350 mile tour
 

Hi everyone,

I have been in discussion with a friend of mine and we have been looking at doing a 350 mile bike tour from Surrey UK to Amsterdam, Netherlands as I have some family friends there. According to Google the route that we would like to take is 348 miles one way. We have never done anything like this before, the most I have done is 56 mile trip doing the London to Brighton and that was done in about 5 hours. I was just wondering if trying to do something like this is too much for us?
We would be doing it in the summer so we have 6 months training, we are both fit and I am a keen cyclist and have all the gear etc.

Just wondered on what other people experiences are.

I would think that this would be manageable- it depends on how much time you intend to take. For instance, if you have 7 days, that figures out to an average of 50 miles per day. Also, how much gear you intend to take (e.g. tent, sleeping bag, etc.) You'll undoubtably get more response if you post on a UK forum such as CTC or Bike Radar.

My first thoughts are that this is too much much soon. I don't think that your body would be able to handle being in the saddle for 75-100 miles 3-5 days in row. I base that on your stated riding history.

how about this... as a barometer spend the next weekend and ride 75-100 on Saturday and Sunday and tell us how your body feels on Monday.

Can your butt handle 300+ miles in one week? That's a serious question and you won't know unless you attempt to replicate it. Try Darth's suggestion. I'm pretty sure he means 75+ on each day too, not total.

Are you going to ride it unsupported, hauling all your own gear? That will further slow you down and add more saddle time.

Other than that, I'm sure you CAN do it. :)

Start training with 75 miles everyday...You will then be good to go.

Hey buddy, how's it going?

Hi, This has been moved to Touring with a redirect in the Road Forum.

Stud muffins want to impress other people with Mileage conquered Goals..
if that is your purpose , knock your self out.
Shortest bike ride around the world is a Category in the Guinness Books ..



Myself, ... after even a small amount of touring experience, having to hit pre booked lodging,

to Enjoy my trip, I dropped that ..

Time in the saddle determines how far I go on any given day , I didn't set daily Mileage goals .


camped , or stayed in Hostels , in hostel rich countries ..

Web shows this : http://www.directferries.co.uk/ferri...to_holland.htm
http://www.directferries.co.uk/harwi...land_ferry.htm

Channel crossing, From Dover you have to ride up the Belgian and Dutch coasts ..
http://www.directferries.co.uk/dover_calais_ferry.htm
http://www.directferries.co.uk/dover...rque_ferry.htm

there is a lovely bike route just in from the seashore sand berms
between North of Rotterdam to Zandvoort.

In other words, your behind may burst into flames if you ride too much too soon.

My contribution: You do not state how much time you want to take to do the entire trip, if relevant to you. With 6 months training time you can be prepared for some high daily mileages if that is your goal. Or you can just ride until want to stop each day.

As a new tourer, last Summer I started with 35 miles or so daily before the agony set in. By trips end, 40 days later, I was doing 70+ miles daily. Fully loaded.

yes sir, I meant 75+ miles per day

My guess is that after rider 75+ miles and getting a good night sleep that he won't want to look at his saddle for 3 days

Second thread today I am agreeing with Bob. Personally 75 a day, day after day is way too much for me. Set the miles you can do each day then figure out how long it will take. Not the other way around or you will have a horrible time. If you can't afford that much time, there is no shame in jumping on a train for a 100 miles or so,

And last bit of advice. Do at least an overnight first. Carry the gear and ride the miles that you plan for your big trip.

Actually one more bit of advice. Have fun!

I have more fun the more distractions I took along the way ..

stayed 2 weeks in one village because I had fun at the local Pub session , playing , learning more Music .

The OP never set a time limit. Its definitely doable, the question is how much time you have. A beginner should be able to do it in 2 weeks, more experienced cyclists can do in under a week.

Did I miss something? The OP didn't say how many days he expected to take did he? Also, he did say he had 6 months to train and 350 miles is really a pretty short tour as tours go.

I don't see any reason why a reasonably fit person couldn't start a tour that length even without any training beyond just getting some time in to get used to being on the saddle. That is assuming allowing enough time for the trip. Doing 40-50 mile days is not all that strenuous unless the route is very mountainous. The less time he plans to take the more training would be needed though.

Man, this is the most un encouraging thread about taking a tour ever. I realize that the first answers came from the road forum, but come on.

Take some time to do a weekend or two with your gear. Do some research, http://www.struck.us/index.html here is just one of dozens of sites with some info.
350 miles is not a super long trip, though its a respectable one that will require some prep.

If you are planning on using a Google bike route, be aware that sometimes their routes can be a bit, difficult. Dirt farm tracks, ten miles that could be done in four on the main road, etc. I have cursed google loudly on one or two occasions, and pretty much only use it when in a city.

Personally I don't get all the grief other posters were giving about miles. let your training over the next few months let you know what sort of schedule you should set. Its possible to get back on a saddle even if your butt hurts in the morning.
Most important is to enjoy the trip, otherwise what's the point.

