How many A roads have you cycled on?

[Kim]

A couple of times through the Queensway tunnel,  where the A38 passes through Central Brum.

Without oxygen?

Didn't need it. This was back in the day when I was still quite fast. [ish - ED] The effect of the suction and tail wind created by the traffic in each single direction tunnel meant I would whip through in no time at all.
Stopped doing it after driving through and unexpectedly coming up behind a moped on that corner half way through.

Ah, yes.  I've come round that corner and found gridlock a couple of times, which is alarming enough when you're keeping to the speed limit, which most drivers won't be.

I'm still disappointed that the council didn't have the guts to close them for one of the various SkyRides.  [You might have been able to retrieve your cap - Ed]

[Mr Larrington]

The A10 and A11 in East Londonton have been part of my commute at various times as was the A5 Edgware Road to out beyond Staples Corner and the A4 between Hammersmith and South Ken.  Done almost the full length of the A3 save the bit between Ripley and Guildford, bits of the A1 in Notts and the A2 while Audaxing, bits of the A12…

[Wowbagger]

I think I have cycled on all of the A1 to A5 in London, the A6 at various points, but certainly in Derbyshire and Cumbria, the A7 to escape Carlisle on Lejog, and the A9 up the east coast. A10, 11, 12 & 13 quite often in odd spots (the A13 is London Road, Westcliff, so it is no challenge at all this end). Not the A14, I think, but I have the A15, briefly. It’s nasty. A17 certainly, and for quite a while. Oh, and the A18 in N. Lincs. between Barnetby and Brigg. A19, don’t think so, but A20 certainly as it goes in and around Maidstone.

[rogerzilla]

A4, A6, A10, A12, A30, A34, A38, A40, A44, A45, A46.  Maybe others in very short sections.

[rr]

RR slaps head, I used to live on the A6

Sent from my motorola edge 20 using Tapatalk

[Rod Marton]

As far as I can work out, the lowest numbered road I haven't ridden on is the A21. Been a mixture of time trialling, touring, audaxing and general cycling.

Mind you, at various times I have lived in Maldon, Newbury, Petersfield, Stamford, Falkirk, St Albans, Bristol, Stockport and Stroud, so this gives me a fairly wide coverage of the country.

[MikeFromLFE]

Going back to the 1970s I cycled regularly on the A10 between Tottenham & Cambridge, and the A5 up to Dunstable. I also occasionally used sections of most of the other major routes out of North London.

The only time I bottled it was attempting to cycle up the A3 from a late night ferry arriving in Southampton in 1973 trying to go up the A3 with a set of dynohub lights. I slept on a bench outside a pub in King's Worthy and got the first train from Micheldever to London.

Statistics say roads were more dangerous than now, but these are not routes I'd contemplate for a moment nowadays. The folly of youth.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

Have now worked through the A100 - A199 and A200 - A299 sequences

Have only ridden 30 / 95 roads between A100 and A199, and have ridden the full length of the A100 and A161

Have ridden 40 / 94 roads between A200 and A299 as this is heading to my Hampshire and Sussex heartlands.  This includes the full length of the A248, A272 (86 miles - although not in one go, that will probably be the longest), A284, A285, and A287

So that makes 136 so far.

[Wowbagger]

From the A21-A30, definitely cycled the A23 in Brighton, I think the A24 in Dorking, the A25 near Dorking, the A26 in Maidstone. Can't remember cycling the A27 to 29. I've cycled on the A30 in Salisbury and between Penzance and Land's End.

[Sergeant Pluck]

I have ridden many, many miles on the A1, when I was a teenage club cyclist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A1_road_(Northern_Ireland)

In fact I first “rode" on the A1 when it was freshly tarmaced and not yet open to the public, not far from our house. My dad took me there on my Kettcar.

It was a dangerous road, being crossed by many minor and B-roads, which have (very) gradually either closed, bypassed, or converted to bridges / roundabouts over the years.

It’s not a road I would confidently ride on today.

[Ian H]

From the A21-A30, definitely cycled the A23 in Brighton, I think the A24 in Dorking, the A25 near Dorking, the A26 in Maidstone. Can't remember cycling the A27 to 29. I've cycled on the A30 in Salisbury and between Penzance and Land's End.

In fact my 600 uses the A30 from outside Salisbury towards the finish, with minor diversions to avoid the nastiness that is Yeovil.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Forgot about the A25 and A48.

