The Lands End to John O'Groats thread

As I am currently doing the end to end, I noticed all the previous threads seemed to be individuals asking for donations for charities. So I thought it'd be a good idea to create an uber-thread for reference use: post your LEJOG/JOGLE knowledge here!

Sounds awesome.
I'm looking to do it with a friend next year so all advice/routes/stories would very welcome.

@7VEN has just done one of these, he should know where all the best pubs are.

@nick.earthloop That's the one! I'll be along this evening to provide some sort of useful input on getting there, route, accommodation and kit. Hope the training for the all in one festive 500 is going well.

@hippy should have an interesting take on this...

This is a cross post from last weeks 'Tell us about your weekend ride':
I'll try to add anything additional as I think of it:

Just finished a 9 day unsupported 1600km Lands End to John O'Groats with the girlfriend.
I liked the compactness of the official Deloitte Ride Accross Britain but was put off by the huge cost (£1600 - £1.00 for every km), the fact they camp every night, and don't really like mass organised events.
So, I found the GPX files for the 2012 RAB online and booked a series of £20.00 travelodge rooms, YHA's and B&B's, booked trains (£39.00 sleeper tickets = bargain), filled the Carradice and began to win at life.

My thoughts on the ride were as follows:

• What an amazing and hilly island we live on. The route pretty much follows B roads and the route master also organises lots of sportives so no main roads but pretty much seeks out every hill in the land (15,000.00 metres in total for the trip)

• With the exception of the first day where it rained nonstop, we largely had the weather gods on our side with a tail wind on 8 of the 9 days (but a savage 30kph headwind on Day 6).

• The first 2 days in Devon and Cornwall were certainly the hardest with some steep climbs of up to 20% (Anyone know Cothelstone?!?)
  The climbs on Scotland went to greater elevation but were generally much more gentle in getting there.

• Seen just about every type of animal as roadkill (realised that I've still never seen a live badger but plenty of dead ones)

• Crossing the Severn Bridge, crossing the Manchester Shipping Canal Toll Bridge, Cheddar Gorge, Shap Fell, Cumbria, and coming up through the Scottish Highlans are also hugely memorable.

• Riding was all fairly easy in the scheme of things but it's quite relentless having to chop 100+ miles every day back to back with luggage for 9 days. Day 3 & 4 were mentally the toughest.

Route was as follows with embedded strava files. The ride with GPS files can be found on my profile here:

Day 1 - Lands End to Okehampton
Day 2 - Okeampton to Bath
Day 3 - Bath to Ludlow
Day 4 - Ludlow to St Helens
Day 5 - St Helens to Penrith
Day 6 - Penrith to Bothwell Bridge
Day 7 - Bothwell Bridge to Fort William
Day 8 - Fort William to Bonar Bridge
Day 9 - Bonar Bridge to John O' Groats

Get out there and go on an adventure before you're too old to do so. What a fucking magical trip. Major bummer to be back in London.

Awesome-sauce: luv the last pic!

Kit list (Unsupported but staying in B&B's, YHA's & Travelodges):
Carradice Super C Saddlebag (with bagman 2 support)
Girlfriend had the Carradice Camper Longflap

Clothing:
Castelli Short Bibs
Castelli Long Bibs (not worn)
Rapha Classic Jersey
Rapha Pro Team Jersey (not worn)
Castelli Arm Warmers
Rapha Hardshell
2 x pairs of socks
1 x pair of cycling shoes
1 x pair of flipflops
1 x pair of off the bike shorts
Prendas deep winter base layer (only worn off the bike)
Castelli Winter overshoes (not worn)
1 x Altura gloves
1 x Prendas deep winter gloves (not worn)
2 x cycling caps
RAB merino under helmet skull cap
Helmet

Eletrronics:
Phone
Garmin Edge Touring
Easy Acc 10000mah charger (for charging stuff at breaks throughout the day)
Camera
Associated cords

Spares:
1 x Vittoria Rubino Pro tyre (I had no punctures the whole way - Girlfriend had 1 - amazing tyres)
2 x Continental spare tubes each
2 x Lezyne patch kits
1 x Lezyne multitool
Front & rear lights
Lezyne pump
Prolink Progold chain oil (definitely need oil for rainy days)

Toileteries:
Tooth brush and paste
Washing leaves (great for washing socks etc)
Contact lenses & solution
Glasses
Sudocrem (for the saddle sores you inevitably get!)

Nice write up and thanks for sharing GPX routes!

This is so great! +++ on the thanks for GPX sharing.

Take your time, use B roads, take at least two weeks, visit many, many pubs.

I did it in May about 5 years ago over two weeks (1000 miles). I wore a merino base layer and arm warmers everyday. I used longs, a wooly hat and a long sleeve jersey on top of everything a few times.
I can't remember everywhere we stayed, but highly recommend the Sparrowhawk hostel in Moretonhamstead and the youth hostel at Helmsdale.

Enjoy.

Excellent write up.....something I want to do too.

If your route takes you through the Eden Valley, stop here: http://organicmill.co.uk

Here's a few final thoughts after I did my LEJOG 3 years ago...

· If I had more time, it would be nice to take more time and see more of the country. There were times that I felt slightly pressured to carry on to reach my destination in good time. On the other hand, I could have done the journey quicker, it just depends on what you want to achieve. I tried to get a balance of a physically challenging ride and enjoying the countryside on the way up.
· I found it very useful to book accommodation in advance. As I had arranged to be at the end on a certain day, having a target to aim for each day helped with motivation.
· Use B&B’s not hotels. Every one is different and you will meet some great people. Most were like a home from home which is what you want after a long ride.
· Using the gps was great. I plotted all my routes before I left but there were a couple of times where I changed my plans and it helped me to find a different route.
· Don’t stick rigidly to routes if you fancy a change.
· Treat each day as a separate ride. If you look at it as one ride, it does seem quite daunting!
· Split each day down so always somewhere to aim for. I split each day into 3 or 4 parts so that I had between 20 and 30 miles between stops where I could refuel.
· Pack as light as you can, I took no spare cycling kit, washing it each evening. My luggage fitted in a 11 litre Vaude rack bag and weighed 4 kg
· Write a diary at the end of each day otherwise you will forget all the little things along the way that make the journey so special.
· Don’t underestimate what you can achieve but also respect the importance of preparation and training.
· I completed the ride on a single speed On One Pompino running a 48x18 gear. Running a geared bike would have been easier (obviously) but if you have trained for such a ride, one gear was usually enough. It is lighter, quieter, stronger and less to go wrong (and therefore less spares to carry). If I was to carry camping gear too, a geared bike would be much more sensible (or a lower geared single speed!)

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Day 1

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Someone didn't make it...

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Near Deephaven

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http://lejogononegear.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2011-09-18T14:32:00-07:00&max-results=7

Here's a link to my blog if anyone is bored!

@freexe did LEJOG, tagging for contributions.

We got medals when we did it.

A thought from long ago

Now how can a man do better
For the honour of his club
On the roadways of this country
Than scorch from pub to pub?

This is my version of a couplet written in the visitors' book of the John O' Groats Hotel by W.H. Hillyer after he had helped Lawrence Fletcher (Anfield BC) on his End to End trike record in 1885.

The original was:

For how can a man do better
Than scorch from pub to pub
On the roadways of his country
For the honour of his club?

I've turned it round because to my mind the punch line is '.........from pub to pub', and so it must come at the end.

excellent adventure pompy, thanks for sharing :)

Having created this thread, am finally going to write up my September end to end this week...

That poem is great @clubman.
Brings back great memories of what was essentially a 9 day pub crawl.