1982john wrote:I find it interesting that there are dozens of books on day rides in Britain and lots of books devoted to LEJOG. There's a few dedicated to single tours like LLC and way of the roses but there doesn't seem to be a book which amalgamates the sort of tours being talked about here.
I think the idea of say a single volume does have some merit but the current examples (eg the Cicerone Yorkshire Dales) just string a series of day rides together in a non contiguous way. In my view the contents of such a book should allow either day rides or a linked series of rides making a longer trip. I'm not a Lejog fan but it can be split into shorter stretches you could tackle on an ad hoc basis or taken as longer or the whole.
Unlike say Germany's Romantic Road (@700km) most signed routes in the UK are quite short and don't make for much of a book/guide. For mile munchers many of the routes are but a short weekend rather than a 'proper' tour. The problem is that the UK is quite small, the rivers too short, the coasts too close.
A lot of the 'long' routes are just linked scenic roads with no real theme, we just don't have the equivalent of say the Marchenstrasse (Fairytale Road). There are potential themed routes but our rivers for example, very rarely have either lanes/tracks to follow or involve significant traffic loaded roads.
A bit of a loaded question - what Is a reasonable distance for a route? Would you be looking at days of 40 miles, 50? How many days? Just as importantly, would you purchase a book with a tour, for example, linking Yorkshire's Abbeys or Lincolnshire windmills?
Is there a market for the sort of Bikeline route / regional guides in the UK? I have quite a collection of those which i've used to inspire my tours and i've picked up others on my travels without necessarily any intention of following them. Lots of questions there.
To the question posed by the OP, the only signed route i've followed in the UK was the Hadrian's Wall route. It was okay but have to say the guide map was too focused on the route, places of interest close by ignored and in places less experienced riders may well be unhappy on the roads used.
A lot of the NCN is clearly designed to just get bikes off the roads and is of dubious suitability if you don't ride a mountain bike.
