We have a done a complete review of the most useful UK cycling blogs and websites that we could find in 2022. We’ve weeded out blogs and sites that haven’t been updated for months (or even years), low quality ‘click magnets’ for Amazon or sponsored links and ones that are just plain rubbish. We've included many of the big organisations but also a few independent bloggers who might be harder to find but often have something a bit more interesting to say.
Blogs and websites will help you to find exactly what you are looking for. Here are 10 of, what we think are, the best. They include:
- Best serious UK cycling organisation - cycling UK
- Best National Cycling body with an emphasis on cycle sport - British Cycling
- Best website for finding National Cycle Routes - Sustrans
- Best website to find a local bike shop - Sustrans
- Best website about cycling with chidren - Cyclesprog
- Best blog about cycling and more in Scotland - Cyclingscot
- Best blog about women in sport (esp. cycling) - Bikes-n-stuff - Juliette Elliott
- The best UK website for new road bike routes - cycle.travel
- Best UK blog for Cycle Sport - Inner Ring
- Best website if you are planning a local or worldwide cycle tour - tomsbiketrip.com
- Best Travel Guide for road cyclists - epicroadrides.com
- Best UK video channel for mountain bikers - GMBN
- Best UK video channel for road bikers - Francis Cade
Best serious UK cycling organisation - cycling UK
Cycling UK is one of the oldest cycling organisations in the UK. It was founded in 1878 and it’s patron is Her Majesty The Queen. Their blog is mainly about big issues like changes to the law, access agreements for mountain bikers and cycling advocacy but there are the odd less heavyweight blogs and articles too. They are a serious organisation and there is lots of really useful information on their website, as well as the blog.
They say that : "Cycling UK’s view is of a world in which more people cycle. They want individuals of all ages, backgrounds and skills to be able to cycle safely in good health and in a happier and cleaner world. Cycling UK has promoted the cause for more than 140 years. They champion all forms of cycling, defend the interests of existing and would-be cyclists, and encourage people of all ages, backgrounds and skills to learn the joys of cycling. As an self-governing, democratic and professional organisation, their activities reflect the dedication of members, volunteers and partners to make cycling normal, making a lasting difference to the lives of folks and communities".
See the blog here : https://www.cyclinguk.org/blogs
Best National Cycling Body with an emphasis on cycle sport - British Cycling
British Cycling was formed in 1959 through the amalgamation of the National Cyclists Union and the British League of Racing Cyclists. Since the early 1990s, they have been based at the National Cycling Centre, the site of an old power station in East Manchester.
The website is full of useful information including events like races, leisure rides, challenge rides, sportives and events for young people. There is also a useful section about commuting, family rides, tips and insurance. there are also ways to get involved, be a volunteer or join a club.
They say that : "British Cycling are the nation's national governing body for cyclesport and the main cycling organisation in the UK. Their mission is to deliver international sporting triumph, effectively preside over cyclesport and encourage and support people to cycle regularly. They operate in England across ten areas by regional staff working with members, clubs, event organisers, partners and a regional board of volunteers. In Scotland and Wales they work together with the respective governing bodies, Scottish Cycling and Welsh Cycling".
Find the website here : https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/
Best website for finding National Cycle Routes - Sustrans
Sustrans are a national charity that are best known for their National Cycle or Sustrans routes. Their website is fantastic for finding largely traffic free routes in the UK and links with Ordnance Survey to provide interactive mapping. The site also includes a map of local bikes shops (mentioned elsewhere here) as well as a News section full of interesting articles.
They say that : "Sustrans take care of the National Cycle Network, a UK-wide network of traffic-free routes for everyone which connect cities, towns and countryside. They aim to bring individuals together in environments with fresh air and green spaces. Their work wouldn’t be achievable without their 650 staff, 3,000 volunteers and 30,000 followers.
They make it easy for you to find National Cycle Network routes by district, distance and whether they’re traffic-free or not. Find the ideal place to walk, cycle and enjoy the environment. If you’d like to see routes across the UK on an interactive Map of the National Cycle Network take a look at their website. They’ve teamed up with Ordnance Survey to help you organise your trip and plot a course around the UK".
Find their website here : https://www.sustrans.org.uk/
Find their OS route finder here : https://www.sustrans.org.uk/national-cycle-network/
Best website to find a local bike shop - Sustrans
We’ve mentioned Sustrans above, but had to mention them again here. This part of their website allows you to find a bike shop near where you live or anywhere you happen to find yourself. It gives all the shop details and opening times too. Brilliant!
They say : "To Find bike shops near you - they have a brand new map showing all of the bike shops open in your area. It also shows any offers on bike services and gear available to keyworkers during the pandemic".
Find their website here : https://www.sustrans.org.uk/
Find their bike shop link here : https://www.sustrans.org.uk/campaigns/bike-shops-near-me/
Best website about cycling with children - Cyclesprog
The cyclesprog website is full of information about kids bikes, clothing, seats and family friendly routes
They say that : "It’s a website and blog all about riding your bike(s) with children, created by husband and wife team Chris Jones and Karen Gee in 2012. As parents of two youngsters, they had been through 5 years of transporting one, and then two, children by bicycle – firstly for fun at weekends, and later to get them to school each morning, and doing away with the need to find a car parking space within 2 miles of the school.
