Favourite Roads

I've been asked this week by a colleague at work who's going on a week long trip around Scotland to recommend some roads for him to consider when planning his route. I know there are othesr better qualified on this site to do this so I thought I'd post up.

But why restrict it to Scotland, so..... if you have a favourite road please post up the details here in the format set out below. If this develops in due course I might build it into a Google Maps page so you can see what'sear you.

I know you won't let me down

Location, Road Number (Name), Start Point, End Point, More info or reason(s) for inclusion

I'll start with some of my favourites:

North Lincs, A161, Crowle, Goole, Twisty flat route with mainly open views over hedge-less fields great for practising your cornering

Lincs, B1225 (Caistor High Street), Caistor, Horncastle, High route down the spine of the Lincolnshire Wolds over rolling hills just gets better and better as you go south

Scottish Borders, A7, North Middleton, Galashiels, Wide sweeping bends follow the river Gala Water. Good in both directions but I prefer the route south

Hell yeah I'll have a go at this! One of my favourite trips and a great piece of tarmac! And it goes north too so feasible for your pal..

Get to York and take the A166 up to Fridaythorpe, stop for cup of tea as required as there is a biker friendly cafe called Seaways...Go on the B1251 up to the crossroads and take a left on the B1248 to Malton. Good road, often Police though plenty of bikers going faster than me so no worries... Through Malton and follow signs for Pickering on the A169 (fast road, keep your eyes on your speed) and through Malton all the way to Whitby over the moors and the incredible views of the Hole of Horcum... Great ride...

I second the Caistor High Street and Crowle, but also love the A44 Aberystwyth to Newtown road, and pretty much most of Wales TBH!

The Cromford to A38 via Wirksworth, Derbys, is cool.......

The 'Via Gellia' (B5012) Grangemill - Cromford, Derbys. (Although its now 50mph)

Macclesfield to the Cat & Fiddle Pub, Derbys,.......

B1202, Market Rasen to Wragby,Lincs, is great fun......

So many roads...so few days off

I'll also go for the B1225, I was on that road last in fact, fantastic

Slightly nearer to is the B1188, from Lincoln down to ruskington, lovely sweeping bends all the way down and a really nice pub in the middle to

The A153 in lincs is also good for long straight roads with the odd bend

Very slim pickings around these parts, but i have a couple:

B4494 from Newbury to Wantage - fairly short but a nice mix of twisties followed by open roads with great visibility coming over the Lambourn Downs. The B4001 from Wantage to Lambourn and the B4000 from Lambourn to Ashbury are worth a mention, and the three roads can easily be linked up.

I like to take in the A44 "Fish Hill" at Broadway if ever I am going that way, and the A424 Burford to Stow-on-the-Wold is a good way of getting there.

weasley wrote:
I like to take in the A44 "Fish Hill" at Broadway if ever I am going that way, and the A424 Burford to Stow-on-the-Wold is a good way of getting there.

I love Fish Hill too, and I used to be lucky enough to go up/down both those bits on a weekly basis.

there's a nice run through from Wroughton past Avebury and down to Devizes too, short but sweet

Chris

R2D2 wrote:

weasley wrote:
I like to take in the A44 "Fish Hill" at Broadway if ever I am going that way, and the A424 Burford to Stow-on-the-Wold is a good way of getting there.

I love Fish Hill too, and I used to be lucky enough to go up/down both those bits on a weekly basis.


Chris

I love the fish but then its literaly 6 miles away ( word of warning, now the bike season is here the plod are trapping it often)

A44 then A424 to stow A424 burford A40 north leach A429 cirencester A417 Lechlade a361burford, chipping norton banbury A422 stratford upon avon B439 bidford on avon B4085thro south littleton B 4032 to broadway then off up the fish and along the A44

it a series of very different roads...some very tight and narrow some open and free flowing but each holding it own challenge through some very nice counrtyside

Great, this is taking off very nicely.

May I suggest that a new Topic heading be created or go under the Biking Trips / Recommendations - have a separate area for each region in the country so it will easy to locate a route / fav road in future.

South West

Gloustershire/Gwent : A466 Chepstow - Monmouth: scenic route with a lot of twisties, some 30 mph zones and NSL. Can get busy at weekends (especially if the sun comes out)

South East

Sussex: A26 Newhaven - A27 intersection near Lewes, fast sweeping bends. However can get busy

howlingdog wrote:...a361burford, chipping norton banbury...

20 years ago I would have agreed with this, but the rash of 50 limits and other controls has pretty much ruined this road. It's OK from Burford to Chippy but gets tedious after that. :(

Sorry to be a bit pedantic Steve but Gloucester/Monmouth is not the South West. Devon/Cornwall and maybe a little further east i.e. Somerset/Dorset is the South West.

One road I would recommend is the A39 from Minehead down to Bude. Stunning scenery, twisty roads, some really steep inclines/declines. Just gets a bit busy in the summer months.

However, my all time favourite road is the Road of a 1000 bends. From San Feliu to Tossa de Mar in Spain, north of Barcelona. About 5 miles as the crow flies, but the road is actually about 17 miles long. It is just awesome. It's the GI 682. Take a look here Road of a 1000 Bends

Now thats a road.

topcatbones wrote:Sorry to be a bit pedantic Steve but Gloucester/Monmouth is not the South West.

Soz Tony; someone's paying attention Originally thought it was in Wales, umm. This might explain why I take the longest route to ride-outs

topcatbones wrote:
However, my all time favourite road is the Road of a 1000 bends. From San Feliu to Tossa de Mar in Spain, north of Barcelona. About 5 miles as the crow flies, but the road is actually about 17 miles long. It is just awesome. It's the GI 682. Take a look here Road of a 1000 Bends

Now thats a road.

I agree Tony but it is better on a Thundercat
Ah the memories

My local favourite is takes me from Shotts to Forth and then it starts getting good all the way to Selkirk.

Heading south on the A706 and then first LEFT to Braehead (good now since it has been resurfaced)
Continue picking up signs for Carnwath and then Peebles and then Selkirk.

After seeing the Motorbike 'hazard' signs on the A72 (after Castlecraig) be careful of a couple of consecutive off-camber bends.

Later on there are some long stretches of straight where I've seen speed vans parked off in the distance so be warned........The twisties really are superb though!

There is a 90 degree corner just before Neidpath castle (worth a quick visit.....nice views)

Most of this was done on last years Wee Mac.

Great in either direction.

Map is here [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Enjoy
Rosco

Very very good! Great piece of riding, hope you didn't have Ewan on the back bricking it!

MevsyD wrote:hope you didn't have Ewan on the back bricking it!

Nope....that would have been the road of a thousand screams.

Rosco, I did see the clip on Youtube that you posted but everytime I tried to watch it, it would stop about a minute of so in.

Hence the reason for posting the other clip.

Good fun road though and brings back some great memories.

Tony

I did the route I posted earlier today, went and had fish and chips at (or should I say outside) Magpies.. Me and my mate John (ZX6R 636) had a great time on the route from Pickering to Whitby... If you get the chance to try the road do it, it ticks all the boxes..

weasley wrote:

howlingdog wrote:...a361burford, chipping norton banbury...

20 years ago I would have agreed with this, but the rash of 50 limits and other controls has pretty much ruined this road. It's OK from Burford to Chippy but gets tedious after that. :(

warwickshire has gone mad on the 50's and spoilt many a good road by this..... other than call the all sorts if knob and write copious letters and make more calls to tell them that many of these limit restrictions are stupid, what more can we do?
I am revising my routes to try to avoid their handiwork