Liverpool to Bristol route advice?

holiver

Hi all,

I am considering cycling from Liverpool to Bristol over 2 days at the end of the month to visit my family. I am looking for route advice other than plugging the relevant post codes into cyclestreets.net and following blindly!

I'll be doing it on my Kinesis and would like to avoid any off road paths due to the 23mm tyres and small load I will carrying. I made the mistake of doing some of the Trans Pennine Trail to Southport from Liverpool last weekend. That kind of path does not suit the bike!

Does anyone have any experience with National Route 45 down from the Chester area to Gloucester? I am looking at coming out of Liverpool via Runcorn, but from there it is unknown to me.

Cheers!

whoof

I've done the bit from Gloucester to Bristol.
The sustrans route just South of Gloucester is on a gravel canal path so you might want to do the first bit on the A38. However it's worth getting back on the road section as soon as possible at the bit from Quedgeley to Frampton upon Severn is really nice. From there to Shepards Patch (Slimbridge) is canal path again so back to the A38 for a couple of miles. From Slimbridge/Berkley/ Oldbury on Severn/Olverston it's a very popular route with cyclist and a great ride. Where you get off depends on which bit of Bristol you want. But don't cross the Avon on the M5 bridge and then try to ride up the path from Pill to Bristol as this is a rough track.

holiver

Thanks for the reply!

I think I have made some progress with the route. At the southern end from Gloucester it does look like I have scheduled a couple of km on the canal path from Frampton on Severn to Slimbridge, with it otherwise being all on minor roads. How is the quality of the path there?

holiver

This is the route as I have it at present. It follows pretty closely the cyclestreets.net balanced route. I was thinking to overnight in Kidderminster if I can make it that far in one day!

http://connect.garmin.com/course/7167560

craker

It's probably worth looking up some Lejog routes; for the most I see plenty of cyclists coming over the Severn Bridge and heading into Wales, then either going direct to Monmouth or some variant thereof (Northbound route obviously).

How that compares with the routes on the other side of the Severn... well it's flatter over there although it can be bumpy if you want to head into the Cotswolds.

whoof

The canal path from Frampton Upon Severn can be ridden on a road bike with 23 mm tyres but there is of course an increased risk of punctures.
The Garmin link didn't show anything.
As stated above there is a route on the borders through to Chepstow and across the Severn bridge. The CTC forum has an entire section on this under LEJOG

holiver

OK thanks. I will check out the CTC forum too..

The Garmin website is a royal pain. I think you need to zoom in a click for the route to become visible, which then means you can't see the start an finish on screen at the same time.