Load the route onto a GPS for minimum faffage and stoppages navigating.

Get off the bike for 5 min every hour. I wouldn’t stop for a long time.

Snack little and often. Nuts, Mars bars and scotch eggs.

Plenty of water taps, but map them out and top up at everyone.

If its a clear day, use suncream.

Winchester to Eastbourne is better because of wind/views.

As for fitness, if you can ride OFF ROAD for 70-75 miles, you’ll be fine. For training I built up to 150 miles a week off road and I made it.

If its been raining a lot, I’d seriously consider postponing because wet chalk is like ice.

Go tubeless as said above. The only time I’ve punctured on it was when I had tubes.

Oh, and the biggest bit of advice about doing the SDW. Take a bell. It may not be “cool” but the walkers appreciate it and get out of your way. They might even open a gate for you.

I’ve did the BHF SDW in a day twice and live about 3 miles away from it.

I know its Monday but I was working the weekend.

100 mile training ride with fully loaded bike. Stopped off at hankley common, reminiscing about previous employment.

My friend works in the west of Scotland but she lives in Newcastle.

Anyways, I’m of the same opinion. Stopped looking at what others were getting on the shift app and realised either way, I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve been reading lots…..

https://flic.kr/ps/3W3rrJ

Really struggling to upload. I’m pretty thick.

Phil5556, where are you at?

Me and my other half both work staggered shifts as “key workers” and haven’t used it as a reason to send our daughter to school. One if us is always at home. TBF I’ve enjoyed spending loads of time with her but also glad she’s back today.

Other colleague’s in the exact same situation as us have sent they’re kids to school under the key workers umbrella. I’ve no opinion either way.

Furlough is a whole different kettle of fish. I’ve seen bitterness when people think they’ve not had they’re fair share. I just don’t want to go down that rabbit hole of misery and resentment so have just decided to accept it for what it is an focus on positive stuff. Like riding bikes.

We live on one thats about 150m in length with 8 dwellings. Its got loads of potholes which we accept, but when it gets too bad me and a couple of neighbours get a few bags of scalping, a whacker plate, a digital radio and some beers.

Some chip in for the scalping and tool hire and some don’t, but there’s no animosity.

I suppose it boils down to how nice your neighbours are.

The council have said they would adopt it but most don’t want it. Im ambivalent.

Cheese.

I’ve got leave for my 40th in the first couple of days of June. Planning on coming up from englandshire to stay at my mum and dads (haven’t seen them since last June).

I’ve played by the rules from the start and will continue to do so, but if I cant make it up then I will be well and truly gutted.

Fingers crossed.

Any recommendations for 29er, tubeless semi slicks? Schwalbe marathons seem to get good write ups.

I am worried about the amount of day light hours and sleep. I’ve got a buff that I usually pull down over my eyes but I’m going to need good recovery time.

I used to love my continental double fighters for commuting. Seriously fast on road and grippy on canal paths but they don’t come in tubeless.

Bowderdale, thats it! Oh well, maybe another time.😁

I see that bridleway you mean. The route so far stays on sustrans route 68 but i’ll add a note. Thanks for the tip!

Thanks folks, some positive responses which is what I needed. Every mate I’ve spoken to about it has pretty much said it’ll never be achievable. Kind of pi55ed me off!

The route is from Hampshire to E Ayrshire. The first couple of days should be fairly straight forward with about <1500m climbing per day. Once north of matlock this goes up to 2200m a day but I’ve dropped the mileage for those days. If things are going well, or I fancy using an extra day, I’ve planned an off road route section north of sedburgh. Its a highly recommended valley descent but the climb up looks like torture!

As for clothing, I was planning on a wet/dry routine with an extra pair of cycling shorts in reserve. And lots of vasaline.😀

True story….

