Preparing for Coast to Coast Whitehaven to Newcastle

[Chris Swift]

Hi All

Im now thinking of preparing for the event in May with a few guys from work. We are looking at doing this over 2 days.

Would i need a panieer and a bag? was thinking for clothes and other bits and bobs ? What do you guys do in regards to this?

What panieer and panieer bags do you guys use and recommend?

I would want my bike to be as light as possible.

Has anyone done the whitehaven to newcastle? can you give any tips? i have looked on youtube and the c2c site found a bit of info which is usefull.

I was thinking of replacing my tyres for the event for puntureless and carrying a folded non puntureless tyre with me.

As always your helps appreciated.

Chris

 

[Chris Swift]

Different people take different things with them. I'm planning to do C2C next year and will take a rack and a couple of panniers - but then I'm going to camp. When I go on tour, I always take waterproofs but not too many spare clothes/shoes etc. For a two day trip, you might get away with a bar bag and no rack/panniers.

Parts of it are quite hilly and some of the roads aren't brilliant.....so you might think about putting slightly thicker tyres on your bike (although you've not given us the details of what you will be riding).

Thankyou for your reply.... yes i shall be riding my triban 5 road bike. We plan on staying in a bnb's. I shall pop in my LBS and have a look, as if im buying something i want to buy something that im going to use more than once ie on more tours.

Do you think i should change my tyres for thicker ones then?

 

[theloafer]

good info here chris http://c2c.freeforums.org/ also info of out trip last july ..but we went sunderland

well we all got back on wed night a little bit weary.. total mileage was 220.40 no probs with bikes not even one p***ture and best of all 10 mins of light rain at nenthead..
sunday ride from carlisle down to whitehaven .we had to take the short route as when we arrived at newcastle st the train to carlise already had 9 bikes on so we had a 45 min wait for the next which ended up getting 8 bikes on (very helpfull staff) turned no one away
sunday.. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/188717232
monday. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/188717207
tuesday. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/188717152
w/day.... http://connect.garmin.com/activity/188717099

 

[Brains]

I'd say C2C is not possible in two days unless they are serious experienced cyclists. it would be 100 miles a day, and it's a bumpy 100 miles.

If these are normal run of the mill cyclists, then I'd be looking at four full cycling days and allow a bit of overtime, time off and return to base time.

I did it a few years back and we took five days including the return back on the train

 

[JohnClimber]

Chris

Are you planning on doing the route up through Carlisle then across Hadrians Wall?

If you do you need to start at the official start at Ravensglass, I did NCN 72 this summer http://www.sustrans.org.uk/ncn/map/route/route-72
I rode my CX bike and a frame bag, a seat post pack and a dry bag on the bars and nothing on my back.

First day - 10.45 am start - 113.2 miles & 3,393ft of climbing - 7hrs 11 mins
Bivi spot at Birdoswald here - http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?...archp=ids.srf&dn=553&ax=361684&ay=566451&lm=0

2nd day mainly downhill with a tail wind - 71.4miles & 2,922ft of climbing - 5hrs 16 mins

Total - 188 miles in 12 hours 26 mins of riding.

Kit, Tarp, mat, sleeping bag, water, light weight cooking kit, dried food.

Food top ups from shops along the way, 2 x trains back to the start

 

[JohnClimber]

As for kit your best bet is to have a look at the Alpkit site, although there are several sites who sell similar things.

Seat post pack - http://www.alpkit.com/shop/cart.php?target=product&product_id=17042&category_id=324

Frame bag - http://www.alpkit.com/shop/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16786&category_id=324

Handle bar bags - http://www.alpkit.com/shop/cart.php?target=product&product_id=17027&category_id=324

Tarp - http://www.alpkit.com/shop/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16474&category_id=324

Bivi bag - http://www.alpkit.com/shop/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16312&category_id=324

For more ideas have a look on the Bear Bones website http://bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/pages/bikepacking.html

 

[lowrider73]

Bikepacking, is something, I've longed to do. Got some Alpkit stuff and maybe next year, I will do the C2C off-road. I like that tarp.

