Good routes?

straas

How do you guys/girls find decent road routes? I keep getting disheartened when I go out for a solo ride and end up on roads which are much too busy or make you feel like you're doing the roubaix!

I know there's a rides list on this website, and I've had a gander but it's absolutely pants - never any comments about speed, traffic or road condition!

So is there a decent enough list anywhere with comments and ratings, sorted by region or will I just have to join a local club and nick their routes?

rogerthecat

m8 to be honest, I do an every increasing circle map, in that I go out on slow bimbles route finding, I have a cube x-race with 25mm's on and just explore, after all the more time I am on a bike the better . Failing that when you are out and come across another rider have a chat and ride along with him / her.

dmch2

I look for B roads and smaller on a map and just go out and ride them. Then remember the good ones and avoid the bad ones.

If you're in the car it's worth looking out for roads that look good, or drive home a different way to try a few new ones out.

I guess it depends where you live as to how many good roads there are near you. Central london can't be much fun. Up north it's great (which is why i moved)

amaferanga

Plan routes using any of the online mapping sites. It helps if you then have a GPS to upload the routes to, but you could always print it out if its not too long or complicated.

If you follow sign posts then you'll be going the same way as most of the traffic so will probably find the least pleasant roads.

As a general rule I avoid A roads as much as possible, particularly if its early evening (rush hour) or at the weekend (particularly here in the Peaks where every man and his dog seems to go driving at the weekend).

nevman

mattomal wrote:

How do you guys/girls find decent road routes? I keep getting disheartened when I go out for a solo ride and end up on roads which are much too busy or make you feel like you're doing the roubaix!

I know there's a rides list on this website, and I've had a gander but it's absolutely pants - never any comments about speed, traffic or road condition!

So is there a decent enough list anywhere with comments and ratings, sorted by region or will I just have to join a local club and nick their routes?

Definitely join a club-they will have a store of knowledge gleaned over years of tracking good routes barely visible to car drivers looking for A to B

CiB

Like the one about driving home from work different ways.

Set off on a ride and then turn off somewhere that you haven't done so before, and follow your nose for an hour or so. At worst you'll have to retrace your tracks to get home, more likely is you discover some unexpected good back roads & lanes with the occasional road sign pointing to places that you've heard of, so you can gauge which direction you need to head into & eventually how to get home.

Maps show road layouts but they never show how good the route is in the real world. You have to ride them to find out.

dmch2

Having a mobile phone with a GPS means you can always check where you are if you get totally lost as well