London (Hackney) to Cambridge?

Hello everyone,

We are relatively new residents in London, living in Hackney. We are
thinking about visiting a friend in Cambridge this weekend, and it would
be fun to do the trip by bike.

Does anyone know a good route there? Or know that there _isn't_ a good
one? By 'good' I mean: preferably not on main roads with lots of traffic,
but not totally offroads either. While we are comfortable riding in
traffic in general, this is meant to be leisurly fun, not with trucks
flying past.

I will check out the cyclemaps website that has been posted here
sometimes, but I've used it before and sometimes I find it hard to judge
the route from that alone. Possibly I'll have more specific questions
later.

Also, does anyone have a specific hardcopy cycle map to recommend for
this trip? We have zilch, and something would certainly be good.

Thanks very much in advance,

m.

Marianne Promberger wrote:
We are relatively new residents in London, living in Hackney. We are
thinking about visiting a friend in Cambridge this weekend, and it would
be fun to do the trip by bike.

Does anyone know a good route there?

The bike-events annual London-Cambridge starts from Waltham Abbey
(pretty much on the way for you, I'd think) and goes
Roydon,Widford,Albury,Clavering,Ickleton,Cambridge .

I'm afraid I don't have a detailed route but you could try contacting
the people at www.bike-events.com and see if they'll help you.

Cheers,

Jon

"Marianne Promberger" wrote in message
...
Hello everyone,

We are relatively new residents in London, living in Hackney. We
are
thinking about visiting a friend in Cambridge this weekend, and it
would
be fun to do the trip by bike.

Does anyone know a good route there?

You could take the River Lea towpath/Sustrans route 1 as far as the
M25. Get off at Waltham Abbey.

There are lots of country lanes from there. I don't think there's a
specific bike map. I tend to use a page torn out of the OS motoring
atlas. Away from houses the OS shows all the roads, and is careful
about getting the intersections right. If you like a bigger scale,
there's the Phillips Navigator Atlas.

From Waltham Abbey, head north, keeping about midway between the A10
and the M11. Any little country lane will do, and be quiet and
scenic.

I'm not sure of the best way to get into Cambridge. On the map there
seems to be an interesting country lane/bridlepath combination from
Haslingfield to Grantchester. Does anyone know about that?

Jeremy Parker

Jeremy Parker wrote:

I'm not sure of the best way to get into Cambridge. On the map there
seems to be an interesting country lane/bridlepath combination from
Haslingfield to Grantchester. Does anyone know about that?


Yes, you can go through Cantelupe Farm on part bridleway and part
permissive cycle route courtesy of the farmer or carry on past the end
of the radio telescopes and cross the motorway higher up. From
Granchester you can cycle alongside the river on a footpath to Newnham
Coming in from the south though you are better to go over the hill
from Shelford to Addenbrookes Hospital and then up Hills Road into the
centre.

--
Tony

"I did make a mistake once - I thought I'd made a mistake but I hadn't"
Anon

Marianne Promberger wrote:
Hello everyone,

We are relatively new residents in London, living in Hackney. We are
thinking about visiting a friend in Cambridge this weekend, and it would
be fun to do the trip by bike.

Does anyone know a good route there? Or know that there _isn't_ a good
one? By 'good' I mean: preferably not on main roads with lots of traffic,
but not totally offroads either. While we are comfortable riding in
traffic in general, this is meant to be leisurly fun, not with trucks
flying past.

From Hackney you are not far from the Lee Valley route which
is NCN route 1. Once you get to outside of the M25 you would
then switch to minor roads - around the Cheshunt area.

From this point you can follow the route taken by the London
to Cambridge. I have this as a GPS tracklog if that would help,
though I can't legally show that on a map (some people have been
working on ways to overlap this kind of thing onto google maps,
which is legal to do).

The route takes in: Lower Nazeing, Roydon, Stanstead Abbotts,
Widford, Little Hadham, The Pelhams, Langley, Duddenhoe End,
Elmdon, Ickleton. Before Ickleton I would deviate from the
L2C route, and head for Duxford, rather than using the A1301,
which is a bit busier, then go in via the Shelfords and
Trumpington towards the centre of Cambridge. Adjust for
the exact location in Cambridge you are heading for.

Simon

Jeremy Parker wrote:

I'm not sure of the best way to get into Cambridge. On the map there
seems to be an interesting country lane/bridlepath combination from
Haslingfield to Grantchester. Does anyone know about that?

Grantchester'd be good for SW Cambridge destinations. There is a
cycle path that roughly follows the river from Grantchester
into central Cambridge. Barrington to HaslingField is the biggest
climb in the immediate vicinity of Cambridge (or is the other
direction a bigger climb?). Can't recall having done Haslingfield
to Grantchester so i don't know what that's like. I'd probably
not be coming in via Haslingfield. If I was still west of the
M11 at that stage I'd probably go Fowlmere-Newton-Little Shelford.

Thanks to all for the very useful information! Alas, it seems the project
has died for this weekend, but we are set to do it in the future. I am
saving the posts and I will post here how it went.

As to the GPS tracklog thing, I don't think that would help, assuming it
can only be read by some GPS hardware (which we don't have)? But thanks
for the offer.

m.

Marianne Promberger wrote:
Thanks to all for the very useful information! Alas, it seems the project
has died for this weekend, but we are set to do it in the future. I am
saving the posts and I will post here how it went.

As to the GPS tracklog thing, I don't think that would help, assuming it
can only be read by some GPS hardware (which we don't have)? But thanks
for the offer.

m.
NCN route 11 to Cambridge is due to be officially opened on September 11

Although some bits that SHOULD have been completed will not have been
done so, there WILL be a well signposted route from that date.

The route from Audley End is on quite roads and is in part the same as
that used by London Cambridge bike ride.

you can see a map on the Sustrans website at:

http://www.sustrans.org.uk/default.a...=1090921162607
(Just click to zoom in on any bit)

with the approaches to Cambridge at:

http://www.sustrans.org.uk/default.a...LastMa pView=
False&bFromRegion=True&bLDRoute=False&sLDRoute=&ma p.x=119&map.y=156

The route mentioned by Tony Raven is NOT a permissive route in the
normal sense. It should only be used by those who hold a letter of
permission. The Landowner threatened to close it to all, after an
incident where a cyclist, without a 'permission' letter, went the wrong
way, fell off his bike, and then was abusive to the farmer!

Jim Chisholm
(Sustrans Ranger for last bit of Route 11 into Cambridge)