Canal touring

[IanCh]

I'm seriously considering cycling from Chester to London on canal towpaths (Shropshire Union, Birmingham Canal and Grand Union). It's 232 miles. If anyone has experience of long distance towpath touring with pannier bags, what are the surfaces like? Would a touring bike with 25's be suitable?Also, I'm thinking that navigating bridges and anglers would make speeds slow. Is 8 mph realistic?

[pwa]

I don't know those particular canals in detail, but I'm sure you can expect a wide variety of conditions and I'd say 32mm would be the minimum tyre width to consider. I'd aim for wider if the bike will take it. 8 mph sounds reasonable as an average, though you will need to stop and give way at times.

A bit of googling should provide video footage of narrowboats on your chosen canals, and you may get glimpses of towpath surfaces.

[Richard Fairhurst]

Geograph is the best way to research towpath surfaces - directly at geograph.org.uk, or if you plan a route on cycle.travel you can click 'View photos' for any section of the route, which will take you to the Geograph photos.

The 'Shroppie' is ok around Chester, Nantwich and in the Wolverhampton area, but I'd really advise against cycling the section between Nantwich and Wolverhampton without an MTB - it's a notorious mudbath. Much of it is in cuttings (damn good engineer, that Telford!) and the rain just pours down the sides and onto the towpath. The Canal & River Trust have done some remedial work but it's no fun. If you're from Chester then the quality of the towpaths there may have misled you into thinking that everywhere else is that good: it isn't.

The towpaths on the Birmingham Canal Navigations are pretty much all rideable, certainly on the route you'd be taking.

The Grand Union has some good bits but it's largely unimproved. I wouldn't choose to cycle it all the way from Birmingham to London. Some sections (e.g. NCN 6 Milton Keynes-Leighton Buzzard) are certainly worth incorporating into your route, but rural Northamptonshire/Warwickshire will be rougher.

My personal suggestion is that you'd be better off planning a route on a combination of canal towpaths, country lanes, and NCN routes, but your tolerance for mile after mile of rough paths may be better than mine!

[IanCh]

Thanks that's really useful. I was lured into researching this route after reading Nigel Blandford's article in the CTC magazine. He did Manchester to London in 2 days on towpaths. Time for a rethink.

[mercalia]

I have been on the Grand Union Canal from London up to about Aylesbury and Ivinghoe ( branches off - the Aylesbury branch I remember was rather nice and developed )( used to be a YHA at Ivinghoe there - is below Leighton Buzzard ) Was some time ago and memory a bit vague now. I seem to remember a varied ride, gets a bit boring after a time though. I do remember at Ivinghoe the canal bank was just grass and at the time muddy and clogged up my brakes so I gave up and went on the road. Maybe things are different now. I do remember some bits are very close to the water. Have to be careful into London as there have been muggings...

[Richard Fairhurst]

We have a wooden boat (a "project", you might say) which is moored at the specialist boatyard on the Aylesbury Arm. Our Saturday afternoon entertainment while working on the boat used to be to watch cyclists coming past and ending up in the water due to the hole in the towpath - you'd sometimes get two or three duckings in one afternoon. British Waterways subsequently fixed it but it does illustrate that they're not always ideal cycle routes...

[RickH]

Your first 3 & a bit miles out of Chester out to Waverton are good After that it becomes a muddy channel in the grass. And I don''t know how long it continues like that I've only ridden as far as Waverton on the towpath on that side of Chester.

From my experience of towpaths elsewhere they can vary from the really smooth (that you can cruise along at 15+mph on if there is no-one else around) through to deep gloopy mud that is hard to keep moving at all on.

Rick.

[Si]

If coming down the Birmingham mainline, into city centre to cross over to GU, I'd not want to be on 25mm tyres if I could help it* - the bit through the middle is pretty bumpy with sections of ridged brickwork rumblestrippy washboard stuff. But the bits either side of the city centre should be fine if ridden with care. On the other hand, if you are not in a hurry there's no reason you can't dismount and walk past the dodgy bits.

*actually I did used to commute through there on 25mm tyres - bike shook to pieces in a few months

[Bonefishblues]

Sounds like a fat bike might be the best all-around choice!

[Audax67]

Re bumps, holes etc., will you be wearing a life-jacket?

[Bonefishblues]

Re bumps, holes etc., will you be wearing a life-jacket?

RNLI escort, shirley?

[ossie]

My personal suggestion is that you'd be better off planning a route on a combination of canal towpaths, country lanes, and NCN routes, but your tolerance for mile after mile of rough paths may be better than mine!

Great advice. I did sections of the Grand Union fully loaded and it was a relief to get off it at times.

[crazedalamo]

Have a look at Pearson's Canal Companions - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/095 ... UTF8&psc=1
They're for boaters not cyclists but they have lovely annotated maps with useful information and stuff to look out for. Happy Cycling

[hayers]

My experience is tow paths are good for a change, to avoid unpleasant road sections, or for significant shortcut, but much slower and more fatiguing than half decent roads. Also in cities, often not particularly scenic.

I would say more like 5mph in comfort - but this obviously varies massively with quality of the surface.

[trilathon]

last time I cycled to Harwich to get the ferry I used canals to get out of the midlands..no research just saw a canal and it looked peaceful compared to the madness of the road traffic.. Tamworth, Coventry , Rugby...all in good order, even camped on the canalside in the evening, very pleasant repose from the traffic

Speed was probably a 1/3 to 1/4 of that of the road,plus a less direct more circuitous route, I think i did 70 miles in the day, prob 30 on the roads in 1 hour and half then 40 in 4 or 5 hours on the toepath. Some cobbled, some muddy, all cleared. not much rough stuff encoutered at all.

tis bumpy, but you get to meet more folk and they are doing a similarly laid back adventure rather than myopic maniacs from the rat race frequently found on the roads and there's always nice places to stop for a brew or rest

If the roads aren't good it's a welcome alternative