jacobean wrote:About time the truth was told about designated cycleways.
Having to continually check routes with a smartphone or may takes the complete enjoyment out of cycle touring.
Sometimes you're better off on a secondary road(safety permitting of course).
The majority of the NCN is on quiet roads, no harder or easier to follow than any other route on similar sorts of roads. The route from Lichfield* to Wirksworth is a typical example, it's around 50 miles of which about 35 is on road. I'd have planned my own, not for reasons of quality, it'd just be ten miles shorter, though it would still use some of the NCN both on and off road.
* I can't think of anywhere else you'd pick up a NCN route coming from Birmingham Airport.