Cycling UK Forum

Hi everyone,

I would like to cycle from Birmingham to Worcester along the canal and would appreciate any advice you give me please. I know there is one tunnel that you can't pass through. But are there any others? What is the towpath like?


Many Thanks in advance

There are 3 tunnels with no towpath. The longest impassible tunnel is the Kings Norton, you may need an OS map to find the best way around. Other tunnels are quite short and easy to find the way around. There are some sections that get very muddy espcially after the amount of rain we have had recently.

My wife and I do this regularly on touring bikes with 700x32 tyres at the moment I wouldn't like to do it all the way with narrower ones.

Thanks Bikepacker. I don't do skinny tyres but it's good to know my hybrid will be good for the ride. Let's hope the day I plan to do it, the rain stays away

Thansk again.

The Birmingham and Worcester ends are both excellent in terms of towpath. The middle chunk is rather variable, but certainly all rideable (except for the tunnels mentioned above). The 1:50000 maps are perfectly adequate. I have ridden it on serveral occasions, mainly on a mountain bike. I would not necessarily recommend it, but I have also done it on a Brompton. (I raised a few pounds for charity by asking people to guess how far I would manage to go. I had intended going further, but I did make it as far as Worcester before I thought enough was enough.) Once when I rode it in hot weather I did have some trouble finding somewhere to fill up my waterbottle but they were the days when we had real summers.