English bar maid – so what are you doing here?
Me – teaching squaddies how to ski.
Ebm – hows it going?
Me – yeh good, might get some snow blades for them for a laugh.
Ebm-ever wonder why snow bladers always look wet?
Me-no,why?
Ebm-cause everyone spits on them from the lifts.
Me-ok, I’ll stick to my tellies.
Ebm- you tellie?
Me-yeh, why?
Ebm-fancy a gas chamber?

In all seriousness,they do have a place for giving confidence to beginners.

Lol at @cobrakai STWing when he’s ment to be controlling air traffic 😀

Just to clarify, it was night shift, I was on a break, but had stayed in the room to blether with a colleague. 😄

I’d take a picture of the radar screen in front of me but i wont, for 2 reasons.

1. Theres nothing to see.
2. The company get funny about that sort of thing.

The stats on the info board say overall flights are down 62% on the same period last year. Personally it feels a lot quieter than that would suggest. Its almost night shift levels of traffic during the day.

My current set up is topeak frontloader, alpkit custom frame bag and the ortlieb 11l saddle bag.

My new set up is ditching the ortlieb and using the toppeak 29er disc rack and dry bags.

Like you said, the ortlieb is good but its a faff. At least with the rack I can use double ended dry bag for easy access to kit and also strap odds and sods on when required.

The top peak frontloader is pretty much faultless and the aplkit frame bag as cavernous.

I’m planning on cycling home to Ayrshire from Hampshire for my 40th at the end of May. Fingers crossed.

Dad (70) getting jabbed next Sunday. Mum(67) not heard yet.

I’ve mainly just been on one nighters in the South downs but last year I managed a loop from Winchester – lymington – isle of wight for a bivvy – ryde – Portsmouth – gosport – meon valley then SDW back to Winchester.

The weather was great, pubs were open and the bivvy spot had the best views of the sunset over the Channel. Really was the highlight of last year.

This year im planning on on Winchester to Ayr using sustrans and the penine bridleway.

It’s East Ayrshire.
Know = related, no?

Thats why I moved to Hampshire. The gene pool is getting stagnant in the shire.

For info, my gran (Wilson) was from Auchinleck and had 10 brothers and sisters. Thats a lot of aunties,uncle’s, cousins etc.

My Uncle Eeny posted that on his Facebook page a couple of years back. Apparently he knew him, but to be fair, he knows everyone in Auchinleck. Great watch.

Meon valley trail gets a bit samey but loop in 100 acres and old winch hill can make it a bit interesting.

You obviously know the SDW but as previously stated there are some good long tracks that converge on cheesefoot head.

I was bikepacking on the isle of wight between lockdowns and was quite impressed how easy it was to jump on the ferry over there.

I’ve got the fenix 5 x.

For downloading rotes for nav its great. If you miss a turn, the map is good enough to find your way back on course.

Im using it for touring and on 100mile routes I only use 50% of the battery and it charges in no time. The only issue is if the route is too big, it loses accuracy as not all points will be shown. I break the routes into 50mile segments and its fine.

For planning it’ll be pretty crap so I still use garmin connect, komoot or cycle.travel for that. Cycle travel is particularly good as it will send the route you’ve planned direct to your garmin account.

Thanks Nobeer!

That Mauchline loop is pretty much my “the daughters in bed, take advantage of free childcare” ride when I’m up the road. Usually with a stop at the fairburn…

My brother knows who built the stuff at ballochmyle. Cant remeber his name for the life of me but he’s made some stunning looking trails.

Once wee sturgeon let’s me come up ill go investigating. Cheers!

Sorry, don’t know what your lockdown rules are at the moment!

@nobeer if you have any routes could I have a nosey too? When I’m up the road visiting the parents im usually time short, so I’d love a gpx or 2 so that I can just plug in and go. Id return the favour if you’re ever daan saarf!

I think theres trails down by auchincruive just outside Ayr.

Also by Loch doon/bellsbank there’s routes in the woods there.

I’m in Hampshire now but originally from Mauchline. My mates still ride locally round there and I do when I’m up the road, but it’d be a pain to describe where. look at stravaheat map. Theres lots of cheeky stuff.

