Derby to Nottingham

S0rin

Anyone commute from Derby to Nottingham (on a bike)?

Kieran_Burns

Some guys I know have done Long Eaton into Derby that close enough? I think someone does Beeston (which is pretty much the same)

I'd recommend staying off the A52

S0rin

Yeah.

I wondered roughly how long it took down the back roads.

mw22

I commute from Long Eaton to Ruddington - but my route could take me into Notts city centre easily enough.
From Long Eaton to Spondon its easy ... just that last bit of the A52 I dont know how you avoid... depends where in Derby you need I guess.

Mike

edtheball

I go the other way, from Beeston to Derby. Tend to follow the A6005 to Breaston and then go off road along the cycle path (Route 6 I think). Following the road all the way would be quicker but the river path is a lot more pleasant. For me it's almost exactly 15 miles door to door and takes around about an hour.

It definitely beats sitting in the traffic on the A52!

mw22

Just shy of 12 miles for me, similar distance if I went to Notts rather than Rudd..... and Im averaging 45mins...
My route does include mile or so of canal towpath - but its all pretty good compacted gravel - so no problem for road tyres.

Mike

Kieran_Burns

Mike,

I'm based in Ruddington now - the commercial Park, Computerland Building; you nearby?

We were trying to work out the way to do this route. Do you run up to the Clifton Boulevard and use the cycle path, then hop down onto Clifton Lane and Ruddington Lane?

Sleepycol

Route 6 will keep you off all the main roads and is a pleasant enough ride. there are a few short cuts that you can use once you get used to the route too.

mw22

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Mike,

I'm based in Ruddington now - the commercial Park, Computerland Building; you nearby?

We were trying to work out the way to do this route. Do you run up to the Clifton Boulevard and use the cycle path, then hop down onto Clifton Lane and Ruddington Lane?

I'm just down the A60 from Nottingham Knight off Landmere Lane at Ruddington Hall - the other half of our office is at Brittannia house - same park I believe!!

As for my route, I hop on the canal at Beeston, just down from the train station, get off at Boots and down passed powerleague, then over clifton bridge (using the cycle path), down onto clifton lane as you suggest doubling back to get on Ruddington Lane.
I cut through the estates before Rudd, but should be easy enough from there to get down to your area.
Obviously going straight up the A52 would be much quicker and shorter, but Im not a lunatic.

Its quite a nice run.... theres a cycle path half way up Rudd lane from Wilford Insutrial estate into Rudd which keeps you off the 60mph stretch- which as cycle paths go is pretty good.

Any others q's just shout
Mike

El Gordo

edtheball wrote:

I go the other way, from Beeston to Derby. Tend to follow the A6005 to Breaston and then go off road along the cycle path (Route 6 I think). Following the road all the way would be quicker but the river path is a lot more pleasant. For me it's almost exactly 15 miles door to door and takes around about an hour.

It definitely beats sitting in the traffic on the A52!

I use to ride from Beeston to Raynesway every day, taking the road through Long Eaton, Breaston and Borrowash. Rather than using the riverside path at Breaston (very pleasant but not good on a road bike) I went up to Spondon and past Spondon station and Acordis to drop onto the Raynesway Service Road. From there you can take the riverside path (surfaced from this point on) into town.

edtheball

I've a Scott Sportster hybrid. I wouldn't fancy that path on a road bike either!

The hybrid is fairly heavy and slow though. I've got a battered old road bike too and It always surprises me when I dig it out. I can knock 15 minutes off the time it takes to get to work.

CiB

FWIW 20 years ago I used to do Gotham to Basford, going down the ring road past the Queen's med and the old Raleigh factory. Life was different then, but it was never a problem - head down, charge....

Kieran_Burns

So just HOW do you pronounce Gotham? I've heard of hangings if you mention Batman...

CiB

Go-tum was the natives preferred pronunciation apparently. I stuck with Goth-erm, having a flat East Mids accent to deal with already.

Edit - was never clear on Basford either. Base-fud, or Bass-fod. The latter was correct acc to people I worked with, but everyone always said it as base-fud.

Sleepycol

Base-fud. Could be open to possible arguments, but I do live there.

S0rin

I was planning on going from Oakwood / Spondon to the centre of Nottingham. Anyone have any idea how viable this would be to do daily? How long it would take etc.

El Gordo

S0rin wrote:

I was planning on going from Oakwood / Spondon to the centre of Nottingham. Anyone have any idea how viable this would be to do daily? How long it would take etc.

Raynesway (Spondon end) to Beeston used to take me 35 minutes. It would be another 15 or so to get into Nottingham centre. It's perfectly viable and beats sitting in traffic on the A52.

On a slightly different topic, since we're talking about Derby, does anyone know who the guy was that was knocked off on Raynesway (at one of the cycle path / service road junctions) on Wednesday morning this week. He was carted off in an ambulance and my secretary put his wrecked bike in our office bike shed where it has remained since. She told the police on the scene where she was taking it but who knows if the message got through (he was in a pretty bad state by all accounts).

Tom Butcher

Depends on how fast you are really. What route would you take - I've done it occasionally and it was OK until I got to the traffic island at Bramcote when it all got a bit too main roady - but I wasn't doing it regularly enough to make me look for an alternative way into the centre of Notts.

It's probably not much more than 10 miles from Spondon to the edge of Nottm.