annnnd done (8-14/8/2020)

[alvintc]

All done. Hotels all the way.

• 2 of us
• a little over 925 miles
• a littler over 51,000' climbing
• one snapped chain
• One midge attack (unfortunately at the same time as the chain!)

 

[Ming the Merciless]

We look forward to your write up of the experience

 

[slowmotion]

Well done!

 

[alvintc]

We look forward to your write up of the experience

I did, above! Not really sure what else to add... the highlands pass was crap & I didn't enjoy it in the slightest. Otherwise most of the roads were OK.

Somehow we stayed dry for the entire thing apart from about an hours drizzle on day 7 morning (near Alness).

 

[Ming the Merciless]

So 7 days and all you have to say is one snapped chain and midge attack? Must be more to it than that. Was it really as bad as you make out and nothing of interest to recall?

 

[PeteXXX]

It was the midges that made your chain snap so they could eat you..

Well done, though!

 

[steveindenmark]

Im chatting to Helen Proudfoot who is riding to every town called Hope in the UK Its for charity. Its sort of an end to end, but longer. She started 4 days ago and is in Glasgow now. She says the midges were horrendous .

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Im chatting to Helen Proudfoot who is riding to every town called Hope in the UK Its for charity. Its sort of an end to end, but longer. She started 4 days ago and is in Glasgow now. She says the midges were horrendous .

There is no Hope in Glasgow 😀

 

[alvintc]

So 7 days and all you have to say is one snapped chain and midge attack? Must be more to it than that. Was it really as bad as you make out and nothing of interest to recall?

We went through some fantastic scenery - I particularly enjoyed cheddar gorge, but I suspect that's because it was glorious weather as we went through it.

Day 3 (180 miles) I screwed the fueling and bonked the last 10 miles or so from the hotel.

Did the ride using Tailwind most days but yeah really hard to pick out moments of it - It really was just a case of riding long days, with nothing bad happening (there was only a couple of "driver" events) but also nothing earth shatteringly spectacular as well!

Would I do it again? Probably not.
Will I do long rides & multi-days again, almost certainly...

 

[nickyboy]

I did, above! Not really sure what else to add... the highlands pass was crap & I didn't enjoy it in the slightest. Otherwise most of the roads were OK.

Somehow we stayed dry for the entire thing apart from about an hours drizzle on day 7 morning (near Alness).

What was wrong with the pass between Perth and Aviemore?
We are using this route next May . We won't be on the main road though, we will use the cyclepath going up and then the military road on the descent

 

[alvintc]

It was being resurfaced, but it was horrible for most of it - not suitable for a road bike (I was running tubeless 28's).

Was incredibly tiring due to the surface, and then there's the bollards on the bridges that are asking to knock someone off: I understand they're there to reduce speed but on an empty path after a long journey (can't see how it'd be short!) you're simply not going to slow that much!

 

[mikeIow]

Well done!

& sounds like a reminder why I am considering a far more leisurely ~20-day effort next year

 

[nickyboy]

It was being resurfaced, but it was horrible for most of it - not suitable for a road bike (I was running tubeless 28's).

Was incredibly tiring due to the surface, and then there's the bollards on the bridges that are asking to knock someone off: I understand they're there to reduce speed but on an empty path after a long journey (can't see how it'd be short!) you're simply not going to slow that much!

Apparently the bollards are to stop ATVs from the local estates using the path and churning it up. The entire ascent will be fully surfaced shortly

https://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=139879