Anyone tried the East Coast Easy Route?

[puffin]

Hi there
Has anyone tried this route, a slightly longer but flatter track?

https://cycle.travel/route/lejog_east_coast

[PH]

I went even further East, over the Humber Bridge and stayed East as far South as Daventry (JoGLE)
Our route came out at 1,100 miles, so maybe an extra 80-100 over a traditional West route using similar quiet roads. It does give some easier days in the middle, though we increased the mileage on those to compensate for the extra distance. We could have made it easier, we chose to go over the N York Moors and a chunk of the Cotswolds, our main criteria was to avoid urban areas, which is succeeded in doing. We did it pre GPS days, so could probably have done better, here's a rough outline of the route, not road by road accurate, but it gives an idea.
https://cycle.travel/map/journey/342206

There's plenty of options, for the England leg anyway, there's no need to follow what someone else has done. It's even easier now, than then, with the likes of cycletravel. Even pouring over maps it soon became obvious that the differences in distances didn't vary much as long as you were heading roughly N<>S.

[Norman H]

I quite like the idea of an east of Pennines route and if it ever happens I think I'd follow the Fosse Way through southern England. Originally built to link Exeter with Lincoln, by way of Bath, Cirencester and Leicester, the section beyond Bath looks to be the most useful for lejogers. Some bits are now busy trunk roads but there are plenty of quieter alternatives nearby.

[thirdcrank]

A blast from the past here. I see the op in that thread is still listed as a form member, although they haven't posted for a long time.

viewtopic.php?p=75408#p75408

[Paulatic]

Great to see @Si has mastered Edinburgh since that 2008 thread.

[puffin]

Huge thanks for the responses here, its a gold mine of experience. I'm now sitting in front of online maps trying to work out my next route.

Best wishes and thanks again

[mattheus]

I quite like the idea of an east of Pennines route and if it ever happens I think I'd follow the Fosse Way through southern England. Originally built to link Exeter with Lincoln, by way of Bath, Cirencester and Leicester, the section beyond Bath looks to be the most useful for lejogers. Some bits are now busy trunk roads but there are plenty of quieter alternatives nearby.

I think the downside of the Fosse is endless dead-straight section - you could ride across America for that sort of thing! :- P
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The attraction of eastern routing looks mainly, to me, to be avoiding a lot of conurbations. Riding from Bristol-to-Preston directish holds zero appeal for me.

Of course it's flatter over there, so a bit duller, but you get plenty of hills at the start/end bits of LeJOG, so this means some variety. IMO.

[Traction_man]

I quite like the idea of an east of Pennines route and if it ever happens I think I'd follow the Fosse Way through southern England. Originally built to link Exeter with Lincoln, by way of Bath, Cirencester and Leicester, the section beyond Bath looks to be the most useful for lejogers. Some bits are now busy trunk roads but there are plenty of quieter alternatives nearby.

I would definitely avoid cycling the Fosse Way these days north of Cirencester, the surface is shocking, it's busy and narrow and carries a lot of traffic, often at speed, zipping up and down those roller coaster gradients through the Cotswolds towards Stow on the Wold!

North of Stow is no better, even as far as Watling Street it's busy, shame as it used to be a nice route (I am going back a few years now, to the early 80s!), then north of Leicester the Fosse Way is now dualed.

Yes, 'quieter alternatives nearby' would make for more relaxed and less busy cycling, especially through Warwickshire to the east of the Fosse, it's pretty scenic through the likes of Shipston and Southam...

[puffin]

Thanks Matheus and Tractionman for your kind and very useful responses. I'm working....

[Enigmadick]

I used to hitchhike up and down the Fosse Way from Leicestershire to Bath when I was at university down there in the 1970s and wanted to ride its course fifty years later.

Except, other than a few hundred yards here and there, I didn't actually go on the route, but tracked quieter roads to either side.

The Roman's obviously built it straight in anticipation of the motor car.

[Richard Fairhurst]

NCN 48 roughly follows the Fosse Way but on minor roads. It's not complete but I had a go at plotting it at https://cycle.travel/map/journey/86887 .

On the original subject, there's a bunch of reviews of the Easy East Coaster on the cycle.travel route page: https://cycle.travel/route/lejog_east_coast