Preparing for the Randonnee

Preparing for the Randonnee
Originally uploaded by rhesus42.

Today I've been making the final preparations for tomorrow's Isle of Wight Randonnee. I've fitted the roofrack and cycle carrier to the car, and tested that I can drive around without the bike falling off. The picture shows what it looks like.



I've finally found a front light that is small enough to fit the remaining space on my handle bars. It's a Cat Eye unit that uses white LEDs rather than a bulb.



The final modification is to the bike's stand. I've been using one that attaches near the rear wheel. These are particularly good when you are using rear panniers and don't have much weight at the front. But with the extra weight of the map table and the front panniers, it was becoming increasingly unstable. Just removing a water bottle could be enough to tip the whole thing over! So, I've replaced it with a neat unit from Halfords, that clamps just behind the bottom bracket. It's much better balanced when the bike is loaded.

Maps, maps everywhere

I decided, some time ago, not to rely entirely on the electronics that I'm taking with me. Consequently, I've created paper maps for the entire route. I've printed custom maps from the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 series that I have on my computer. The entire route needs 123, A4 sized sheets. Suddenly, it seems an awfully long way...!

Interest from Local Press

Through contacts at the RNIB, we've been able to interest the Southern Daily Echo in doing an article about the end-to-end ride. They want to take photos next Tuesday and follow up with an article. With any luck, this will spark some additional sponsorship.

Le-Training

Although 1600 miles in four weeks represents only about 60 miles per day on average, the challenge of a long ride is to repeat the exercise on successive days. A rule of thumb is that if you can manage 150% of the distance on any single day, you should be fine. Last year I made several trips of over 100 miles in a single day, so I was reasonably confident. However, to be sure, back in March I tried trips of between 50 and 60 miles on five successive days, without ill effect. The only trouble with training rides at that time of year was the temperature. It was almost impossible to keep my feet warm! This despite Seal Skins excellent waterproof thermal socks.

At the time of writing, with about 3 weeks to go, I've done about 650 miles of training rides. There is more to come, including the Isle of Wight Randonnee on April 30^th. There are two rides, one of about 35 miles and one of about 63 miles. I'll be doing the longer ride and maybe adding a side trip or two, weather and body permitting.

Le-Bike

The bike I'm using is a Ridgeback Meteor. I've had it about 5 years and done somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 miles on it. It's had quite a lot of modifications. It has racks and panniers front and rear. The odd post on the rear carrier is actually part of a camera tripod. I'm expecting to take quite a few pictures during the trip and this gives me the equivalent of a tripod without having to carry one. The pump and water bottles are pretty ordinary. The saddle bag is where the GPS kit travels. I described this equipment earlier in Mobile Devices. A speed/timer/distance computer mounted on the handlebars completes the measuring equipment.

Aside from the tripod mount on the back, the other major modification is a map table added to the handlebars. You can just see it above the handlebars in the picture. It's made from scrap MDF and aluminium and mounted on an old handlebar riser. Another tripod ball joint mounting means it can be repositioned easily. It's large enough to accomodate A4 sized printed maps which are protected from the weather inside a transparent Zip loc folder. I'm taking paper maps as well as the electronic version loaded into my Dell Axim.

The Route

The ride starts at Land's End on Thursday May 11th and, not unnaturally, ends at John O'Groats on Friday June 9th. The route is as follows:

