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Evening all
I'm currently riding the route above and thought I'd share my charity blog page here for any of you who may be interested. I've always wanted to ride this island of ours, and the time came for me to get on and give it a go.
I'm lucky in that I have no time limit, as I quit my job, and though my bank account is suffering I'm enjoying, and often enduring, my slow paced journey. The blog is some way behind me as I'm actually near the Scottish border but you can read how I've done on the way to Snowdon. Taken a detour via the Isle of Man too so I will certainly not be setting any records. It's more about serendipity.
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I'd like to get over a grand for my charity, The Bristol Children's Hospital, so any donations from fellow mountain bikers would be most gratefully received, and spur me on to get to the top of the UK. If not just you can just read the witterings of a bloke on a bike, bikepacking though brexit Britain.
Cheers
Mark
Well sometime ago I finished my trip, and thought I'd post a few bits for anyone who wants to do something similar, and beat my time 🙂 I got to JOG but you can see the Orkneys just a few miles away, so I had to keep going!
From the bottom to the top of Great Britain, calling at: Isles of Scilly, Lands End, Bodmin Moor, Dartmoor, Mendips, Brizzle, Bike Park Wales, Portmeirion, Antur Stiniog, Snowdon, Anglesey, Liverpool, Isle of Man, Snaefell, Skiddaw, Gretna Green, Glasgow, West Highland Way, Glencoe DH, Fort Bill DH, Loch Ness, John O Groats, Kirkwall, Scara Brae, Lerwick and Muckle Flugga.
The bike was amazing - just 1 puncture, 1 new rear tyre...oh and an entire replacement geartrain.
Awesome kit:
The Remedy - the perfect bike for riding absolutely everything and everywhere.
Wheels -Derby 35mm 29ers w/SON dynamo hub & XTR Rear & Bont XR3/4s….Super strong, super stiff (vital when fully loaded) and the tyres run fast on the road and grip everything off road.
Fox Attack Waterproof jacket n shorts - pricey but kept the crap out in virtually every weather and still look brand new.
EVOC FR Trail Rucksack...if you need to carry a lot, this is as good as it gets. But my back would have preferred a large dropper compatible saddle bag, which I think still doesn't exist.
Alpkit bags - Rugged, pretty waterproof and they looked amazing in white. At the beginning...on reflection, white is a stupid colour for mountain bike bags! My own fault but I do think they made the bike look lighter. Which was intentional.
Google Maps bike mode - keeps you off the main roads and navigates on cycle paths, fantastic. Just make it work offline!
Average kit:
Ortleib small saddle bag - works with a dropper, but carries chuff all. Meaning too much in the rucsac :/
Dynamo USB charger - works from slow speeds but only enough current to maintain a charge when using GPS. And I could feel the drag. For emergencies only. A dynamo is great for lights, but I never needed lights.
I wanted to ride it all off road but realistically… a) it's slow going b) it gets harder to find bridleways as you go north c) it's slow going.
It was one hell of a summer, made even more surreal by the country gradually falling apart as I rode. But whatever the politics, we live on some amazing islands. And if you want to do this faster the time to beat is….two and a half months!
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Tresco - Isles of Scilly
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Dartmoor - I think I scared off a Vulture that was eating this
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They love Her Maj in zummerzet
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Finally made it to Bike Park Wales
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Snowdon - 3rd time lucky!
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The Isle of Man - yes, it's weird
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Hesket Newmarket - Probably the best pub in the world
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Boats - the only vehicles I used
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The old road to Glencoe - the rider wasn't pushed but the bike was. A lot.
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Glencoe - not a bad camp site
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Fort Bill DH - I rode it. And walked it. And fell off.
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The beach at John O'Groats - a genuinely sad sight
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Orkney - Churchill barriers at Scapa Flow
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Muckle Flugga, Unst, Shetland - Done!
Blimey, well done that man 😯
My god that's outstanding. Well done oooooo, nice one.
I love the off road detours, splendid idea.
Wow that's a hell of ride.well done
fantastic achievement 🙂
Missed the Op or I'd have been pressing for updates.
That`s just made my Friday worse!!One for the memory bank, Happy days!!
Epic ride ooOOoo. I think I saw you at the Hope show.
Cracking Mark. well done. truly inspiring.
Fantastic trip!
I would love to to something like that - but commitments! Envious and impressed in equal measure - what an adventure 🙂
Best I managed to do was ride my 1200cc motorbike from Cumbria to Shetland this year, and that was bad enough through the torrential storm that decided to hit on the way up!
nice work.
Brilliant stuff and well done, that's quite a trip. I'll have a proper read when I have a bit more time.
That's epic.
I love the fact you quit your job, got on the bike and just rode it.
Brilliant.
That's good stuff.
I'd love to see the route in detail.
Thanks for posting this. I've got 3 months off work next summer. LeJog is on my list of things to do,until reading this I'd never have thought about doing it on the MTB!
Go for it! Personally I couldn't have faced doing it on a road bike, being restricted to just roads. Though meeting people along the way who were, and were doing it in 9-10 days was humbling.
Thanks everyone and thanks Seb for the donation today, it's close to my heart too. I did have the luxury of taking my time and just making it up as I went along, and my bank balance suffered accordingly.
I think I saw you at the Hope show.
No way! Are you a local? Some crazy horses up there!
Brilliant!! Very jealous. Why the funny black blobs around Gloucester area, one must be bike park wales but others?
Well done - what an epic trip
Why the funny black blobs around Gloucester area, one must be bike park wales but others?
That's other rides around where I live...should have turned those off.
Many thanks for the anonymous donation if that was someone on here.
I'll try and post some kind of GPS track of the route when I get a chance, though there's quite a few sections missing when I didn't have enough battery to run Viewranger.
That looks a great trip.