[Jaded]

A1 from Edinburgh to Newcastle.

Quite a few others.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

Have now reached the A399 in my analysis and have cycled on 208 of the 385 A roads so far, including 72/ 97 A3xx roads - reflecting a Hampshire base and regular forays into Wessex and sub-Bristolian territory.  A surprising number of them have been encountered on Audax events, including quite a lot on the Brimstone, perhaps because these events take me into places I wouldn't otherwise ride and need to use bits of A roads to join up the interesting sections.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

Now to the A499 - total of 266 out of 479 possible A roads.  I suspect the ratios will fall off as I enter the higher numbers as I've done less rides and events in the north.  Scored highly on the Welsh A roads (all in the 4xx series) due the Bryan Chapman and several Cambrian permanents.

[IanDG]

I have no idea but I did win a national (schoolboy) championship on the A1 - think it was referred to as the O10/2 in TT circles tho'

[quixoticgeek]

A roads? Who cares about A roads when you can have motorways

M1 out of Dublin: massive roadworks in 1998 and when I asked about the "old airport road" I got directions that got me in 30 seconds on the motorway in rush hour. Thrilling! Overtaken by a police car twice, neither could be bothered.

M48 across the Severn bridge. Closed to traffic because of maintenance, I could not resist and ride on the main road instead of the cycling path. Got some funny looks fro road workers.

I once got a police escort from the M20...

J

[hellymedic]

If you are cycling on the A404, I think you are probably lost...

If you're surfing on A404, you're frustrated.

If you're cycling on the A404, HK will Tweet a picture sometime...

[Cudzoziemiec]

Forgot about the A25 and A48.

And the A37 and A39!

[drossall]

Depends which bit of the A39, surely? I did North Herts to Minehead over a couple of days with a friend, around 20 years ago. We picked up the A39 just northeast of Bridgwater, from the B3141, and followed it the rest of the way. The traffic to Butlins (which is where we were going) meant it's not my favourite road, but it was OK, and there are some nice descents into Kilve and Williton. I'm not aware it's changed that much?

So I claim the A39

[Cudzoziemiec]

Further north in my case, nearer Bath. Between Newton St Loe and Farmborough or High Littleton. Also into Wells from the north and from there to Glastonbury.

But any bit of it's got to count. As the OP says:

Many of them were for very short sections (as little as a hundred meters or so) ,

That the A46, for instance, is both this and this, is one of the fun points of the thread.

[teethgrinder]

I don't know, but quite a lot of them. All of the single digits (except maybe the A8) But if we're only going to two digits, can I claim some roads twice like the A14 which used to go from Royston, Herts to Huntingdon but now links the A1(M) with the M1 mostly through Northants and Cambs and the A50 which used to go from Hocklife in Bedfordshire and along what is now a local to me B road to Northampton before I was riding that road, then became the A50 from Northampton to Leicester until the new A50 was built up Utoxeter way. I'm not sure if I have ridden any of the new A50 but I have ridden the old one from Northampton to Leicester and I've ridden on both versions of the A14.

[drossall]

The A50 continues north of course through the Holmes Chapel area in Cheshire, which is where I did some of my first club riding. I'll have raced on the bit between there and Knutsford, because the Manchester 12-hour used a short section in its finishing circuit. I can also claim, I think, to have ridden on a very short section of the A50 dual carriageway before it was the A50 (but while it was still a dual carriageway). The section north from M1 J24 used to be the A6, and even around 1982 was dualled for a few hundred yards before running into what is now the B5010 through Shardlow. I think that bit north of the motorway, which is basically unchanged since 40 years ago, is now an A6/A50 multiplex. So I rode on the A50 before it was built

That was as part of a few rides in the early 80s, coming from North Herts when I first moved there, picking up the A6 at Bedford, and following it to Derby, before heading for Ashbourne and Leek to return home to Cheshire.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

I'm using the current routes rather than the historical versions.  I did add the A305, A310, and A311 to my list on Tuesday by commuting through Richmond Park and Twickenham rather than Richmond Park and Kingston, and also the entire length of the A3008, which is Hampton High Street and about 400m long.  The exercise is showing me that there are an awful lot of short A roads that don't really go anywhere.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Surely what counts is its designation at the time you rode it?