Scottish Cycling Trip

[guest18]

IMHO 80 miles a day is a hefty amount for a commuting/leisure cyclist, but still achievable. As you say it will be down to your endurance, if you can survive all day at a 15mph average then you will do it easily. Are there any hills in Scotland?  ....
GC

Two four hour sessions only requires an average of ten mph, that's achievable for most (honest!)
Hills? Nah, it's like Holland here... (wanders away whistling...  )
Anyway, what goes up must freewheel down the other side  

Edited to add, bear in mind we're aiming to travel light(ish) NOT carrying camping kit etc.

[guest7]

And just to try and establish a tenuous single cylinder link, my asthma-restricted breathing means I may as well have only one lung.

Every year I have my asthma check-up and after I've blown into the peak flow meter they always say "No, come on, try harder". It's only after my third attempt at blowing that they concede that yes I may still be asthmatic. It does my head in every year. For the record I blow between 300-350. I think the average for a bloke my height and age is 650.

GC

[guest18]

Sounds like our little excursion will be very good for you medically then, and John is qualified to give you all the good drugs anyway 

Now trying to pin down exact dates but it's looking like sometime in June/July 2010 (before the Scottish school holidays!)

I have started practicing cycling up hills just in case we encounter any...

[guest146]

Whats the plan to get to the start point and then afterwards back to my car. Or do we do a circle. Do we camp or B&B

Ken

[guest18]

Hi Ken,
The outline idea is to identify as many camping sites as possible along the route then, having dumped the camping kit in the chase car/cars travel South and make an assessment through the day of where we can get to, (ie if we are making unexpectedly good progress go further, if we've hit the headwind from hell, perhaps not so far!), then meet up at the chosen site and camp overnight.
Once we nail dates we can negotiate about lifts to start point etc, it would seem likely that we could squeeze a few of us into a car to get to the start.
The route plan (in it's infancy!) is to start at the top and see how far down we get, I'm going to get the CTC end to end pack and have a shufti at their routes and see what the best options look like 

[guest146]

OK
That sounds good. I will keep my eyes open for details

Ken

[guest7]

Can I get my bike onto a flight to Edinburgh or somewhere similar? It's got to be cheaper than driving my van up.

GC

[guest18]

Dunno about flights but Scotrails policy is that bikes go free though they should be booked in advance for long journeys.
Mind you, I'd have to look up the policies of the southern companies.

On a quick fare check for a random Friday a couple of months from now, a train from Cardiff to Edinburgh takes about 6 1/2 hours and costs either £60 or £130(!) depending what time you want to travel (seemingly randomly) http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/en/s/fares/tickets

Edinburgh to Falkirk is about 25mins with trains every half hour at peak times and costs about a fiver.

Maybe worth a thought, as I trust airport baggage handlers abour as far as I can throw a 747!

[guest7]

I had two rides this weekend, the first in a while. As could be predicted I had no 'legs', but it all comes back pretty quick when you start again. I've also snaffled a cheap mountain bike to mount on my turbotrainer so I'm hoping to building up my cycling fitness this winter on the rollers.

Why not use your ordinary bike? some of you non-cyclists may wonder. Well, when you're training on rollers there is no air travelling over you as there would be if you were actually riding along. This means that you generate a huge amount of sweat which just drips down onto your bike. Some people use their good bike and put towels on it to catch the stuff, but if you don't your bike would be a rusty wreck in a couple of months. Far better to sacrifice a nasty little bike for the purpose. I seem to remember that cycling god and all-round eccentric British hero Graeme Obree used a humble shopping bike on his rollers at home.

GC

[guest146]

Hey you guys are getting a bit serious about this. Its a long while yet and you training already or are you all so unfit you need to 
Looks like i better get my bike of its hooks and dust it down

Ken

[guest7]

I'm so unfit I need to train 

Also, I love cycling and I do too little of it so it's time to get back into the saddle.

GC

[guest18]

turbo trainer
Sound far too much like proper training I'm going to have to make an effort at this rate!
Incidentally GC, you said you were bringing your "tourer", out of idle interest, what is it? 

[themoudie]

A Vincent Firefly! 

[guest18]

A Vincent Firefly!  

Now that is cool, though the saddle and mudguards could do with some adjustment!   I could enjoy one of these, if only we didn't need to wear motorcycle crash helmets on cyclemotors  

[guest7]

My tourer is an old 'Team Marin' steel frameset with drop handlebars, bar-end shifters, LX groupset and 26" wheels with slicks. It has full mudguards and a tricky narrow rear rack.

The frame is made out of an exotic cro-mo produced by Fuji steel and it is triple butted.

The crowning glory is my venerable Brooks leather saddle, a veteran of thousands of miles touring use.

Incodentally I have just fitted an even older Brooks saddle to my Giant 20" wheeler... it looks a bit mad. The bike is ultra-modern (see photo below of standard bike), but the saddle looks ancient.



GC