The Number 11 Bus Route

According to Wikipedia The Number 11 Bus Route is "Europe's second longest urban bus route". Part of the route runs past Sarehole Mill which is less than 2 miles from my house. I'd been thinking about the practicalities of riding the route for some time and plotted out the 'A' (anticlockwise) route in Garmin Connect based on the info on the bus company's web site, assuming a start and finish at Sarehole Mill. I was reasonably comfortable that I knew about 60-70% of the route and that part was OK. The other 30% I was less sure about. This part started from Erdington Five Ways and ran through Aston, Witton and Winson Green (past the prison) before joining the Hagley Road where I knew the route again. There looked like a few busy roads so I decided that for this reason, and more generally for traffic that this route would be an early Sunday morning ride only. This Sunday I felt pretty tired and not really up for a long ride so decided to give it a go. The roads were quite wet so I decided to take the Giant (with mudguards) rather than the Scott.

After a short ride to Sarehole Mill off I started on the route. On the whole it was reasonably easy to follow - the Garmin seemed to behave itself on the whole. It got mildly confused somewhere between Erdington and Aston, but fortunately a number 11A bus appeared and I was able to follow it for 100yards or so.

At 9am in the morning the roads were pretty quiet all round. There were some gentle 'climbs' but I was able to keep in the big ring all the way. It took about 1hr 40 minutes for the 25 miles or so. There were a few traffic lights but on the whole it was a pretty even ride round. It would take a lot longer on a weekday or not as early and some of the roads and junctions would be fairly cyclist unfriendly with more traffic.

I had also plotted the 11C (clockwise) route as well and had thought of riding both in the same day but felt too tired to go back round for another 25 miles or so this time.

Here's the Strava Ride:


And to my shame I made a segment for it as well:


Needless to say its a KOM, although when I created the segment it did identify 2 similar segments - both of these were on quite a lot of the route but neither followed it fully or all the way round, so I don't feel too bad.

Would I do it again? Probably once more, and I'll do the 11C route as well to get the set. I am surprised no one else has ridden it to be honest, although it is not the most scenic route by a long way.