John o Groats to Lands end

rogerthecat
rogerthecat Posts: 669
edited July 2009 in Road beginners
Hi looking for some top tips / advice.

Planned route as above 22 AUG – 6 SEP 09 ave 80 Miles a day.

longest ride so far 55 miles ave 17mph

My thoughts are to use fatter tyres, ie a 30 or 35

Chamois cream and do some training rides of 100 Miles ish

Looking to travel at an ave of 12 - 15 mph

2 rest days factored in.

all advice considered.

Thanks

Comments

  • fto-si
    fto-si Posts: 402
    hi mark
    how are you doing the ride? supported, camping , b and b or what?
    it's a ride i have often considered doing aswell.
    exercise.png
  • rogerthecat
    rogerthecat Posts: 669
    Hi Simon,

    Group ride

    Support vehicle

    Accommodated at Camp sites
  • bobtbuilder
    bobtbuilder Posts: 1,537
    The ability to ride multiple days is the key (a bit obvious really :wink: ).

    I don't know how much you get to ride at the moment, but IMO the ability to do repeated days of 50 miles+ is more importnat that doing a single 100 mile ride.

    From my experience of multi-day riding holidays, it gets easier around day4, but days 2 and especially 3 will be tough unless you are used to doing consecutive rides.

    The other thing is nutrition - make sure you eat & drink enough. You will be asking a fair bit of your body, so be prepared to fuel it properly.

    Good luck and let us know how you got on - it's a ride I'd love to do!
  • John.T
    John.T Posts: 3,698
    What sort of bike. You may not get big tyres on a road bike. 25mm would be big enough anyway.
    Keep the meal stops short or your system shuts down and you struggle to get going again. 20 to 30 min max.
    My Fleet.
  • BeaconRuth
    BeaconRuth Posts: 2,086
    rogerthecat wrote:
    My thoughts are to use fatter tyres, ie a 30 or 35
    Are you trying to make it hard work?! If you're on a road bike and not carrying too much I'd use 23mm tyres. 25mm if you must. It will make a massive difference to the effort you have to put in.

    Ruth
    http://www.rutheyles.co.uk/
  • CiB
    CiB Posts: 6,098
    Brilliant plan - this is one of my ambitions, JoGLE. Good luck.

    Agree on the tyres - keep them down to 25 at most. The roads won't be mysteriously tougher up there and 700x23s @ around 100psi instead of 110 will be comfortable.

    Wear good mitts - get some if you haven't already, but don't get cheap ones with too much padding. It gathers in one place and you end up riding on a ridge instead of a smooth cushioned pad.

    Wear good padded shorts and use some kind of cream; Savlon, Assos whatever. See the thread about it, but it will help.

    Eat & drink properly and before you think you need to.

    Don't carry any more than absolutely necessary - eg only take the two Allen keys that fit your bike, not a pack of 10.

    B&B is fine, but reward yourself with a night in a nice hotel once on the journey. You'll have earnt it.

    Be prepared for extreme lulls in enthusiasm. Take some comedy on the MP3 player; R4, ,Ricky Gervais podcasts, anything that can lift the mood when you get bored of slugging along at 12mph into a headwind up a hill near Chester.

    Enjoy it. That's the main thing.
  • rogerthecat
    rogerthecat Posts: 669
    I would like to thank you all for your most valuable comments.
  • HonestAl
    HonestAl Posts: 406
    Love to do it but haven't. However my son did late last year and I'm sure his first piece of advice would be "do it the other way round!!!" :)
    "The only absolute statement is that everything is relative" - anon
  • Zendog1
    Zendog1 Posts: 816
    +1 on the do it the other way.

    If the weather stays stuck in the current pattern - wet with south west winds. 800+ miles of headwind could get a bit tedious.
  • Wappygixer
    Wappygixer Posts: 1,396
    +1 for lands end to John O Groats

    A friend of mine did it this way and said it was the easiest way to do it.

    The hills down south were a constant up and down and he reccond it was easier that way as he had fresh legs.The hills further north were bigger but longer and more gradual.

    Good luck with whatever way you do it
  • unCivilServant
    unCivilServant Posts: 600
    Just be aware that at 80mpd you're not going to have much time for random chats with strangers, sightseeing etc.--that'd be a downer for me (and why I allowed over 3 weeks when doing the trip) but of course YMMV.

    If you can do 50mpd+ @ 17mph av over multiple days you shouldn't have too much trouble going further while slower. There might be an issue if being based in Suffolk you haven't had much experience on hills--but one advantage of going the direction you're planning is not having the worst of the hills too soon.

    Oh yeah, and +1 to others' comments on tyre size. I have a tourer rather than a road bike, and even as a soloist carrying full camping gear use only 28mm. Unless you're seriously heavy (in which case, double kudos on your current times) you shouldn't need anything more in the UK.
  • idreamoftailwinds
    idreamoftailwinds Posts: 134
    Bump

Categories