National Byway - East Midlands/Yorkshire - Any Good?

[fatboy]

I've stumbled upon The national byway and wondered what it was like for long weekend touring. The description sounds ideal given that it is all on road and signposted. I've seen a sign in Woburn. However there is little real information on the website and the only way to get it is to buy their maps. Before I do this I wonder if anyone has any experience and is it worth me buying the map!

Thanks

Chris

[horizon]

I/we planned our own routes around southern England for many years. On nearly every trip we came across the Byway signs, they too having followed the best routes. There aren't enough Byway routes always to give you one you want, but if you are following one you will not be disappointed. National Byway is the unsung hero of cycle routes - it is linear rather than circular, follows roads not tracks and takes you to places you want to see rather than avoiding them. It puts sustrans and the NCN seriously in the shade as a touring route. I would always recommend it to tourists as the best way to tour England.

[fatboy]

I/we planned our own routes around southern England for many years. On nearly every trip we came across the Byway signs, they too having followed the best routes. There aren't enough Byway routes always to give you one you want, but if you are following one you will not be disappointed. National Byway is the unsung hero of cycle routes - it is linear rather than circular, follows roads not tracks and takes you to places you want to see rather than avoiding them. It puts sustrans and the NCN seriously in the shade as a touring route. I would always recommend it to tourists as the best way to tour England.

Sounds like I should get some maps for my 2011 trip (2010 already planned!).

[meic]

It looks as if it could be an interesting alternative to the Sustrans routes.

I was tempted by the Gloucester to Canterbury stretch, until I saw that the red routes have neither maps nor signposts, which should make it impossible to find.

[Richard Fairhurst]

The National Byway follows some pleasant lanes and I would love to see it finished. But it appears under-resourced and woefully late - about eight years at last count, I think.

There is absolutely no way you should attempt to navigate it without a map. If you think the NCN can suffer from missing or turned-round signs, the National Byway puts it in the shade. We recently followed it from Leominster to Craven Arms and we couldn't have managed without the map.

Since an initial burst of enthusiasm, there seems to have been little progress on getting councils to signpost it. For example, I've seen signs in Herefordshire, Rutland, Leicestershire, Buckinghamshire, Northumberland and Hampshire. But there's nothing on the proposed route through Gloucestershire, and the only Oxfordshire sections to be signposted are those which coincide with the NCN.

There is no Internet mapping available, which is a major failing, though needless to say some parts of it are recorded on OpenStreetMap!

Personally I think the National Byway's best hope is to persuade Sustrans to adopt it as part of the NCN. Much of it is of a similar nature to the NCN's more rural touring routes, though I haven't seen anything on the National Byway which reaches the splendid heights of Lon Las Cymru or the Pennine Cycleway, for example.

[robgul]

The National Byway as a concept is brilliant .... and as stated up-thread, for most people it's better than Sustrans. The downside as with all these things is that the funding/lack of means that after an initial burst with dosh from Hovis everything has unfortunately slowed down.

The routes I have - in particular around Rutland - have been great ... realistic use of the existing infrastructure.

BUT for all that, a relatively modest investment in something like Memory Map (just the region you want) and plotting your own routes is pretty straightforward ... avoid green or red marked roads (and obviously the blue motorways!) where possible, almost anything else that is brown or yellow road will be OK on a bike for a confident rider.

As an aside ... here in Stratford-upon-Avon we have a project (with some modest funding from the Town Trust) to create a "web" of routes in and around the town for leisure, pleasure, touring and utility cycling - the concept is a "rim, hub and spokes" of routes - with plans to create larger "rims" and "longer spokes" Plan is to have online routes and maps with pdf downloads ... and some printed materials to distribute via bike shops, the bike hire centre and the tourist info office. It's at http://www.stratfordcycling.org.uk - in development but we're about to get it moving with routes etc. If YOU have any ideas or suggestions - please get in touch.

Rob

[DavidT]

Fatboy
Sorry for a late reply, only just read this post.
I think the National Byway is very good. I live close to a lot of the East Midlands routing and can confirm that it has certainly picked some good stretches of touring lanes. The routes clearly follow some of my favourite roads. Signs are around, but I couldn't guarantee how well maintained they are, so that map would be useful! To be honest I don't pay much attention to the ones on my doorstep so I'm not sure how accurate they are! Perhaps I'll check, but they are certainly around these parts.
And speaking of the map, it is very good and clear and gives a wealth of touring type/historical information on the places you are cycling through. Along with a main A to B route across the area, they also detail various loops, which are also well thought out.
It's nice to have a road based cycle touring scheme, but I would agree with the other posts that resourcing and commitment seems to have been a struggle. I recently purchased the (West) Midlands map and it seems quite out of date - although still useful.

[keyboardmonkey]

The Byways maps are expensive for what they are. Discount bookseller The Works sells the same scale map covering a much larger area for 99p. But, of course, you want the routes. I used the Yorkshire map to follow the Bedale loop. I actually started in Masham and missed out Bedale - just short of 25 miles I think. The directions send you off in an anti-clockwise direction from Bedale, but at the suggestion of two very helpful women in the Masham tourist information office I did the ride in a clockwise direction. I really enjoyed it and rode it again two days later with a friend who came to stay at our holiday cottage. There was only one point where the signposting wasn't clear. I bought the map last summer; it was published in September 2002. And they are fairly large-scale maps so I wouldn't rely on them when you're riding.