Well hello all you avid B-road Touring fans. Jing never thought I would be saying something like that :0)
Well the 2014 adventure is only a month away and is racing towards us at pace.
Bobby and I have both been training .... Honest :0).
Last year was the first time we had tried having a blog site and we were all enthusiastic about posting every little detail. We have become a wee but wiser this year. The constant posting did get a bit samie and it became more and more difficult to be interesting about each training ride we did. So this year we hare trying a more minimalist approach and we will not be blogging about every training ride.
We have decided to raise money for the RNLI (Lifeboats) this year. These people risk there lives to save others and are well worth every penny.
PLEASE go to the Just giving donation page on the right of the screen.
The lady from the RNLI has been great with helping us setup the fundraising and has a wealth of advice too.
We chose the RNLI , not just because they are worth every penny, but also because I normally collect for the Lifeboats in my area. Unfortunately the collection will not be happening in my area this year so this is a perfect way to help keep the funds going.
The adventure this year is to cycle from Whitehaven to Whitby and we are calling it our W2W, although if you look at the Sustrans website the official W2W goes from Walney to Whitby. We were original going for the Coast to Coast (C2C) but we like to be different and wanted a route less traveled so we made up our own.
As you will see from the links on the left of the page we have already worked out our route and earmarked some campsites to stay at.
The eagle eyed of you will notice that we don't actually finish at Whitby. Being mad for the adventure we are then going another 20 miles up the coast to Saltburn by the Sea where we will pick up transport back to St Bees.
The estimated total distance is 192 miles. This is a good 40 miles more than last year but we have 9 days to tackle the whole adventure.
Order or play
- Saturday 21st June.
- Bobby will drive to St Bees and setup camp.
- Al will drive to Saltburn by the Sea and leave a car with a friend ready for the return Journey.
- Al will catch the train from Saltburn over to Whitehaven. This is actually four trains and all with his bike and bags full of kit. NOTE to others. Northern rail does not allow booking of bike places on the train. It is a first come first served system. So fingers crossed I get on each train.
- Bobby will cycle up to Whitehaven to meet Al off the train
- Bobby and all with then start the cycle at the official C2C starting point in Whitehaven and then cycle to St Bees where the first night stop is.
- Sunday 22nd June
- Cycle from St Bees to Hawkshead
- Monday 23rd June
- Cycle from Hawkhead to Sedburgh
- Tuesday 24th June
- Cycle from Sedburgh to Redmire
- Wednesday 25th June
- Cycle from Redmire to just north of Northallerton
- Thursday 26th June
- Cycle from just north of Northallerton to Whitby pier
- Cycle from Whitby pier to campsite
- Friday 27th June
- Lie on the beach crippled (prey for sun) ;0)
- Sight see around Whitby
- Saturday 28th June
- Cycle 20 miles to Saltburn By the Sea to a friends house.
- Possibly have a spot of lunch
- Pack Bikes in the car
- Drive 150 miles back to St Bees.
- Sunday 29th June
- Go home and feel proud of what we have achieved.
So Far
Well so far we have been training since the end of 2013. I have to be honest and say my training did not start in earnest until February. After a bad experience slipping on ice in 2013 I tend not to venture out when the roads are icy.
I bought myself a second hand bike at the end of 2013.
Wooo I wonder what it could be
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| Guess what this is? |
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Never saw that coming ;0)
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The new bike has been brilliant.
I have added a new rear pannier rack and mud guards, then scavenged all the other bits I needed from the old bike.
The trips have been wonderful and the weather was kind to me. I visited all the old haunts
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| Cant have a perfect ride every day :0( |
Bobby has also been busy with training. He had done much more than I have and I fear is now just that wee bit fitter than I am.
Just the other day Bobby sent me these photos of his latest weekend ride.
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| We just love the long empty B Roads |
I decided that with the complexity of the route this year it would be a good ideal to try and get a GPS for the bike. Then I looked at the cost of them..... WOOOOW, that was not happening.
So I looked up on line to see if there was an android app for my phone that could help.
After may false starts I found OSMAND. Its a great app. The maps are loaded on to the phone's sd chip and the route can be loaded up from a gpx file. Once I had figured out how to use sleep mode I though all was perfect..... except just one wee thing. POWER!!!!
Yep all these apps use up the phones battery. OSMAND is one of the better ones because it does not need to be connected to the internet to get map updates so saves a huge amount of power.
So I then bought a £16 solar panel to charge the phone while cycling and i have to to say it works a treat.
SO that's the route sorted, although we will be taking maps (in some form) with use to.
Bobby has been slaving over the campsites and costs and his new hobby, the allotment. :0)
We now have one campsite booked and others on the way. And the bonus is that the strawberries are covered in flowers already so we may have a fruit-full harvest to munch our way through. :0)
I just wanted to add a tip that I have worked out
I had wanted to buy a bike maintenance stand to make it a bit easier to carry out the frequent maintenance tasks, but they do cost a bob or two.
I was looking through the garage for things to throw out and I uncovered an old netball stand and hoop. BING went the old light bulb. and hay presto an adjustable bike maintenance stand
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| Works a treat :0) |
Well thats about all for now.
We will add the odd post before the adventure begins.
AL
