Complete newbie to a 900 mile bike tour in 12 months?

[psmiffy]

Congratulations on your resurrection!

"Life but not as we know it" might be a fair description at present

 

[Ice2911]

Definitely possible and you get lots of good advice on here. I went from your baseline in October 2016 to just having finished Lands End to John O Groats, the scenic way (1173 miles) on my own, carrying all my kit. I'll upload a couple of screen grabs so you can see how the mileage built up. It started with couple of rides in the week and a slightly longer ride at the weekend. The distances soon built up. As I got closer to the ride I started riding perhaps 5 rides in a week. Enjoy the rides, my take was as the rides got longer I would find a good cafe with nice cake at about 2/3 distance. I felt I had earnt it and it gave energy for the ride back. I started most of my rides on my own but then found people to ride with which made it easier to ride more often and my speed built up without thinking about it. You say you are in East Anglia, where are you as I live in Norwich and would happily ride with you and show you my cake stops also make sure you are comfortable on your bike, especially as your time in the saddle builds up.

 

[snorri]

I did it on Friday - practically killed me

I would have "Liked" your post, but didn't want you to think I liked the idea of you killing yourself.
It's confession time......I followed local advice and took the train over the hilly section.

 

[Dommo]

As the others have all said, very doable. You just need to build up the mileage. I wouldn't start pushing it hard. Chances are you won't need to be doing 40 kph on the real ride and it will be less about yellow jersey attacks and more about endurance with a few hills chucked in, which you can drop to a nice low gear for. I guess the last part kind of depends on the route you're taking and what the level of your companions will be. I'd start out aiming for endurance though.

Out of interest, is cycling to work sometimes an option? That builds up your distance endurance massively quickly. You might think a 30-40km ride is going to take a lot of time to get to work, but since it's not in your spare time it's "free"... sort of

 

[niall.riches]

It's very doable, especially for someone your age as @mjr has already said. Firstly, I'd stick with the bike you have now for the moment and change the bike when you know what your requirements are going to be, you don't want to buy a bike this month only to realise later it will be unsuitable.

A couple of questions you need to answer really which will help us advise you better.

1) Is this ride supported or unsupported, by which I mean, do you have to carry everything you need with you, or will you have someone in a van following you to carry bags.
2) Where are you staying overnight? Hotels/Hostels or camping?
3) Do you have a route set out yet? If so, what is it?

Thanks for the advice from everyone, didn't expect such an overwhelming response!

Just to answer these 3 questions, we will be supported in the ride by 1-2 vans carrying all of our equipment. At the moment we're thinking of staying in hostels, but if we've got room in the van/s we'll probably bring some camping equipment as well for a couple of nights just to mix it up a bit.

We've split our planned route into 3 stages at the moment to cater for some destinations we definitely want to go to. We've planned them out on a website called cycle.travel, does anyone have any experience using this? It seemed like it gave us the best route out of all of the cycling route planners that we found. Our first route is Zell Am Zee to Kitzbuhel, the second route is Kitzbuhel to the Hook of Holland, and the third route is from Harwich to Beccles. (Links are as follows)

1.) http://cycle.travel/map?from=Zell a...3239539,12.7962369&toLL=47.4463585,12.3911473
2.) http://cycle.travel/map?from=Kitzbü....4463585,12.3911473&toLL=51.9771615,4.1314526
3.) http://cycle.travel/map?from=Harwic...51.9445801,1.2898522&toLL=52.4448706,1.722349

 

[niall.riches]

Out of interest, is cycling to work sometimes an option? That builds up your distance endurance massively quickly. You might think a 30-40km ride is going to take a lot of time to get to work, but since it's not in your spare time it's "free"... sort of

At the moment I'm working in Norwich which is about 20 miles away, so that's a bit too much of a slog at the moment, but I've got a new job starting in September which is only a couple of miles away - which ironically is probably too close for a substantial cycle ride

 

[niall.riches]

