Route from Frimley to Basingstoke please

londonlivvy

In my wisdom, I've decided to cycle from London to Salisbury to visit friends this weekend (rest assured I have not entirely lost my mind and will be getting the train back). I have a cunning route as far as Frimley and ITB has kindly supplied a route from Basingstoke.

But from Frimley to Basingstoke I am need of a Cunning Plan. My options appear to be
1) the A30. There are dual carriageway bits. Gulp.
2) the roundabouts of doom of Farnborough. Did these once before. Not keen on a repeat.
3) a very long detour

Does anyone have any better ideas?
Or does the A30 have a cycle route I'm not aware of (this is my dream scenario as 95 miles is quite enough, frankly)?

Thanks.

thelawnet

What's your route to Frimley?

There are some good and not so good sections of the Basingstoke canal for cycling on, depending on your desired speed.

londonlivvy

I was hoping to ride my snazzy new Orbea Orca, and I doubt that canal towpaths would work for that? Happy to stand corrected though!

My route goes :
Esher, Weybridge, Addlestone, Chobham, then B311 to Frimley.

All cunning plans welcomed!

chuckcork

I put a couple on Bikeley when I had a job at Frimley, I was coming from Surbiton.

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Su ... -NHS261290

You could also do my commute route (I go Woking to Surbiton) which is only slightly different from this: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Wo ... en-Commute . If you want the canal follow the A245 to just past West Byfleet and it goes over the canal, there is easy access at this point to the canal.

The traffic isn't too bad and the roads are reasonably wide enough to be comfortable most of the time with the traffic flow.

You can then follow the canal which is OK for a road bike with 23C tyres as long as speed isn't your thing, it will take you through Woking. When you get some distance along to the A322 , having crossed and recrossed the canal several times (this can be confusing!) you'll have to come off the path to cross the road and there will be a petrol station just about in front of you. Cross over and you could either go a bit further along the canal up to the road into Pirbright, there will be a bridge to your right, or take to the A324 around until you go under the railway.

I'd recommend taking the B3012 which is a nice enough road through forest up to Frimley, I tried the canal path on my Audax bike for a stretch after the A324 and quickly left it and came back onto the B3012, the surface was terrible and I thought I'd damage my wheels.

chuckcork

Map here of my suggestion:

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Esher-Frimley

After Frimley Rial station I have no idea which way to go to get to Basingstoke.

thelawnet

hmm, is that a road bike?

The canal has a 2-metre wide tar and chip (Fibredec) surface from the Wey Navigation (New Haw) to Pirbright.

After Pirbright it's your normal towpath, with the added proviso that the bank has collapsed just before Deepcut bridge, and has not been repaired. The section from Frimley Green onwards is attractive.

If you want to avoid the A30 from Frimley, try Frimley-North Warnborough and continue on the unclassified roads from there

thelawnet

chuckcork wrote:

I put a couple on Bikeley when I had a job at Frimley, I was coming from Surbiton.

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Su ... -NHS261290

You could also do my commute route (I go Woking to Surbiton) which is only slightly different from this: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Wo ... en-Commute . If you want the canal follow the A245 to just past West Byfleet and it goes over the canal, there is easy access at this point to the canal.

The traffic isn't too bad and the roads are reasonably wide enough to be comfortable most of the time with the traffic flow.

You can then follow the canal which is OK for a road bike with 23C tyres as long as speed isn't your thing, it will take you through Woking. When you get some distance along to the A322 , having crossed and recrossed the canal several times (this can be confusing!) you'll have to come off the path to cross the road and there will be a petrol station just about in front of you. Cross over and you could either go a bit further along the canal up to the road into Pirbright, there will be a bridge to your right, or take to the A324 around until you go under the railway.

