http://www.hififorsale.com/adverts/for-sale has been around for quite a while. I sold some Cyrus amps on there 10+ years ago.

You’ll love it…I’ve had one since 2011 & it’s wonderful. Super duper fast, but comfortable enough for silly long rides. Enjoy!

Yay, someone else has already had a crack at the Ridgeway Double!!! (large418) Hopefully he’ll be along later to tell you all about it :-)

Cheers Andy. Those Lego Mindstorms look a bit mental…and £££ !!! 8O

singgletrackmind – take your pick! It’s a bit hillier/steeper & wooded in the northern section, more open and “ridge”-like west from Streatley. Lots of small car parks along the Ridgeway so pretty easy to start wherever you choose.

Actually that is quite useful, cheers :-)

Well there’s plenty of hike-a-bike further west in the route :-).

Terry – what would your preference be between the Fungle etc route as opposed to the way it currently goes, which is Bridge of Tanar – Glen Tanar – Mount Keen – Glen Mark – Tarfside? Cheers :-)

Ian – any chance you could email me a bigger version of that screenshot please? :-)

Awesome, thanks guys, will bury my head in the maps in a bit… :-)

Thanks skinnysteel. Yes such a terrible shame about Ivor, as you say he was a great guy.

The GPX files are now downloadable from the website… http://ridgewaydouble.net/%5B/url%5D

Download link is at the bottom of the page. The zip file contains two GPX tracks, one for each direction (other than that they are identical). They also contain waypoints for all the taps I’ve so far found along the route.

I hope they’re of use to people. Cheers!

Bivy bag with bug netting at the head area is the best solution imho. Bring a tarp if it’s going to rain. Having had bivies made of various materials, it seems totally feasible that someone could suffocate in many fully enclosed bivy bags…I mean, most of those fabrics aren’t *that* breathable.

I think “They Live” has already been mentioned, but it gets a huge +1 from me!

How about “Big Trouble In Little China”. Brilliant brilliant stuff!

Some interesting stuff about the various hour records here…

http://velonews.competitor.com/2014/09/news/answered-11-questions-jens-voigts-hour-record-attempt_345973

haha…I hear the Australian outback is nice & warm this time of year…and big. Perth to Sydney should keep you busy for a while :-)

hey, my wife’s been riding my titanium Pegasus for the past year. Works both ways, I say :-)

haha…can’t help you there I’m afraid. The off road LEJOG I’m also looking at, on the other hand…a double? :-)

Ah, weeksy you’re thinking of Gatehampton up into Great Chalk Wood. Nice riding up there, but the Ridgeway doesn’t go that way. This one goes from Goring up through the Stokes to just south of Wallingford, where it heads east on Grims Ditch for a short way before turning north towards Watlington and picking up the Ridgeway along the western base of the Chilterns for quite some distance.

Once I’ve finished faffing with the GPS tracks I’ll get them loaded to the website so you can see what I mean…or you can take a look at the Strava upload: http://www.strava.com/activities/195171633

akak – The photo posted on page 2 of this thread is me at the official start of the Ridgeway (opposite side of the road from the circle). There’s one of those signposts at either end of the route, so it feels nice & complete. In a happy coincidence, even though the signs refer to the *footpath* as being 87 miles end to end, this cycle route is also the same length. I’d like to say I planned that, but… :-)

FWIW, here’s the sign at the Ivinghoe Beacon end:

2014-09-13 16.00.06 by pedalhead_Mark_Goldie[/url], on Flickr

Thanks faustus – yes, the section onwards from Streatley has been a confusing mess for quite a long time, and was a big driver for my deciding to work out a proper, repeatable route. In many ways it does feel like a route of two halves…the north-eastern section is more wooded and with steeper hills whilst the south-western side is more “ridge”-like and exposed. I’ve had a soft spot for the Ridgeway for years but this whole exercise has made me fall for it even more as a route with a great variety of fairly un-daunting riding.

Nope, no Thames Path as that’s technically footpath (although you do see bikes on there all the time). From Goring this route mostly follows a mixture of Ridgeway, Swans Way and Icknield Way with the odd bit of road connector here & there.

James – understood on the motivation thing…very individual. Perhaps the new Highland Coast to Coast I’m working on might be one to light your fire… :-)

Pete – yes fair point, I tend to mention Avebury as it’s lodged in my head as the most local place, but actually it’s not really correct. I’ll change Avebury references to Overton Hill as that’s what’s mentioned on the Ridgeway signs.

Next year then, Dave :-). I still want to do a Trans Cambrian double sometime…so much on the list!

Dave – excellent…you know there’s only a single faff between our respective speeds :-)

Thanks guys. James…fancy a go? :-)

On the topic of a leaderboard for the Ridgeway single – it’s not the first time it’s been mentioned, but to be frank it’s not something I have a particular interest in setting up. I think a one way ITT of this sort becomes a very different type of challenge. For example, choose a nice windy day in the right direction and you have a huge advantage. For a multi-day ride that’s not a big deal as winds & weather shift, but for a route that could take as little as five or six hours I think it becomes less of a personal challenge and more of a Strava segment – there are enough of those around already ;-). I also wonder about the wisdom of encouraging the kind of pace you could do on a single ride on a shared trail like this. I’m on rather more dodgy ground there as clearly a double at a slightly slower pace has almost the same impact…but nevertheless it’s something to consider. I think there is a similar attitude out there with regards to the South Downs single.