+!

I agree with shipwreck, the discouragement is way out of proportion for what you are thinking about. With 6 months training you should have no trouble averaging 50-60 miles a day for a week.

On one tour my wife averaged slightly over 50 miles a day for 74 consecutive days. This was fully loaded and the route crossed several mountain ranges.

I believe that we have ridden part of the route you may take. If you take the ferry from the UK to Calais, and go up the coast it is likely part of the route we took. However, we came from the east along the Belgium border to Middelburg, and then rode the coast to almost Schagen before heading east again. You will find out that The Netherlands in not really flat, and what it lacks in hills it makes up for in wind.

+2
I was really puzzled by the responses. I know quite a few folks who happily did similar or much longer tours with very minimal training. Riding the expected daily mileage as a weekly mileage up until then is probably enough that you can enjoy the trip. Also 6 months is enough to train for even a very intense effort.

My advice would be to be sure and ride at least a few times a week a few weeks leading up to the trip with maybe one longish ride per week and allow enough time to take it fairly easy on the trip. Even a short daily commute is enough to prepare you for a fairly laid back tour. Then on tour ride as much or as little as you feel like each day.

Ya gotta love the bike forums. You could suggest that you are planning to tour through paradise in July and 90 percent of the posts would be folks telling you that it's a bad idea. Too much, too far, too windy, too cold, too hot, wrong bike, etc. etc. Heaven forbid someone tells you to just go for it.

The initial post was placed in the Road forum, it was moved to the Touring forum with a redirect midway through the thread. This could explain some of the earlier comments.

Hi guys thanks for all the replies I appreciate the thoughts, I apologize for posting this in the wrong place.

Regards to how much time I have to give for this trip I was thinking 9 days, but I just wanted to see what some of you more experienced guys think I would need time wise. More than anything this is meant to be something that I will enjoy, the journey there is what will be the fun part and the adventures that I will come across to get there.
350/ 9 is 38 so just to get there in 9 days will take 38 miles a day, to me that is very doable but that is not factoring in the fact that it is 38 over and over 9 times in a row.
If I average 50 -60Miles a day I will be able to be in Holland for a couple of days and this was the target I wanted to reach.
I will be fully loaded and plan to have a triple pannier (2X 36 litre side bags and 1X 15 litre top bag) although I have not planned what I will need to bring with me yet.

I am 21 and pretty fit, I used to live on my bike but gave it a rest for 3 or so years. In the past couple of months I have been doing 10 miles every evening after work and once a week I cycle to work which is a 46 mile RT.
I guess I was just looking for an insight to someone that has maybe done something like this and what it was like their first time, not only advising me on the physical side of things but also the mental challenge. To me this would be quite big thing as I haven't done something like this before.

Cheers guys

[/QUOTE]I believe that we have ridden part of the route you may take. If you take the ferry from the UK to Calais, and go up the coast it is likely part of the route we took. However, we came from the east along the Belgium border to Middelburg, and then rode the coast to almost Schagen before heading east again. You will find out that The Netherlands in not really flat, and what it lacks in hills it makes up for in wind.[/QUOTE]

In regards to this I am going to Calais from dover and will be going past Dunkirk, where abouts where you going to when you did part of this route? Was it nice? :)

My first tour was longer and at twice your age. Sure it's do-able. I even had fun (most days).

With six months to prepare, just start a decent training program. One of the nearly ubiquitous century training plans would be a good basis. Ride 4-5 days a week, increase your distance by 10% a week. With a month to go, add a load and cut your long day mileage by a third to get used to the touring load.

I might suggest you aim for 45-50 miles a day for the first few days. That'll give you some space to dial it back the third day (and find nice ice cream shops or other tourist traps). Also, if you ride a bit more distance early, you'll be able to spare the time if the weather turns against you.

Have fun!

9 days seems plenty of time. Last summer I did 250 miles over 4 days with some hills, 85 lbs of bike w/gear. Camping and cooking too. I think that your commuting and regular riding will be good training. Are you planning on camping? lodging thoughts? For 9 days it would be good to schedule a rest day in the middle some time.

We started in Lisbon, Portugal about 11 weeks earlier and reached the Netherlands with enough time to make a nice loop through the country before our flight home. We came into the Netherlands from Germany at Nijmegan, and then headed south to Maastricht. From there we went north, just barely inside Belgium to Middelburg. We wound our way up to The Hague, and then up the coast getting quite a bit north of Amsterdam. We headed east and crossed the Markermeer on the 22 mile long dike from Enkhuisen to Lelystad. From there we made a loop back to Amsterdam to catch our flight.

We did get a lot of rain, but it later in the summer, the last of August and early September.

I do recommend stopping at Den Haag, The Hague, if you have the time.

Also check out our blog for 2011:http://ddlivestrong.blogspot.com/

The Netherlands is a great place to ride-- Have fun.

It sounds like you are definitely on the right track. Have a great trip.