Definitely possible and you get lots of good advice on here. I went from your baseline in October 2016 to just having finished Lands End to John O Groats, the scenic way (1173 miles) on my own, carrying all my kit. I'll upload a couple of screen grabs so you can see how the mileage built up. It started with couple of rides in the week and a slightly longer ride at the weekend. The distances soon built up. As I got closer to the ride I started riding perhaps 5 rides in a week. Enjoy the rides, my take was as the rides got longer I would find a good cafe with nice cake at about 2/3 distance. I felt I had earnt it and it gave energy for the ride back. I started most of my rides on my own but then found people to ride with which made it easier to ride more often and my speed built up without thinking about it. You say you are in East Anglia, where are you as I live in Norwich and would happily ride with you and show you my cake stops also make sure you are comfortable on your bike, especially as your time in the saddle builds up.

Really inspirational this, to know that somebody has started from a similar position and has done a further distance in lesser time!

Hadn't thought of the cake idea but I do like cakes so maybe this would be a good incentive (?). I'm about 20 miles away from Norwich so not really considering biking that far yet but I'll definitely aim to be able to do the trip in the next few months - then I'll hit you up if I fancy any cake

 

[Ice2911]

Really inspirational this, to know that somebody has started from a similar position and has done a further distance in lesser time!

Hadn't thought of the cake idea but I do like cakes so maybe this would be a good incentive (?). I'm about 20 miles away from Norwich so not really considering biking that far yet but I'll definitely aim to be able to do the trip in the next few months - then I'll hit you up if I fancy any cake

20 miles in which direction, GY? Are you n Beccles? as we do some Shows in the public hall there. I'm Happy to cycle out should you want some company.

 

[MikeG]

Actually that's a really comfortable schedule to get ready for that sort of trip. My suggestion would be to get some miles done through the winter. Even if it is only 30 to 50 miles a week, you'll arrive at spring next year with a head start, and you can work upwards easily from there. Hell, I know a 23 year old who did Land's End to John O'Groats at 4 weeks notice from not having ridden for years, and he had a wail of a time. The more and the sooner you work, the more fun you'll have on the trip.

 

[si_c]

Thanks for the advice from everyone, didn't expect such an overwhelming response!

Just to answer these 3 questions, we will be supported in the ride by 1-2 vans carrying all of our equipment. At the moment we're thinking of staying in hostels, but if we've got room in the van/s we'll probably bring some camping equipment as well for a couple of nights just to mix it up a bit.

We've split our planned route into 3 stages at the moment to cater for some destinations we definitely want to go to. We've planned them out on a website called cycle.travel, does anyone have any experience using this? It seemed like it gave us the best route out of all of the cycling route planners that we found. Our first route is Zell Am Zee to Kitzbuhel, the second route is Kitzbuhel to the Hook of Holland, and the third route is from Harwich to Beccles. (Links are as follows)

1.) http://cycle.travel/map?from=Zell am See&to=Kitzbühel&fromLL=47.3239539,12.7962369&toLL=47.4463585,12.3911473
2.) http://cycle.travel/map?from=Kitzbühel&to=Hook of Holland&fromLL=47.4463585,12.3911473&toLL=51.9771615,4.1314526
3.) http://cycle.travel/map?from=Harwich&to=Tower Road&fromLL=51.9445801,1.2898522&toLL=52.4448706,1.722349

That website is run by someone who frequents this forum (apologies, but memory fails as to whom), a quick search should probably identify them. Another member has used it recently to do lands end john o groats too if memory serves, and it has a good reputation.

I'd suggest based on what you've said above that a road bike of some form would be a good option. Road bikes come in many forms, have drop bars, and 700c (28") wheels, and are popular because they can be very comfortable over long distances and give you a good position on the bike. Having said that, there is no reason a hybrid bike couldn't be a good choice for you either, just avoid anything with any form of suspension, the tyres will provide that for you. The best advice I can give you is to go to a good local bike shop, preferably something that caters to people who tour long distances (I'm sure someone can provide pointers) and try out a few bikes, get a feel for how they sit under you and what affects comfort. Try and borrow a friends road bike who is of similar stature to you to get an idea how they ride. I appreciate this is a bit wordy and perhaps not entirely useful, but I don't want to be too specific because what you find suits may be different from me.

