Lands End 400 Miles!

[Jonnafun]

Hey

I've just got a few questions that need answering. Basically I'm doing a 400 mile bike ride from Rochdale, Lancashire to Lands End, Cornwall, with two of my friends. The ride is taking place over 5 days, hopefully averaging 70-80 miles a day.

The first question is does this sound a bit too ambitious? I'm an average cycler, I can manage the odd hill here and there at a steady/steep-ish incline without stopping.

The second question is as there will be no support car following us down their, we will be on our own, therefore everything we need to take will have to be packed into a rucksack. Accomodation would be in B&B's so no tent required!

And lastly, do you have any hints, tips or random suggestions you could make which might be helpful? I've never done anything like this before, so the more suggestions the better!

Cheers
Jonna

 

[And]

therefore everything we need to take will have to be packed into a rucksack.

I have only one piece of advice - don't use a rucksack, get panniers.

 

[rich p]

...or at the very least a large saddlebag. A rucksack would be uncomfortable. 70-80m a day is achievable if you're reasonably fit. Prebook the B&B's as disappointment would be tough to take. Other than eating and drinking enough, go for it! Good luck

 

[dodgy]

Ditto, I can't think of many worse ways of carrying luggage on a bicycle than rucksacks, especially over such great distances. Your back will start to sweat within about 10 minutes, it's possibly unhygienic and it's definitely not good for your back or your balance.
Dave.

 

[Dayvo]

If you've got the miles in your legs, then, given the right conditions, you shopuld be able to manage 100+ miles a day without too much of a push!
The thing is to enjoy it.

 

[Keith Oates]

There are not so many flat sections on the roads in Cornwall so expect your overall speed to be lower in that area!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[sheddy]

Panniers and rear rack - get em fitted and packed well before you go so know there are no probs with heel clearance, waterproofness, and handling

 

[vernon]

Hey

I've just got a few questions that need answering. Basically I'm doing a 400 mile bike ride from Rochdale, Lancashire to Lands End, Cornwall, with two of my friends. The ride is taking place over 5 days, hopefully averaging 70-80 miles a day.

The first question is does this sound a bit too ambitious? I'm an average cycler, I can manage the odd hill here and there at a steady/steep-ish incline without stopping.

The second question is as there will be no support car following us down their, we will be on our own, therefore everything we need to take will have to be packed into a rucksack. Accomodation would be in B&B's so no tent required!

And lastly, do you have any hints, tips or random suggestions you could make which might be helpful? I've never done anything like this before, so the more suggestions the better!

Cheers
Jonna

Several things spring to mind:

A rucksack is a bad idea. It will add a fair amount of pressure at the saddle/human interface. Either get a rack and panniers or a saddlebag. Carradice do decent saddle bags.

Rochdale;s environs are exactly flat but even so, you need to bewe awar that Devon and Cornwall are far from flat and your daily mileage might drop while in those two counties. There's no respite or very little respite from the hills especially in Cornwall. Having said that, if your gearing is low enough then any hill is manageable.

Get early starts in and make sure that porridge is part of the breakfast to give you a slow release energy source..

 

[ronstrutt]

If you've never done 70-80 miles a day for five days on the trot, get a bit of practice in. As others have said, Cornwall (and to a lesser extent, Devon) can be quite demanding.

Having said that, I've heard of people who've never cycled more than 10 miles in one go setting off to do Land's End to John O'Groats, but that doesn't mean that it didn't hurt!

A few more tips at:
http://www.ruralrides.net/rre2e5.html

 

[Jonnafun]

If you've never done 70-80 miles a day for five days on the trot, get a bit of practice in. As others have said, Cornwall (and to a lesser extent, Devon) can be quite demanding.

Having said that, I've heard of people who've never cycled more than 10 miles in one go setting off to do Land's End to John O'Groats, but that doesn't mean that it didn't hurt!

A few more tips at:
http://www.ruralrides.net/rre2e5.html

Thanks for this, at the moment we're averaging 40-50 miles over 4-5 hours going over the Pennines towards Halifax and Huddersfield to get some hill training in.

We're also doing Blackpool and back later this month, which for the first 30-40 miles is mostly up and down hill so that should be fair training. How many times a week would you suggest training for?

Jonna

 

[Kirstie]

Because something like that really isn't about speed, it's about getting there...I would suggest that in your prep you get used to riding for the amount of time it will take you to cover the distance of 70 - 80 miles a day. On a tourer with panniers, your average speed will be around 11 - 12 miles an hour, and so go for rides which are 6 - 7 hours long. On a normal road bike this would be quite a distance, but that's what you've got to get used to. The more you do it the quicker you will be able to recover and hence you'll stand a much better chance of getting up the next day and doing the same all over again. You might also want to think about building strength, ie shorter interval sessions as well as working on your core strength as hauling the weight of a loaded tourer can take its toll on your muscles.