BogleWheels

£107 on ebay, just needs new gearshifters (£26 brand new ebay) and a bottom bracket(£?), will prob give it a flat bar to increase stability; comfort and a better view in upright position. Also has rack and mudguard mounts, we'll all need to make sure our bike come with these as we'll need racks to carry our stuff (little screw brackets on back of rear triangle). Think its kinda wishful thinking for us to have a support car (and also a bit of an easy option) for the whole journey and the kit lists don't seem that heavy anyways;).

Been looking at some for the boys too but there is a lot of competition on bike for our sizes and they're going for far too much (almost new prices - wtf-gf buy a new bike... Duhhhh!)

I'll be getting one oh these...

Takes bigger (28c) tyres to smooth the bumps, a triple butted frame, can't get enough o' them  butts... (nice n light) & has a rabid love for a rack n mudguards, still looks like a back alley hooker though, schwing...

£500 on Stif.co.uk, so I'll be going to Evans with a price match then...

Fun Time Route

John O'Groats - Loch Ness - Loch Locky - Loch Linnhe - Loch Earn - Edinburgh - Carlisle - Lake District - Ullswater - Windermere - Morecambe Bay - (Maybe Detour to Blackpool!) - Preston - Southport - Liverpool - Mersey Ferry! - Wrexham/Wales - Shrewsbury - Hereford - Monmouth & Forest of Dean - Chepstow - Bristol - Axbridge - Burnham-on-Sea - Bridgewater - Taunton - Tiverton - Crediton - Okehampton - Launceston - Tintagel & Cornish Coast - Wadebridge - Padstow - Newquay - Perranporth - Gwithian - Hayle - Penzance - Lands End!

Tried to take us through some interesting places and on smaller roads, any suggestions welcome, would be good to over lay this on a Sustrans map and see if we can miss out some roads altogether.


View Larger Map

Oh dear god......

what have I got myself into? That's the question I'm currently asking myself and no doubt will be for quite some time. I'm pretty excited about this but also terrified, I rode a bike for the first time in 9 years last summer for a charity bike ride and couldn't walk for days. Hmmm but hey at least I'll have good company for this: I can't wait for us all to start cracking up under the strain and the whole thing descending into a "Lord Of The Flies" style affair. But first things first I should probably purchase a bike!! Over to Joe for some advice and to the streets to earn some money to finance this damn fiasco......

Bizzle x

A Good Job...

Is a job done well. I'll be reciting this and other proverbs the whole way round! First off, thank Joe for sorting this out. I've been looking at bikes, and talking to people about them too. I feel I'm really progressing with life now. I'm hearing a lot of shouts for the following contenders:

These fellas seem to vary from £500 to £1000, obviously depending on the kind of frame, gears, and brakes you get. They have a lot of praise from everyone I know who has them, and seem to get positive reviews elsewhere. I think the second one is more comfortable so could be a good choice for the long haul?

Also seen and heard quite a bit about these, again mostly positive. The guy in Garlands was raving about these... all I wanted was his number. Anyhow, these again range from £500 to near £1000, and I'm starting to get the impression that it's all the same frames, and it boils down to which one is most comfortable for our differing frames, and also, and most importantly, which has the best colour scheme.

Finally,

Again huge range, really good reviews, but apparently not that many people ride them, but I dunno. They seem pretty good to my limited knowledge, and seem to have a lot of people batting for them. But there is the fact that they are exclusive to Halfords which probably means that this will be assembling it:

But there is always servicing elsewhere.

J Dub Out

xxx

Maybe a little reward for May 2011 WineRide

Médocaine Bike and Wine Festival in Bordeaux France, cycling+wine = fun-bruises!

Check it Ouuuut:

More 'Borrows' from a man named Phil...

Inventory...

Borrowed this from Phil 2007:

'I travelled quite light, although I could have economised more, and the bike itself isn't the lightest. But, for interest, here's a list of what I carried with me:

2 cycle shirts, one short-sleeved, one long
2 prs cycle chorts
4 prs cotton socks
1 pr cycle shoes, comfortable enough to wear to walk around in, with cleats to fit in my SPD pedals.
1 pr light cotton shorts
1 light cotton t shirt (last two for wearing in the evening)
1 sports vest (base-layer)
1 Berghaus waterproof jacket
1 pr waterproof trousers (only used on day 2)

1 travel towel
1 first aid kit
5 OS road maps (1:250,000)
3 End to End guidebooks (two of them left at Perranporth)
2 novels (only 100 pages read in 12 days)
1 camera
1 pocket DAB radio
1 mobile phone
Rechargers for above 3 items
4 inner tubes (only one required)
Tools and stuff - WD40, oil, spanners, allen keys
1 heavy duty lock - left in a pub in Cornwall, far too heavy
1 combination lock
Sundry power bars (disposed of after a week)

I tried to wash and dry my clothes at each stop, but that wasn't always possible - often radiators wouldn't be on, and it takes more than 12 hours for cycling clothes to dry, and far more for cotton socks to dry. At one point I had 4 pairs of wet socks.

I had plastic bags to keep the books and maps dry, but not the clothes. The panniers weren't waterproof, and the detachable covers I had pooled water inside their elasticated lining, which made the panniers wet at the bottom anyway. I should have remembered the tip to have plastic bags inside the panniers. It's always good to have, at minimum, a pair of dry socks to change into after several hours of rain.

But apart from the heavy ABUS lock, which was a mistake, I'm happy with the amount of kit I took. Remember that you can always buy anything more you need en route.'

Doesn't take much do e?

Bikes...

I'm scouring ebay for bargins - maybe even bikes to use for 'Jogle'. The idea is that if I see something suitable for one of us and I can get it under £150, I'll buy it; see if anyone wants it cost like, and if not, fix-up look sharp, sell it on no bother...

So far I have me eye on a nice Boglator-esq GT Force racer, a sexy mother Cannondale racer with mad skills components and a couple of built-for-the task manly Dawes Tourers...

I think we'll be okay without a lot of kit - mainly just rear panniers, better to load the back as it doesn't effect your steering and keeps a low center of gravity (front bags and handlebar bags are really clumsy by comparison and cause mad drag which we should try to keep to a minimum).

I like the fact that most of the websites from people who have already done Jogle or Lejog (herefter referred to as HEROs) show their bikes as being pretty normal sluggers...

Here be my ebay list at the mo:
 

Great Links

The Ultimate Links List of Land's End to John o'Groats Cycle Trips by Ian Clare looks a pretty good place to start for inspiration; advice; tricks n shiz.

The Cyclists Touring Club is another good resource with routes/maps and general cycling advice.

Also since we live in the City of Sustrans we should maybe pop in and ask them about routes as the national cycle network is ever growing and most of the older routes probably use roads that we could easily avoid.

Route Idea 1

Taken from Richard Moss's 2004 trip:

Quick Stats...

We'll be cycling somewhere in the region of 1000 miles over 14 Days (about 75 miles a day) and ascending (going up) more hills than Everest (29,035ft). Take-off is planned for April 2011.

I think we're all embarking on this adventure to gain a better sense of our country rather than to honk it around in the shortest time, have a extract from Josie Dew's book Slow Coast Home for inspiration-

'Cyclists say that you cannot beat traveling by bicycle - it is neither too fast nor too slow but is just the right speed for noticing things worth noticing.'