Cycling UK Forum

All
I'm interested in making my LEJOG the shortest, as I'm unsupported and using a cyclocross bike and lightweight bivi gear I had the idea to go 'direct'

My route is based around 8 straight lines land based, drawn on memory map these total 700 miles, sticking as close to this as I can using roads, and one or two bridleways I am nudging down towards 800, but to actually record a sub 800 I think I'll have to do some off-roading in the Lakes, Pentland Hills, or Scotland to achieve that.

Am I mad? or has this been done before?

I'm starting June 30th by the way.

Paul

I would have thought that a direct route would lead to you spending much more time on main dual carriageway trunk roads than on cycle tracks. Are you willing to extensively use such roads in your quest for minimising distance?

Do you really mean 'shortest'?

The fastest route by tarmac will be the Road Records Association route used by E2E record breakers, about 840 miles and loads of traffic. You could probably make it shorter distance (and longer time) by using odd minor roads and lanes to cut corners, but it might provide a decent starting route.

If you really are intent of setting a 'shortest distance' record, then your method is as good as any, but be prepared for getting lost, plenty of punctures and lots of late nights looking for somewhere to stay/camp for the night

I find the satellite view on Google maps excellent for seeing where you can actually make a connection between two paths or for crossing a river. Maps often dont tell you about fences or the height of one bridge above the other road.

The shorter that you make the route beyond that of the shortest roads, the longer it could take. As daily distances could get to 40 miles if not on tarmac. Longer if you meet Sustran's barriers.

meic wrote:I would have thought that a direct route would lead to you spending much more time on main dual carriageway trunk roads than on cycle tracks. Are you willing to extensively use such roads in your quest for minimising distance?

That does not seem to be the case, I've been working on it in Memory map, and its looks pretty nice riding so far, I'm missing a few places that other routes take in, like Chester.

Sometimes what you think looks more direct over a particular section is not. It's only once you finish plotting and check the distances that you really know, I planned a section over the Pentlands Hills only to find that the road (that looked further) was still shorter.

enigmatic wrote:Do you really mean 'shortest'?

The fastest route by tarmac will be the Road Records Association route used by E2E record breakers, about 840 miles and loads of traffic. You could probably make it shorter distance (and longer time) by using odd minor roads and lanes to cut corners, but it might provide a decent starting route.

If you really are intent of setting a 'shortest distance' record, then your method is as good as any, but be prepared for getting lost, plenty of punctures and lots of late nights looking for somewhere to stay/camp for the night

Yes... Shortest distance - sensible warning re punctures, I've done plenty of long multiday mountain bike routes, no problem with routefinding wild camping, but mixed riding is new to me, tyre choice is my current issue, chosen bike is Specialized Tricross, I've got the standard tyres 'Borough' or a new set of Schwalbe Marathon plus, still pndering that.

meic wrote:As daily distances could get to 40 miles if not on tarmac

I hope not, I've done much higher mileage's than that on routes like Wainrights Coast to Coast, South Downs Way, and they were 100% off road, my route is 90% road, albeit some single track lanes.

Seems like an interesting exercise.
Are you having to draw the whole 800 miles worth of route out by hand on Memory Map?

I do my planning on www.bikehike.co.uk rather than my own Anquet as it can plot the road sections automatically then I only have to plot the off road sections by hand.
On the other hand it sometimes picks so called "road sections" that I would not do on my Audax bike.
Also on the bikehike you can enter the OSM section which may have some "bonus" routes that are not on the other maps especially Sustran's NCN routes.
That can then be put into Memory Map to compare alternative routes between two points.

I guess your route is too large (in computer file size) to put up for people to look at.

Shortest in not necessarily quickest/easiest.

Quickest/easiest:
A30 all the way to Exeter
Old A38 (B3181) north out of the city
A38 all the way to Worcester
A449/A442/A41 to Whitchurch
A49 to Person
A6 to Carlisle
Old A74 (B7076) to J12 M74
A70/A706/A904 to Forth Road Bridge
Old A90 (B981/B996/A922/B996/A912) to Perth
A9 all the way to Latheron
A99 to JOG

I can see two different options. One is the shortest distance cycled. That would stick close to the main road routes already identified. The other is to take the roads that are closest to the route defined by the shortest distance as the crow flies. The first leg, for instance, would be a straight line from Lands End to Bridgwater/Weston, which takes you slightly but definitely to the north of the main road routes. You'd be piecing together lots of minor roads, there'd be a lot of zig-zagging to stay close to the straight line, and the total distance would go up. Likewise you'd need to meander through the eastern lake district rather than go smoothly past the lakes up the A6 corridor, and as you've identified, try to cut across the Pentland Hills and the Grampians (where there is a shortage of paved roads!) The total distance would be a lot more but it could be a lot of fun.

Thinking on these lines has put another idea in my mind: how about the LEJOG route that goes closest to the middle of the country, ie sticks farthest from the sea? Coming out of the south west, you'd need to keep going farther east than usual, then roughly Oxford - Coventry - Sheffield - Leeds - Pennines, then revert back a bit west to go up the middle of Scotland (though north of Glasgow you'd have problems if you were sticking to paved roads!)

John

I am planning a South Coast to Gretna ride in July as not got the time to do the LEJOG. I am going from Lymington on the South Coast probably up the middle of the country to Oxford, Leicester, then across to Bakewell where I live for a change of clothes and more food and then up to Lancashire then up to Penrith and Gretna. A sort of middle of the country route, looking at trying to find the quietest roads as dont like too much traffic when out cycling. Enjoying the ride is more important for me than just getting there. Having said that I have done the Coast to Coast in hours in pouring rain in Sept 2008. Mad or what.......
Good luck with the planning, thats the fun bit.....

Mick F wrote:Shortest in not necessarily quickest/easiest.

Not according to Brian Smailes book 'the shortest route by road', but I'll certainly plot that out and take a look. Smailes' route is 910 niles. Mine is loosely based on that but 840 at the mo.

Going to Exeter *seems* to add visually as it looks like an arc around the severn, not straight lines between water crossings, but I wouldn't be surprised if you are right. So
thanks for that

Most online route planners' algorithms are unreliable, I've tried several and now reverting back to manual plotting in Memory map. Which is time consuming, I think it will be mid next week before finish the route I intend to take, someone asked if I can share it... this is it so far

Thanks for posting these maps. I defy anybody to look at the England stretches and not see an elegant beauty in those straight lines! Shame they only built roads round mountains not over them in Scotland, though....

Looking at that route through the SW you would need a week just to get through!
It may be short, but it ain't easy!

Honestly, quickest and easiest is all along the A30 to Exeter, then B3181 and A38. Anything else is hillier/harder/tougher and takes longer.

As a driver down here, the shortest route to London would be A30/A303/M3. No doubt about it.
A quicker and easier route is A30/M5/M4. Further, but quicker.

Well, I reckon most people are missing the point of Paul's original post. He isn't going for easy, or quick, but to ride the physically shortest route possible. It really is an interesting geometrical challenge. It is an irony that the shortest route may take an absolute age to do..........and I'll wager a notional fortune that navigational cock-ups add at least 5 percent to the actual pedalled length of the journey. Unless he has a crash-hot GPS, and spends more time staring at it than looking at the road, I can't see this working very easily at all.

What strikes me as a little odd is that with all this effort to get the shortest possible route, Paul's route is still exactly the same length as the standard one used in record breaking attempts, apparently.

More power to your elbow, though, Paul.......or should I say knees? Actually, your brain will probably hurt almost as much as your legs after you finish this one!

Mike