The National Cycle Network Regional Route 82 connects Hangleton with the seafront, taking cyclists safely through town, down The Drive and Grand Avenue on a segregated cycle lane to the sea. Where the route meets the sea and joins the seafront cycle path is where this ride begins.

1 - Turn left and head east, past Hove Lawns with the famous Regency squares to your left. Carry on into Brighton and past the West Pier, where the new i360 may or may not be built, depending on who you ask.

If you are doing this ride at the weekend, the crowds will start to thicken and not everybody is aware of the cycle path, so be courteous and remember that pedestrians have priority at many points along the route.

2 - Carry on until you reach the Palace Pier, advertised by its owners as Brighton Pier (since the other one was mysteriously destroyed by fire on a drizzly day in May 2003), and join the brand new Madeira Drive section of cycle path.

It cost a lot to build, and was a key element of the council’s investment in Cycling infrastructure under the Cycling Town project, so enjoy that smooth red tarmac. It will carry you along past the Volks Railway, the world’s oldest operating electric railway, but don’t miss the little parade of cafes on your left, where some of the South Coast’s flashiest motorbikes are parked up on display every Sunday as their riders sit in the sun and eat chips.

There are a couple of old trinket shops there as well advertising such quaint things as “film”.

3 - Madeira Drive drags on a bit, but eventually you will arrive at what many people called the jewel in Brighton’s crown, at least when they were trying to get planning permission for it.

Opened by the Queen in 1978, Brighton Marina, with its Village, exclusive retail outlets, and its genuinely charming air of a slightly surreal, cut-price version of Monaco, is a destination in itself.

But you must press on, riding along the (almost) palm-lined central avenue and up past the Neilson building to join a walkway that goes along the top edge of the far harbour wall and joins the Undercliff Path.

4 - To cycle or not to cycle on the Undercliff? As the law stands, if you are on your way to or from work, you may cycle on the path.

I felt that my ride was for work, researching this article, so I was in the clear, but what about the hundreds of other cyclists riding slowly and calmly along the smooth, sun-bleached concrete?

There seems to exist, at least on Sundays, a benign tolerance for day-trippers on bikes; as long as you don’t treat it like a race track, nobody will mind.

Check the tide times before you set out: if you reach the path at low tide you can go exploring in the thousands of rock pools that stretch all the way along the route.

You can find sea snails, mussels, crabs, shrimps and all sorts of other things that scuttle and dart around, plus tons of seaweed – for children it is possibly the most exciting thing in the entire world.

For adults there is a super-relaxed cafe about a mile along from the marina. They do a fine line in home-made cakes.

5 - When everyone has had enough, you just ride back along the same way you came.

* * Time: Ten miles, taking from an hour to all day.

* Difficulty: Easy.

* Your bike: Any kind of bike.

* Thirsty work: There are places for drinks all along the route.

* So you don’t get lost: Journey On website has downloadable maps of Route 82, and all of Brighton’s cycle routes.