Fixies around the coast of Britain

Me and a mate have started an epic touring trip around the coast of Britain, one week/end at a time, on our fixies. Two day trips down already (Kent is weird!), with a couple of weekender's and a week planned for the rest of the summer.

We are blogging the whole thing here, and welcome any thoughts on paths, pubs and pitfalls to avoid as we do our revolutions round this isle!

We are also welcome to anyone joining us on any legs - we have a few mates who promised (it was in a pub though!) to do some bits - and even a couple of offers of "support vehicles" for the long stretches.

It's somewhere between 4,500 and 5,500 miles, by the way!

Day two on there now - and what a day! Faversham to Ramsgate along the Viking Coastal Trail!
Read all about it here

Only just realised you're doing this. Good work.

Well written little report sounds like nice trip.

What year will it be when you get to Liverpool?

5000 miles!? jesus, good luck to you fellas!

What year indeed Chris - maybe whilst we are still in our thirties! And half (shurely praise be to god!) of those 5000 miles have got to be downhill, LPG?! The one question I have, though, and I am sure someone out there has the maths to do it, is how many revolutions of the pedal will it be?!

If you are interested, we now have a Facebook group too - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19530489255 - come join the fun!

Now, who's idea was this...?

with a 72" gear, roughly 4500 revolutions.

I think you're out by a factor of 10^3

Inspiring stuff.

whoops, 4 1/2 million revs!! fuck!! that's a lot!!

Day three up there now - Ramsgate to Folkestone, with badly behaving hubs, 400 foot climbs and some stunning Kent countryside. Our next trip will see us complete our first county! And I am now thinking we should just circumnavigate England, rather than tackle the Welsh and Scottish mountains! Day three

[URL="http://fourwheelsbetter.wordpress.com/2008/06/07/"][/URL]

You might want to rethink cutting out Wales as that'll send you right down the Welsh Marches. The coastal region will be less brutal.

if you go around wales you'll pass my hometown :) really beautiful place the coastal region of mid-wales. No people !! yey!

That is going to take years with only an average of 30-35 miles per day. Build the pace up lads.

It's back! Yes, we're back in the saddle for "Cycle around Britain Leg 2 - 2009". And yes, it was all a bit crap last year (thanks for pointing that out MJC!) so we will, indeed, pick up the pace. And perhaps less beer. 50 miles a day to start - though we will see how we get on coz Mr Bear has been couriering in Brighton and I'm in training for a 100 mile sportive (the Cycling Plus Sportive at BikeRadar Live - NOT on a fixie though!)

To celebrate we've moved onto our own webspace (www.cyclearoundbritain.co.uk) and plan to do a decent weekend of it on the 20th March - Friday to Sunday. So far it looks like Hove to Gosport, Gosport to Poole, Poole to Axminster. As always, we are open for people to come join in - fixed or not.

Wish us luck!

Oh, and the routes are Hove to Fareham, Fareham to Poole, Poole to Axminster
Not sure where I got Gosport from! And Gmap Pedo is way better than MapMyRide, or Bikely, imho

good luck on Abbotsbury Hill-lungburster!

Would love to come but think I may die due to chain smoking..
*No pun intended

And Gmap Pedo is way better than MapMyRide, or Bikely, imho

Really?

In my experience Gmaps Peado won't print, MapMyRide costs actual money (not good) and Bikely is kind-of the ugly child of each.

MapMyRide and screengrabs FTW.

good luck on Abbotsbury Hill-lungburster!

Blodnik1: What is the Abbotsbury Hill lungbuster?? You're making me jitter :)

New plans!

Mr Bear has a friend on the Isle of Man who is kindly putting us up so we are going to do a lap of the island too! New maps to reflect this - any local knowledge about busy roads to avoid welcome:-
[SIZE=2]
Day 1 - Hove to Portsmouth (http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2603930)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]Day 2 - circuit of Isle of Man (TT!) http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2603939 [/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]Day 3 Ferry from Yarmouth to Lymington, then carry on to Weymouth http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2603953 [/SIZE]

It means missing a bit of the mainland coast - but doing a circuit of the Isle of Man has to be done! Not that we will be doing all islands on the way round - that would be bonkers crazy mad.

(coz planning to cycle fixed around the coast of britain is completely and utterly a sane thing to do.)

And Miro - I take your point regarding Gmaps Pedo and MapMyRide - for route planning on a grander scale it just seems to be a hell of a lot quicker than the others.

Blodnik1: What is the Abbotsbury Hill lungbuster?? You're making me jitter :)

Secret BTB handshake? ;)

Good luck on the ride man, I'm missing the couriering at the moment. Full time in office not as much fun!

Blodnik1: What is the Abbotsbury Hill lungbuster?? You're making me jitter :)

It's just steep and fairly longish-staggering views of Chesil Beach and Portland will take your mind off it!

if you ever go down west i can give you some good places to go. ive done almost all of of cornwall and devon, and some of south wales on fixed. i highly recommend a gearing in the 60-67GI range as anything above that will probably kill you unless you are superman. i always aimed to do 80miles a day on 65gi and normally did it fairly comfortably.

ive thought about doing the whole coast of kent seeing as i partially live there, but im finding it hard to find the motivation as kent is mainly a skanky hole. rode through bex hill the other day, my god thats a depressing place, but not as bad as pikey paradise folkstone.