Just did a 100 miler today.

Listened to music on my phone (not in airplane mode), vaped away as normal, used the garmin for nav and had 2 flashing lights front and rear.

I’ve charged everything back up to 100% and its only used up 20% of my 30000mah bank. Im thinking if I’m careful and top up the bank as and when I can, I might be able to get away with 1 week using it.

I’ve got a fenix 5x for nav. I can easily get 12hrs from it in nav mode. It also charges very quickly so it can be topped up at night.

On airplane mode my phone practically lasts forever but I share my location with my wife for safety reasons so can’t have it on airplane mode all day.

The vape charges pretty quickly and will probably do that overnight to.

Any lights I have will be charged during the day.

The bank I have has pass through and 2 charging ports so pretty flexible with that.

I like the look of the luxos IQ, purely for simplicity as I wouldn’t need a separate USB charger. Some of the reviews are not to kind about the weatherproofness of it though?

Arrrrrrgh! Im really torn! My tighter than a submarine door scottish background is leaning towards just using the 2 power banks (10000mah and 30000mah) i already have.

The problem is I really want to be self sufficient and I’m planning two 7 day trips next year. Theyre UK based so I’m sure I could poach some power from cafes and pubs to top up the banks but I dont want to have the constant worry of finding somewhere to charge stuff. I just want to go!

Some great helpful advice folks, the forum comes up with the goods time and time again!

I dont think ill use the whole 10000mah in a day so hopefully not need to cycle that long! From memory it fully charged my phone (which hadn’t been on flight safe), garmin and vape and used only half of the power.

So let me just clarify the kit you would need.

Hub
USB unit (don’t know much about these)
Connecting leads.

Any recommendations and advice on fitting?

The main trip will be Southampton to Ayr for charity. Looking at strava for the trips I’ve done so far (gravel, cycle paths, south downs) I’m averaging between 15 and 20kph. The route north will be similar, if not faster as it’ll mostly be country lanes.

I’ll be taking a fast charger as back up for longish cafe/pub stops.

I’m looking at charging a 10000mah power bank during the day to boost the other kit at night when I stop.

I won’t be riding at night so just needs to charge some day time flashing lights and ill have a petzl USB head torch.

If I dont take the vape, I may slip into some bad habits and get divorced!

Didn’t go to the village parade this year as I usually do.

Met my best mate from when we were both in and we went for a long walk on Thursley Common. Had a giggle about “top of the hill, GO!” And other nonsense. Both our phone alarms went at 1059 so we stopped and reflected.

Then carried on talking our usual crap talk and remembering lads we served with and the stupid stuff we used to do.

It felt like the most “right” remeberance day I’ve had.

Keppler merino padded shorts from alpkit. I want to test whether they smell as bad as my endura ones after a 2 day trip.

I use a variety to be fair.

Garmin, komoot, cycle.travel, viewranger.

Once I’ve made the route I want i download the gpx and save it in garmin for turn by turn nav on my fenix.

Also save it on OS maps as a back up.

By exporting the routes via email you can also have a folder with all your previous routes saved there.

I’ve had 2 pairs of screw fix ones in the past 5 years. £3 out of a big bucket next to the counter.

They are very similar to the decathlon ones.

My wife pointed me towards Yoga with Adrienne on YouTube. Highly recommend it.

As I was suffering from lower back pain (tight ham strings) I followed her lower back pain ones. Theres 2. 1 is 15min and the other was 30min.

Really improved my flexibility.

No words to be fair. Donated when he appeared on bbc news just after he started and been following ever since on Instagram.

I’ve done it in a day twice. After the 1st time I said never again……..

Wait until tomorrow when the sense of achievement really hits. Bloody well done!

3 weeks ago I fitted what codybrennan has put a picture of. Its a bar extender designed for extra light mounts, gopros etc. It works brilliantly at keeping the bag away from the hoses. At only £10 with a couple of utility straps its a very cheap but effective option for mounting a dry bag.

If it looks stupid but works its not stupid.