Any advice for the Coast to Coast?

back-on-two-wheels

(Updated to be a little more specific)

Hi all,

Hopefully this is the right forum. I'm hoping to do the C2C this year but not sure if my Trek 1.5 will be ok for the off-road stages. The wheels are standard Bontrager SSR with select 700x25c tyres. I'm sure the frame will be fine but could I get away without changing the wheel setup?

Only ask because a lot of the web sites have info on the various sections but most of the piccys I've seen are with mtbs and tourers.

vernonlevy

The off road stages are not compulsory.

There are on-road alternative routes.

back-on-two-wheels

Thanks for the reply. As my friends also doing the trip have mtbs I was trying to find out if I could run the same route but it may be better if I stick to road stages. I'm sure we can accommodate two route sections if necessary.

ellieb

I did it on a Trek 1200 with 25c tyres. It is perfectly possible but not ideal. There are a couple of longish sections off road. They are not technical by any means but I'd still rather have been on something with wider & chunkier tyres - if only for the puncture resistance. The Waskerly Way is basically a gravel track & is not great for road tyres.

jjojjas

ellieb wrote:

I did it on a Trek 1200 with 25c tyres. It is perfectly possible but not ideal. There are a couple of longish sections off road. They are not technical by any means but I'd still rather have been on something with wider & chunkier tyres - if only for the puncture resistance. The Waskerly Way is basically a gravel track & is not great for road tyres.

What he said^^^
You'll manage, but you probably wouldn't chose those wheels/tyres TBH.
I have a 1.5 and I'm not sure you could fit much wider tyres on it? (I may be wrong, I'm sitting in an office here and the bikes at home)
Jas

amaferanga

The waskerley way is fine on a road bike with 23/25mm tyres. I've done it a couple of times. Its actually pretty smooth. Since most of the C2C is on road it'd be a bit daft to choose a mountain bike wouldn't it?

Hmmmmm I do wonder why most of the people I've seen doing the C2C are bouncing up the hills on suspension mtbs with big fat knobbly tyres at 20 psi.....

migmiller

Did it three years ago on mountain bikes over three days and in truth it didn't need one by and large.

In using on road alternatives it would be fine

After doing C2C on a mountain bike I bought a road bike and would not think now about doing such a distance on the surfaces on offer on a mountain bike

I am now going to do a charity attempt to do it in one day at the end of June with a couple of other guys. this will be on road bikes

At about 13000ft of climbing your mates are going to grow to hate you as you ease your way up hills while they are trying to move hunks of metal.

Enjoy it anyway

andymiller

Why don't you look here:

http://www.c2c-guide.co.uk/offroad.htm

Pictures of the conditions on the various off-road sections so you can see for yourself what you'd be dealing with. The Waskerley Way looks fine but some of the other off-road bits are rougher and personally I'd avoid some of them on 25C tyres unless the road alternative meant a long detour.

There is a proper off-road C2C (The 'Woodcock' C2C) I can't see the point in doing the road C2C on an MTB.

JamPri

Has anyone had experience of doing the C2C on road in a day?

Any ideas of which starting point, Whitehaven or Workington, gives the best chance of success?

ellieb

amaferanga wrote:

The waskerley way is fine on a road bike with 23/25mm tyres. I've done it a couple of times. Its actually pretty smooth. Since most of the C2C is on road it'd be a bit daft to choose a mountain bike wouldn't it?

Hmmmmm I do wonder why most of the people I've seen doing the C2C are bouncing up the hills on suspension mtbs with big fat knobbly tyres at 20 psi.....

Well it is down to personal choice. I've done the C2C twice, The first time on the Trek with 25s the second on a cyclocross bike with 32c tyres. I know which one I enjoyed more. The latter was ideal IMHO. I just think that there is too much rough stuff for a road bike with skinnies, but it is possible, just not terribly desirable.

El Gordo

ellieb wrote:

The latter was ideal IMHO. I just think that there is too much rough stuff for a road bike with skinnies, but it is possible, just not terribly desirable.

I think that's about right. I did it on a road bike a few years ago and although I didn't have to put a foot down I was cursing the surface a few times. A cyclocross is the ideal but I've run out of space in my shed.

As for doing it in a day - I'm planning the same thing for later this year. It's quite doable (if you're happy doing 140+ miles). There's only a few largish climbs but nothing too bad. It's just the logistics that are proving tricky to plan.

jibi

JamPri wrote:

Has anyone had experience of doing the C2C on road in a day?

Any ideas of which starting point, Whitehaven or Workington, gives the best chance of success?

I have done it twice in a day, once in 12 hours 10 mins ( the tide was out) and again in 11 hours 54 mins

I started in Whitehaven and ended at the sea near Sunderland.

Wazzackerly nearly killed me both times

have fun... carry sweets for sugar at the end ... or gels or something

george

jibi

ps
that is different days..... not twice in the same day.....

just for clarification

george

amaferanga

JamPri wrote:

Has anyone had experience of doing the C2C on road in a day?

Any ideas of which starting point, Whitehaven or Workington, gives the best chance of success?

I've done it a couple of times in a 'day' as well, both times from Whitehaven . One of those times was an early morning start on Saturday, the other time a Friday night start. My advice if you're expecting to be cycling at night would be to avoid the paths and tracks as much as possible.

Its not actually as difficult as you might think as once you get past Crawleyside its pretty much downhill/flat (if you use the paths anyway) to the coast.

Not sure why either Workington or Whitehaven would give a greater chance of success though - you can either cycle the distance.... or you can't.

amaferanga

ellieb wrote:

amaferanga wrote:

The waskerley way is fine on a road bike with 23/25mm tyres. I've done it a couple of times. Its actually pretty smooth. Since most of the C2C is on road it'd be a bit daft to choose a mountain bike wouldn't it?

Hmmmmm I do wonder why most of the people I've seen doing the C2C are bouncing up the hills on suspension mtbs with big fat knobbly tyres at 20 psi.....

Well it is down to personal choice. I've done the C2C twice, The first time on the Trek with 25s the second on a cyclocross bike with 32c tyres. I know which one I enjoyed more. The latter was ideal IMHO. I just think that there is too much rough stuff for a road bike with skinnies, but it is possible, just not terribly desirable.

I'd agree that a cyclocross bike would be a good choice. But why so many on full sus mtbs?

Cunobelin

I did it some 12 years ago on a small wheeled Moulton with 25mm slick tyres - a couple of snags on Rookhope Common, but otherwise fine and it has all improved since then.

josiejojojo73

Am doing C2C on Tricross Cyclocross in August. Friends are riding MTB and while I'm more keen to stick to the road I want to know if all the off road sections are doable or if there are some off road sections that would be best avoided.

Thanks

ian_s

My wife and I did C2C last week on our rigid mtb's. I had put road mtb tyres on hers. I think either that kind of setup or a cycloscross would be optimum. My roadbike is certainly not going on the Waskerly Way, although some would. A full sus (or even hardtail) mtb is not necessary - at least for the route we took.

There was a group who did the Rookhope - Waskerly off road section on various machines - mainly tougher roadbikes/hybrids and they seemed to get on fine.