Lands end to John o Groats tandem record

[iainrm70]

Hi everyone,

My boss and i are hoping to race the John OGroats to lands end route, we intend to do this non stop with the hope of breaking the long standing record.

We are both keen cyclists but have never ridden a tandem, this is problem one. Problem , we are both serving Marines who have just arrived in Afghanistan for six months and have one spinning bike to train on between patrols.

We are confident that come Sep we will be ready to go??

The advice we need over the next six months is peoples own experiences of this route and other relevant advice you think we will need.

Thank you

 

[vernon]

Given your constraints I think you need the services of a top quality coach and performance enhancing drug supplier

Seriously, I don't think that your objective is achievable with your current set up. Can you not delay and wait until you have a clear stretch of decent road training?

I would dearly love to be proved wrong.

 

[Tim Bennet.]

There's also a reason why that record is long standing and is slower than the solo record!
Without the ability to move and wiggle the bike around under your arse to change the pressure points (as you can on a solo machine), riding a tandem for that length of time is utter purgatory. You have to spend so long 'off the bike' getting some relief that the increased speed of the tandem can never compensate. A stationary bike is the best parallel - try sitting on that for two days!

I asked Gethin Butler if he would ever have a crack at it. He said he had ridden a number of 24hour tandem races and there's no way he would ever consider the E2E. He said he was prepared to leave it to some certifiable nutcase or short sighted masochist who had scant regard for their long term well being.

It's a record that always jumps out as being 'do-able' on paper and hence there's no end of servicemen, charity fund raisers and celebrity riders try and have a crack at it. Few reach Carlisle so don't under estimate it!

 

[iainrm70]

There's also a reason why that record is long standing and is slower than the solo record!
Without the ability to move and wiggle the bike around under your arse to change the pressure points (as you can on a solo machine), riding a tandem for that length of time is utter purgatory. You have to spend so long 'off the bike' getting some relief that the increased speed of the tandem can never compensate. A stationary bike is the best parallel - try sitting on that for two days!

I asked Gethin Butler if he would ever have a crack at it. He said he had ridden a number of 24hour tandem races and there's no way he would ever consider the E2E. He said he was prepared to leave it to some certifiable nutcase or short sighted masochist who had scant regard for their long term well being.

It's a record that always jumps out as being 'do-able' on paper and hence there's no end of servicemen, charity fund raisers and celebrity riders try and have a crack at it. Few reach Carlisle so don't under estimate it!

Thank you, i know it sounds absurd to try this distance with minimum training but to be honest that is half the reason we are doing it.
Great little gem about how difficult it is to move the bike from your backside though.

We have completed a number of "nutcase" marathon events so hopefully we will crack it.

 

[iainrm70]

Given your constraints I think you need the services of a top quality coach and performance enhancing drug supplier

Seriously, I don't think that your objective is achievable with your current set up. Can you not delay and wait until you have a clear stretch of decent road training?

I would dearly love to be proved wrong.

Not sure about the performance enhancing drugs but what about some Spanish beef? Unfortunately that is our only window to complete the route.
We have both completed a number of marathon events so hopefully our comfort in discomfort can help us forward.

 

[Tigerbiten]

Would you get away with a Hase Pino Recumbent/upright tandem bike on this type of record trip ??

If so swopping between the two position would help the pressure sores ............

 

[Ian H]

Would you get away with a Hase Pino Recumbent/upright tandem bike on this type of record trip ??

To be an official cycling record it has to be a traditional upright frame.

Andy Wilkinson did the ride on a faired recumbent in just over 41hrs, but the official record is Gethin's at just over 44hrs.

Contact the Road Records Association if you want to do it officially- www.rra.org.uk

 

[srw]

Even if you were the best two cyclists in Britain, without real-world tandem experience I'm afraid you've got no hope. Tandeming requires a heck of a lot of practice to get fluent. It took us an hour or so simply to be able to get moving, and even after 3 weeks on the go (see sig link) there were still occasional communication issues of the sort which would scupper any record attempt.

 

[rich87]

Good luck boys.

The majority of it will be in the mind and I expect being marines you're fairly well equipped in that area compared to the rest of us.

I can give you an update of how I found the JOGLE route once I've completed mine at the end of May if it helps?

I'm doing a non-stop ride as well so we should have quite similar routes planned I would expect.

Rich