Cycle Sprog provide a guide for parents containing everything they need to get cycling with your kids. The website launched in 2012 as a small blog about cycling with really young children, and over the intervening years they’ve grown to be the UK’s leading resource on cycling with kids, of all ages and abilities. At the same time Karen and Chris’s boys have grown-up and the sort of cycling they’re able to do has turn into something more adventurous too!"
See the website here : https://www.cyclesprog.co.uk
Best blog about cycling and more in Scotland - Cyclingscot
This website is primarily a travel guide to Scotland and is not just for cyclists, but for anybody interested in Scotland. It's written by Colin Baird who doesn’t just write about cycle routes, but also about Scottish food and drink, hotels, walks, castles, stately homes, railways and much more.
He says : "My name is Colin Baird and I love travelling in Scotland, my home country, on a bicycle. My dream is to see all of Scotland on a bike. Many people cycle around the world or across a continent and blog about one-off adventures. My approach is different as I want to explore one country comprehensively and this is not a one-off trip- I keep on exploring. I hope to motivate you to visit the places that I write about and also give you practical information for cyclists about how to get there and what to do once there".
See the blog here : https://www.cyclingscot.co.uk/blog
Best about women in sport (especially cycling) - Bikes-n-stuff - Juliette Elliott
This ‘Cycling blog of the year’ is written by Juliette Elliott who is a passionate road, track, gravel, and mountain bike racer. She’s also an ex Pro snowboarder, model, band member and action sports journalist. There is oodles of stuff on her blog about bike routes, adventures, gear, her life and much more.
She says: "Named one of Bike Biz’s ‘Most Influential Women In Cycling’ and a ‘Woman To Watch’ by YouTube, I’ve over 100,000 subscribers on YouTube. I’m a cyclist supported by PEdALED, Smith, Zipp, and SRAM and a former professional snowboarder and model. I’m a recognized and candid campaigner for women in sport and I love what I do. Zealous about communicating the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, my blog Bikes N’ Stuff has been awarded ‘Cycling Blog Of The Year’ and listed as one of the top ten bike blogs by Cision, Veulio and more. A successful YouTuber viewers enjoy a mix of road cycling, gravel riding, bikepacking, mountain biking, races, travel, tips and training videos".
See the blog here : https://bikes-n-stuff.com/
See Juliette's you tube channel here : http://www.youtube.com/julietelliottschannel
The best UK website for plotting new road bike routes - cycle.travel
A brilliant website that has a lot of Travelogues in the UK and Route Guides for England (by area), Scotland and Wales as well as in France, Switzerland and even New Zealand. If that’s not enough, there is even an on-line route finder and mapping section where you can specify a start point (and a finish point if you want) and it will find you a pub or cafe ride, a circular route and even hotel or camping options for longer routes.
They say that : “not everyone wants to be Bradley Wiggins. There’s a lot of cycle.sport and cycle.performance on the internet. We aim to be somewhat different. For us, it’s not about the bicycle; it’s about the ride, and making superior, more liveable cities and countryside with the bicycle as our chosen weapon. We’re here to get more people cycling, more often. We aim to do that by providing:
- city guides, to help more people use bikes for their everyday journey;
- route guides, because there’s no better way to see the countryside than by bike;
- powerful tools such as our maps, routeplanner and PDF downloads, to make cycling easier and more enjoyable;
- and community tools, such as forums, travelogues and shared journeys”.
See the website here : https://cycle.travel/
The best UK blog for Cycle Sport - Inner Ring
This blog features on every ‘best of’ cycling list you can find. It’s bang up to date with the latest news about most major cycling races and events. The blog has specific sections including a Pro Race Calendar, famous Roads to Ride in Europe, a huge List of Book Reviews, an incredible list of Who Makes What and even a Lexicon in case you don’t know the difference between a peloton and a pelican. No one seems to know who writes the blog. It’s a bit of a cycling Banksy.
Whoever 'they' are, they say: "The Inner Ring is a blog about cycling and cycle sport, especially pro cycling. News, comment, opinion and chat feature here. The aim is to give a different take on the sport and sometimes have a look at things that might get overlooked by the mainstream cycle sport media. It’s only a blog, half the point is to ramble through things, to think aloud, to dip in and out of subjects. There’s no overriding aim.
- riding a bike is a pleasure and whether it’s to the shops or in a peloton, the bike is fun.
- pro cycling is relentlessly commercial. Early races were created to sell newspapers and to this day the sport sees teams named after brands, companies and even countries. It’s both sport and business, I prefer the sport but find the business side interesting.
- in over 100 years we’ve seen some wonderful tales of heroism and effort that surpass sport and ensure you forget the money.
One of the best things is putting out ideas and views and then seeing readers respond via comments, email and twitter".
See the blog here : https://inrng.com/
Best website if you are planning a local or worldwide cycle tour - tomsbiketrip.com
This is a really useful website if you are thinking about doing a big cycling tour on-road or off. It includes information about planning a cycle tour or bikepacking trip, the best bikes and equipment, training, where to stay, camping, navigation and much, much more. Tom even offers an ebook called How to hit the road - a beginners guide to cycle touring and backpacking. He should know what he’s talking about after cycling over 20,000km in over 50 countries since 2006.
