Folks
My pal and I rode Carlisle to Cramond (Edinburgh) overnight last summer, inspired by reading accounts of the Dunwich Dynamo.
We’ve decided to do it again, on the weekend closest to the summer solstice, and have set up a webpage (www.ridetothesun.co.uk) and Facebook page (Ride to the Sun – Scotland) to throw it open to others that might want to join us.
Saturday 20th June, 100 miles exactly, one 7 mile climb up from Moffat to the Devil’s Beef Tub. The chippy in Moffat is staying open late to feed people, and the cafe at Cramond harbour will open early when folk get there.
Its a lovely route on good roads.
36 entrants currently, have just gone ‘live’ on Friday.
Anyone interested?
Cheers
Fraser

A very long way away from me here in Hampshire but bookmarked ‘just in case’.

MB that would be a long way! We have someone coming up from the Midlands, we know that is probably the longest way so far.
And this afternoon we got our 50th registration, so people are keen!

route through hawick and inners?

I’m in

Retrodirect – http://www.ridetothesun.co.uk/routes.html
Carlisle to Longtown, Gretna, then onto the B7076 up to Moffat. Chip shop, the climb, then down into the Tweed valley – through Broughton, left at Leadburn, Penicuik, then through the west side of town to the beach at Cramond.
Nice route and easy to follow. And the climb out of Moffat is lovely – a great steady gradient.
Happy to answer any more questions, and we’ll have a FAQ tab on the website in the next couple of days.

Bump for the evening crowd

Nice. I’ve done Carlisle to Edinburgh but opted to route via the A7 to Langholm (the Samye Linge), Tushielaw, Gordon Arms, Innerleithen and The Granites.

FWIW, you don’t have to go via Longtown to Gretna, there’s a marked cycle route all the way.

Having done the DD a few times I hope this takes off as it sounds a great route. Good luck.

Colin, we thought about that route (and may come back to it at some stage, or just do it another time ourselves) but we thought that the route we’ve gone with would be easy to follow, and by going the longer route to Longtown be pretty much 100 miles on the dot. We’ll just see how it goes. We had also considered Alnmouth in Northumberland as a starting point – up the coast, up the Tweed, over the Granites etc.

Ah – essential detour for the 100 miles. Makes sense 🙂

edit: just been reading the website

Fraser

Can I just say “That looks pure dead brilliant man” . 🙂

Fair play.
I’ve registered interest.

Thanks for that fasthaggis, that quote might end up on the Facebook page and website!
75 riders signed up as of last night, which is great!

How are people getting to/from the start/finish.

If it is only 100 miles I could ride over to Carlisle during the day 😉

Interested but have a few other plans for June and need to work out what my legs can take.

jonba – we’ll be taking the train down I’d imagine, perhaps a bit earlier in the day so that we are there as folk start to gather at the proposed start. however, as its just the two of us organising it and its a free event, we don’t want to have to sort out everyone’s travel plans (as an example we don’t want to organise luton vans for people’s bikes then get abuse when they get scratched or damaged), but given the interest we have had we will perhaps set up a forum for people to discuss and organise together. we have had a quote for a coach for 49 people (Edinburgh-Carlisle) that worked out at less a tenner each. we have also received quotes from Stanley Taxi’s ‘The Bike Bus’ and that is £30 for one way in a mini-bus, with bike on a trailer, either down to Carlisle on the Saturday or from Ed-Carlisle on the Sunday. We didn’t know how many people might be interested, so will just have to see what we can do to help folk.

Ride to the start?

I’m in. Love the sound of this.

Riding to the start should be fine, I’m only in Newcastle. Bit to far to ride home again in one ride though. Had a look through your site and can either get the train home (easily) or book some accomodation and ride back the next day.

Jonba – my bro is in Sunderland and is thinking of making it a three day tour. Get to Carlisle, Ride to the Sun, then down the east coast!
Number are up to 86 this morning, so folk seem to be liking our idea!

100 riders! A century of centurions!

Pretty keen to give this a try too.

Sounds like the route used at the top of the LEL. I’ve still got the strava KOM for the stage 🙂
It’s a damn nice ride. Tempted…

125 registered.
ir_bandito – there are some fit lads doing it that will be keen to take your KoM off you!

That three day/night tour option sounds ace. Have roped in some mates for the main event, wonder if they’d be up for it…

A few of us are planning to ride down from Edinburgh in the morning 🙂

Doh! Looks great but riding stoker on a tandem for the DD next year!!

Possibly interested…

there are some fit lads doing it that will be keen to take your KoM off you!

Go for it. If you reckon you can average over 30km/h over 80km. After riding 625km from London.

http://app.strava.com/segments/5011789

I’m in. I like the idea of riding both ways, but I’d probably do it a day or so beforehand and enjoy all that Carlisle has to offer during the day…

checked the tides? worth having a bbq on cramond island at the other end? get there before it closes off?

scandalous – we we don’t clash with the Dunwich Dynamo. We are riding as close to the solstice as possible, while they are first full moon in July I think. Get involved!
ir_bandito – big performance! You carried straight on at Leadburn, but we’ll be turning left and down through Penicuik. Your KoM is safe!
Exploring Cramond Island could be an option for folks, but we’ll leave that up to folk to suss out for themselves. Not sure I want to contribute to the ‘200 cyclists trapped on Cramond Island’ headlines!

Exploring Cramond Island could be an option for folks, but we’ll leave that up to folk to suss out for themselves

😀

people sussing things out

That’s the reason why the Queensferry lifeboat is the busiest in Scotland.

Thats me registered now better get some long rides in. I’m liking the sound of the 3 day tour as im in newcastle so a nice little round trip.

http://rnli.org/NewsCentre/Pages/RNLI-text-service-to-reduce-incidents-at-Cramond-Island-after-nearly-600-rescued.aspx
600 in five years, FFS!

Fraser
Bloody tourists,aye 😉
Even as kids ,we always paid attention to tide times around the island.
The stories about rats as big as cats ,(that came out after dark) had us terrified of being stranded there. 🙂

My favourite that I saw last year was the two parents and their kids that set off from the island when the causeway was already covered…waist (adults) and chest (kids) deep by the time they got back to Cramond!!

We now have 150 entrants, anyone else want to join us?
Merry Christmas all!
Fraser

Couple more roped in…