Anybody ever do a low key type tour of England? ALA 1930's-1950's style. Tim

Uh, yes. I grew up in uk, cycle toured a lot in '60s on a low budget as a schoolkid - have bike toured a lot in UK in between overseas work, both low key (cheap) and high key (fancy hotels with high thread-count sheets!!!)

How can we help with your enquiry - were you looking for a number of yes/no responses, or for suggestions of locales and routes and places to stay? Or were you asking about tweed jackets, heavy bikes and the removal of road signs during wartime years to confuse the potential invaders?

Can remember cycling in the 50's. It was quite safe with few cars about- Everybody used trams in London and they were a different story.

So what type of touring?

Had a complete summer holiday where me and my mates just rode out from our village in Kent and saw all the local sites. 25 miles out would almost put us into Central London' although we never got that far. Still think that I could spend a month riding round London and still not see everything there is with the museums and historical places of interest. When I go to France- this is still the way I see the locality. Choose a central spot and just ride out to see the country. That way I always have the Sag wagon at the end of a phone if required and it is surprising how much you can see in a couple of weeks.

In the UK we have a lot of Cycle routes managed by Sustrans. You can travel North to South and East to west across the country with cycle friendly routes. We have a couple locally and one runs from Dover to the West country. Across the south Coast and right across England.

https://www.sustransshop.co.uk/

Give us an idea of what you want to do and I'll try to suggest organisatios to help.

I'm interested in heavy bikes (have a 50's Phillips Roadmaster), slow pace (no 100 mile days), not expensive (retired), interesting scenery/history (old pubs are better than palaces).
The stay and cycle from hub is a good idea. Suggestions are welcome, info is appreciated. Tim

There's an Irish company called "Iron Donkey" that offers hub-and-spoke tour routes, including some routes in western England (Bath, the Costwalds, etc.) and in Wales. Here's their British tours:

https://www.irondonkey.com/britain-bi...-vacations.php

You can rent bikes from them, hire them to put together an itinerary, or just use their itineraries as inspiration. Based on my time living in Britain, I think their area would be a good one for a bike tour.

My other recommendation would be to spend some time shopping www.amazon.co.uk (the British version of Amazon) for books on where to eat, where to stay, etc. There's lots of good books on the best pubs, best beer, best pub food (I think one was called the "Good Pub Guide," but there are others) that help you pick out the right places to stay/eat.

The first solo bike tour I took was 2 weeks around Southern England on a borrowed bike. I either stayed in Pubs or with family. These days, I'd use couchsurfing.com or warmshowers.org to find people to host me (for free) for the night. While wind and rain are plentiful in the UK, the scenery is very pleasant and it is easy to find low traffic, if circuitous, roads using the AAA road atlas available everywhere. After a subsequent tour, I made the observation that when the wind is at your back, you know you've made a wrong turn.

I wrote a journal of my 2 week tour. You can see it here.

I've always enjoyed riding in the UK and highly recommend it.

Ray

Choteau, here's something to whet your appetite. https://tweed.cc/

The "Style" page has two videos from the 1950's. Check it out.

Possibly this is what you're looking for:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Grad9m2K5g0

The classics, they never die!

Back in the day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyz5d3entBw

Today
https://www.togglechaintour.co.uk/

Stateside:
https://www.home.earthlink.net/~steinborn/3speedtour.htm

tcs

Thanks for the responses, I enjoyed the classic, laughed thru the Monty Python's, and the Lake Pepin tour is what got me thinking... I seem to live in the land of Spandex, Lycra, carbon fiber, cyclo computer, and "how fast, how far, how many calories...." I own/ride 2 bikes, '74 Schwinn Speedster and a 50's Phillips ( with proper 28x1 1/2 tires and rod brakes ) I was out riding my Phillips yesterday, enjoying the scenery, got home and realized I was gone for 2 hours. Tim

Bumping an older thread - I hope that's not rude, but I've been out of contact for a week or so...

Spouse and I did a weeks 'petals of a daisy' cycling, daily rides based on a pub/hotel called the Sun Inn in Dedham, on the Essex/Suffolk borders a few years ago - if you know John Constable's paintings, that's the area. Easy to google, they have a website

Just delightful. I have no connection with that place other than having enjoyed my stay, but would recommend it. Not cheap, but in my view very fair for the experience and the memories

I was going to chime in, having done a series of UK countryside rides in the mid seventies through mid eighties. Not exactly tweedy, nor with three speeds, but wandering and more locale-orientated than "I'm going there tomorrow" sort of thing. I did many of these as a member of Youth Hostels International - Youth hostels actually accept people of all ages, or at least used to do... and they are usually no more than 50 miles apart... they allow you to specialize in what is in the immediate environs, and almost always have a 1:25000 scale OS map on the wall, and often literature to plan your perambulations. I did this in Denmark too... they have unisex rooms and Tuborg Gron there...
I know my 60 year old knees would not appreciate second gear on a three speed. There's some hills in many of the nice parts. Wobblyoldgeezer seems to have had a nice time, but hotels and B'NBs can become expensive.
I hope you get to realize your dream, choteau. Happy trails!

I stayed in Youth Hostels on all three of my European cycling trips over the past 8 years. Most of them were very nice, much better than the ones I stayed in back in 1969. The only place to my knowledge where there is an age restriction at Hosteling International is the German state of Bavaria. I believe the maximum age was 30.

Really nice bike, that.

How lovely! I stopped by to get some advice about cycling in England and Wales this coming August and here the thread is already underway! I'll be staying in dorm rooms in one or two UK universities (can you beat £280 for 14 nights in a single en suite?). My question is, what's the smartest way to provide myself with a bicycle for a couple of weeks?