 

[mjr]

We've planned them out on a website called cycle.travel, does anyone have any experience using this? It seemed like it gave us the best route out of all of the cycling route planners that we found. Our first route is Zell Am Zee to Kitzbuhel, the second route is Kitzbuhel to the Hook of Holland, and the third route is from Harwich to Beccles. (Links are as follows)

Yes, cycle.travel is pretty good, although for longer tours sometimes you'll want to drag the route into towns to override its preference for low-traffic routes.

As far as I can see, the routes are debatably OK - I preferred the Oberndorf route into Kitzbuhel, but it was many years ago so the other one might have been improved - but you might want to ask it for the Harwich route to start at the port rather than the town centre and check the ferry times before relying on it. If you want a route without ferries, it could start by getting to Ipswich by reversing http://cycle.travel/map/journey/21126 although the A12 cycleway is especially jarring on return from the Netherlands.

 

[psmiffy]

I would have "Liked" your post, but didn't want you to think I liked the idea of you killing yourself.
It's confession time......I followed local advice and took the train over the hilly section.

It was a thought that did come to me in the evening - if I was slower than a slow thing why was it that I wasn't passed by a single cyclist all day?

 

[graham bowers]

<Snip> I've got a new job starting in September which is only a couple of miles away - which ironically is probably too close for a substantial cycle ride

Nothing to stop you taking a long cut................

 

[graham bowers]

That website is run by someone who frequents this forum (apologies, but memory fails as to whom), a quick search should probably identify them. Another member has used it recently to do lands end john o groats too if memory serves, and it has a good reputation.

I'd suggest based on what you've said above that a road bike of some form would be a good option. Road bikes come in many forms, have drop bars, and 700c (28") wheels, and are popular because they can be very comfortable over long distances and give you a good position on the bike. Having said that, there is no reason a hybrid bike couldn't be a good choice for you either, just avoid anything with any form of suspension, the tyres will provide that for you. The best advice I can give you is to go to a good local bike shop, preferably something that caters to people who tour long distances (I'm sure someone can provide pointers) and try out a few bikes, get a feel for how they sit under you and what affects comfort. Try and borrow a friends road bike who is of similar stature to you to get an idea how they ride. I appreciate this is a bit wordy and perhaps not entirely useful, but I don't want to be too specific because what you find suits may be different from me.

Lots of good advice on this thread so far so I'll only comment where I have things to add:
Cycle.travel is run by Richard Fairhurst.
I recently used it on my lejog and was very pleased with the routing.
The only thing to watch is that as it uses open source maps (OSM) its reliant on the OSM data being good. Practically, this has only raised its head in my experience on off-road sections. I've had a few sections where I was perfectly happy on my touring bike (strong wheels) but it would have been a bit rough for my road bike with much lighter wheels.Try to find out about the offroad sections, even if you can only peer in from the ends using streetview.
I would be inclined to do an overnighter / weekend trip as a group in order to trial the whole system as much as possible (cycling group, support vehicles etc etc).

 

[mjr]

The only thing to watch is that as it uses open source maps (OSM) its reliant on the OSM data being good. Practically, this has only raised its head in my experience on off-road sections. I've had a few sections where I was perfectly happy on my touring bike (strong wheels) but it would have been a bit rough for my road bike with much lighter wheels.Try to find out about the offroad sections, even if you can only peer in from the ends using streetview.

And if you ride any, please add a smoothness rating to the section on OSM.

I would be inclined to do an overnighter / weekend trip as a group in order to trial the whole system as much as possible (cycling group, support vehicles etc etc).

This is a good idea. I didn't find time to do that before my first tour, so I did two long rides back-to-back one weekend to test the bike setup. You can discover things doing that which aren't a problem on one-day rides.