Guy Martin is at it again!

Andy B

Guy Martin is attempting to break a record that has stood since 1984 by cycling 4800 miles around the coast of Britain in just 20 days, getting up at three o'clock each morning to ride 240 miles a day & aiming to be home in time for Christmas

Channel4 will be airing the programme at 9pm 29th Dec

Fingers crossed that he makes it (I've had a hand in this project!)

ugo.santalucia

Pretty brave to do it in winter... and that's off road?

orraloon

Trackable?

Andy B

It's on road for this one & yeah it's pretty nuts doing it midwinter. Nowt like a proper challenge!

ugo.santalucia

Andy B wrote:

It's on road for this one & yeah it's pretty nuts doing it midwinter. Nowt like a proper challenge!

I am sure some keen Audaxer will intervene arguing it's the best time of the year to avoid overheating/holidays traffic/wrong direction winds and so on...

Moonbiker

https://www.amazon.co.uk/product-review ... tBy=recent

Theres abook of the previous guy who holds the record

meanredspider

He always does well in the Strathpuffer so I'm sure this will help - and will be great training for that event too

MiddleRinger

Crazy mofo but hard as nails that fella. Lives at a different speed to the rest of us. I'm sure he'll smash it.

And yeah, I'd attempt it in the Spring rather than heading deep into winter!

lostboysaint

meanredspider wrote:

He always does well in the Strathpuffer so I'm sure this will help - and will be great training for that event too

Never mind that, he did very well in the Tour Divide, albeit on an "unofficial" basis. That's going to have taught him a huge amount more.

Now if Mike Hall decided to do it as well.........

bianchimoon

Andy B wrote:

Guy Martin is attempting to break a record that has stood since 1984 by cycling 4800 miles around the coast of Britain in just 20 days, getting up at three o'clock each morning to ride 240 miles a day & aiming to be home in time for Christmas

Channel4 will be airing the programme at 9pm 29th Dec

Fingers crossed that he makes it (I've had a hand in this project!)

any news on route/direction? doesn't seem to be much online about this, are C4 keeping it quiet as a cliffhanger, did he didn't he?

bernithebiker

That bloke's amazing. Is there anything he can't do?!

daniel_b

Any idea what bike he is doing it on?

meanredspider

bernithebiker wrote:

That bloke's amazing. Is there anything he can't do?!

Relate to people. He hates crowds and has thoughts about smacking people (according to his autobiog) - he's on the Asperger's spectrum. But he is an amazing person.

bianchimoon

meanredspider wrote:

bernithebiker wrote:

That bloke's amazing. Is there anything he can't do?!

Relate to people. He hates crowds and has thoughts about smacking people (according to his autobiog) - he's on the Asperger's spectrum. But he is an amazing person.

He was in the running for Top Gear job, now we know why!

6wheels

bernithebiker wrote:

That bloke's amazing. Is there anything he can't do?!

Yes, he's never won a TT race, and after busting his back twice I'd be surprised if he bothers again.

Great Guy.

bendertherobot

Can anyone join him? How do we find out where he's at?

meanredspider

bendertherobot wrote:

Can anyone join him? How do we find out where he's at?

meanredspider wrote:

He hates crowds and has thoughts about smacking people

Don't say I didn't warn you

Seriously, it's quite clear that he doesn't like "fans" from what he writes.

bendertherobot

Is the riding and televising the struggle some sort of cathartis?

meanredspider

bendertherobot wrote:

Is the riding and televising the struggle some sort of cathartis?

I don't know that it's altogether clear. I think he enjoys a challenge (no surprise there). He comes across as far less likeable in his book - mostly because you get to hear what he's thinking. He really really doesn't suffer fools and he has a massive amount of belief in his own thinking. I think cycling works for him because he's away from people.

bendertherobot

meanredspider wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

Is the riding and televising the struggle some sort of cathartis?

I don't know that it's altogether clear. I think he enjoys a challenge (no surprise there). He comes across as far less likeable in his book - mostly because you get to hear what he's thinking. He really really doesn't suffer fools and he has a massive amount of belief in his own thinking. I think cycling works for him because he's away from people.

I'll respect him and stay away! I won't miss the show mind, love his stuff.

Garry H

bendertherobot wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

Is the riding and televising the struggle some sort of cathartis?

I don't know that it's altogether clear. I think he enjoys a challenge (no surprise there). He comes across as far less likeable in his book - mostly because you get to hear what he's thinking. He really really doesn't suffer fools and he has a massive amount of belief in his own thinking. I think cycling works for him because he's away from people.

I'll respect him and stay away! I won't miss the show mind, love his stuff.

Never meet your heroes?

meanredspider

I hope he has more sense than to try it on the SS he's currently using on TV tonight. 330-odd miles across a desert in China with "7% gradients" isn't really SS territory.

itboffin

Yeah SS would be a very bad idea in the UK, but hats off for even trying

big_p

he made an appearance at our works anual conferance last year (Snap on tools) I've never seen a bloke so in demand, it literaly took him 3 hours to walk across the room, 400 Snap on dealers mithering the hell out of him, asking him to sign all manner of random crap, I felt quite sorry for him, I left him well alone.

rolf_f

Last night didn't seem that big a challenge though I missed the start so maybe it was a tougher ride than it looked. I've done 266 miles in one day and at the end of it felt I could have gone on - and that without a car following me; I think the Audax crowd would have found it a bit of a Sunday ride. Of course, I wouldn't have done it on a SS. Did he actually have a reason for choosing an inappropriate bike or was it just to make it more of a challenge?
He seems an OK sort as much as you can tell from someone you have only seen on TV. He probably does too much of this sort of thing - it'll get a bit Top Gear samey if he doesn't slow down a bit but there's plenty of worse stuff on tv than this.

Moonbiker

Was a rourke SS with tribars though the commentary was trying to portray his bike as some random BSO

Can anyone find/make the 341 mile the strava seg I want to see the actual elevation?

oldbazza

Met him at a Snetterton British superbike round and was basically as he comes across on the telly;was chatty and friendly but this was before the tv appearances started so he may be a bit more 'guarded' now.

keef66

meanredspider wrote:

I think cycling works for him because he's away from people.

Me too!

fenix

I only caught last weeks and it had a clip of the challenge across the desert. Was he not on the bike he went for the Land speed record on ? I thought it had the release bracket on the head tube or did I make that up ?

Coach H

I fairly regularly pass him (in the car) on the way home. You can spot its him from some distance due to his ugly riding style, he makes Chris Froome look classical.

carbonclem

It didn't have tri-bars. It had flat bars with mtb bar ends on. The forward extension was a camera mount. I thought it was very good, but they must make some effort to make it harder by appearing to be so easy going about it. Ill fitting shoes, awful clothing choices, rucksack when he has support cars, sunglasses at night and screw top water bottles all seem to be maybe trying too hard to get it wrong?
Great telly though! He's an animal.