Cycling UK Forum

Anyone ridden it? What's the towpath like?

OK, answering my own question – I rode the Huddersfield Broad and Narrow canals yesterday, and found –
The broad canal towpath – six kilometres from Cooper Bridge to Huddersfield, is all ok, though much of it is made in rather casually-levelled concrete, giving a pretty bone-rattling ride. I'd want suspension if I was doing it again.
On the narrow canal, there's a few hundred yards of towpath missing in Huddersfield, where the restored (rebuilt, in fact) canal tunnels under buildings. After that, it's rideable all the way to Marsden. It's often worth dismounting for the short cobbled ascent by each lock (there are 42 locks). Up as far as Slaithwaite, it's all a bit dark-satanic-mills-ish (though they're no longer dark – all been cleaned); after that, pleasantly rural.
Anybody got information on the Lancashire half of the canal?

It's a few years since I've done it, but surface-wise the western side is similar to the eastern. There's a few more unsurfaced grassy bits on the west, but not many. I did it on a Ridgeback hybrid without any problems.

It's a little more rural until you reach Stalybridge, which is the start of the Manchester conurbation really. Uppermill is a pleasant village and worth a cake stop.

Rode it from Uppermill on a wet Saturday in 2018, as far as Fairfield (transferred to Fallowfield Loop for ride home to S Mancs). Mainly ok - some bumpy bits beside locks and some muddy bits where there’s overhanging trees and no gravel. Westwards from Stalybridge there was a lot of dog poo to dodge and a fair few people wandering about with cans of special brew (they turned out to be harmless). There was also a bit (Ashton?) where the towpath was interrupted by a Tesco. So, doable but I’m not sure I’d be in a hurry to do it again

Tom_B wrote: So, doable but I’m not sure I’d be in a hurry to do it again

Yeh, that's about how I felt about the Yorkshire side.