastwards or b) westwards to where ever. any comments?

I've never found riding the coast around Brighton that great. It's better once you go north and get over the Downs.

You could try this to Eastbourne but even that leaves the coast at Seaford.

http://www.gps-routes.co.uk/routes/home ... ycle-route

From Brighton north I've ridden the NCN (local route) 82 which is an off road path (tarmacked) that goes from Hove to Poynings where it joints the NCN 20.

[simonhill]

The OP's distance is meaningless without knowing how many days.

Also, I think some of the suggestions far exceed the OP's requested level. Remind me never to go for an easy ride with any of you lot.

If unfit, or not wanting hills, my advice is not to worry about one or two hills, but avoid undulating. Constant up and down even small ones are far more draining. For a couple of hills you can push.

Many years ago, I rode an off road route from Oxford up the Oxfordshire canal to the Grand Union. Down this to the Aylesbury canal . Up to Aylesbury, then on road to Oxford. Some of this would be rideable by road bike, but not all unless they have improved the towpath. My point in mentioning it is if you plot this route on a map and then find small roads that roughly follow it you should have a pleasant, not too hilly route. It took me 4 easy days.

Enjoy.

[foxyrider]

The distance the OP has suggested isn't that onerous - i've done that in a day several times this year! That said the circuit I suggested wouldn't trouble most on here over two days and each additional day lowers the level required. Four days would be an average of just 30/40 miles/day - not onerous even for beginners and I intentionally suggested the flatter version. Yes you can't avoid hills entirely so there are some but nothing too horrible.
IME riding towpaths and similar severely hits your ability to travel at even a low average speed. Which is fine if you only want to do twenty miles but less so if your ambitions are somewhat bigger. I've ridden a lot of river/canal/rail paths and i've found this universally true even if they are well surfaced. Personally I find such riding pleasant enough if i'm not trying to get somewhere, day rides, social rides where it's not the ride that's the thing. So when someone says tour - I generally dismiss this type of route - unless that's the point of the trip.

I've done whole tours based on river riding so everything was worked around that but equally i've enjoyed, often more, trips that are less predictable in terrain, the unexpected view, the sudden climb and just as importantly the villages and towns that canal and trail riding often avoid. So quiet roads do it for me pretty much every time.

[simonhill]

Foxy, you obviously missed the last 2 sentences of my post.
r
"My point in mentioning it is if you plot this route on a map and then find small roads that roughly follow it you should have a pleasant, not too hilly route. It took me 4 easy days."

I wasn't advocating that they ride the canals paths.