Tom says: “Hi! I’m Tom from England. A love of adventure and exploration is what turns my pedals, and a love of writing is what drives this blog. Here’s where I share stories, advice, ideas, news, and lessons learned on the subject of modern-day bicycle travel in all its various flavours. So if you’re just dipping a toe into the world of cycle touring and bikepacking, or you’re planning a big trip and are looking for a friendly voice of experience, you’re probably in the right place”.
See the blog here : https://tomsbiketrip.com/
Best Travel Guide for road cyclists - epicroadrides.com
This is a slick and beautiful looking website that shares some of the best road cycling routes and destinations. You will find in-depth, independent write-ups on 50+ destinations around the world, everywhere from the French Alps and Mallorca to Girona, Gran Canaria and even the Seychelles. It's not run by a travel or tour company but it looks like it is and its a great starting point for planning a road cycling trip.
It covers topics like where to ride, where’s the best place to stay, should you take a bike or hire one and even whether you should go on holiday with non-cyclists.
Clare who runs epicroadrides.com says:
" An epic ride for one person is not necessarily an epic ride for someone else.For example, whereas I love cycling challenges that double as luxurious breaks in stunning surroundings, my husband is much tougher. As a British national time trial medallist who has dabbled in road racing and also raced mountain bikes, he’d prefer 100 miles before breakfast! Epic Road Rides covers this spectrum and ability: you’ll find everything from 20 mile coffee runs to century rides with thousands of metres of climbing.We also know what it’s like as a cyclist with kids. It’s all still possible, it just requires more planning. We share what we’ve learnt, to make it easy for anyone planning a trip to get out there and ride!"
See the website here : https://www.epicroadrides.com/
Best UK video channel for mountain bikers - GMBN
There are hundreds, if not thousands of video channels aimed at cyclists on YouTube and Vimeo. Some are great. many are rubbish. We’ve chosen one that we think will appeal to mountain bikers in the UK (it must do, they have 1.83 million subscribers). GMBN - The Global Mountain Bike Network brings you daily MTB videos including expert bike tutorials, techniques, training, behind the scenes event coverage, ‘Tech’ about bikes and maintenance as well as ‘How to’ guides, bike and gear reviews and lots of entertaining videos. They also produce a weekly Dirt Shed Show! Binge watch the MTB news, Hacks and Bodges and of course Fails and Bails! The regular presenters are Andrew Dodd, Martyn Ashton, Neil Donoghue and Blake Samson.
Find their YouTube channel here : https://www.gmbn.com/
See an example of their Dirt Shed Show here : https://www.gmbn.com/video/why-does-mountain-biking-make-you-happy-dirt-shed-show-355
See an example of their ‘how to’ skills guides here : https://www.gmbn.com/video/how-to-ride-steep-mountain-bike-trails-mtb-skills
See an example of their MTB Maintenance videos here : https://www.gmbn.com/video/5-common-mtb-drivetrain-cleaning-lubing-mistakes-how-to-avoid-them
See an example of GMBN Tech here : https://www.gmbn.com/video/how-to-install-set-up-mountain-bike-disc-brakes
If you can’t find exactly what you need, or if you don’t like this channel, just head over to YouTube and do a very specific search. You're bound to find what you need.
Best UK video channel for road bikers - Francis Cade
There are some big players in the field including GCN, Cycling Weekly, Bike radar and many more. However, we have chosen a channel produced by Francis Cade, mainly because its a bit different. Francis posts a regular feature on Tuesdays and covers topics as diverse as Big Rides, Cycling tips and video logs plenty of epic trips in Australia, Vietnam, Thailand, India, USA and more.
See his main site here : https://www.youtube.com/c/FrancisCade/featured
An example of a Big Ride (Everest) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EsyyvfzU7U&list=PLMZ241fyVfisovOjfyhdqGMPqxdp4c7oB&ab_channel=FrancisCade
An example of a cycling tip here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy-UOlnQKrE&list=PLMZ241fyVfiun6XeTVi3CB0KQvR2Gj4Tu&ab_channel=FrancisCade
That's the list so far. Hope you found something new and useful. Keep checking back here - we are constantly adding new websites and new blogs that are new, good and helpful.
If cycling is your thing, and you are interested in ways to store bikes in your garage or home, take a look at our bike storage wall hooks, hangers and mounts by clicking this link.
Other useful sites
We are currently adding to this list so please keep checking back for more details.
Bike security and insurance
Keeping you bike safe from theft, and insuring against the worst happening, is really important.
MyUrbanJungle.com have produced a really useful guide about insuring bikes. They explain all about the different types of insurance, including Home Insurance and Specialised Bike Insurance, and quote prices from most of the big providers. You can find the link to their Bicycle Insurance Comparison Guide UK here.
Cycling with Children
We stumbled across a handy site recently with articles about kids bikes, balance bikes, bike seats, helmets and much more. If you need a bit more info along those lines take a look at theridingkid.com here.
