Think a few of us might be doing this in September, any preference to finish point?

We would be doing it in 3 days, so not too many miles per day.
Would it be better to do it on a road bike, or a mouintain bike with skinny tyres?

ta

Did it last weekend, Friday wasn't the best day to set off from Whitehaven but it was organised weeks ago. 10 of us on a variety of bikes from my Blur to a 700cx23 tyred road bike. If you want to do all the off road sections, a mountain bike is definitely preferrable, especially over the Old Coach Road nr Threlkeld and the section up from Rookhope and along the old railway line which is quite rough in places, you might also want to do a lap of the Whinlatter trail. All in all it is a pleasant ride and well signposted. We finished at Sunderland which uses a nice trail round the Stadium of Light. Great B&B at Motherby House and Bunkhouse at Allenheads broke the route up into sensible sections.

Road bike every time, you just have to watch every one going past my door on a Sat morning killing themselves up a not big hill on mountain bikes. Swap the tyers and enjoy.

mountain bike with semi slick would be fine – in fact any bike is fine – saw very few people on tourers most on mountain bike or hybrids

the proper offroad bits looked good.

if you want to take a proper look at the route and hills, maps, speeds etc etc see these GPS plots:

C2C Day 1 Whitehaven to Culgaith
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/32232032

C2C Day 2 Culgaith to Stanhope
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/32232010

C2C Day 3 Stanhope to Sunderland
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/32231996

As you can see only did 3.5 hours of riding on day 2 and 3.

Great fun, though some of the climbs are a little tough on the old 2 speeds… 😆 but with some grinding/zigzagging only had to walk 200m of the route on a hill just outside Gaggergill – rode up the rest – quite gratifying when people were walking up pushing their mountain bikes.

made over 10mph average each day, and damn headwind each day as well!

Did it over 3 days, but 2 would have been fine as did not ride much on day 2 and 3.

Some Pictures
Start:

Winlatter

not many mechanicals, though had a rear tyre blow out with 6 miles to go and some glass did the front in with 2 miles so did that last mile of so with flat tyres..

Brompton-tastic. Love it. 😀

Did it a couple of weeks ago on a Cotic Soul with ust crossmax rear and a ust Larsen front, no problems at all tyre wise. If you are reasonably fit you shouldn't have any problems, plus it gives you the options of doing the offroad bits. The offroad alternative to the Stanhope section is a pleasure, never done the road climb but a lot struggle on it. This time we did Alston on the first day, some of our group who were not very fit, on crap mtb bikes managed it.

I'd say Tynemouth not Sunderland it's a dump.

How far is it offroad? Is it doable in a one-r? That's what I fancy.

148 miles inc all the off road bits Whitehaven>Tynemouth (done in '05)

Been done in a day lots of times I'd imagine, has been done in ~10 hours IIRC, but that might have been the on road route.

Finish in Tynemouth, Sunderland's not a good place to end the ride.

We're doing it on the 24th July in one day. Doing it on a cross bike, a flat-barred road bike & a mtb hardtail. The flat-bar & the mtb will be using either slicks/700cx28mm tyres or semi's & CX tyres (depending on bike obviously).

We're aiming to do the road route, so how much off-road do we 'have' to do?

One day will be tough…but do able, – also take it you are not taking luggage . Just start early so you do not stuck behind others on narrow bits the 'road' route is mostly tarmac, though there are cinder tracks, and smooth ish old rail tracks. Though the only rougher bit was the trail down from Winlatter going east… Hard going on the Brompton with luggage! All the bits that people say will kill you are hard in places but not like people make out – especially if you have gears!

No luggage & aiming to set off at 6am. We have a rolling support team with hot food, drinks etc. Aiming to hit Sunderland at 8pm but TBH we'll be happy to make it in 24hrs! 😆
I think we may just put in a few detours on the road rather than the cinder tracks on narrow road tyres. How 'draggy' are a set of CX tyres then….? 😛

No luggage answer support is cool, we carried all our stuff ourselves about 6kg, lunch at pubs and breakfast / evening meal at B&BYou/hotel

will be fine on 28 tyres on the route, most is tarmac, I have 700-28 gator skins on my road bike – seem fine on canal paths, cinder etc, though you could put a different tyre, like Schwalbe marathon or marathon racer

Think there are a mixture of bikes going – probably go on the mountain bike as my back gives me grief after 30-40miles on the road bike. Think i will need to get a few consecutive day rides in to suss out my fitness levels!
Thanks for the info Rootes, just hope it's nice and sunny when we do it.

Sunderland is the original end point.

I still think it'd be a better ride east to west.

Give me a wave if you do the Sunderland route – it passes within inches of my garage.

Sunderland is a grim place – go to Tynemouth and enjoy the plethora of pubs on Front Street. A much nicer place to finish a really long ride.

yer bit disappointed by the end point in Sunderland….

You clearly didn't try the corned beef pie, chips and gravy at the kiosk by the beach. Delicious 😛

Doing in a day is doable, i did it on a road bike in 12 hours (155 miles). So your target of 6 am to 8 pm depending on the fitness in your group is within reach

I'm looking at doing it in a day on a road bike in July and would like to stick to tarmac as much as possible. Are the road alternatives well sign posted or do you need to do a bit of route finding?

You clearly didn't try the corned beef pie, chips and gravy at the kiosk by the beach. Delicious

no but had a nice 99 flake…

just thought then might be a proper end point like there is a start point in whitehaven

I'd go for mountain bike with skinny but not slick tyres. Espcially if you're planning on doing the Old Coach Road.

We finished in Sunderland. Not much there but you could have a wash etc in the Sailing club by the Marina.

Did this years ago to sunderland on mountain bikes. Took 2 days with all the off road sections, and was great fun. But should have taken lights! Was definatly a slog in parts. If doing again, would probably go for road bikes, but if you've got 3 days, go for it!

Yeti – i'm aiming for 12hrs but the other bloke is aiming for a 12mph average so not sure if he'll make the 12. he's the one on the mtb as well…