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Ok folks, some advice please. It appears that ive thrown myself into what will turn out to be a works coast to coast ride next year. At the pub this sounded like a good idea. A few days of riding about and enjoying myself but after having a chat with a bloke that’s done it he just laughed and mutterd something about hike a bike and blacksail pass.
So I looked this up on tinternet and it sounds like a right job. The route (the mbr one) looks ok but all the “reviews” say its bloody hard and to give yourself plenty of time. Were doing it in 5 (poss 6 tops) days and with a mixture of 50 year olds that are fit and myself which is pretty unfit.
So. Firstly im quite unfit. I do one 15 mile ride a week and I know that this isn’t going to cut it. Ive started cycling the 3 miles to work and back but again Im guessing that I will need to up this. Does anyone know of any training tips / guides etc that I could follow to help me really improve my fitness?
Next thing is the bike. The guys im going with are all buying new bikes for the trip. Probably carbon full sussers or some description. However I was planning to take my old orange 5. Will it be tough work? Anything I can do to make it easier / more fun?
Any tips and advice? Were still in the planning stages to can accommodate changes etc.
Cheers
you have an orange 5 and do one 15 mile ride a week? give your bike to me.
🙂
i fit the stereotype, what can i say
which route are you doing? i don't know which the mbr one is but done a couple of C2C routes
Will it be tough work? Anything I can do to make it easier / more fun?
It will be tough at times, but it will also be fun.
We did it in 5 days, which was enough to enjoy it but it was also a challenge.
I did it ten years ago (seems like yesterday!). We stayed in B&Bs and used these people to carry the bags to each stop. Well worth the cost and they know some great B&Bs!
http://www.c2cpackhorse.co.uk/
Stick with your rides to work, but try and up your weekend ride to 30+ miles. And stick the odd 40+ miler in.
The Lakes will be the hardest bit, after that it gets easier, especially the middle of the country.
We followed this route (Tim Woodcock's)...
http://www.sustrans.org.uk/shop/route-maps-guides/coast-coast-mountain-bike-route-pack
More info...
http://www.ctc.org.uk/sites/default/files/file_member/201005036.pdf
were looking at doing the mbr (tim woodcock?) route
ah - my favorite ride 😉 the first couple of days in the lakes are the hardest, be prepared to carry bikes for an hour or so up black sail. its a bitch but the descent to wasdale is worth it 🙂 once over black sail, everything is ridable or at worst you can actually push a bike up it!
yorkshire dales and north york moors are much easier going, good opportunities to bag some big miles days as only doing 20-30 miles in a day on a 200+ mile trip is a bit of a downer on the first couple of days in the lakes.
orange 5 would be perfect bike - maybe less so if you're carrying your gear as you can fit more stuff in a frame bag on a hardtail. if you're supported then it'll be fine for the job
first time i did it i was about average fitness for a mtb'er and did it in 3 1/2 days on my own carrying my own camping gear, mainly as i only had that time to do it! i'd say 5 days would be fine for an average rider without going crazy and 6 would be very comfortable
as for training you'll be best upping your mileage tbh, maybe get up an hour earlier and make a longer commute to work, or just extend rides at weekends if time allows. you'll want to stock up on energy food as well to see what you like/don't agree with for long days out so its not a steep learning curve out on the trip
if you're into old school navigating i found the descriptions and maps in tim woodcocks book very good. they'll be plenty of gpx routes floating about if thats your thing. worthwhile getting a copy of the book and some map extracts to take with you so you can plan the day ahead/diversions/routes off high ground in a storm etc (one of my pet hates are the gps dependents who get stuck when the battery dies... no offence if you use gps i do too!)
i'm sure i have a pdf of the book/maps somewhere on my emails - email me if you want it and i can send it over
Carrying up Black Sail Pass...
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With pipe-lagging for the carry bits...
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Done this route 3 times
Once carrying all our kit and twice with packhorse moving our stuff
I would say don't even think about carrying kit, it's much more enjoyable having stuff moved from place to place,
Fantastic ride, orange will be perfect , but yiu do need to up your fitness, it's not easy, especially the first two days
One of my favorite descents anywhere is on this ride , off the moor into boot , cracking stretch do singletrack.
If it's the one featured in the magazine a few years ago, the mbr route is pretty similar to, but not exactly the same as, the Woodcock route - to be fair iirc the changes are ones where Woodcock didn't pick the best of routings.
Picking up on what gazc said, you could do it in fewer days and, counter-intuitively, this might be easier than a greater number of shorter days - you've ridden harder than you usually do for the last five days straight - how are you going to feel setting off on the morning of day 6? Possibly like you never want to throw your leg over a bike again..
On training, as well as building up the distance on individual days (looking for 30-40 if you're doing it in 6 days or so, I guess), you need to be able to ride day after day: take that once-a-week 15 miler on Saturday and see how it goes doing it again on Sunday....
And enjoy it - passing through some of the best scenery this country has to offer under your own steam is something to savour.
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/BikepackingfromStBeestoWhitby
We did the Woodcock route earlier this year. There's a ton of climbing. Get fitter and carry the minimum of gear.
Mosedale was the worst section for me - it had been raining non stop for weeks though
Mose dale was a nightmare for us too
We were shattered and cold when we got off the moor, had 3 pots of tea and fish and chips to recover
This was taken in Mosedale (mid June) - apparently this was the driest it hand been since the previous August...
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