Cycling UK Forum

I had a thread back in 2006 about mowing lawns ........... since seems to have disappeared.

Mowing lawns requires you to go to every single part of the lawn to cut the grass. Many times you have to back-track and make sure you've gone to every single part to cut all of the lawn.

I'm trying to ride my bike on every single road in Cornwall.
Done most, if not all, of the local roads, and done most of the roads I can get to and back from home.
I've done lots of them when I've driven further west, and done lots of them when I've taken the train.

Next idea is to drive all the way to Penzance and stay overnight, and be able to get two cycling days down there before driving back.

I keep a log of my rides, and I keep a GB atlas on computer that I have a painting program to "ink" in the roads I've been on. Plus, I use BaseCamp to record my GPX files on to.

These are the two days I wish to ride soon to fill in some gaps.

That's some undertaking!

Are you just covering major routes, or are you doing this like London Cabby 'Knowledge'?

I've been in Truro for 25 years and have covered most of the roads in central and west Cornwall. Getting to your end of the county, Mick, is more difficult.
There are still days when I discover roads I hadn't done before. I assume you're ignoring all the urban roads in towns, but what about all those 'dead-end' roads that go down to the coast? Plenty around the Penwith area.
If you use Strava you can generate a heat map of where you've been:

Hi,
When I was doing every other weekend on dartmoor walking with the dogs (all past on) we would try to go somewhere different each time.
I reckon I have been up and over 99% of hills and tors since 74, but I started again with the missus and the dogs plotting where we had been on a map.
Will try and concentrate on places we have not been and maybe cover all by the time I get my bus pass

Devon, lots of roads there
Oh Have cycled most of the tracks and bridle ways in the national park area of Dartmoor, mostly with my tent
Finishing all of ridable paths to tracks etc will probably not take long, but some of the bridle ways over open moor have no trace so I will be walking with the bike alot

Good luck.

I don't like Strava. I tried it, didn't like it, then deleted my account.
BaseCamp does better for me, and my painting program helps as well.

Yes, Cornwall is a long county and getting from one end to the other just for a ride on new roads is a bit of a palaver.
I've used the car, the trains, and have been given lifts from friends on their way west. Now I have a separate-able Moulton, it's much easier to transport than a normal rigid bike.

The task is almost impossible, but if I concentrate on all the A roads and all the B roads, plus all the "major" minor/unclassified roads, I should be able to fill in all the gaps and never be more than a mile from somewhere I've been before.

Here's my GB atlas with inked-in roads of SE Cornwall and West Cornwall, and here's the whole of GB from BaseCamp showing what I've recorded in the only the last 12 years ....... since I had GPS.Note the gaps, and any suggestions will be well received.

One suggestion for you Mick. We've just had some German cyclists staying with us who had just cycled from Plymouth to Fishguard, via Barnstaple, Exmoor and keeping mostly close to the coast from there into and around south Wales. Would suit your needs.

They are following the Euro Velo routes which cross Europe, and this is part of the route that goes from southern Spain up through Portugal and France, and then from Fishguard over to Ireland and then to Scotland from Larne, and finally over to Norway to finish at the North Cape. They were doing it in two week chunks whenever they could get the time off.

Presumably, given where you live, once you've finished your Cornish roads you will be riding every road in Devon?

As for the dead end coastal roads in Cornwall, I have ridden all of them, and can vouch that they are a challenge!

Mick I think you are what they call a Completionist, someone who likes to have "the full set".

Some years ago, I cycled all of the road bridges over the River Tamar.
Twenty-three of them including a culvert near the source.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Tamar

I didn't do them all in one day, but just to get to the culvert near to source of the river at East Youldon, plus the last half dozen bridges was an 85mile round trip.

any one want to do all the roads in London? Thought not

pwa wrote:Mick I think you are what they call a Completionist, someone who likes to have "the full set".

That includes a full set of bikes

Hi,

Vorpal wrote:

pwa wrote:Mick I think you are what they call a Completionist, someone who likes to have "the full set".

That includes a full set of bikes

I have but I also got a unicycle.............not ridden yet
Hows your one wheeled cycling Mick F

Bus pass and a seperatable bike. You must be in heaven. Is this one of the reasons for your latest acquisition? I've got a pair of folders ready, just waiting until mrs rjb gets her bus pass in 5 months time then we will be going further afield too, I've had my pass for 4 years.

As you will be riding within a few hundred metres and it looks about halfway, stop at the Handy Shop at Sithney for tea and cake. It did close last year as Gill 'retired' but she's back from retirement and open again.

http://www.falmouthwheelers.co.uk/index ... &page_id=7

NATURAL ANKLING wrote:Hows your one wheeled cycling Mick F

I had a go once.
Couldn't do it. Didn't really try again.
I can walk on stilts though.
Can you?

whoof wrote:As you will be riding within a few hundred metres and it looks about halfway, stop at the Handy Shop at Sithney for tea and cake.

I'll be leaving Penzance around 9am I should think, and up towards Hayle on the back roads down to Helston, then out via Gweek and Constantine, then back down to Helston on the way back to Penzance via Praa Sands.

Unless I reverse this route, Sithney is too soon.
Sounds like I need to reverse it!

Re your UK map with gaps and how to fill them. What about East Anglia? Plenty of great cycling and beautiful scenery. Then again, living in 'blighted' Essex has the advantage of not being inundated with tourists.

I remember asking how you defined all as in all the roads, in your last mowing lawn post and getting roundly put down as a barrack room lawyer by some of the old lags that were on the site then. Your definition above of working down from A to B to major/minor unclassified roads (presumably until you drop off the perch) finally answers my question. Ta.

rjb: I hope you realise that bus passes are not given out at 60 anymore. I'll be nearly 64 when I get mine and it's going up every day.

Enjoy.