Leeds and Liverpool Canal Charity Ride!

[Hop3y]

Thanks Jim,

The 7 day forecast shows sun with a little showers. Eek!

 

[GarethB]

Hope all going well for you , weather not been too good hope this hasn`t affected you too much, been reading all your posts which will come in handy as we are doing it on friday 9th sept 2011 aim is in one day going for 13 hrs but will have to see how my body reacts lol

 

[GarethB]

how ya get on. was one hell of a ride, i fet so drined by 37 miles , had a brife pit stop outside dw stadium , dunked my bike in the canal to clear the mud from the gears , had a mars, banana and a drink and found my 2nd wind i felt great although all the locks through wigan did slow me down and the god dam gates why do they need so many and so close , i was just building up momentum then stoping for the gates lol.anyway we carried on looking forward to the half way point sign. what a relif when we arrived lol. a little break and off again got to the burnley tunnal in no time were we met a local man who guieded us through the streets to the other side cycled with him (using him as a pacemaker ) till foulbridge cargo cafe were we were stopping for some much needed grub (refueling) stopped for an hour drinks bottles rifilled and off again , feeling positive refreshed and the knowledge of all the downhill locks bring em on lol, couldn`t belive how knackered i was but still saying this sounds strange but i`m really enjoying this lol 36 miles to go kept a steady pace round the muddy grass tow paths with a few near misses of falling in the canal arrived a bingley to darkness rest, lights on and off again only thing keeping us going was knowing we had 16 an a bit miles to go with the added challange of doing it in the dark 4 miles down one of the lights battery ran out carried on , got to rodley and had a good feeling we`ve made it to leeds we`re on the final leg about 7 miles to do carried on finaly got to the last bridge with the final lock in sight what a feeling welcomed by my dad an a few others and a nice bottle of ice cold beer , that was needed lol
set off at 5:20 am arrived at 21:42 total cycling time was 12 hours 34mins and belive it or not the last 3rd was done in a quicker time then any of the other 2

 

[Hop3y]

Done!

137.6 total miles, 13.5 hours cycling time, 16 punctures and 5 de-camps we finally made it to Leeds and completed our challenge.


Full Blog Post Here

 

[corshamjim]

Chapeau to both of you. It sounds like this isn't one to try on a dainty road bike then!

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

Chapeau to both of you. It sounds like this isn't one to try on a dainty road bike then!

i did it in a day on a brompton, 16inch wheeled folder....but i wouldn't do it again on anything less than 26"/1.5 or 700c/28

well done hopey and all for a good cause.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

Done!

137.6 total miles, 13.5 hours cycling time, 16 punctures and 5 de-camps we finally made it to Leeds and completed our challenge.


Full Blog Post Here

well done, sounds like hell in the rain, i did it on a beautiful day and set off from leeds.

as for next year, well there are over 2000 miles of canals, or you could do the mary townley loop in a day, not quite as hard, but hard enough or even do the whole pennine bridleway.

 

[GarethB]

just been reading your blog , well done, think we were lucky we only had slight drizzal in the morning and the sun was out in the afternoon , not out long enough to dry out the gargrave to silsden stretch, i struggled on the muddy grass veges coming out off liverpool more than the gargrave to silsden section, how good were them locks on the last 3rd , sorry to here about the weather , think we are going to do the same ride next year in june try to improve on our time

 

[towpathtreks]

Well done to everyone who has done the ride in less than perfect weather conditions.

Any advice for other people thinking of doing this ride?

Anything you would have done differently? Any kit or anything you wish you had had? Anything you didnt need that you did have?

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

Well done to everyone who has done the ride in less than perfect weather conditions.

Any advice for other people thinking of doing this ride?

Anything you would have done differently? Any kit or anything you wish you had had? Anything you didnt need that you did have?

i will use a full size bike next time with as wide a tyre as i can get on my bike, in fact i reckon my n+1 will be the surly pugsley, a perfect towpath bike.

like i said before, it can be done on pretty much any bike in the dry, in the wet is a different story, mud plugger tyres are needed.

oh and turn right at wigan instead of left!!

 

[towpathtreks]

oh and turn right at wigan instead of left!!

depends which way you are going!

 

[superbadger]

Well done guys.... . Im in the middle of Leigh so you should have stopped for a brew?... Yea thick nobblies needed for that trek.. Glad you all made it safe and well

 

[Milkybarman]

Did the ride in June, from Liverpool to Leeds, in reasonable conditions. I think next year, we'll try it in the other direction. The worst section of the whole ride was around Gargrave, and bearing in mind the 15 miles from the Liverpool end were pretty good going, hopefully it will be a bit easier in that direction ; get the bad bit out of the way early.
Advice on what to take / leave behind - tricky one, we did it in one day, with no support vehicle, so we took bare minimum, but made sure that bikes were as prepared as possible. Punctures are the killer, Hop3y's team had 16 amongst 8 (?) riders, we used slimes, and had none (but there were only 3 of us). We all took small paniers, and stashed snickers / mars bars, then carried no more than 1ltr of water at a time. Plenty of places to top up, you just have to keep a look out.
Well done to all that have done it - its a hell of a ride, but that feeling when you get to Lock 1.......