A bike ride from hell

[caycycle]

I wonder if anyone would be interested in reading my account, entitled “A Coastal Catastrophe”, of a failed coastal tour that turned into a waking nightmare. It’s not all unrelieved gloom, there are moments of humour and great joy, but the abiding impression throughout is that the tale is headed for an inevitable climax of disaster.
Please take a look at the 24 photos on the website, then click one of the links to the account itself and read the opening page. If you don’t feel like going any further, that’s OK. But I’d be honoured if someone somewhere felt moved to read it through, and any comments would be most welcome.

http://www.coastalcatastrophe.com

 

[CeeDee51]

Or you could try http://www.coastalcatastrophe.com/

 

[ASC1951]

Great report, Peter, and I loved the photos.

I wouldn't call it a catastrophe, given the distance you did achieve. It's the sustained effort that is so difficult. I regularly knock off 100 milers - and many on this forum do more - but when I did 360 unladen miles in three days in Portugal a couple of years ago it nearly wiped me out.

You should of course have another go, next spring, but this time clockwise so that you can at least say at Girvan that you have done the whole coast. If it was me, I would a) take much less stuff and B) have some days off: even the TdF lads have a day off every week, you know.

BTW, is your Brooks saddle tilted a long way up at the front? If it had been level like mine, maybe you would have got round no trouble.

 

[rich p]

I have read a few pages and will look forward to finishing it later. It was 30 odd years ago.

 

[ASC1951]

It was 30 odd years ago.

Ahem, I hadn't spotted that. Maybe re-doing it next spring would be ambitious.

 

[caycycle]

Ahem, I hadn't spotted that. Maybe re-doing it next spring would be ambitious.

Yep, you could say that. This year I hit 70, and the old back isn't what it was. Incidentally, I hesitated to post the account at all, since the ride was made so long ago. Wasn't sure whether anyone would care about a blast from the past.

 

[Crackle]

Date is irrelevant, I shall read more later. I'm surprised you went up the East Coast and down the West. The argument will rage no doubt but I've always thought the other way around was more with the wind, especially up the West Coast. Well written and presented I must say.

 

[ComedyPilot]

Tried reading the pdf and it crashed my browser, so won't be back.

 

[yoyo]

I have read it all. What bad luck to encounter such awful weather in the 'summer'. I enjoyed your detailed accounts and felt very much for you facing day after day of rain and steep hills. Here's to it's completion. Good luck!

 

[ASC1951]

Tried reading the pdf and it crashed my browser, so won't be back.

Get a decent browser, then. His pdf's not as quick as html, granted, but it works fine in Firefox and Chrome.

You're not still plodding away with Explorer, are you?

 

[Ergle]

I read it all and enjoyed it. It was a pity that you couldn't finish it at the time - not your fault - just bad luck. The problems you described with your knee would have finished me off a lot earlier. I guess cycling the coast means that you are more at the mercy of the weather - particularly the wind.

 

[caycycle]

Or you could try http://www.coastalcatastrophe.com/

Thank you for this alternative. A third way into the site would be via the friend who set it up for me, Stephen Ling-Winston. He loves creating websites and requires very little payment. There's a link to my site in his gallery at http://NobleZeus.com

 

[ComedyPilot]

Get a decent browser, then. His pdf's not as quick as html, granted, but it works fine in Firefox and Chrome.

You're not still plodding away with Explorer, are you?

Nah, Firefox.

 

[caycycle]

Tried reading the pdf and it crashed my browser, so won't be back.

I'm truly sorry to hear you had this problem. In a day or two there will be an HTML link as well as the PDF. Dare I hope that you'll give it another go?

 

[caycycle]

I've tried your pdf links with every combination I can (I design web pages) and I can't find anything that doesn't work with a current browser on Windows, Mac, or Linux. In any case, when things like this don't work, it's usually because the user has incorrect settings in their browser or an old or misconfigured version of a pdf reader. I wouldn't worry too much.

That's reassuring. Cheers, Uncle Mort. All I ever wanted was for a few people to read it through and add a comment or two if they felt like it- and that's already happened. My thanks to those who took the trouble.