1500 miles in 15 days?

hill_struggler
hill_struggler Posts: 32
edited September 2013 in Tour & expedition
I am planning a 1500 mile charity ride next May. I plan to cycle the route of my step-fathers life from Austria to Germany to Holland down through the UK ending up in the Dordogne, France.

I have a few questions so any help and advice would be very much appreciated:

What type of bike should I get, road or touring? - I ride a mountain bike so a complete newbie when it comes to the road!

How much should I spend on a bike?

What kit will I need? I'm planning to camp along the way as much as possible.

I've been reading quite a few blogs on distance cycling but still can't find a list of must haves.

How much training between now and then am I going to have to do? I would say I'm comfortably fitter than average but cycling 100 miles a day is something completely different for me!

Thanks!

Comments

  • simonhead
    simonhead Posts: 1,399
    Theres a guy on here called Tom Bruce, have a read of his book, it will give you a good starting point. 100 miles in a day is a good distance and achievable but its the doing it on censecutive days that takes its toll.

    If it was me I would go for comfort over speed and look at a flat bar touring or hybrid with some really solid wheels.

    Get out as much as you can on the bike, try and knock of a couple of consecutive 100 milers taking full kit and camping.
    Life isnt like a box of chocolates, its like a bag of pic n mix.
  • hill_struggler
    hill_struggler Posts: 32
    Brilliant thank you! Will check out Tom Bruce now. Best get on the case asap!
  • entershikari
    entershikari Posts: 53
    100 miles per day is quite a pace (by all means achievable) but doing it every day for 15 days will be quite a challenge. You’re looking at a lot of saddle time every day with not much time for doing anything else but eating, sleeping, riding and repeating. Because you are doing so much saddle time saddle sores can become a serious problem so I’d recommend stocking up on shammy cream and making sure you have a good saddle (I like brooks but they do take a while to break in).

    As for the bike it will depend on what kind of trip your planning on making. There are just as many (if not more) ways to tour as there are ways to mountain bike. You could go super lightweight, only carrying a change of clothes and some snacks for the day and then buy food at cafes/pubs and stay at hotels/ B&Bs. Or you could go completely the other way and be fully supported, carrying all your own cooking equipment, food, tent, sleeping bag etc etc. Your choice of bike will depend entirely on what type of trip you wish to make.
    Bear in mind though that weight will make a big difference to how long the miles feel (especially when you hit the hills) so you’ll have an easier time, going at that pace, if you go with the light weight option.

    As for training I think your best option would be to do mostly high paced sorter rides (around 30 to 60 miles) for most of the training with a longer ride maybe once a week so you get used to the long periods in the saddle. One thing that you will need to practice coming from mtbing is keeping a steady continuous pace which doesn’t vary much.

    Hope that was helpful, good luck with the trip :)

    Edit: Check out another Tom here: http://tomsbiketrip.com/ He's got some great advice on planning a trip, equipment and a load of other things

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