Touring Equipment

Slightly more details on the swimming part specifically.

We were raising money for Parkinon's UK. The idea started back during the Olympics when a couple of mates were just about to watch the beach volleyball or something. One mate - Coops - was discussing his Dad's Parkinson's and less than average care. The other mate - Oly - was disproportionately pissed off (and he does like a high horse) and was 'fuck that shit we're doing something.'

It started with the London - Paris brevet idea but morphed rapidly in to an epic Triathlon style jaunt from one mate's house (on a house boat under Albert Bridge to Oly's house in Amsterdam... My House to Your House was born. www.MH2YH.com

8 more of us were roped in and, after 9 months or so of training, we left London on the 28th June.

Ride London to Dover.
24 hours waiting in Dover for the weather window.
Split in to 2 boats, 5 on each, and relay swim across the Channel. 40km, 16hrs 37 mins and 32 seconds of swimming in 11-12.5 degree water, sans wet suits, and we arrived near Calais. It was brutally cold, jelly fish infested misery. I can quite happily say that I was nowhere near prepared but we all stuck at it, no whinning or moaning form anyone despite the best efforts of the freezing cold and sea sickness. Ultimately it was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done.
Then, as I said above, we rode over to Breskens, rowed in an old fashioned wooden lifeboat across the estuary.
Back on the bikes and rode to Rotterdam...
... and then ran the final 70km in to Amsterdam. Hot day, flat but hard after the previous 3 days.

The best bit was that we raised a fuck load of money - nearly 70 grand, I was stunned, completely jaw dropping figure, all thanks to some amazing PR from a couple of the WAGs who got involved.

We are turning it to an annual event. The aim is to bring in as many people from all walks of life together for a charitable cause. You just have to get from one mates house to another mates house via manpower alone. And raise money.

Thread well and truly hi-jacked, apologies! If anyone is interested please do PM and check out the link to see the vids and stuff: http://mh2yh.com/

Wow! Epic journey and fantastic charity to support - amazing!!

Holy shit dude. This is on my bucketlist. Also a fair amount of money in there. I suggest you contact the Alpe d'HuZes organisation who have great experience with this kind of projects. (link: http://www.opgevenisgeenoptie.nl/) Website is in Dutch but with some help of Google or me if needed you can figure out how to contact them.

Alpe d'HuZes is an event where people try to climb the Alpe d'Huez 6 times on one day to raise money for cancer. When they first started in 2006, 66 people joined and they raised €370k last year they had to cap the amount of participants at 8000 (split the event in 2 days) and raised €32mln. This year, when I also participated we raised €25mln. So they have quite the knowledge about setting up something big as this.

Please keep us informed, I'd love to follow this beautiful event and hopefully join one day!

awesome. great effort x

Cheers guys! I really just felt like I participated, the organisation from the other guys was truly epic. I would LOVE to do Alpe d'Huez, that's very much on my bucket list!

One of the stronger ideas for next year is that a new crew take over the My House To Your House Challenge from Amsterdam and end in 'x.' Then it gets taken over again and again and again... Slowly winding its way around the world, picking up hundreds of people on route and eventually, perhaps 2, 3 or maybe 5 years down the line it ends up once again at that river boat under Albert Bridge.... A nice thought, I would love to get enough support going for that....

I'm in danger of ruining a decent thread, perhaps time for a split... Mods?

Good idea to split as this is a very interesting topic! I love the idea of taking this thing around the world!

Just watching one of the MH2YH vids on Youtube and there I see a road between Vlissingen en Middelburg where I ride weekly :)

Like a complete tit I have managed to lose my pannier rack. I haven't seen it since I moved house so I imagine I lost it then. I'm a wally. I therefore need to buy one tomorrow - do I need to look for anything in particular? I can go to any central London bike shop and don't want to spend mega bucks, nor am I in any way worried about weight.

Good idea to split as this is a very interesting topic! I love the idea of taking this thing around the world!

New thread started: http://www.lfgss.com/thread114257.html#post3839179

Like a complete tit I have managed to lose my pannier rack. I haven't seen it since I moved house so I imagine I lost it then. I'm a wally. I therefore need to buy one tomorrow - do I need to look for anything in particular? I can go to any central London bike shop and don't want to spend mega bucks, nor am I in any way worried about weight.

Unless you're carrying a huge amount of weight, any rack will be fine, just get those cheaper Tortec Ultralite one that you can get for about £20.

Cheers Ed!

My first tour I had a tortec one. One of the stays broke after 500 or so miles and it really annoyed me that I could feel it wobble side to side so have since bought a tubus one which although expensive, is in my opinion worth the money.

Too late now, I bought the Tortec - leaving in just under 10 hours and haven't packed yet...

Kids - don't pack drunk. Especially when you have cavernous Ortlieb panniers. "Oh, maybe that'll come in useful" is not a knee friendly approach to life.

Have just cycled to train station and already know I have overpacked horrendously. Dammit.

I nearly fell off on the way to the station as I can't corner with loaded panniers. Come at me Europe!!

h2o, give it three days at least and you'll be surprised at quickly getting used to it.

When I went touring, I took off the bag after two weeks solid touring and the bike was horrible to ride.

Cheers Ed, but am only on the road for a week! I can handle the bike fine, but feeling foolish about the unnecessary weight I will be lugging. Still, should be good physio for my knee as long as I keep spinny. When I get home I'm getting a saddlebag though...

Enjoy the tour guys. And lmk if you're anywhere near Vlissingen.

Went through Vlissingen this afternoon - quite a fleeting visit though! We're in Oostkapelle now and heading for the delta dam first thing tomorrow morning.

In actual touring equipment news, by the time we reached Dover I noticed I was missing a screw from the pannier rack. And by last night I'd lost 2 more - meaning the rack was being held on by just one screw! Oh shit!! Luckily I noticed a DIY store on the way in to Oostende and this morning I bought loads more screws, washes and nuts. I now obsessively check that all the bolts are still there whenever we stop.

#rackaredeath

oostende - brugges - gent is a nice ride along one canal tow path so easy to keep track of where you are and about 40 miles

You're in good luck with the weather as it's been raining a lot lately. Should be nice tomorrow as well. Enjoy the ride!

#rackaredeath

I'm totally going to use that.

Just in case anyone is on the look out for some...

http://www.lfgss.com/thread114522.html