Newbie doing a sponsered cycle 500 miles

[Machine-gun-mike]

Hi everyone first post here, To fill you in i am doing a sponsered cycle from Loch Lomond up in the west coast of scotland to London Kew gardens for a charity called perrenial, Hoping to set of in the last week of june 2010, I am a downhill mountain biker and its a modified claudbutler stone river i own, Currently researching what road bike to use to train on and also use for the cycle, I have a budget of £500 for the bike without any accesories, What would you suggest? Also what is the best sat nav for bycicles?

 

[Machine-gun-mike]

Bump! Anyone got any advice?

 

[jimboalee]

You are doing ( more or less ) what Adrian Chiles did for Sports Relief with Alan Shearer and another five riders, two support vehicles full of crew, drinks and nosh; and a Specialized Bicycles Pro mechanic.

Adrian was a 'Newbie' before he started training.

Adrian & Co. rode Specialized Tarmac Pro road bikes ( a tad more than £500 ) and they still suffered even though their distance of 525 kilometers was done at a 'relaxed' Audax average.
The fact that their breaks were too long and their roadspeed was too high contributed to the torture.

What average speed are you aiming to acheive?

 

[Machine-gun-mike]

Thanks for your reply Jimboalee,I am training to do it in 7 or 8 days although not sure if this is too ambitious or not. i currently cycle approx 120 miles a week which consits of 10 mile daily cycles in the morning and 2 additional grueling cycles on my day of, I havent got an average speed yet, and like i said i am a down hill cyclist and road cycling is completely new to me,what would you expect an average to be?Do you think this can this be done in 8 days? What is a good road bike to use and how much should i be spending on it? I have a budget of £750 including all clothes lights etc, £500 of that is for the bike but i can up that if it will be neccesary, I have a team of 3 traveling with me, 1 Physio, 1 Sport scientist and 1 first aider, I am hoping to get a crash course in repairing bikes with someone i know who owns a bike shop. Will this be enough?

 

[aJohnson]

If you know the route, find out how hilly it is ect... If it's fairly hilly, make sure you can handle the climbs and train that a bit. There are a few good bikes for around 500, a Specialized Allez, Giant Defy. I would say Trek 1.2 but I think that's about 600 now isn't it?

 

[jimboalee]

Yup. Can be done in a week. It's about 120 km per day.

I trained to do the LEJOG in seven days on a Spesh SWorks.

The LEJOG in fourteen would be on my Dawes Giro 500. ( Today's equivalent is the Giro 400. Similar spec', similar weight ).

120 km per day is 6 hours of riding at 20 km average ( 12.5 mph ) and a moderate AUK 100 km Populaire speed.

If you was to get off and push up steep hills, >12% for example, the time loss would not be overly detremental. To aim at 12.5 mph average for the day, a short few miles at higher speed will regain time lost walking up hills.

 

[accountantpete]

Tips

1) get a decent 2nd hand aluminium road bike.

2) then get a good pair of wheels - fulcrum racing 7's £150 at least - and Michelin Pro tyres.

3) Finally some clip-in road pedals (spd-sl) and learn how to use them.

Good luck.

If you get a new bike for £500 or so the things tend to flex so that every time you pedal energy is wasted - the above approach will minimise this wastage given the budget.

 

[jimboalee]

You've got 10 months to train which includes the winter.

Get a cheap heavyweight to train on and spend some time selecting the bike for the event. Look at the 'end of season sales'.

In six months, you will be able to ride a 100 Audax comfortably without need for a physio' or the other two.

In eight months, you will be able to ride 100 km rides back-to-back and probably a 200, again without the assistance of medical people.

Come next June, you will be gagging to go.

Tip. Get membership of a gym. The upright bike machine can simulate steeper hills than you will see on the ride.

 

[Machine-gun-mike]

Thanks for the replys guys,
Yea ive just bought a set of clip in pedals for the claud butler i am using and they make it quite easey to fall off at traffic lights!!I have a mate who owns a bike shop who reccomended this http://bikes.konaworld.com/09/09_sutra_uk.cfm

Re-Joining my old gym on friday to see if i can get fitness up, Will the claud butler i have be good enough to train on just now?
Again thanks for the advice, and sorry for the long posts, Millions of questions!!

 

[RedBike]

The claud butler is a cross country MTB. If you un-convert it from a downhill bike and fit slicks then it should do just fine for training.

The Kona will do fine, although you do realise it's a £1k bike?
It's probably overkill for what you want though. Assuming your not carrying all you own stuff (supported) then you'd be much better off on a light-weight racing bike with mud-guards instead of a full on tourer.

What you need is time in the saddle. Getting used to going out for 6+ hours at a time.

 

[jimboalee]

Anything that makes life more difficult is good to train on.

I trained for the LEJOG on both an SWorks Spesh ( 17 lb ) and an old Sun Tourer ( 27 lb ).
I did several 100 milers and AUK 200s on the tourer.
When I got on the SWorks, it fairly flew to the Wych gap up the Malverns.

I didn't rest though. Back on the heavy tourer for several more 100 mile trips to the Cotswolds.

When I though I was ready for back-to-back 200 kms, I rode the Spesh to Tywyn on Saturday, and home again on Sunday.

 

[skwerl]

You are doing ( more or less ) what Adrian Chiles did for Sports Relief with Alan Shearer and another five riders, two support vehicles full of crew, drinks and nosh; and a Specialized Bicycles Pro mechanic.

Adrian was a 'Newbie' before he started training.

Adrian & Co. rode Specialized Tarmac Pro road bikes ( a tad more than £500 ) and they still suffered even though their distance of 525 kilometers was done at a 'relaxed' Audax average.
The fact that their breaks were too long and their roadspeed was too high contributed to the torture.

What average speed are you aiming to acheive?

seems a bit daft to have put a newbie on a tarmac pro. But then I s'pose Spesh were more interested in the advertising than supplying kit that's best suited for the job

 

[Machine-gun-mike]

Yea i realise its a 1k bike but i am getting an exellent deal if this bike will suit,So much cheaper than 1k, It has to be!!! Think its time to wrack up the miles and see how i do,

 

[Machine-gun-mike]

Also Can anyone recomend a good budget sat nav for cycling or are we better going for a car one that is accurate to 1 mtr?

 

[RedBike]

The car ones wont work for very long when they're not plugged into a power socket. They're not very waterproof either!

Your best bet is to look at the Garmin series.
There's a few threads in the touring section of this site regard GPS devices.