How long is the coast of Britain

[PJ520]

RIding the coast of Britain is something I've always fancied doing. However a glance at this article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Long_Is_the_Coast_of_Britain%3F_Statistical_Self-Similarity_and_Fractional_Dimension shows that it ain't that simple. Is there a generally accepted coast of Britain bike route on the lines of LeJOG?

[rjb]

"The Great Tour 2010" was organised to cycle around the coastline of Great Britain. It Started and finished in Seaton (south coast of Devon) on an anticlockwise route and the statistics showed that it was a total distance of 6635Km with a total ascent of 85310m. it was broken down into 64 stages over 9 weeks. It was supposed to be an annual event but it looks like it only happened the once.
more info here - http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/blog/20 ... tour-2010/

[motty]

Have a look at bikearoundbritain.com
I am not sure if there is a "recommended" route, with all the estuaries, ferries, islands, bridges and dead ends the mileage can vary considerably

[pete75]

From Wikipedia "The mapping authority for the United Kingdom, the Ordnance Survey, records the coastline of the main island, Great Britain, as 11,072.76 miles rounding to 11,073 miles (17,820 km). If the larger islands are added the coastline, as measured by the standard method at Mean High Water Mark, rises to about 19,491 miles (31,368 km)."

Mike Carter's book on his trip around the coast is worth reading - informative, entertaining and amusing in fairly equal parts.

[Brucey]

Strictly speaking it is a Fractal, so it becomes much longer whenever the wheelbase of the bike gets shorter.....

What would be quite jolly would be to have a fatbike with floatation pontoons, and thus be either on the beach or in the water, and do the whole trip that way.

cheers

[Elizabethsdad]

Strictly speaking it is a Fractal, so it becomes much longer whenever the wheelbase of the bike gets shorter.....

What would be quite jolly would be to have a fatbike with floatation pontoons, and thus be either on the beach or in the water, and do the whole trip that way.

cheers

Why not just do it in a pedalo? Go on I dare you!

[Brucey]

it'd clearly be a stroll in the park for this guy;

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-486190/Man-returns-round-world-pedal-boat-trip-13-years.html



cheers

[easyroller]

Another recommendation for Mike Carter's book:

http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/mike+carter/one+man+and+his+bike/8736687/

It's a good read, very funny and informative about his trip around the coastline. About 5000 miles.

[Ayesha]

Audax UK call it The Peneperipheral.

[Godlykepower]

There is an article on Alastair Humphreys website today, of a woman who rode 4000 miles around the UK coast in 10 weeks at a cost of just over £1000.

http://www.alastairhumphreys.com/anna-hughes/

[Gearoidmuar]

Coastlines are long..

I once left Cork City which isn't the start of Co.Cork, that would be in Youghal and cycled to the coast and followed the coast as much as was practical on a bike tour with my wife. When we reached Co.Kerry on the Beara peninsula, we'd done 365 miles. That stuck in my memory because it's days in the year.

[Ayesha]

How close do you need to keep for a 'Tour of the coast' to qualify?

[Gearoidmuar]

How close do you need to keep for a 'Tour of the coast' to qualify?

Well in my coast of Cork tour I went down every road to the coast, even dead ends. There were a few of them..

[phil parker]

Another recommendation for Mike Carter's book:

http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/mike+carter/one+man+and+his+bike/8736687/

It's a good read, very funny and informative about his trip around the coastline. About 5000 miles.

+1 I really enjoyed that book, however, he was only knowledgeable when he finished and far from it when he started, so it might be better anecdotally than as a guide. I think it would also be difficult to quantify a distance depending upon how fastidious you are about sticking to the coast line or taking dead end routes just to see the sea again.

I would love to do this, but time and woke commitments are against me!

[Mark1978]

^ The actual distance of the coast is of course, infinite.

The road route around the coast depends on how you want to define it. Do you do the dead ends? If you don't do ends and only do roads where you can get out the other end, what about classified vs unclassified routes, off road routes? What if the road closest to the coast is mega busy?

There's a lot to consider but personally I would choose a route where you don't need to backtrack and the road is of at least 'yellow' status on an OS map.