West Midlands Cycle Route

Tumbling brooks, lush greenery, open fields — right in the centre of Birmingham!
Friendly walking /​jogging /​cycling /​ambling /​pushing prams people.
This is a cycle path from the very heart of Birmingham’s old industrial centre out into the countryside.
You wouldn’t believe it exists, until you have a go and navigate through it, down the Rea Valley Cycle route and beyond.
Use the Sustrans Route 5 West Midlands Cycle Route Map (covers the bit from Derby to Oxford and part of the great mapped pathway north-​south (or visa versa if you cycle backwards)).
162 miles for this section, but the map breaks this down into handy bite sized chunks so you can pick a ride to suit the distance and difficulty you want.
Just completed the bit from Birmingham city centre (Selfridges by Moor Street Station) to Stratford upon Avon — on a Brompton just to add to the hell of it.
Absolutely fantastic. Making friends all along the route, funny thing, just smile and say hello and maybe ask where you are and guaranteed kindness and welcoming assistance (though it helps not be wearing a hoody and gold chains and keeping the rottweiler at home).
The route really does go through lush green pathways and spooky craggy woody bits following streams and canals almost from the off, after entering the wonderful Cannon Hill Park.
Going this way also starts off nice and easy, flat for a gentle introduction.
Gets a bit more hilly and urban once out toward Kings Norton, but still interesting and quiet back streets. The mapping gets quite complicated at a few points and you have to be vigilant with the little Route 5 signs and have a cute sense of direction — might even be useful to consider overlaying the urban bits with a street map before you leave maybe.
Past Longbridge and out into the ‘real’ countryside — rolling hills, beautiful quaint villages, river fords, town centres of Catshill, Bromsgrove and Redditch make a constantly changing backdrop of scenes as you bowl along — stop for a Costa Americano in Bromsgrove high street, why not — (can you beat a Costa Americano with hot milk — maybe a Nero’s — but they are different and equally as good in their own ways?).
Finally come across Mary Arden’s House looking resplendent in its rickety timber framed way and then onwards to the canal tow path to take you down and down past all the thousand and one locks right into Stratford itself — buzzing with international tourists, ducks and barges — what a place to end up and sit with a cool ice cream watching the world stroll by.
Loads of trains back to Moor Street if those little legs won’t go any further.
Highly recommended for adventurous cyclists who:
— don’t need to get any where in a hurry,
— want to see a wide range of scenes,
— have the patience and nouce to deal with some confusing signage
— want to avoid heavily congested roads,
— want to see an amazing side of Birmingham that’s a secret to all but those in the know — (of course now you know too).
Hope this is useful.