UK in a Day...

[Method]

Ok well not quite,

More like 5/7 days...

Basically thinking about a bit of a tour for when the weather picks up / summer months.

Havent got any real plans as yet, but just thought i'd chuck it up here for people to give some input / feedback.

Was thinking a pretty basic tour of the UK.

Starting East Anglia
Derbyshire
Yorkshire
Scotland
West Midlands
Wales
Right down the bottom near Kent and that
Back to East Anglia

Maybe look at meeting other people for certain "legs" of the trip around their area if they fancy a short trek for a day or two...

Basically at the minute im just looking for:

Ideas of where to go
A Few BASIC route ideas
and mainly
Riders who would be interested in taking part...


____________________
CBT Aug '03 ... Gilera GSM 50 ... Honda NSR 125 Aug '04 ...
Full Test Dec 04... Suzuki GS500 Jan 05... Suzuki SV650 Mar 07... Gixxer 6 K5 May 08... Oh and my 'Rado
My Bikepics.com - No Brakes, No Gears... No Fear.

[byke95]

[Method]

[Method]

Ok first draft of a route:

Red = Probable Route
Blue = Possible addtions to route - Not Sure , open to suggestions
Green = Possible additions to route - Not sure if possible though, due to mountains or something - Local knowlege needed
____________________
CBT Aug '03 ... Gilera GSM 50 ... Honda NSR 125 Aug '04 ...
Full Test Dec 04... Suzuki GS500 Jan 05... Suzuki SV650 Mar 07... Gixxer 6 K5 May 08... Oh and my 'Rado
My Bikepics.com - No Brakes, No Gears... No Fear.

[stinkwheel]

What are you actually planing on doing? ie. What is the aim.

Looking at your map there, the aim seems to be to whang round as much of costal Britain as possible as quickly as possible.

I would have thought the aim for such a trip would be either:
1) See new and interesting bits of the UK (I doubt your plan would leave much time for that)
2) Ride your bike along silly roads. (it doesn't cover all that many, certainly not the best ones).

If it were me, I would either head straight for the silly roads (which means whanging straight up to Scotland, possibly via bits of the lake District.) or plan your route so you stop in some specific areas of interest and have an explore, spacing out the long boring sections.

Just to give you an idea. From Carlisle to either Aberdeen, Mid Wales or Glasgow (via Stranraer) are all roughly 5 1/2 hour journeys.

Two of these in a row gets to be hard work (especially if they are on motorways), you are probably looking at five days with 5-6 hours in the saddle each on the route you planned there, a lot of it on motorway/fast A-road.

I went down to a friends in Kent for a party. Did Carlisle to York one day, York to Dover the next, had party that night then came all the way back in a oner. It was not fun.

By all means go for it if you are trying to prove a point to yourself. Otherwise I would probably either go for something a little less ambitious so you spend more time in certain places or take longer about it, maybe using less motorway.

Something that might interest you if you want to see the UK (I aim to do this at least once): https://www.roundbritainrally.co.uk/
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[sanchezz_182]

no saying this is a bad idea but the route u have chosen looks liek its main point is to cover miles when surly it has to be have fun on good roads, ie, u drive rite past the yorkshire dales an lake district..

iv added a few roads that u could not possibly miss on a uk tour. from kendal i would go to devils brigde just to the right in a place called curbylonsdale (big bike meeting place) then form ther cut across an into the lake district an go up around the lakes to the highest pub in england then from ther to dumfries,, an then road goingwest from dumfries take a costal road to dalbeaty i have drew it in green ,, is a gd road from some of the veiws an the weather u wouldnt not think ur in the uk.

i dont no much of the highlands,, then from glasow/edinbrugh i would come down the a701 until a place called abington an cut onto the a702 some realy gd mountain roads twisting around the hils. then back to carlilsle (u can mis it out going by a place called longtown) then start to head along the a69 towards newcastle an cut off onto the a689 to alston ther is a road arount ther possibly best road i have ever ridden bike wise. very much liek the yorshire dales. i could give u road name but i forgot lol.. then from alston head towards newcastle on the a686..

ther is few more road i could tell u about but they realy dont lead u int he rite direction lol..

anyway hope this give u some ideas..
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no sig, thats gay!!

