in planning » Tour with my brother: North Yorkshire and the SWC300

I've planned a route for early July with my brother, riding a long slog up the motorway to Arnside on Day 1, a run through the middle of the Lake District and half the SWC 300 on day 2 (staying at Ayr), the rest of the SWC300, part of the Yorkshire Dales and North Yorks Moors on Day 3 (staying in Castle Howard), and then back home on day 4.

Olie & Andrew route - v1.png - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

Trip is planned in MyRouteApp. Am wondering whether the stages could be too long - any thoughts / suggestions / comments welcome?

I agree with Wessie. I have spent the late May BH weekend in Dumfries and Galloway annually for maybe eight years (Missed last year obviously) on bike runs organised by the FJR Club and led by a local member (who now rides a GS!). Of course I am spoilt because I just follow the leader!

Almost any of the roads in Galloway Forest Park will do. Also consider Wannlockhead on the B797 - highest village in Scotland.

Trough of Bowland and the Dales are my backyard playground

Consider coming back M6 to Penrith then off heading for Windermere then Kendal then across either
(a) to A684 - Sedbergh/Hawes/Leyburn/Masham/Nidderdale/ then A59 back across to Preston or
(b) to A684 Sedbergh/Kirkby Lonsdale/Ingleton/Bentham/Slaidburn/Clitheroe then A59 to Preston

I can give you more detailed and longer routes through Trough of Bowland if you want.

Hotels in D & G?
I am staying at the Ship Inn - Gatehouse of Fleet this trip - my 2nd visit - Food is/was excellent.
I have stayed a few times in Moffat - Buccleuch Arm Hotel - Has motorcycle garages so you know you will meet like-minded people!

Hope that helps just a little.

Chris

We are following an established route, the South West Coast 300 - it was featured in Ride magazine in the April edition. I can't post a link but it's on the visit south west scotland website...

I'm sure we do miss out a lot of good roads - good excuse to come back again :)

If you have a gpx of your route, please feel free to post - would be good to see.

Zitat von OlieL im Beitrag #1

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Trip is planned in MyRouteApp

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Is tis a trip in itself or a Recce for spending more time on a future trip?

As said all the places you are going can be expanded into week long trips in their own right and the roads, scenery, food stops and attractions are all excellent.

I have, on more recent (well 2019 being the last big one) trips used motorways / toll roads to bypass plenty of great places just to get where I wanted to be, much to the chagrin of friends. It's your trip, so please yourself, but you may find that you are spending a lot of time on the bike just travelling rather than exploring.

Thanks Chris, big help; we are hitting Wannlockhead as it's on the B797. I've hopefully added a GPX of my route to this post.

There's so much choice, we have four days and were originally going to do the NC500 but it's a long way to go from down souwf :)

Current route skirts to the west of Kendal, takes the B5284 to windermere, A592 south to the bottom end of windermere before turning back north to Coniston. We're traversing the Lake District fairly swiftly to get up to Dumfries and Galloway.

Zitat von Elmer J Fudd im Beitrag #6

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Is tis a trip in itself or a Recce for spending more time on a future trip?

As said all the places you are going can be expanded into week long trips in their own right and the roads, scenery, food stops and attractions are all excellent.

I have, on more recent (well 2019 being the last big one) trips used motorways / toll roads to bypass plenty of great places just to get where I wanted to be, much to the chagrin of friends. It's your trip, so please yourself, but you may find that you are spending a lot of time on the bike just travelling rather than exploring.

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Zitat von Freddyfruitbat im Beitrag #5

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Zitat von OlieL im Beitrag #1

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Trip is planned in MyRouteApp

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Can you post the link to the actual MRA page (or at least without the http bit if that's a problem) as it's hard to see from the pic which roads you're taking?

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Galloway’s a nice wee corner.

Here’s my Planned vs. Actual 360 mile day trip from last October.

The red X was a road closure heading west early in the day.

Sunday’s run in that area came to a premature halt - puncture - but was gonna be 200+ miles.

FC561FD5-BC97-4704-BFA3-26713BCBDE3A.jpeg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
360999D3-E6EA-4D97-B210-696328016503.jpeg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

Your call to take the M6 to Cumbria is a good one. There's bugger all except traffic, speed cameras and shite roads from Chester to Lancaster. I rode points 27 to 29 two days ago and you won't be disappointed. Personally I'd stick to the Penines South of there but I dont know the North East too well and would be interested to hear feedback from you when you've done the trip.

Zitat von Eldwat1203 im Beitrag #12

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Your call to take the M6 to Cumbria is a good one. There's bugger all except traffic, speed cameras and shite roads from Chester to Lancaster. ....

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Funny enough I woke up this morning thinking that comment would get me in trouble. Beware of sweeping generalisations lol. You're right, there are a good few nuggets and Trough of Bowland is one of them - was up there Monday. Happy to be corrected Chris.
My issue I guess is that the traffic volumes in the North West are considerable. I find riding in traffic of any volume stifling. It's so hard to get into a rhythm when constantly working around slower traffic and have-a-go heroes.
Maybe that's a more relevant point. If you can, ride the best bits Monday to Friday.

Agree with all of the above.
If I could make a suggestion it would be for the route back down south. You could go across the Humber bridge and then southward through Lincolnshire. Get onto the A46 at some point for the main roads to finish.
Also there are more good roads around the North York Moors.