Mega-Commute

meanredspider

Commute from one office to another 180 miles over the Cairngorms from Inverness to Livingstone this Tuesday. I'm "only" doing the second half though I'll be expected to head up the peloton for the two guys hoping to do the entire route (they must average 15mph for the entire day).

The weather is an interesting mix - currently forecast to be 8C heavy rain and 27mph winds (at sea level - we'll be at 2000ft twice on the route). If we're lucky it might be mostly a following wind (aye right). I think we're all pretty used to poor conditions but it will probably be challenging.

Mrs_Ragbrutty

Sounds like fun. Do you have to do any work in between?

velohutts

good luck to all 3 of you , sounds like some interesting scottish weather !

UndercoverElephant

Good luck, wind's looking like it should be in your favour at least - even if the rain is hardly ideal.

meanredspider

Thanks all. No need to do any work which is the upside - it's a work-related fundraising event so it kinda is work ;-)

I at least have pretty much the perfect bike for the route and the conditions. Will try to get the front guard fitted in the morning. I was hoping to prep the bike tonight but my SqueezyJet flight from Gatwick is two hours late - Grrrr

BelgianBeerGeek

Good luck with that MRS. Having read your other posts I have every faith you will do it, but fingers crossed!

Bordersroadie

Hope it goes well. Remembering your epic MTB challenge last winter, and with your lovely new electronic road machine, it'll be a piece of p*ss for you, I'd think! Enjoy the rare tailwind (if the forecast holds!).

Initialised

Good luck. I'd love to do something like that and get to call it work.

meanredspider

Completed it - one of the worst storms in 60 years and 180 miles. Conditions were incredible in places. Did manage to hit 57.2mph at the very beginning of my 87mile stint heading down from Glenshee ski centre. Great day

Bordersroadie

Superb, well done. Must've been a day to remember for a long time! :0)

davis

meanredspider wrote:

Completed it - one of the worst storms in 60 years and 180 miles. Conditions were incredible in places. Did manage to hit 57.2mph at the very beginning of my 87mile stint heading down from Glenshee ski centre. Great day

Sweet. Holy. Jebus.

/hat, by the way

jimmypippa

:shock:

I wondered what you'd consider a "mega" commute...

now I know

The Rookie

meanredspider wrote:

Did manage to hit 57.2mph

Chappeau.......

daxplusplus

Nice one - your timing re the storm was impeccable

.. and over 57mph is going some.

meanredspider

Yup - the weather was really grim though we did have the wind to the side or behind us much of the way. Huge amounts of tree damage everywhere.

Uploaded to Garmin Connect http://connect.garmin.com/activity/227105400 which reckons 57.6mph (Strava reckons 59mph) - I got some shimmy too which I'd have been more worried about if I'd realised exactly how fast I was going! Averaged 19.1mph moving speed (quite a bit of descent to be fair) and picked up 3 "Cups" on Strava in the Central Belt.

Quite tired today as it was a really long day yesterday and I didn't sleep well the night before due to the rain lashing against my window.

One final pi55er is that I'd had my GoPro running from the start but the stupid forking mount broke - spilling the camera on the road, upon which the case broke and opened sending bits of the camera itself in all directions. Collected up the bits (from the middle of the road) but didn't notice the memory card had popped out!!!! GoPro mounts are utter utter rubbish. Anyhow, a colleague filmed his descent which was a similar speed.

rjsterry

19mph for 4.5 hrs is none too shabby, even with descents.

bails87

Well done, certainly sounds like an adventure!

pangolin

Would love to see the film if he uploads it

meanredspider

Will link to it if he uploads. So fed up about my memory stick - I was following him which would probably have given a better sense of the slope and the speed...

pangolin

Tis a shame. Just shy of 50 is my best, but I have been more scared around the 40 mark. Depends a lot on how much you can see and how the surface is. Shimmy at that speed would terrify me!

Did you have to pedal to get that fast or was it just coasting?

meanredspider

pangolin wrote:

Did you have to pedal to get that fast or was it just coasting?

Much above 40-45mph my legs can't go round fast enough so no, this was just getting into a tuck and heading down the hill....

meanredspider

According to Strava, I averaged over 52mph for a mile :shock:

UndercoverElephant

meanredspider wrote:

According to Strava, I averaged over 52mph for a mile :shock:

I'm assuming you've made a segment which covers about a mile in that area? :twisted:

meanredspider

UndercoverElephant wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

According to Strava, I averaged over 52mph for a mile :shock:

I'm assuming you've made a segment which covers about a mile in that area? :twisted:

Correct! Currently KoV (King of the Valley ) though it's still adding people so I might get knocked off

pangolin

Did anyone upload any videos in the end?

meanredspider

pangolin wrote:

Did anyone upload any videos in the end?

He's still working on it - I'm keen to see it too