Fundraising

[Sam Turner]

Hi,

First post; after a bit of advice. I'm thinking of organising a charity cycle ride. Mostly with people who haven't done great amounts of cycling.

My question is how unrealistic is it to attempt to cycle 120-130 miles a day for 5 days on a tourer carrying your kit? And if this isn't ridiculous, how long do you think that it would take to realistically train for this, if the loads are relatively light stopping in buildings with just the need for a few basic bits, food, water etc?

Sorry it's a bit open ended; it really is in the brainstormign stage!

Cheers

Sam

 

[Soltydog]

I think your plans may be a little too ambitious. 120 miles a day for 5 days carrying all your gear for people who haven't done great amounts of cycling, sounds a little too much.
I do quite a bit of cycling & have never done back to back ton rides. Did 3 days touring a few months back & the 2nd day did 100 miles carrying all my gear & boy was it hard. A headwind for over half the day made things much harder & you would need to allow for such things
Trainging time to do such a ride would depend on the individual, but prob looking at 6 months hard training, or maybe a little longer IMO

 

[snorri]

What Soltydog said.
100 miles in one day with full touring kit can be hard work unless the weather is perfect. Trying to exceed 100 mpd for 5 days is a serious endurance event, and not a tour, I would say.
If your trip is to last five days, then you will be carrying a lot more than just a "few basic bits". Also take into consideration the terrain, hilly or flat, road surfaces, availability of food stops, camp sites etc.

 

[andym]

An event involving cycling 120-130 miles a day for 5 days would be a tall order even for people who do a lot of touring or long-distance racing; for people who haven't done a lot of cycling, in my view, it would be a non-starter - unless your target audience are the sort of people who run triathlons every other weekend. Sorry to be blunt, but it's probably better to tell you straight rather than leave you to find out the hard way.

BTW there is a section specifically for charity rides:

http://www.cyclechat.co.uk/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=51

 

[wyno70]

Well to give you some idea, try 130 miles on an unloaded race bike. Then load up a tourer and give the same route a go!

Personally 130 miles a day, fully loaded, for any cyclist is a serious undertaking and unlikely to be an awful lot of fun. If you factor in hills/ bad weather, then it is bordering on being unachievable for all but the best cyclists. I'm just talking about 1 day here, not 5 in a row!

For unexperienced cyclists, forget it, you've got no chance. You'd almost need to double the time you are planning on taking!

As above, sorry to be blunt but better to get real rather than throw yourself into something that simply won't work!

60/70 miles a day, fully loaded, 5 days in a row, for an unexperienced cyclist would still be a pretty tough undertaking!

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

 

[Arch]

60/70 miles a day, fully loaded, 5 days in a row, for an unexperienced cyclist would still be a pretty tough undertaking!

Hear, hear! Frankly, I'd find that hard going, and I'm relatively experienced!

 

[Brains]

I have run a number of cycle touring expeditions:
Explorer Scouts aged 14-20, so probably slightly more active than the 'average' teenager

All have been in flat places, Holland, Germany, Denmark, N.France, Norfolk etc.
Very few have any real cycling experience
Very few have decent bikes
Gear taken has always been the full load, sleeping bags, carry mats, tents, stoves, food etc

Milage:
We try to work on about 30-35 miles a day, with possibly the first day being only 20-25 miles and ensuring every 3rd or 4th day is either a very short day or a day off.

After about a week the milage can creep up a bit to perhaps the odd 50 mile run, I think the record was a 60 mile run once and that was so that we could have the day off at the port the next day so there was an incentive

Speed:
Crusing speed at the beginning of the day can be up to 14mph as long as no wind or hills, by the middle of the afternoon we are typically down to about 12mph and by the end of the day this can be down to 10mph

It only needs the very slightest of slopes or the lightest of winds to bring the speed right down. A 'hill' that normally as an experienced cyclist you would barely notice will have the less experienced pushing up.

In round figures taking inexperienced people on a tour can be fun, but don't aim for more than 200 miles in a week.

 

[amaferanga]

The OP didn't say anything about being 'fully loaded'. If they're staying in B&Bs then all their bits and pieces could fit in a 10 litre rack bag (as all my bits and pieces did for LEJOG this year).

Having said that though 120 miles/day for 5 days would be a big ask for a new cyclist. If they were to start training now and cycle 2-3 times during the week and then a progressively longer ride at the weekend then they may be ready for it later in 2010, say August/September time. But they'd have to be pretty dedicated.

If its for charity though then it should be tough with a real chance of them not making it. I wouldn't sponsor anyone to cycle only 60-70 miles/day, but I would consider it for 120 miles/day. If its just for fun then forget about the charity side of it (just my opinion).

 

[Sam Turner]

We'd be stopping in accomodation, so a real minimum of kit. All the people do have a good level of fitness, and are 16 - 18 years old who are sponsored towards an active career and as such are passing fitness tests every month or so.

Done my calculations and it would only be 4 days. They are all cyclists, just i would not eb sure how much long distance work they had done. It is definitely designed to be challenging, and lots of trainign woprk would be done.

I am not too experienced and am only 16. I did C2C when i was 15, and when we were about to camp at 80 mile point we felt alright still. And that was over the Lakes and some quite good hills. The cycle would be in the Midlands and south of England; probably the hardest bit would be a littlke stretch in Devon along the coastline.

 

[Sam Turner]

Kit would be of a minimum weight

Bikes good quality touring bikes

 

[Arch]

I am not too experienced and am only 16. I did C2C when i was 15, and when we were about to camp at 80 mile point we felt alright still. And that was over the Lakes and some quite good hills. The cycle would be in the Midlands and south of England; probably the hardest bit would be a littlke stretch in Devon along the coastline.

Alright enough to do half as much again? And the next day, and the next?

Even assuming it's meant to be a challenge, and the people are fit, and even if they are cyclists, over a 100 miles, 4 days running, is a lot. You might recover from one century, to do another, but then another and another still? Once you get over 70 or 80 miles, any little niggles really start to hurt (or at least, that's what I've found).

I suppose it depends on what they can do know. If they can do 60 or 70 comfortably, then they have more chance of building up to it, than if they turn out to all be sprinters and MTBers who are struggling after 30...

 

[Scream]

http://www.cyclechat.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=51119

Please check out this, and Sam you can ride with us if you're dedicated enough to train whats required!

 

[wyno70]

Try a couple of 100 mile plus rides back to back and see how you feel after that.

Other than actually covering the mileage when you are doing this kind of event, the biggest challenge is getting enough fuel down your neck.

If you are doing back to back days it isn't as simple as just getting on your bike and riding, you need some serious planning and nothing counts for experience. If you are determined to go with your original plan then I wish you all the luck, you'll certainly need it, along with some good weather, good fortune and no mishaps!