Wiltshire to Oxford and back

Had a work pow wow at Oxford football ground yesterday, from Melksham to the ground was not a bad ride at all, a bit spirited perhaps but a good ride.

On the way back I went west stright across from Oxford to Swindon to find it was all 50mph or 40 mph limits which meant I actually averaged 30mph all the way there, then headed south to marlborough and back home that way, the roads were much improved

That is all, I just wanted to share this as apart from my one week away last year all I ever do is commute to work and back on the bike so this was a very welcome change

Thanks for tuning in, your listening to Stretch FM, where the dial goes all the way up to 180

The A420 is always worth avoiding.

The road from Marlborough to Wanborough is fantastic; I used to use this on my long way home. Wantage to Lambourn is pretty good too.

Overall though, Oxfordshire is plagued with pointless 40 and 50 zones and several of my favourite old routes have been ruined. :(

There are still lots of good roads in this part of the country. One day soon I'll get my a**e in gear and organise a rideout.

In fact I'm leading an afternoon run for my local IAM group on the 5th, starting at Milton Services off the A34, finishing at McD's on the Shrivenham bypass. I could do the same, or a similar, route on another weekend if anyone's interested.

I've got a decent ride from Melksham up past Castle Coo be, towards Tetbury, down past Kemble airfield and back towards Melksham or an extended version carries on over to Devizes, Netheravon and Tidworth before going back to Melksham.

Will have to dig out the map and sort a rideout my self

bobh wrote:There are still lots of good roads in this part of the country. One day soon I'll get my a**e in gear and organise a rideout.

In fact I'm leading an afternoon run for my local IAM group on the 5th, starting at Milton Services off the A34, finishing at McD's on the Shrivenham bypass. I could do the same, or a similar, route on another weekend if anyone's interested.

I'm interested, Keep us posted, pleeeeeaaaaase

And yet; still; we await a southern "Something-for -the-Weekend"

I'm interested bob

I'd be interested as your all not that far from me, happy to help collaborate in putting something together if something went ahead

Well, how about 2 weeks time - 12th May? Probably aim to start around 10:30 am.

bobh wrote:Well, how about 2 weeks time - 12th May? Probably aim to start around 10:30 am.

I'll be in Brostol at Grillstock that weekend drinking beer and eating food that's goona make me fat(ter)

Not had any more replies, but let's go for the 12th anyway (sorry stretchie) and see if anyone turns up. I can always do another one at a later date for those that can't make it.

I'll put a post in the "Rideouts" section.

Good on you fella. I've got a few busy weeks coming up now but I promise I will put a ride together soon.

I think I found my route up to Cirencester and back down but am having trouble opening it. Garmin saw fit to replace the Mapsource program with some tosh called Basecamp and you cannot view your map unless the satnav is plugged in and it's crap too... Rant over.. Will let you know if I can figure out how to check the route

** EDIT **

I don't want to jinx it but I may have cracked it, see here [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

stretchie_ wrote: Garmin saw fit to replace the Mapsource program with some tosh called Basecamp and you cannot view your map unless the satnav is plugged in and it's crap too...

You need to register the map in Basecamp, does require the satnav to be plugged in whilst doing the registration and a bit of faffing on the Garmin website. My Basecamp now shows the full map without the SatNav being connected.
I agree Basecamp seems awful as it is not intuitive. I defected to Tyre, but that is even worse - the Google and Garmin maps are not the same and you end up with some horrendous routing problems. I've persevered with Basecamp and am getting the hang of it and dare I say it, I think it is better than Mapsource.

SteveCat wrote:

stretchie_ wrote: Garmin saw fit to replace the Mapsource program with some tosh called Basecamp and you cannot view your map unless the satnav is plugged in and it's crap too...

You need to register the map in Basecamp, does require the satnav to be plugged in whilst doing the registration and a bit of faffing on the Garmin website. My Basecamp now shows the full map without the SatNav being connected.
I agree Basecamp seems awful as it is not intuitive. I defected to Tyre, but that is even worse - the Google and Garmin maps are not the same and you end up with some horrendous routing problems. I've persevered with Basecamp and am getting the hang of it and dare I say it, I think it is better than Mapsource.

The problem is, I only really used to use Mapsource when planning a route, most of what I do now is just going to a certain place so it''s just adding the address in.

I will have a butchers at the registering part, if it helps, I found that once Basecamp is intalled, if you go back to the Garmins site and download the Mapsource update it will actually install Mapsource because you have Basecamp installed?? Strange eh? Anyway, see my above edited post for a rideout plan

You're fine using Mapsource on Win XP, it not happy on 7 or 8.
You seemed to have cracked it though, well done.
If you do need some help on Basecamp, drop me a note - I'm no expert, but have managed to plan my Alpine route, find the hotels, fuel and rest stops. Dragged the route through the squizzly / interesting bits when they were being ignored by the software

SteveCat wrote:You're fine using Mapsource on Win XP, it not happy on 7 or 8.
You seemed to have cracked it though, well done.
If you do need some help on Basecamp, drop me a note - I'm no expert, but have managed to plan my Alpine route, find the hotels, fuel and rest stops. Dragged the route through the squizzly / interesting bits when they were being ignored by the software

Thank you very much, also... I am on Windows 7 too ha haa