A mate and I are going to be going from Lands End to John O'Groats - on our bikes! We reckon it'll take two weeks and be about 900 miles. Anyone else done it, and if so, got any tips?

 

Get some anaesthetic for your butt!

Good luck

Geezer

 

Make absolutly certain youve a good chamy stuffed down your undercrakers - itll make all the difference

 

Not interested in your love life mate, Im just going for a bike ride!

 

My advice for planning long journeys is to use google earth, spend a tenner and buy a plus license that way you can plot your journey with a path then save it.

Save the path out as KML files and you can then use this tool to measure the distance, then import it back into google earth where it will have the path length included.

whaleycopter: APP: Google Earth™ Path Measurer

If you just measure a distance you cant save it and you cant do paths in the free version.

You can then use this to drag it into a tomtom:
Download Google Earth to TomTom Navigator (OV2) Converter 1.0 Free Trial - This application will enable you to convert your KMZ or KML to OV2 files. - Softpedia

There are other tools to export these google earth files to other sat nav systems.

I am planning to walk the cornwall coast path in october and have planned it all, even campsite, daily distances and eateries and using google earth, google search and goolgle maps its been so easy.

You might also want to take a look at the ordanance survey site as they have online versions of their maps, okay there pretty crappy and small but they still have the contour lines on maximum zoom.

Ordnance Survey, Britain's national mapping agency

mike

 

Don't?
























You need to be capable of 50+ miles a day every day before you go. An ex-girlfriends dad did it and he trained by doing the above.

Plan to be in SOME hotels on the way. You'll need somewhere to clean up and relax rather than camp. When he did it, he planned each days run between camp sites / hotels / Youth Hostels. This way he had a target and knew he was on course to complete.

If you 'drift' you'll find it hard to finish

 

My biggest concern is the amount of "stuff" to take. Dont think I can fit in camping equipment...

 

Ah. Yeah - forgot to mention the support team

If you don't want to camp / carry the stuff, then aim for hostels / b&b's

However, you DO need to set an itinery as this will spur you on

 

I did it a few years ago with my brother.
Route we took was 961 miles and we completed in 9 days.
We stayed in youth hostels, which were very comfortable even got a room to ourselves on three occasions, and we travelled very light.
We only carried essential spares, small tool kit, 1 change of clothes, toiletries and good lightweight waterproof/windproof shell jacket, helmet, fingerless mits etc.
Route planned well in advance using mainly 'B' roads but on many occasions 'A' roads are unavoidable and are very much faster than B's.
Route,
Day 1 - Lands End to Gollant
Day 2 - Gollant to Cheddar
Day 3 - Cheddar to Welsh Bicknor
Day 4 - Welsh Bicknor to Chester
Day 5 - Chester to Slaidburn
Day 6 - Slaidburn to Wanlockhead (Longest day, 154 miles)
Day 7 - Wanlockhead to Loch Lomond
Day 8 - Loch Lomond to Loch Ness
Day 9 - Loch Ness to John O'Groats

I loved every minute and we only had one wet day

 

lol 154 miles in a day! Not aiming to go that much - maybe up to 80 miles in a day, its supposed to be fun too

 

ill give you a high 5 and a bottle of lucozade as your passing loch ness !!

 

If you go John O'Groats to Lands End, is it downhill?

 

Mate of mine did it see this

Cycling Lands End To John O'Groats

 

TX.

 

Best of luck to you, and you are welcome to a rest and a cuppa if you pass my house in Sunny Devon.

Les

 

Thats me and my mates old home ground actually (Plymouth). Where abouts are you?

 

Cool! Reading as I type. Is it me, or arent the pics loading?

 

Have you clicked the link at the bottom of the page?

Works for me

He hasn't done too badly for an old 'un (I went to school with him a long time ago)

 

Bizarrely it works in IE but not in Firefox....

 

My missus met two middle aged fellas who were doing the LE to JOG. They set themselves three weeks to do it, nice and steady, enjoy the trip and see some sites on the way was their advice.

Andy

 

Up at the Torbay end.

Les