penexpers

Hey,

I'm thinking about trying to ride from Fishguard to Portsmouth in September to go to a music festival. Just wondering if anyone has any experiences of touring in that area in terms of terrain and bicycle-friendliness?

Thanks!

cyclemanic

i have toured a bit this area, its gonna be a hilly ride thats for sure,there isn't many ares in the uk that aren't....!!! but still a pretty nice one as long as you stay off the main A roads you will be fine, & even if you don't most drivers are ok, you will notice more traffic in the english part though. it would be worth checking out the sustrans web to see if there are any decent cycle paths going where u wanna go. i'm sure if u google wales cycle routes you will find something. you can't cycle over the new severn bridge so u will have to either go over the old 1 or go up & around depends how much time u got?

TheBrick

Check out the celtic trail https://www.cycling.visitwales.com/se...?show=nav.2313

I think you can get over one of the severn bridges (after checking yes you can on the old bridge https://www.severnbridge.co.uk/toll_prices.shtml).

The ride should be nice. When you get down to the South coast I would recommend dipping into the New Forest and then back over the top to Portsmouth. Are you going to the Isle of Weight music festival? If so you can also get a ferry from Lymington.

Hills wise depends on your route alot.

raybo

I've ridden to Bristol from the east, but no over the estuary and through the Forest of Dean, a bit north of Bristol. I'd recommend riding through the Forest of Dean, if your route takes you that far above Bristol. Here is a link to a bit of information about the Forest of Dean and Symonds Yat.

Here is a discussion about crossing the Severn Estuary at Bristol: https://www.cyclechat.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=3281

Also, when ever I tour in England, I buy a 1 inch to 3 mile AA Road Atlas and use it to find my way using small rural roads. One of the things I like about touring in England is finding my way on rural roads using these maps.

Ray

penexpers

Thanks for the tips everyone. Didn't know that bikes could go over the Severn Bridge so I'll definitely be going that way. I reckon it's about 400km and I would hope to do it in 2 - 2 1/2 days. Not sure how realistic this is. I'll buy a proper paper map and work out some routes from that - doing it on Google maps just isn't the same.

JakeEdwards

Don't miss the Transporter Bridge in Middlesbrough. It's the ride of a lifetime. Also Sustrans have their maps on at half price.

TheBrick

Road map + print out of google maps directions works well for me. Read a few instruction and then I only have to look at the map when things get tricky.


Jake That bridge lloks cool, Being a lover of feats of engineering I'll have to take a trip to see that.

Machka 

My 2003 account of riding in some of those areas:

https://www.machka.net/pbp/post.htm

LWaB

Middlesborough on Tees is a long way from where the OP will be riding. Perhaps you meant the Transporter Bridge at Newport in South Wales. From memory, it was recently closed to traffic, due to major maintenance requirements. https://www.newport.gov.uk/_dc/index....orter.homepage It was good fun to ride on though.

cyclemanic

I think 400kms in 2-2 1/2 days is a bit ambitious unless you are extremley fit & do a lot of cycling? maybe you are, who knows...!?!
if it was me i would want a good week to do this ride, but that is if you want to stop off & see a few things a long the way, if not you would still need a min of 3 i reckon otherwise its not gonna be very enjoyable.

penexpers

Yeah I thought 2-2 1/2 days would be a bit ambitious. The problem is that I wanted to do this on my Big Dummy and I don't have much time. Taking the Big Dummy wouldn't allow me to take my bike on any trains. I might just take my Cross Check and get the train to somewhere halfway a long the route and cycle the rest and then do the reverse on the way back

Thanks for the tips again, it has been most helpful.

rbrian

You can get free maps here.

Click here for a pdf overview. You can find more information on each individual route here, and a list of cycling organisations in the area here.

penexpers

OK, change of plan. Turns out that Virgin Trains have space for tandems on their trains which would suit my Big Dummy no problem. I can get the train from Holyhead to London and will cycle from London to Portsmouth. Does anyone have any experience of this? I imagine getting out of London would be pretty hairy?

TheBrick

Well it depends how accustomed to riding in a city you are. The hardest bit is navigating.

If you want a really quite route once you are out of London you could head south of London to the downs link from just south of London to the South Down way. The head west to Portsmouth and turn off Just north of there.

penexpers

Excellent, thanks. I'm from Dublin so I have some experience of city riding. Anytime I've been in London before though the traffic has always seemed much worse.

TheBrick

Something like this should get you to Leatherhead, someone with better local knowledge than me should beable to tweak it. My knowledge of South West London is not the best.