Route advice needed please- Rotherham to Wolverhampton

[Blade]

On the 30th of October I'm building up my new bike at Planet X in Rotherham. I'm then planning on riding home to Wolverhampton. Leaving Rotherham at about 4.30 p.m. and hoping to be back home by 1.00 a.m.

I'm completely unfamiliar on the roads between Rotherham and Ashbourne, but can find my way home from there.

Bearing in mind that I'll be leaving the Rotherham / Sheffield area at evening rush hour time I'd prefer not too many dual carriageways. Later on in the evening when the roads are quieter, I'm fine on A and B roads but would prefer not to be doing a lot of dark, tiny lanes full of potholes.

I'll be following my route using a Garmin, with the route plotted on Ride with GPS and am expecting to be doing an 85 to 90 mile ride.

Any suggestions concerning route would be much appreciated.

[robgul]

No idea on route - but you'll enjoy building the machine at PlanetX - I went there on about the 3rd week after they started the DIY build. 

Assuming it's Spencer running the day you'll get loads of help if you need it (I manage an LBS so had a bit of a headstart over the other 6 on the day!)

Which bike are you having?   I have the Carbon Evo Pro, Ultegra disc with an upgrade to carbon seatpost - and it's RED !!

Rob

[Blade]

Rob, I'm building the Tempest Rival 1. I've never owned a carbon bike and have no intention of starting now 

This will be my second titanium bike, having owned and enjoyed my Airbourne Zepplin for the last ten years. However, I feel the need for a gravel bike and for less than £1500 can have a titanium bike with hydraulic disc  brakes.

As someone who's been doing their own mechanical bike work for the last 55 years, I'm sure that assembling a bike from matched new parts won't be a problem.

I was partially inspired by your write-up of your experience which you published on a different bike forum.

[Karla]

Rotherham to Shef at rush hour?  I'd get the train.

From Sheffield station the main routes out will be on Abbeydale Rd or Eccleshall Rd.  Neither and be too bad but Eccleshall (the A625) would probably be my pick.  There will be some static traffic in town but you can Dodge round that, which will be easy to do as you'll be going uphill.  Follow it all the way to Calver then you can either ride to Matlock on a slightly busier road or else cut across to Bakewell.  Assuming you take the Bakewell route, you can then continue to Moneyash and south if you want some fast roads again or else take the obvious route through Winster to Ashbourne.


From Rotherham you may be able to skirt round the south of Sheffield to get to Matlock but I don't know about that, you're getting out of my area.

[robgul]

Rob, I'm building the Tempest Rival 1. I've never owned a carbon bike and have no intention of starting now 

This will be my second titanium bike, having owned and enjoyed my Airbourne Zepplin for the last ten years. However, I feel the need for a gravel bike and for less than £1500 can have a titanium bike with hydraulic disc  brakes.

As someone who's been doing their own mechanical bike work for the last 55 years, I'm sure that assembling a bike from matched new parts won't be a problem.

I was partially inspired by your write-up of your experience which you published on a different bike forum.

    - the only bad thing about the day was the lunch - I don't do Thai (or any other Asian/Eastern) foof - "nothing east of Venice for me foodwise"!

What was stunning was when asked how long the PlanetX guys take to to build a bike from the pile of parts was to be told 35-40 minutes!!!  .... there's the challenge for you

Rob