LLC or North to South Wales

[anthonypedals]

Hi,

I am doing this trip in May on a road bike. I am B&Bing and carrying minimal stuff. I have two questions for those in the know:

1) Is it possible to follow the sustrans route 8 without getting lost? Or do the signs/route disappear at various times?

2) If the answer is no - and bearing in mind I am not great with technical/computer stuff - should I get a satnav (garmin or other) and upload a route if one exists? I suspect the lezyne bike computer only gets info off the phone you are carrying and that seems problematic in terms of battery power and data costs.

I don't really want to be using a map regularly but will carry one for emergencies.

Any suggestions or comments gratefully received.

Anthony

[Richard Fairhurst]

The signs on NCN 8 are generally very reliable. The one place they might let you down is the urban areas of the Taff Trail, where it's easy for signs to be turned round or peeled off.

If you have an offline mapping app on your phone (I use MapOut on the iPhone) then you can just stuff it in your bar/saddle bag, leave it turned off, and only fire up the app in case of navigational befuddlement - thereby saving the battery. Alternatively, you could take the Sustrans paper maps, or use the PDF routebook that can be downloaded and printed out from (ahem) a certain website.

[honesty]

did it last year north to south and found that mostly the route was well signposted. There's a few route changes I did near Harlech which meant I stuck to the main road anyway. Through Caernarfon can get a bit awkward and theres a turning in Corris that is very easy to miss. I'd also do the Chepstow leg rather than the Cardiff one. I've cycled the taff trail when i used to live in Cardiff and the Chepstow leg is so much better. You get to go over Gospel Pass for one!

You can see my write up of the holiday here if you are interested: http://www.onesti.co.uk/?page_id=118
Or Richards write up (which was got me going on doing this route in the first place) here: http://cycle.travel/by/richard_fairhurst/riding_lon_las_cymru_in_2005

[PH]

I'd also do the Chepstow leg rather than the Cardiff one. I've cycled the taff trail when i used to live in Cardiff and the Chepstow leg is so much better. You get to go over Gospel Pass for one!

+1
I've now done both finishes and much prefer the Chepstow one, a few more hills but IMO much more interesting right to the end.
I did it last year May with a CTC group, which got spread out during the day, navigation by GPS, phones, maps or signs, I think everyone managed to miss a turn or two, but in all cases it didn't take long to realise and get back on course.
Loads of photos here
https://www.flickr.com/groups/2944082@N25/
Bit of a write up here
http://www.derbyctc.org.uk/tours-llc/