From Woking, there is a very clear crossing at St Johns, requiring you to go from right bank to left bank. The next crossing is at the A324 with Blackhorse road, and this one isn't clear, because the path is on both banks and the signposting is confusing. However the path has only been paved on the right bank, so you need to cross the road bridge here and go along the right bank. This emerges at Brookwood, where they have built a ramp to get up onto the road (the A322). If you get back onto the canal, it takes you to the A324 with B3012. From here there are actually four ways to proceed:

firstly, you can turn left onto the A324 through Pirbright
secondly, you can head along the (rough) left bank of the canal until about 2/3 of the way to Deepcut Bridge Road. At this point you will have to cross over the canal due to the landslip and up onto Brunswick Road, which is the road through Pirbright Camp road. When you emerge at Deepcut Bridge Road, the only access to the canal is by a stupidly steep muddy bank or carrying bike down lots of steps. Not recommended at all.
Thirdly, just take Brunswick Road, and skip the canal, turning left at the end and then right onto the last stretch of the B3012.
Fourthly, take the B3012, nice road albeit very bendy and hence somewhat popular as a place for car drivers and motorcyclists to test their handling.

Paddy O Dawes

Are you sure you want to go to Basingstoke?

Received this evening (swear to God) from my sis, who lives there, sent her by a friend (who also lives there) :

That big ugly woman that looks like Schrek was mouthing off to this Bloke who was kicking down Fence Panels at the bottom of their Carpark one by one. All this going on with a small child in a Pushchair witnessed everything. Anyway things got louder and louder,then a police car arrived. Out jumps a young policeman and Police lady about my build.

The Chap starts mouthing at him, then turns to kick more fences in. The copper tries to stop this, the Chap goes to hit him, with that the copper sprays Pepper spray in his face knocks him to the floor and Handcuffs him. Then Schrek woman tries to rescue him and starts to hit the Cop, the tiny Police woman ran at the huge B$%$h spayed her, jumps on her knocks her down f$%k knows how, and she Handcuffs her. Then a big Police Wagon skids up throws the Scum in the Wagon.

Now, still want to go to Basingstoke...?

chuckcork

thelawnet wrote:

The next crossing is at the A324 with Blackhorse road, and this one isn't clear, because the path is on both banks and the signposting is confusing. However the path has only been paved on the right bank, so you need to cross the road bridge here and go along the right bank.

I'd say it was immensely confusing, not least becuase it starts out ok then goes lumpy then absolutely awful.

thelawnet

chuckcork wrote:

thelawnet wrote:

The next crossing is at the A324 with Blackhorse road, and this one isn't clear, because the path is on both banks and the signposting is confusing. However the path has only been paved on the right bank, so you need to cross the road bridge here and go along the right bank.

I'd say it was immensely confusing, not least becuase it starts out ok then goes lumpy then absolutely awful.

Yes, the 'straight ahead' path seems quite plausible, there's no real indication you have to cross.

Not to mention that, if coming from the other direction, there is a ramp down to the bad side, but steps down the good side. There is also a ramp, but it's a few metres down the road behind bushes. As a result of not noticing this, I carried two bikes down the flight of steps.

londonlivvy

Thanks Chuckcork but I am trying for speed (otherwise the 95 miles is going to take more than a day!) and I really wouldn't want to subject my carbon race bike to a bumpy canal path. Though as a plus point, carrying it up and down steps is easy...

And Paddy, I don't want to go TO Basingstoke, as such, more past it! I've heard of its delights.
I think I'll go with your suggestion thelawnet. Looks a bit complicated but better than terrified on the A30!

South Bound

Your choices are fairly limited, but the A30 is not that bad depending on time of day. Couple of stretches of dually from Sandhurst/Blackwater to Hartley Wintney and then a bit further on, but it is a big wide road where drivers go quickly, but have lots of space to go around you if that makes any difference.

If you weren't going for speed, I would say cut through Farnborough/Cove avoiding big roundabouts and head Church Crookham/North Warnborough way and pop out onto A30 much further along past Hook. A30 quickest through but very straight and dull (apart fromt eh excitment the drivers will bring!