So, whilst I’m really keen with this route to generate some interest around an entry-level ITT, I do think that level of entry should still be challenging – a real stretch for most of us. Of course, this is only my take on things as some random dude on the Internet. Anyone is free to set up a one-way leaderboard if they choose to :-).

Thanks guys! Really looking forward to getting some more names on the leaderboard. The route was absolutely designed as an easier alternative to the South Downs Double :-)

Cheers guys :-). adsh – gearing is 29er with 33/19 (Goldtec Onekey chainring). Could have gone with an 18T tbh.

Thanks Elaine! :-)

Good question :-). The easy answer is…I don’t own a geared mountain bike :D I do all my mtb riding & racing on singlespeeds. It’s not often that I feel the lack of gears holds me back…it was inevitable on this route however, which is why I chose to spin like a lunatic to post a half decent time. Anyway, I like the whole singlespeed/zen thing so I’m happy to go a bit slower if that’s the price to pay :-D.

Thanks Toby :-) ‘Twas very spinny in places!!

Personally I won’t use anything other than KMC nowadays. Have snapped SRAM & Shimano, but never a KMC past four years on multiple (singlespeed) bikes and lots of miles.

Most of the rutted bits are now closer to Avebury, past Barbury Castle.

Oh, and I’ll be updating the web site with the final route this week. You could of course just download my Strava track, but that won’t have all the tap locations ;-)

adsh – the Kingston Blount stretch of the Ridgeway was indeed no fun at all on the rigid :-)

Yep I’d agree with weeksy. Some stretches are begging for a fast CX bike. I think the bumps would do me in though…a lightweight geared hardtail is the ideal tool for the job I reckon.

Thanks weeksy! I did try & ride above my usual comfort pace on this one (paying the price this morning!). It’s not often I wish for gears, but this one really would be so much faster with gears…and possibly some front suspension – it’s bumpy. This inaugural time is definitely there to be beaten by someone on a more sensible bike :-).

Oh, and to answer questions about the bike…

at the start by pedalhead_Mark_Goldie[/url], on Flickr

It’s a Salsa Selma singlespeed (not Ti – Scandium and carbon). Running a 33/19 with OneKey chainring :D

Great to hear there’s so much interest in riding the route :-). I’m really happy with how it’s come together…it’s a good ‘un. Bit bumpy mind, 175 miles of that on my rigid bike and my arms are bit sore this morning!

Here’s my ride on Strava… http://www.strava.com/activities/195171633

Hi all! Well that was fun… Kinda :-) On our way home now. My total time was 13 hours 26 minutes 15 seconds. Pleased with that as my stretch target was 14 hours. Good to meet you, drofluf. Nice bike :-).

FWIW Mrs Pedalhead here again, and I am the lucky one riding the ti frame these days… :-)

And I did take much clearer photos… feel free to poach a different one :-) Pedalhead on Twitter has a photo of him at the start with the bike, FWIW…

Mark’s wife here! He’s hit the halfway point (Ivinghoe Beacon) at 6 hrs 22 mins 51 secs… and that was around 13:20 so my humble apologies for delayed posting!

(p.s. yes, Salsa Selma… soon we will be a two Salsa Selma-riding family :-))

Cheers :-)

Some last minute fine-tuning of the route today. Found another two taps, and moved the start/finish closer to Ivinghoe Beacon, using a footpath that the National Trust have actually reclassified on their land as a cycle route. Also futzed around a bit at Wendover today…got rid of a road stretch there and put in a lovely (official Ridgeway) climb. I only recently got full 25k OS mapping from Tracklogs and there are some Ridgeway labels that don’t appear on my previous 50k maps that I’m only now discovering. I think it’s all sorted now though :-).

Lots of locals here…excellent :-)

adsh – similar to out & backs like the South Downs Double, you’re eligible for entry on the leaderboard no matter where your start point is along the route. Obviously this is really helpful for logistics if you live near the route. Having said that, I live three miles from the Ridgeway and I’m choosing to start an hour’s drive away in Avebury for this inaugural ride. It just feels “tidier” that way, and I’m curious how long it’ll take me to do it one-way as well…you lose that little stat if you start mid-way (but of course that may not bother you at all). Flexible start point also allows you to plan water stops and lights differently…for example, there are more wooded sections to the north/east of the route…much more open down the other end. As light fades on my ride I’ll be in the open, exposed area in Wiltshire so have decided to save some weight and take a less powerful light. It’s all part of the fun of planning a ride like this :-).

Kimbers – You will probably want a map/GPS track for this. Much of the ride is simple to navigate, particularly the section between Avebury and Streatley. However there are some points where you don’t follow the sign-posted Ridgeway because it turns into footpath. At places like that the route follows other, bike-legal trails, often the Icknield Way or Swans Way once past Goring in particular. GPS-wise, between my wife & I we have a Garmin 800, 200 and a Dakota 20. The 800 and Dakota have OS mapping & good for navigating as a result. The 200 is only a backup for navigation on these long rides as it just has a breadcrumb trail to follow. Unfortunately my Dakota is currently broken so I’ll be using the 800 with the 200 as backup (the 800 may run out of battery before the end!)