CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 378 km round trip from Leeds - roughly 6 h 35 in the saddle. On the way it passes Jodrell Bank Observatory, Derwent Valley Mills, back through Derwent Valley Mills and back through Jodrell Bank Observatory. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 107 km this is Snake Pass, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Leeds made its fortune from wool and cloth, then from engineering and trade, and the evidence is in the arcades. The Victoria Quarter, with its glass roof and stained-glass windows, the Corn Exchange, an oval hall of iron and stone, and Kirkgate Market, where Marks & Spencer began as a penny bazaar, all reflect the confidence of the Victorian city. Today it is the biggest legal and financial centre outside London, and a university city with a young crowd, which gives the evenings plenty of life.
Read the complete Leeds write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Leeds is where the day begins. Next is Jodrell Bank Observatory.
You see the dish long before you arrive. The Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank rises out of the flat Cheshire farmland like something from a science fiction film, a white steel bowl seventy six metres across, tilting slowly to follow its targets across the sky. When it was completed in 1957 it was the largest steerable radio telescope in the world, and one of its first tasks was tracking the rocket that carried Sputnik into orbit. The observatory, founded by Bernard Lovell after the Second World War, has been at the forefront of radio astronomy ever since, and it was listed by UNESCO in 2019 for its role in the development of the science.
Read the complete Jodrell Bank Observatory write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Jodrell Bank Observatory comes up 47 km in.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jodrell Bank Observatory write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
94 km in you reach Jodrell Bank Observatory. Next is Derwent Valley Mills.
The first factory in the modern sense stood at Cromford, in a narrow valley in Derbyshire, and the man who built it was a barber from Preston. Richard Arkwright's cotton mill of 1771 was the first to spin cotton with water power on a large scale, and it set a pattern that spread to the Midlands, Lancashire and across the world. The Derwent Valley Mills, the series of mills and villages that stretch from Cromford down to Derby, were listed by UNESCO in 2001 as the birthplace of the factory system.
Read the complete Derwent Valley Mills write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Derwent Valley Mills, about halfway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Derwent Valley Mills write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Derwent Valley Mills sits at 188 km, about halfway. Next is back through Derwent Valley Mills.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Derwent Valley Mills write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Derwent Valley Mills comes up 235 km in. Next is back through Jodrell Bank Observatory.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jodrell Bank Observatory write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
282 km in you reach back through Jodrell Bank Observatory.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jodrell Bank Observatory write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Jodrell Bank Observatory, late in the day. Next is Leeds.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Leeds write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 378 km.
Leeds → Jodrell Bank Observatory is 108 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Jodrell Bank Observatory → Derwent Valley Mills is 80 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Derwent Valley Mills → back through Jodrell Bank Observatory is 80 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Jodrell Bank Observatory → Leeds is 108 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.