CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. 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.
Out of Royal Tunbridge Wells, one way: 461 km, roughly 6 h 38 in the saddle. The stops in between: near Chartham, Scenic stretch near Stansted Mountfitchet and Towcester. The climb of the day is in Silver End. Much of it runs through woodland.
Tunbridge Wells owes its existence to a rusty spring. In 1606 a young nobleman, Lord North, was resting in the woods here and noticed a pool with an orange scum; he tried the water, felt better and told the world. Within a few decades the court was coming down from London to drink it, and the Pantiles, a raised, colonnaded walk with trees along it, became the place to be seen taking the waters. The town was granted its Royal prefix in 1909 by Edward VII, and has been the butt of letters to the editor ever since, usually signed by someone disgusted.
Read the complete High point near Royal Tunbridge Wells write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hampshire Test Valley Roads is where the day begins. Next is Food stop near Chartham.
Food stop near Chartham is where this day stops to eat. Next is High point in Silver End.
This is where the road stops climbing. Next is Scenic stretch near Stansted Mountfitchet.
Most people know Stansted as an airport, but the village of Stansted Mountfitchet, just to the west of the runways, is much older and more interesting. Its brick tower windmill, built in the late eighteenth century, is one of the best-preserved in Essex, and on the hill above the village, a Norman motte-and-bailey castle has been reconstructed with wooden palisades and buildings, giving a vivid impression of what a castle looked like soon after the Conquest.
Read the complete Scenic stretch near Stansted Mountfitchet write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Scenic stretch near Stansted Mountfitchet, about halfway. Next is London motorcycle escapes return.
Silverstone is six kilometres away, and on Grand Prix weekend you will know it: the roads around Towcester clog with traffic, the sky fills with helicopters and the whole district hums with engines. On other days, this is quiet south Northamptonshire, a landscape of rolling fields, stone villages and woods, with the old Roman road of Watling Street running straight through Towcester.
Read the complete Near Towcester, on the way back write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
London motorcycle escapes return sits at 350 km, late in the day. Next is Photo stop near Blewbury.
Blewbury is a village of thatched cottages, chalk streams and old cob walls at the foot of the Berkshire Downs, south of Didcot. It has the slightly enchanted feel of a place that has been left alone, and it is no surprise that Kenneth Grahame chose to live here in the years after he wrote The Wind in the Willows. Wander the lanes and you could easily imagine Ratty and Mole somewhere among the willows by the stream.
Read the complete Photo stop near Blewbury write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 461 km.
Fuel stop near Royal Tunbridge Wells → Food stop near Chartham is 74 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Food stop near Chartham → High point in Silver End is 139 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
High point in Silver End → Scenic stretch near Stansted Mountfitchet is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Scenic stretch near Stansted Mountfitchet → Near Towcester, on the way back is 105 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.