Could and would you bike 400 miles?

webbhost

Hi,

last year I made a thread stating that I want to train up to cycle the width of britain (wales shore to great yarmouth over 4 days).

Now I kind of figure that althrough doing this alone is a great idea, the amount of money I could raise from sponsorships etc would probably not be significant to the effort and organisation that goes into it. Thus I think well wait a minute, why dont I set up a website, and try and get more people doing it?

If more people did this with me, Shops and companies would be more likely to take notice and give out larger sponsors etc, and it would be well worth the effort.

So anyway, I am posting this because i want to see how many people out there think they could and would do this for a good cause, and for some fun and exploring.

Let me know your opinions etc. This is no definate event yet, but every event has to start with research

TheGreatGatsby

400 miles in 4 days? pretty easy it should be. I'd do it if I had the time no doubt.

Gats

Crapaud

TheGreatGatsby wrote:

400 miles in 4 days? pretty easy it should be. I'd do it if I had the time no doubt.

Gats

Yoda, you are...



...and my £5 I claim!

400 miles in 4 days is definately doable. Why not make it interesting and do it audax style? I can't off of the top of my head remember the time limits for 400miles, but it would sound more impressive to potential sponsors.

Gavin Gilbert

Crapaud wrote:

400 miles in 4 days is definately doable. Why not make it interesting and do it audax style? I can't off of the top of my head remember the time limits for 400miles, but it would sound more impressive to potential sponsors.

About 42 hours or so at minimum Audax speed. Not to be sniffed at unless you're one of the hardcore AUKs, but a manageable challenge for an experienced tourists with good lights.

webbhost

audax style... that like non-stop or something?

Gavin Gilbert

webbhost wrote:

audax style... that like non-stop or something?

for what is pretty much a 600km event most riders would want a couple of hours kip in a bus shelter/church porch/hedge/service station.

I did one event where we booked into a Travelodge for the 'night'. Only managed 2 hours sleep, I was move rested than rough sleeping on that ride but we lost loads of time as a result.

You can also do a 24 hour time trial - those are pretty much non-stop and the top riders in those will cover 400+ miles

Crapaud

webbhost wrote:

audax style... that like non-stop or something?

Sort of. There's a maximum time to complete the ride, including cake stops / breaks / repairing punc***es etc., that Gavin Gilbert's calculated as 42 hours.

As it's a sponsored event, you could change the time limit to make it more of personal challenge, rather than to audax rules, and be sponsored per mile completed within the time, or per hour completed before packing (or give the sponsor the option).

I've noticed that any event where there is a challenge and the possibility of failure, it generates a lot of talk, thus generating free publicity. OTOH, when something's obviously achievable the sponsor might as well just hand ove the money as a donation and forget about it.

beckenham

Looks like there's a fair amount on interest. Seems like a great idea. Why not talk to a charity about it. They may help with the organisation. Seeing how crowded the L2B is becoming I am sure that there would be plenty of interest.

Now how can I get back from Wales in time for work on Monday morning :?

Alex_Simmons/RST

Get Richard Vollebregt to help out:

Perth to Sydney - 4,000 km (2,599 miles) in 8 days 11 hours 12 minutes.

http://www.nsw.cycling.org.au/Files/New ... ichard.htm

UncleFred

Doing this in January..nice opportunity to build some base miles!

http://www.lighthousecyclingtour.blogspot.com/

nwallace

No chance of me managing (120km is 8 hours for me) it but wouldn't the width of Great Britain require you to start at Ardnamurchan point and finish somewhere in South East England?

webbhost

not sure... I figured it was about 400 miles ages ago Straight across.

"Now how can I get back from Wales in time for work on Monday morning "

I did my research and decided that starting in wales would be better as after the mountains britain is on a slight tilt to the right which might make it just the slighest bit easlier lol.

(ok i wanna do it... I aint takin the hard route if I dont have to thruogh lmao)

BeaconRuth

This kind of thing reminds me of 3 tours I did with the CTC in the mid 90's. All were 'Side to Sides' so we started on the west coast and rode to the east coast, but it was just for the fun of touring rather than for any charity fundraising or anything. The three I did were

Portmadog - Aldeburgh
Ravenglass - Robin Hood's Bay
Anglesey - Great Yarmouth

The guy who organised those tours doesn't organise tours any more but I'd be surprised if the CTC didn't still have something similar on their list of holidays. Maybe that would be worth looking at rather than going to hassle of organising your own?

Ruth

webbhost

nice thought, but I'd like to organise my own if I can pull it off, be a nice challenge and someone would benefit from it too!