Leeds 2 Liverpool canal ride with children!

[crisscross]

Hi, my daughter wanted to organie a sponsored bike ride and so we are about to do a ride from Leeds to Liverpool along the canal towpath and wondered if anyone has any recent experience of conditions due to the excess rain?

We are a family of non-cyclists ( OK little recreational riders) and have a 9 year old and a 6 year old.

Our daughter, Georgia,9, is brilliant and keen and will cope with anything far better than me.

Jack, 6, has decided he wants to get involved which is causing headaches as he won't be able to do it all so logistically it is tough planning.

We are only going to do 20 - 30 miles a day and foolishly we are doing it the "wrong way" - intothe wind.

Any advice about conditions / pubs / cafes etc welcome.

Details of the ride are at http://www.justgiving.com/georgiacross/

 

[Globalti]

To be honest I would drop the idea. The Leeds-Liverpool passes through some pretty unsalubrious areas like Burnley and in the nice areas (open country) it's exposed to wind and driving rain and unpleasantly muddy and heavy going in sections. It winds around all over the place meaning you ride twice the distance you actually cover and as far as I know there are few tourist facilities. I'd guarantee that within half a day you and your daughter would be exhausted and fed up and she demanding to go home.

If your daughter is set on doing a sponsored ride why not get training now for the Manchester 100 on 6 September? Here: http://www.bike-events.com/Ride.aspx?id=208

This is a properly organised event with a great atmosphere for kids and will take place in the scenic flatlands of Cheshire with all the help and facilities you will need. If you spend some money on good road tyres for your bikes and pump them up hard you should be able to do it, if you begin training for it now. By training I mean building the strength in your upper bodies to sustain the same riding position for around 6 hours as well as the fitness and stamina and getting the bikes sorted, seating position, handlebar height etc.

 

[crisscross]

Thanks for the reply.

We did the section from Foulridge to Chorley as a trial run - about 38 miles in all.

Georgia was fine, no complaints.

To be honest Burnley was fine it was the Blackburn section we disliked.

You are dead right about meandering route we passed a family walking towards us near Church and then past them again after we completed 3 sides of a rectangle and they went the short way!

The reason for doing this ride is to avoid traffic with the children as much as possible and to visit friends at both end of the ride.

We did a cycle ride from Cheshire to Preston last year which Georgia found frustrating having to wait for me, and I found worrying with the amount of traffic.

 

[Globalti]

Cough.

You clearly aren't new to cycling then.

My wife and I argue every week about whether Burnley or Blackburn is worst.

 

[Cathryn]

I've done it...have a read here...it was pretty hard work, to be honest, and darn bumpy. Great sense of achievement at the end.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=3Tzut&doc_id=2587&v=3A

 

[PaulB]

My wife and I argue every week about whether Burnley or Blackburn is worst.

Blackburn's worst. If Britain was constipated, that's where they'd stick the enema.

 

[crisscross]

We really aren't cylists - and if you could see me it is pretty evident.

We love a challenge and despite me being a 6XL in cycling terms ( how the heck do they come up with those measurements!!!) we perservere.

When we did our practise run the ground was harder and there was little wind to contend with so that is our major worry - that and fishermen / dogs / walkers / cyclists etc etc!

Hi Cathryn, your blog was one of the ones that inspired us to do this ride so thanks for that ( whether I'll think the same next week is another matter!)

Not going to get into the Burnley/Blackburn thing after all I'm from Preston and the best thing that came out of here was the M6.

Suffice to say it's the rutted grass track between the two which we found the most difficult in practise but c'est la vie.

 

[Cathryn]

Aw bless you...glad it helped. Hope you don't hate me at the end of the ride

 

[crisscross]

Well we have done our trek and it all went pretty smoothly.

No one fell in the canal, no one got fed up and demanded to go home after half a day - although I was tempted!

Even more impressive, is the fact that my son Jack, aged 6, completed the whole 135 miles, instead of the few miles we expected him to.

He was riding his £8 eBay X20 bike which unfortunately was stuck in 3rd gear all the way.

We took it gently, no more than 35 miles in a day, and managed to find the only decent weather of summer.

It was fun and frustrating in equal measures, the track was incredibly poor ( by footpath standards) in lots of places, rutted grass and mud followed by bumpy stone.

Other parts were great, like riding on road.

We met plenty of friendly cyclists ( and a fair few miserable ones) and ramblers.

By far the worst part was the fishermen who went out of their way to get in everyone elses.

We didn't have a single whinge from the children which was great and it made an excellent family break and raised quite a lot for a wonderful charity.

Would we do it again - no chance, next time we'll find somewhere with a decent surface.

Anyone know any good routes to Paris!

 

[Globalti]

Wow! Congratulations to you all; you certainly have the right to call yourselves proper cyclists. More right than most in fact.

Any photos?

 

[crisscross]

Hi rigid, many thanks for that.

We really aren't cyclists, the bike will probably hibernate now til spring when I have another stooopid idea!

Not sure how to post the pics, bad cyclist, worse I.T. man!

When I work it out I will post a few.

ps to re-ignite the "worst town in Lancashire" not so serious debate.

We stopped in Rishton, near Burnley (I think) and the locals were fabulous, we had a picnic and the local kids entertained us with a gymnastic display.

Don't think they see many tourists!

 

[Globalti]

Well posting pics isn't hard - just open a Photobucket account and upload a few shots then start a thread on here and copy and paste the URL links from Photobucket, enclosing them between

 

[colly]

Congratulations to all of you.

Quite an adventure I expect. I wonder how many of your little ones friends will have something quite so energetic to report for their holiday fun.

 

[crisscross]

Thanks colly, they took it all in their stride and everytime we stopped for lunch / the evening they went to play in the park whilst I struggled to stay awake!

The scariest part of the whole trip was when Jack copied the kids in Rishton and did a somersault straight onto his back!

 

[crisscross]

Managed to post some pics, they are in the gallery section

http://www.cyclechat.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=840509#post840509

hope they are visible.