London to birmingham route

[ceddlyburge]

Hi everyone

I'm planning a london to birmingham trip on the bike, and am wondering if anyone knew of a good route?

I probably wouldn't would to add *too* many extra miles / hours, but would also like to avoid the major roads (these are probably conflicting things, ooops!)

I used the journey planner / cycling streets, which came up with something that looks suitable, although there are a very large number of directions, so it seems like it would be hard to follow. And a friend of mine thought that the planner was better for shortish trips in towns and cities, rather than bigger inter city type stuff
https://www.cyclestreets.net/journey/72996954/#balanced

Thanks, Cedd

[simonhill]

If you want easy to navigate, have you thought of the Grand Union Canal route.

For on road, the cycletravel website is often recommended.

[mjr]

https://cycle.travel usually works well for touring, but I'm not sure of its route this time! Its paved-only route looks better, but it also seems like a lot of navigating without any route signs.

I think I would head for Amersham, picking up NCN 57 to Oxford, then the A40 cycleway to Eynsham and pick up NCN 442 to Mickleton (give or take obvious detours), then NCN 5 and 55 to Birmingham. It's within a couple of miles of cycle.travel's mixed route.

You could use NCN 5 alone from Oxford to Birmingham but it doesn't half meander. Some look to be interesting meanders like Banbury, but then the route doesn't actually go into the town!

The obvious is the Grand Union Canal towpath, of course, but it's long and much of it has a rubbish surface that would be my idea of hell, bumping along slowly and not seeing much through the trees. There's an hour-long travelogue by the Bicycle Adventure Club if you want to consider it, though.

Now that cyclestreets has actually loaded, I see you are going Harringay to Solihull. It has picked an OK route: go to St Albans, join NCN 6/606 until Leighton Buzzard, then National Byway to NCN 51 to Winslow to A413 to Buckingham to NCN 50 to Preston Capes, then back roads to Stockton Locks and NCN 41 to Warwick and flipping between roadside cycleways and towpaths into Solihull. Well, it was OK until Warwick! From there, I think I would follow NCN 52 and 523 to Balsall Common, then Wootton Lane and Barston Lane.

When are you thinking of going and how many days? Have fun!

[Sweep]

If you PM me ceddly so that we can swap details I can send you a GPX which I have ridden from Birmingham to Eastcote in the London northern suburbs.
Uses my point to point system just marking turns.

I may have another one as well, ending up round about Amersham from where you can get the metropolitan line into London - OK for bikes on that outside rush hours,

I did both rides in two days - set off early one day, finished mid to late afternoon on the second day.

[1982john]

you havn't specified when you're going but I would not recommend the canal before July unless you have a bike prepared for muddy segments. Parts of it round me have turned swampy as it's being more used because of lockdown but not getting the management it might get in normal times.

If you are going to use it try ensure you get some street views to see if it's paved where you intend to try it. Though it should be fine for the last 5-6 miles from Olton which will help avoid the busy roads into bham.

[ceddlyburge]

Thanks everyone, I hadn't heard of cycle.travel before so that was very welcome.

I'm planning a 2 day trip to go and see my day when restrictions allow.

The canal does sound like a fun trip, but I think it's for another day. I will be on a road bike this time, and the canal route is long, bumpy and muddy I think! I have done the odd section of it before and it rattled my bones around an uncomfortable amount!

[jgurney]

I'm planning a london to birmingham trip

Is that centre to centre, or suburb to suburb? If it is between suburban points, then given the size of each city, a route from, say, Longbridge to Loughton would be quite different to one from Solihull to Uxbridge.

[ceddlyburge]

Suburb to suburb! Haringay ro solihull to be precise. I think I have a good route sorted out now actually, with the help of the kind people here

[Antbrewer]

This post caught my eye this morning.
As soon as we are all let out so to speak my wife wants to visit her sister living in Throckley near Newcastle. I said that she can give me a lift to her sister's and I would ride back to Solihull.
Looked up 'Cycle. travel' site and will need to amend it to avoid large built up areas over the 250 odd miles or so. Something to ponder and plan over the next few weeks. Could be fun ?

[Adamcycles17]

The Welsh Road over the hills west of Towcester was a nice route when I did it. So Harringay to Hadley Wood via Pymmes Brook, then National route 12 to Hatfield, St Albans, avoid the city centre via the Green Ring, route 6 to Luton and then on to Milton Keynes. Cut across to Silverstone, Welsh Road to Priops Marston, Southam, Leamington Spa, then Canal towpath. I don't know the last bit to Solihull as we went west to Selly Oak.