[Nath]

Agree with both of the above. I can see what you're getting at, and I am planning to do a similar thing myself this summer (albeit for the whole of Europe, rather than just the UK as in your case), but the fact is that most of the riding you will doing for that trip would not be enjoyable.

Your average UK road is clogged with traffic, speed cameras, and HGVs. Best to blast up the motorways and get straight to the good bits (Highlands, parts of Wales, and Lake/Peak districts). If you want to do something that will be an 'achievement', then you could do a tour of Ireland, or venture into Europe. The UK road network is simply inappropriate for touring (and I would add that the French roads are not much better on the whole).
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Hard livin', hard luck.

[Method]

Hi,

Thanks for your input so far guys!

As said, im just throwing ideas here there and everywhere right now.

The original plan was just to do as much of the UK in the shortest time possible - Prove a point to myself realy.

As its starting to sink into my brain it is becomming more aparent that my route would be bloody boring, so maybe a longer time scale and some more interesting roads / places would be good

I might still end up going to europe, as Illusion is planning a tour, although he has no bloody idea either yet

Its just something thats been playing on my mind now all winter - I dont know a lot about the rest of the UK, and it just seems a shame to be exploring france, spain, italy, without even knowing about half the places right under my feet?

I duno, maybe its just me... but it just seems the wrong way to go about it?
____________________
CBT Aug '03 ... Gilera GSM 50 ... Honda NSR 125 Aug '04 ...
Full Test Dec 04... Suzuki GS500 Jan 05... Suzuki SV650 Mar 07... Gixxer 6 K5 May 08... Oh and my 'Rado
My Bikepics.com - No Brakes, No Gears... No Fear.

[colin1]

i like the idea of doing a tour of the uk

if it were me, i might spend more time touring around the national parks bits and scottish highlands and such.

in my experience the roads and scenery are quite a bit nicer in national parks so i'd do a tour of all the national parks. (ie snowdonia, peak district, lake district etc)

another way for me would be to ride round the midlands in an expanding spiral. i could come home each night, and then each morning go to the last point i got to
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[map]

FWIW I spent almost a week going around the coast of Scotland. Started off in the lakes and then went via Glasgow around to the top. Some good roads and great scenery. Did the northmost point at Cape Wrath, covered in mist so saw sod all . Cut journey short heading east out of Inverness and cut down to spend a day through the whisky area and the Cairngorms. Then towards Perth and head off to Edinburgh and home. Basically picked A roads with 2 digits or more after it and had fun.

That may be a good way to start if you haven't done long distances before. The last thing you want is to be feeling sod this when you're meant to be enjoying yourself.

Just some thoughts.
HTH
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[ZZR-Souls]

I'm gonna be doing a round britain ride for charity in May 2007. If anyone wants to join me for all or part of the route you're more than welcome. Website in it's infancy at the moment.
Have a look and see what you think. https://zzr-souls.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/
Souls
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JOIN IN THE BIGGEST RIDE-OUT OF 2007 here

[aqualung1]

as a thought as well are you planning hotels/camping whatever?

if you do not book places you will need time to book in places
its nice to say so,metime to say hey this looks nice lets stay a extra day here

blatting around is good, but you do not get time to explore

im still not bred of exploring this country yet
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[Andy C]

the south, i would recommend the 272 with i put as "middling" but large parts of it would class as fun

if you want to do it purly for distance then the A23/M23 is quicker but my god is it boring.

The A272 all the way

https://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d20/andy13_uk/mappio.jpg

[jonnay]

Come down to Cornwall, you can't do a tour of the UK without visiting lands end
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::'04 Yamaha Jog:: || ::'01 Honda NSR:: || ::'00 Suzuki Swift:: || ::'89 Swift GTi:: || ::'96 Swift Poverty Spec:: || ::'92 Swift GTi::

[Simple]

you HAVE to 'do' the A44 between Crossgates and Llanfihangel-nant-Melan in wales... that road ROCKS!

the surface is superb, the corners are sweeping and wide, and at cross gates is a bike cafe where the hot chocolate is fantastic
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[Keen]

[aqualung1]

[JeffT]

[snuff2005]

as for the blue line that goes thru hull and up the coast line i can higly recoment taking the cost roads north from hull as they are pritty good, nioce corners, decent surface's, there are alot of bikers that ride them on weekends round here im only on a scooter atm but i still have fun on them id advise putting them into your route
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