Favour needed

[Lucymad90]

hi there people

I am cycling from Oxford to southern. Ireland in March for charity and need any help/ advice on total mileage a day is possible. Also looking to borrow a trailer that the bike will tow for over night stuff etc.

 

[KneesUp]

It depends how fit you are and how much weight you have in the trailer. @User14044 makes a sensible estimate though.

 

[Tim Hall]

Trailers are great, but you'll run the risk of taking too much stuff , which will slow you down. Are you camping or bed and breakfasting? Well packed panniers would be my preference.

 

[Lucymad90]

Thanks for your replies ... We are B and b'ing. I had sort of hoped to do about 90km a day is that doable? I ride everyday around 30-40km so I'm hopeing 90km in a day won't be to hard. I will look into the panniers though I think !!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Unless you start to increase your mileage son and ride with weight on your bike, you will find it harder than you need to. I know because the first stage of my attempt at an around the world bike ride was from Surrey to southern Ireland (Cork) and those first few weeks were exceptionally tough physically and mentally and there were several days in south east Ireland where I seriously doubted I could do it.

We simply had not done enough in the way of preparation.

80km a day is a sensible target with 1 day off a week. Your body needs time to heal and repair and it is useful to rest, write things up, eat and general check kit over on the 'rest' day.

Also you will need to factor in the ferry to Rosslaire which will mean a much shorter mileage day. If you need the name of a really good b&b just outside of rosslaire let me know, we have friends there and they are exceptionally accommodating and whilst a few miles off the main road it is lovely and quiet and you will get plenty of sleep.

 

[steveindenmark]

Get panniers and forget the trailer.

 

[Lucymad90]

Brilliant thank you that would be good... I'm hopeing to ride from oxfordshire to breacon and stay over there for one night then from breacon to Fishguard and then the ferry with that being the rest day then stay over night in rosslare on sat 14th March then cycle from rosslare to co Meath on the sunday.

 

[Lucymad90]

Also what are a good type of panniers and are they ok to fit to a race/ road bike ?

 

[swansonj]

Chris Juden (a guru to some of us, see threads elsewhere) says: whatever is the longest single-day ride you have done recently, you can probably keep up 2/3 of that day by day on a laden tour. Works for me (just): a hundred miles is my longest day, and when I used to tour, it was usually 60-65-ish mpd not counting rest days.

 

[Lucymad90]

Brilliant thank you been a great help think I need to purchase panniers and get practicing with weight on the bike in my training. Do they fit ok to road / racing bikes ?

 

[KneesUp]

Also what are a good type of panniers and are they ok to fit to a race/ road bike ?

It will be easier to fit a rack if you have the mounting points, although it's possible without. What bike is it?

 

[Lucymad90]

It's a merida juliet ladies racing bike .

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Having had a quick peep online at that particular bike, I am not seeing any mounting points sadly which whilst not terminal is not particularly helpful.

Whilst you may not have one of this years models, these are all the bikes for your description and not a single one of them in this kind up can take a pianist rack unless it is mounted via the quick release skewer and p clips sadly.

 

[Lucymad90]

Oh right think I may have to do a bit of diy to get it to fit by the sounds of it ... As I really don't want to have to buy a new bike if I can help it !! Thanks for your advice

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

There are racks that are designed to get around this problem but they tend to be mounted through the rear axel and clamp around the seat stays rather than screwing onto the bike which is the more conventional type is rack mounting.

This sort of rack would work with the suitable p clamps (it may come with them otherwise they are exceptionally cheap to buy from a hardware store) www.sjscycles.co.uk/old-man-mountain-black-rock-rear-rack-prod33082/