Cycling UK Forum

Hi,
Does anyone have any experience of cycleing on the A1? Any knolage of how much of it is rideable would be greatly appresiated. I intened on riding from where i live in mansfield to brighton, if anyone knows a better route than following the A1 down to london and then Goin down the A23 the rest of the way to brighton then ill be very happy since i dont realy want to have to ride though London. i will be riding a cheap racer (not let me down yet) that i bought from jjb, And have been challenged to do it in two days so the quickest route possable is what im looking for.

You'd have to be suicidal to cycle the A1. I've driven down it from near St Neots to the junction with the M25. It's fast dual carriageway all the way, with maniac van drivers. It also aquires motorway status before you get to London so you cannot cycle on it then in any case.

Try the CTC routes to see if there is anything more survivable!

...also a lot of the A1 is motorway so you can't (legally) ride it anyway. If you want to be independent of the CTC routes or NCN, and don't want to shell out a lot of cash on a string of OS maps, work your way along using Multimap (.co.uk), zoom into the 1:25000 scale, then pick out anything that's yellow or brown. Of course, if you're an A-road addict, this won't be any interest to you...!

Thanks for the advice, youve convinced me that the a1 isn't rideable (safely/legaly at least) I think im going to have to review the route to some extent (the bit between home and my destination, ie, all of it)

I don't know the bit above Peterborough too well. From there down to Huntingdon is motorway, but there are alternatives to the east, mostly on the old A1. You can ride through Huntingdon and then down another road to the east of the A1 through St Neots. Where it meets the A1 again at Tempsford, you cross over the road bridge and pass west of Sandy through Blunham and other villages (the A1 is no longer motorway here, so you could ride on it, but the villages are better). From Henlow pick up the old A507 to Baldock via Stotfold and Norton (the new A507 does a sort of an S around the villages and the old line is obvious and quiet). Get into Baldock and from there down the old A1 again - you can pretty much follow it alongside the new road on one side or the other as far as the M25. Beyond there is outside my ken again.

Not as direct as the A1 but more fun and legal to boot!

Hope this helps. If you need more detail, shout.

I had another think about this. I would be trying to get round London. You'll get rather wet if you try to do this to the east, so you would have to go west. There are routes roughly along the western extreme of the M25 that look workable. Anything is better than trying to go through London.

Are you trying to do this as quickly as possible or take a leisurely tour?

<font size=+1 face="Comic Sans MS" font color="Green">National Cycle Network on-road route
Orange Other signed on-road cycle route
Green National Cycle Network traffic-free route
(including some forest tracks and paths alongside busy roads)
Light green Other traffic-free cycle route
</font> </td> </tr>

National Cycle Network on-road route
Orange Other signed on-road cycle route
Green National Cycle Network traffic-free route
(including some forest tracks and paths alongside busy roads)
Light green Other traffic-free cycle route

We went through this with Mike ten days ago who wanted to use the A5 to get to London , and says he did.

It is an ecxcellent idea to get suggestions above but when you have that look at a road map take down the names of the best fit route towns
and THEN ,ONLY THEN Go to
www.sustrans.org.uk and look for
the mainly green interactive maps and follow down the already chosen route with their interactive system and you will get one of the
above routes ALL the way to Brighton from
Mansfield.

If you don' find a link and let sustrans know what your findings are.

That is what we did for route 2 down here in Dorset from Poole to Dorchester only five years ago. Cycling is STILL exploring even in this tiny island, and CONTINUING to explore even more as the back roads get more congested by main road traffic.

SUSTRANS is not in it for fun. Please use it.
The facility is an excellent one, little as I like that s*yTe Grimstone, A8seh**e that he is.

www.sustrans.org.uk

Going round East of the London boundaries,
and thru the tunnel(?)would be much easier and much more fun!