cycle glasgow-london

bigbadmond

long story short - 6 of us plan to do a sponsered cylce between the UK offices of the company we work for (Glasgow / Edinburgh / Belfsat / Manchester / London to name the main ones). None of us are experienced cyclists, so naturally a lot of training will be required - could be as much as 100 miles per day. I'm trying to find out about what kind of bike, equipment, costs etc we should be looking at. I know folk that mountain bike a lot and from them i have gathered that I'm looking for a lightweight bike with no suspension, ideally not drop bars given our lack of experience, comfort (dont wanna have mega sore ass after day 1) etc etc

Also, not looking to spend unnecessary amount on bike - just something that would be best value for money. Unfortunately I know nothing of bike makes etc other than some obvious ones which I assume are not particularly good.

Cleets have been mentioned - any opinions? - tight shorts etc to avoid chaffing?

All advice welcome
Cheers