 

[Chris Swift]

Are you riding 23c tyres at the moment? Perhaps 25c will be a tad more comfortable, provided they will fit (with your frame/brakes).

Good luck...keep us posted on you training/progress

Thank you, yes 23s at present.

 

[Chris Swift]

good info here chris http://c2c.freeforums.org/ also info of out trip last july ..but we went sunderland

well we all got back on wed night a little bit weary.. total mileage was 220.40 no probs with bikes not even one p***ture and best of all 10 mins of light rain at nenthead..
sunday ride from carlisle down to whitehaven .we had to take the short route as when we arrived at newcastle st the train to carlise already had 9 bikes on so we had a 45 min wait for the next which ended up getting 8 bikes on (very helpfull staff) turned no one away
sunday.. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/188717232
monday. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/188717207
tuesday. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/188717152
w/day.... http://connect.garmin.com/activity/188717099

Thank you your info is very helpful.

 

[Chris Swift]

Chris

Are you planning on doing the route up through Carlisle then across Hadrians Wall?

If you do you need to start at the official start at Ravensglass, I did NCN 72 this summer http://www.sustrans.org.uk/ncn/map/route/route-72
I rode my CX bike and a frame bag, a seat post pack and a dry bag on the bars and nothing on my back.

First day - 10.45 am start - 113.2 miles & 3,393ft of climbing - 7hrs 11 mins
Bivi spot at Birdoswald here - http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?...archp=ids.srf&dn=553&ax=361684&ay=566451&lm=0

2nd day mainly downhill with a tail wind - 71.4miles & 2,922ft of climbing - 5hrs 16 mins

Total - 188 miles in 12 hours 26 mins of riding.

Kit, Tarp, mat, sleeping bag, water, light weight cooking kit, dried food.

Food top ups from shops along the way, 2 x trains back to the start

Sounds good and interesting.... Think we doing whitehaven, Keswick not sure I'm not in charge of the route. There is about 10 staff members at work doing it with me.

 

[Chris Swift]

As for kit your best bet is to have a look at the Alpkit site, although there are several sites who sell similar things.

Seat post pack - http://www.alpkit.com/shop/cart.php?target=product&product_id=17042&category_id=324

Frame bag - http://www.alpkit.com/shop/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16786&category_id=324

Handle bar bags - http://www.alpkit.com/shop/cart.php?target=product&product_id=17027&category_id=324

Tarp - http://www.alpkit.com/shop/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16474&category_id=324

Bivi bag - http://www.alpkit.com/shop/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16312&category_id=324

For more ideas have a look on the Bear Bones website http://bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/pages/bikepacking.html

Why thank you very useful info and sites

 

[Spinney]

I did it in 2.5 days, then back to Carlisle along part of the Hadrian's wall route - 4 days cycling in all.
As someone else has already said, you'll all need to be in training to do it in 2 days.

My memory of the road surfaces is that they are fine - there is a bit of offroad in the Whinlatter forest before you get to Keswick, but you can easily stick to the road there. And another long descent on gravelly paths into Consett - we rode that one, but I think there is a fairly parallel road you could take instead if you wanted to stick to skinny tires. From memory, all the rest was easily do-able on thin tyres.

 

[JohnClimber]

Here are my photos of the trip.

 

[Chris Swift]

I did it in 2.5 days, then back to Carlisle along part of the Hadrian's wall route - 4 days cycling in all.
As someone else has already said, you'll all need to be in training to do it in 2 days.

My memory of the road surfaces is that they are fine - there is a bit of offroad in the Whinlatter forest before you get to Keswick, but you can easily stick to the road there. And another long descent on gravelly paths into Consett - we rode that one, but I think there is a fairly parallel road you could take instead if you wanted to stick to skinny tires. From memory, all the rest was easily do-able on thin tyres.

Thank you. I'm looking at getting puncture less tyres?

 

[Chris Swift]

Nice one, John, thanks for posting

Awsome so carnt wait