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.
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.
A one-way ride of 933 km, Dunstable to Waltham Cross - roughly 13 h 57 in the saddle. The stops in between: Edgware, in Leysdown-on-Sea, Scenic stretch near Maidstone and Peacehaven. The climb of the day is near Thame. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Dunstable sits where Watling Street, the old Roman road from London to the north-west, cuts through the chalk of the Chiltern Hills, and the town has been a stopping place for travellers for nearly two thousand years. Henry the First founded a priory here in the twelfth century, and its great church still stands, though much reduced. Today the town is busy and practical, with plenty of service stations and supermarkets.
Read the complete Fuel stop near Dunstable write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Peak District Overnight Escape is where the day begins. Next is Peak District Overnight Escape checkpoint 8.
Most people know Edgware as the end of a Tube line, but riders know it for something older. The A5 that runs through it is Watling Street, the Roman road that ran from the Kent coast to the far side of Britain, and the long dead-straight run from here towards St Albans has the unmistakable stamp of legionary surveyors. The finish lies a little south, around Kingsbury and Queensbury, where north-west London becomes an endless spread of semis, shopping parades and busy junctions.
Read the complete Near Edgware write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Peak District Overnight Escape checkpoint 8. That is the ride. Next is Photo stop in Leysdown-on-Sea.
Leysdown-on-Sea, at the eastern end of the Isle of Sheppey, has the faded cheerfulness of a traditional English seaside resort: caravan parks, amusement arcades, chip shops and a long shingle beach looking out over the Thames estuary towards the open sea. It is not glamorous, but it has a certain charm, and the sense of being at the edge of things is strong.
Read the complete Photo stop in Leysdown-on-Sea write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
124 km in you reach Photo stop in Leysdown-on-Sea. Next is Scenic stretch near Maidstone.
Maidstone is the county town of Kent, built on the banks of the River Medway, which carried ragstone, timber and hops to London for centuries. The town has a busy modern centre, but its riverside has old buildings, including the medieval Archbishop's Palace, a stopping place for archbishops of Canterbury travelling between London and their cathedral. It is a practical place, with good roads, shops and services, and a gateway to some of the loveliest countryside in the south-east.
Read the complete Scenic stretch near Maidstone write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Scenic stretch near Maidstone, early in the day. Next is London motorcycle escapes return.
Peacehaven was a field of cabbages until the First World War. Then an entrepreneur named Charles Neville bought the clifftop, laid out a grid of roads and started selling plots, at first under the name New Anzac-on-Sea, after the Australian and New Zealand troops camped nearby. The name changed after Gallipoli, and the result is one of England's odder towns: a sprawling bungalow suburb perched on top of chalk cliffs between Brighton and Newhaven.
Read the complete Peacehaven write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
London motorcycle escapes return sits at 248 km, early in the day. Next is Food stop in Overton.
The paper for Bank of England banknotes was made near Overton for centuries. The Portal family founded a mill on the River Test in the early eighteenth century, and their watermarked paper became the currency of the empire; the business, later part of De La Rue, still operates here. It is a curious claim to fame for a quiet Hampshire village of brick and flint houses, but it says much about the clear, fast chalk streams of this part of England.
Read the complete Food stop in Overton write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Food stop in Overton is where this day stops to eat. Next is High point near Thame.
You top out here; the road stops climbing. Next is Back to Peak District.
Dunstable Downs is the high point of this corner of England, and gliders use the ridge's updrafts nearly every fine day. It is the highest ground in Bedfordshire, and from the top the plain stretches north towards the Midlands.
Read the complete Peak District write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Back to Peak District. That is the ride. Next is South Downs and Beachy Head Day.
Next is Scenic stretch near Collier Row.
Scenic stretch near Collier Row comes up 557 km in. Next is High point near Stone.
619 km in you reach High point near Stone. Next is Photo stop near Oxted.
Photo stop near Oxted, late in the day. Next is South Downs and Beachy Head Day checkpoint 8.
Croydon is where the South Downs ride comes home to London, and it is honest about it: a big, busy town of glass office towers, flyovers, trams and shopping centres, sitting at the southern edge of the capital where the chalk hills of the North Downs fade into suburbs. It has a population larger than many British cities and its own strong identity, and for a rider it is the last stretch before the metropolis takes over.
Read the complete Near Croydon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
South Downs and Beachy Head Day checkpoint 8 closes the day. Next is Food stop near Knaphill.
Food stop near Knaphill is where this day stops to eat.
Berkhamsted lies in a narrow chalk valley cut through the Chilterns, with the Grand Union Canal, the River Bulbourne, the railway and the old main road all squeezed into the bottom together, and beech woods rising on both sides. It is a prosperous market town of around twenty thousand people, with a long high street of old coaching inns and shops, and it makes a fine last stop before the run back into the outskirts of London.
Read the complete Near Berkhamsted, on the way back write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
867 km in you reach London motorcycle escapes return. Next is Back to South Downs.
Waltham Cross takes its name from one of the most moving things a medieval king ever built. When Queen Eleanor of Castile died in 1290, her husband Edward I had her body carried from Lincolnshire to London, and at each place the funeral procession stopped overnight he put up a stone cross. Only three of the twelve survive, and the one at Waltham Cross, with its carved figures of the queen and its pinnacles, is the most complete. It stands in the middle of the high street, among bus stops and cafés, and most people walk past it.
Read the complete South Downs write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back to South Downs closes the day.
Fuel stop near Dunstable → Near Edgware is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Photo stop in Leysdown-on-Sea → Scenic stretch near Maidstone is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Scenic stretch near Maidstone → Peacehaven is 78 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Food stop in Overton → High point near Thame is 86 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
High point near Thame → Back to Peak District is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Back to Peak District → Fuel stop in Waltham Cross is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuel stop in Waltham Cross → Scenic stretch near Collier Row is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Scenic stretch near Collier Row → High point near Stone is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
High point near Stone → Photo stop near Oxted is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Photo stop near Oxted → Near Croydon is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Food stop near Knaphill → Near Berkhamsted, on the way back is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.