Just finished the Second City Divide :: Manchester to Glasgow :: 600km. Here are a few pics and my thoughts on the route are in the comments

I just got back from riding the Second City Divide and thought I’d do a quick review and summary while its all still fresh in my head, just in case anyone else might find it useful and/or interesting.

**The Route**
There seem to be a few variations floating around out there but I started with one that was linked to from the official site. This site is unavailable at the moment (lapsed Squarespace account it seems) but it was basically [this route](https://ridewithgps.com/routes/36519570) that I took as my starting point.

I added a stretch to the front as I wanted to start from my sisters house in Altrincham and I ended up tweaking as I went along so if you want to see my exact route you’ll have to check [my strava account](https://www.strava.com/athletes/31226577). I rode it south to north over 10 days and recorded each day

I started out on my own and met up with a mate on day 5 for the rest of the trip.

**The Kit**
I rode a 2019 Surly Ogre, 27.5×3 wheels, Maxxis Chronicle tyres, Rohloff hub and I packed heavy. I camped 3 nights wild, 5 in campsites and 1 in a bothy so I carried full camping and cooking kit as well as way too much food which is something I can’t seem to get out of the habit of.

**The Ride**
Its pretty good and definitely worth doing – it takes you through some amazing landscapes from forest to bare hills and includes a really wide range of surfaces. You will ride on everything from smooth tarmac to rock filled gullies taking in gravel, grass and swamp up to your bottom bracket along the way.

There are plenty of places to resupply, plenty of campsites along the way and decent wild camp spots are pretty common.

On the negative side there were probably at least a dozen times that I had to lift my bike over stiles and locked gates and several sections that are quite obviously marked as footpaths and not really suitable for bikes.

I’d also say that while it is a cracking route it doesn’t have the feel of being put together with the aid of any real local knowledge or particularly in depth research. Many years ago I cycled from Manchester to Glasgow freestyling the route as I went and it was just as nice. I honestly think that anyone given a few hours and the RideWithGPS planner could put together an equally decent route between the same two end points.

In fact, you might even put together a better one because, being as varied as it is, you will likely come across sections that don’t match up with the kind of riding you like to do.

I prefer to ride off road whenever possible so for me the section of the A7 west of Kielder was an absolute nightmare – heavy traffic, constantly overtaken by cars and trucks, hellish. I would definitely edit that section if I was riding that way again.

At the other end of the scale, the climb up from Kirkland to the Yad Stone East of Penrith is, I would say, uncyclable. Some may prove me wrong but we pushed our bikes for the best part of two hours up gullied stream beds and through rotor deep peat bog. It was actually a lot of fun as we had beautiful weather that day and the views are amazing. The descent down the other side to our campsite in Haltwhistle was also one that I shall remember with a smile for a long time!

Of the trails that I’ve ridden this one probably has most in common with the Badger Divide and the Pennine Bridleway. Its much easier than the PBW but harder than the BD which is still my favourite trail to date.

**Self Promotion**
I filmed as I rode and have already uploaded videos of [Day 1](https://youtu.be/ofHHn6Wxkko) and [Day 2](https://youtu.be/k0KcQ5oFKEU) to my YouTube channel. The rest will follow over the coming weeks if anyone would like to have a watch.

There are also series from my rides of the aforementioned [Badger Divide](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeEZMO6am23Ems-jqVWlx5JHvlx0IIArS) and [Pennine Bridleway](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeEZMO6am23EFEKHlr1aaHcobogfdMN6s) if you find yourself enjoying my videos.

Sorry to self promote but I recently quit my job to (hopefully) make some life improvements and growing my channel is a small part of that plan/dream.

I’ll leave it there but happy to chat details if anyone has questions. AMA 😉