			Sector Distance		Total Distance
Day	Date	Sector	Map	Bike	Map	Bike
Thursday	11-May	Land's End to Par Sands	70.70	71.90	70.70	71.90
Friday	12-May	Par Sands to Moretonhampstead	57.60	58.58	128.30	130.48
Saturday	13-May	Moretonhampstead to Bridgwater	60.90	61.94	189.20	192.42
Sunday	14-May	Bridgwater to Bristol	59.98	61.00	249.18	253.42
Monday	15-May	Bristol to Bishop's Cleeve	48.70	49.53	297.88	302.94
Tuesday	16-May	Bishop's Cleeve to Ironbridge	59.70	60.71	357.58	363.66
Wednesday	17-May	Ironbridge to Culcheth	70.24	71.43	427.82	435.09
Thursday	18-May	Culcheth to Kirkby Lonsdale	72.22	73.45	500.04	508.54
Friday	19-May	Kirkby Lonsdale to Lazonby	61.80	62.85	561.84	571.39
Saturday	20-May	Lazonby to Eskdalemuir	50.90	51.77	612.74	623.16
Sunday	21-May	Eskdalemuir to Loanhead (Edinburgh)	57.40	58.38	670.14	681.53
Monday	22-May	Present at W4A 2006	0.00	0.00	670.14	681.53
Tuesday	23-May	Loanhead (Edinburgh) to Brig O'Turk	71.10	72.31	741.24	753.84
Wednesday	24-May	Brig O'Turk to Oban	73.90	75.16	815.14	829.00
Thursday	25-May	Oban to Fionphort	35.10	35.70	850.24	864.69
Friday	26-May	Iona and Staffa by boat	0.00	0.00	850.24	864.69
Saturday	27-May	Carsaig Arches and Malcolm's Point	37.80	38.44	888.04	903.14
Sunday	28-May	Fionphort to Tobermory	66.30	67.43	954.34	970.56
Monday	29-May	Kilchoan to Malaig (inc Ardnamurchan Point)	70.90	72.11	1025.24	1042.67
Tuesday	30-May	Ardvasar to Broadford (inc Elgol)	45.46	46.23	1070.70	1088.90
Wednesday	31-May	Broadford to Uig	58.52	59.51	1129.22	1148.42
Thursday	01-Jun	Uig to Glendale (inc An t-Aigeach and sides)	54.53	55.46	1183.75	1203.87
Friday	02-Jun	Glendale to Broadford (inc Fiskavaig side)	64.57	65.67	1248.32	1269.54
Saturday	03-Jun	Broadford to Applecross	49.33	50.17	1297.65	1319.71
Sunday	04-Jun	Applecross to Kinlochewe (inc Alligin Shuas side)	53.17	54.07	1350.82	1373.78
Monday	05-Jun	Kinlochewe to Camusnagaul	47.23	48.03	1398.05	1421.82
Tuesday	06-Jun	Camusnagaul to Lochinver	57.22	58.19	1408.04	1431.98
Wednesday	07-Jun	Lochinver to Rhiconich inc Oldshoremore side	57.94	58.92	1465.98	1490.90
Thursday	08-Jun	Rhiconich to Tongue inc Cape Wrath side	67.07	68.21	1533.05	1559.11
Friday	09-Jun	Tongue to John O'Groats inc Dunnet and Duncansby sides	75.92	77.21	1608.97	1636.32

There are two values for each sector and total distance. I've noticed that my bike and my maps disagree by about 1.7% on distances. I'm not sure which is right, but I've listed both.

The Charities

As you might expect, I'm hoping to raise some money for charity during this endeavour. I've raised money for a variety of charities by undertaking sponsored rides in the past. Usually, that has been as part of the UK Bike Week event. I've ridden to work to raise money. That might not sound like much but as I live in Winchester and work in Guildford, it's actually an 86 mile round trip.

For the End to End ride, I've decided to support two charities. One, Wessex Heartbeat, is local to the area of Hampshire where I live. It supports the cardiac unit at Southampton General Hospital. My wife Angela has been involved in events to raise money for them in past years, even organizing a major band concert in Bournemouth.

The other charity is national. The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) supports over 2 million people in the UK suffering from visual impairment. It seemed appropriate to support RNIB as, during the ride, I'm speaking at a conference about access to the Web for people with disabilities during the ride.

The abstract for my presentation, The Meaning of 'Life': Capturing Intent from Web Authors is available from the W4A2006 conference Web site.

How you can help

If you'd like to make a donation to either of the charities I'm supporting, that would be fantastic. If you'd like to sponsor me for RNIB, there is an on-line sponsorship page that makes it really simple. If you are local to my home village of South Wonston, there are sponsorship forms for Wessex Heartbeat in the village shop and in the social club. In addition, both RNIB and Wessex Heartbeat accept individual donations on-line.