Parameters for our route:
Minimal use of A roads, unpaved, gravel sections
Maximum use of tarmacked cycleways and minor roads
Include Dartmoor, some Scottish lochs, and at least one landscape, man-made or historical attraction each day
Inclusion of Glasgow and Edinburgh in our round Britain, so preferably Glasgow on LeJog.
Minimal cost comfortable accommodation
Guidance
Risk, responsibility
You are responsible for your preparation and for the ride you undertake, and for minimising and eradicating risks to your undertaking.
This website reproduces guidance on preparation of you and your bicycle from one published route guide and a link to another. Other guides are on the ‘net.
The route we propose to cycle is theoretical and comes with no recommendations. It is published to make 6 months’ research publicly available, to assist other route planners and cyclists. Parts of our route, based on published route guides, are tried and tested. Other parts are not. All route pages contain lists of main sources, for you to check out and choose the route you take.
Road safety training:
Consider free Bikeability training - to optimize your road safety.
Available from town, district or county councils
You may be able to negotiate for them to run short bike maintenance group training
Preparation:
What to take, Prepare yourself and Prepare your bike - reproduced with kind permission
(Land’s End to John o’ Groats, Barrett R., 2022 © Cicerone Press, pages 25-26.)
[Photos of 2 pages]
Also:
Barrett, R. (n.d.). 5 reasons to choose a gravel bike. Cicerone. https://www.cicerone.co.uk/5-reasons-to-choose-a-gravel-bike
Insurance:
If you expect to be away more than 30 days, discuss your needs with your home insurance company
For long trips, discuss your plans with your bicycle insurance company. Booking accommodation
The longer the trip, the more in advance to book for optimal choice. Most of our overnight stops were booked 3-4 months in advance.
Expect to take more time to book if you have limited choices
Consider whether cheaper hotels are so, because they are closer to busy roads
Booking with one service, e.g. Booking.com, can ease your admin, and you may build discount. Sometimes, it is cheaper to go direct; sometimes, it is cheaper via a booking service you have used often.
Add overnight stop name, address, phone number, etc to your calendar
Book refundable where possible - to allow for changes
Overnight stops may not be where you want them for your ideal daily distance. Some southern parts of the island are sparsely populated.
Sources in alphabetical order:
Google Maps - Search for the location, clear the search box, search for hotel, bed and breakfast, guest house, etc
Premier Inn - policy to allow cyclists to store their bicycles in their rooms
Travelodge.co.uk - often willing for cyclists to store their bicycles in their rooms
University Rooms - also consider searching the net for a university’s name and accommodation or overnight stay or similar
Warmshowers - $30 joining fee for access to world map of Warmshowers’ hosts, willing to host you
Comments relating to route planning
Mapping software can differ in their elevation computations.
Elevations may differ between phones, using the same mapping software, and between bike computers. Advice from Ride with GPS, Strava, Wahoo
Street View in Google Maps enables the checking of road surfaces and other features of potential routes
GPX Merge is free-to-use software which enables routes to be joined together – to get a picture of a whole multi-day route in mapping software
GPS Visualizer is free-to-use software which enables the merging of merged route files to create an overlay for a large map – we used it to understand our entire route round Britain
Spreadsheets, shared with all participants, can assist route preparation fulfilling everyone’s parameters.
Routes can be adjusted taking POIs into account. Our route changed to stay longer in Scotland’s 3rd largest city, Aberdeen. We paid extra to book into Travelodge at noon. We re-routed in Dundee, the 4th largest, for a view over the city from 174m high Dundee Law.
How and from where possible break stops were identified
Days were split into quarters, roughly every 2 hours or 20 miles, allowing for rest near climbs, 30 mins for morning and afternoon breaks, 60 mins for lunch
Cafes, eateries, restaurants, pubs were identified using Google Maps, Open Cycle Map, Komoot cyclists’ recommendations, and some Google searches.
Google Maps was searched first for a location. The search box was cleared; the search term, e.g. cafes, was added and searched for.
Title, address, phone numbers and opening times relevant to the days we expected to be in the location were retrieved.
The Google Map was moved to cover a new location and the e.g. cafes search was repeated.
Possible break stops are in the route descriptions.
The data could be updated in a similar way.
How and from where cycle repair shop data was retrieved
The search was for cycle repair shops within 5 miles of the route, unless otherwise stated.
Data was retrieved from Google Maps, Yell.com, Cyclists UK’s Welcome database, Open Cycle Maps in Komoot and 4 Cicerone publications authored by Barrett (2019), Barrett (2021), Mitchell (2016) and Wells (2019). Their details appear in Research sources for Corner to Corner. There was also some Google searches.
Google Maps was searched for a location. The search box was cleared, cycle repair shops was entered and searched for. Websites for shops were checked if Google Maps retrieved them.
Titles, addresses and phone numbers were retrieved.
The Google Map was moved to cover a new location and the cycle repair shops search was repeated.
Cycle repair shops are in the route descriptions.
The data could be updated in a similar way.
How and from where POI data was retrieved
POIs were identified for cyclists on route and potential support drivers near and off route from Google Maps, Open Cycle Map and Philip’s Navigator Britain: Camping and Caravanning road atlas.
Wikipedia was searched and hyperlinks for entries added to the list. Google searches retrieved some relevant websites, to which hyperlinks were added.
There are several churches included, because Ralph is interested in them.
Miscellaneous:
Discuss requirements with your home insurance company if you will be away more than 30 days.
Consider your bicycle and holiday insurance, e.g. to cover hotel bookings
Useful organizations to assist you with advice, routes, links to insurance, training opportunities:
FortyPlus or similar in your locality
London Bike Kitchen, whose Saddle Library runs a £35 consultation service to assist in identifying the saddle for you
