Why this ride
A 121 km round trip from Birmingham - roughly 1 h 32 in the saddle. The stops in between: Ironbridge Gorge and back through Ironbridge Gorge.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Birmingham afternoon · Ironbridge Gorge
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 121 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 32
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Birmingham
Birmingham claims more miles of canal than Venice, a boast that is almost certainly true and that tells you something about the city. It grew in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as a place that made things, buttons, guns, jewellery, steam engines, and the canals were the lanes that carried the raw metal in and the finished goods out. The thinkers of the Lunar Society, among them Matthew Boulton, James Watt and Joseph Priestley, met here at full moon so they could walk home by its light, and their dinner conversations helped shape the age of industry.
Read the complete Birmingham write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Birmingham is where the day begins. Next is Ironbridge Gorge.
2. Ironbridge Gorge
An iron bridge does not sound like much until you realise it was the first of its kind. In 1779, over the River Severn in Shropshire, the world's first major cast-iron bridge was completed, spanning thirty metres in a single semicircular arch, assembled with joints borrowed from carpentry. It was designed by Thomas Farnolls Pritchard and built by Abraham Darby III, whose grandfather, Abraham Darby I, had pioneered smelting iron with coke at nearby Coalbrookdale in 1709. That innovation lit the fuse of the Industrial Revolution, and the gorge that holds the works became one of its birthplaces. UNESCO listed the site in 1986.
Read the complete Ironbridge Gorge write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Ironbridge Gorge comes up 29 km in. Next is Ironbridge Gorge.
3. Ironbridge Gorge
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ironbridge Gorge write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
57 km in you reach Ironbridge Gorge. Next is back through Ironbridge Gorge.
4. back through Ironbridge Gorge
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ironbridge Gorge write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Ironbridge Gorge, late in the day. Next is Birmingham.
5. Birmingham
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Birmingham write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Birmingham. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Birmingham to Ironbridge Gorge
Birmingham → Ironbridge Gorge is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ironbridge Gorge to Birmingham
back through Ironbridge Gorge → Birmingham is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.