UKC

Is it possible by bike? assuming a reasonably fit cyclist, averaging say 100 miles a week of normal riding.

In reply to remtherockclimber:

Until i saw 'cyclist' in your post i was going to say it's possible in just over 1/12 the time hehe

In reply to the inspiral carpet: Wouldnt want to make it too easy :P

In reply to remtherockclimber:

you would need to average 15mph with no stops

I am sure it is possible, but you would need to be very good at long distances

whats the longest cycle you have done and how long did it take?

My only 100 mile so far was very quick for the 1st 40-50 miles, but then it slowed down mainly due to head wind - well thats my excuse anyway!

In reply to remtherockclimber:

Should be do-able to average 15mph. Of course it depends on the bike/terrain though - 180 in The Netherlands wouldn't be so bad, in Switzerland it would be tricky!!

In reply to remtherockclimber:


I averaged 11mph on the 130mile coast to coast, but that has a few hills and off roadish bits. If you're doing it on a road bike on decent roads it should be so bad I think.

In reply to rogersavery:

Either one of "average" or "with no stops" is redundant here.

You can stop as much as you like as long as you AVERAGE 15mph.

In reply to remtherockclimber: It is definitely possible, but depends on what you mean by normal riding and how you split the 100miles ie 7 lots of 15 miles won't do you much good.

the lands end to john o groates record is 44 hours. Dont know what that means for your question but thought i would throw it in.

In reply to remtherockclimber:
Vatternrundan is a 300km continious bike ride in Sweden held annually. Massive event literally tens of thousands of riders.
My mate is reasonably fit and did it (his third attempt) in 14hrs.
300km = 188 miles
It would be tough but is possible as you do more riding than him, as long as it is a flat route.

In reply to remtherockclimber:

it all depends on the wind! Tail wind = doable, Head wind = no chance.

In reply to remtherockclimber:
sure its possible - am a general punter cyclist and can avge 15 mph over a 6-8 hour bike ride so I guess with some significant prep for endurance you could make this. Am sure plenty ppl do a Coast to Coast road bike challenge in less than that kind of time but its about 130-140 miles I think

In reply to remtherockclimber:

funny, I was just working out a route on the computer for a tour around the border of Devon, works out around 210 miles with a few corners cut out. We are planning to do this in one hit, hopefully in a few weeks time, I reckon a 5am start would see us back to our local for last orders. any one done something simular?

Paul T

In reply to remtherockclimber: Cheers for the replies.

Im not doing it myself, a friend is, so quite hard to judge fitness. Having said that, i remember him saying the furthest he's done in a single ride was 60 miles.

Ive put £20 on him not doing it, so hopefully my money is safe

In reply to remtherockclimber: Is he just doing it for a bet? thats some graft for a score!

In reply to remtherockclimber: He was planning on doing it anyway, just not in a single ride.

ryan, was the lands end to john 44 hour thing done in a single ride?

In reply to remtherockclimber: I read about a few weeks ago, the guy was taking short breaks, his team was waking him up after ten mins and telling him he had an hour!

In reply to ropeaccessryan: Let me guess gethin butler...the man is not normal!

In reply to MJH: I cant remember his name now but that record has stood for 12 years now i think? Im sure when he gave up cycling he started running and soon after entered a marathon and won! Amazing.

In reply to remtherockclimber:

Sure it's easy if you can find a 180 mile downhill slope.

In reply to remtherockclimber:

Most I have done solo is 140 in 10 hours. Well the last hour was slipstreaming a bus at around 40mph from Gloucester the Chippenham, I was due on guard duty an hour later and in deep shit if not there. I got lucky with that bus.

Longest stage in a race was Aberystwyth to Blackpool, but there was a pack to race in then and about 8.5 hours.

In reply to remtherockclimber:

Possible I think but challenging.

I once rode from Hull to Bangor in 16 hours in to a headwind - that must be something over 200 miles. In a 12 hour time-trial I did 264 miles.....but I was fit, very fit.

More recently, 100 mile training rides in winter have usually taken about 7 hours including a couple of stops, totalling maybe an hour.

If your mate is riding in a group it will help.

In reply to remtherockclimber:

My bloke recently rode 112 miles in the Alpes Maritimes in 6h15, got off his bike and ran a 4:48 marathon. Mind you, he was having a bad day - his mate did 6:10 on the bike and 3:52 for the marathon, and their clubmate ran a 3:18 marathon and he's 63... this being a triathlon thay all warmed up for the cycle with a 3.8km swim...
I don't know how fit your mate is, or how hilly his route is, but I think he has a reasonable chance of doing it.

In reply to remtherockclimber:

Our club had an 'endurance test' back in '65/66 -- coast to coast & back.

Tynemouth to the Solway & back. It was supposed to be 150 miles with a planned riding time of 10 hours. Due to a calculation / map reading error, the planned turnround point at Burgh by Sands was nowhere in sight of the sea, so we rode an extra 5 miles just so that we could say we'd been to both coasts.

Due to a strengthening westerly wind (thankfully behind us on the way back) we ended up doing 160 lumpy miles in 9 hours riding time (about 11 hours including stops.

A group of around 10 set off, and we only shed one rider on the way out to Carlisle at Greenhead. He happily climbed off and got into our one support vehicle.

To put it in context, we were all active club riders doing anything up to 300 miles per week - a mix of time triallists who competed in races of up to 100 miles, and 3rd cat / junior riders who were regularly picking up places in regional events.

So yes -- 180m in 12 hours riding time for a reasonably fit club rider is achievable, but not easy.

In reply to Lord of Starkness:

CTC used to have a standard trial of 100 in 8, most people of average fitness did that.

In reply to sutty:

My first ever day out with the cycling club -- age 14 - was out 'tourist test' -- 100 of Northumberland's best miles in 8 hours

It was by no means flat -- check out the route -- Tynemouth, Ashington, Alnwick, Rothbury, Elsdon, Ponteland, Morpeth, Tynemouth.

Ridden on a 'cobbled together bike of secondhand (mostly steel) bits that had generally been begged or borrowed'. I think the only alloy bits were the brake callipers. With only 5 gears - 48 x 14 - 24, I did a fair bit of walking up the steepest hills, but still made it (and got a certificate).

A couple of older friends who'd got me interested in cycling took cold feet at the distance ( we'd never ridden more than 30 miles in a day beforehand), but I was hooked!

In reply to remtherockclimber: Should be OK. We averaged 17.1 MPH cycling between the British 3 peaks, and I am not a proper roadie.