simontheref wrote:Hi,
Am doing the LEJOG ride at the end of may/beginning of june, and have been putting a few hours in the gym while the cold weather is with us.
Daft thing is I have no idea which type of bike I need to buy!! Have been to a few bike shops and have been told different things - some recommend the hybrid bike, others the tourer bike.
Can anyone who has done the ride, or does do long distance cycling please recommend which type of bike would be best.
Many thanks for your help
Simon
You will get lots of answers and some disagreements on this question.
For what it's worth I've done it both ways and used a second hand Dawes Galaxy costing the princely sum of £200. On the ride, most of the riders doing LEJOG were using tourers (nearly 2/3) with hybrids accounting for the remaining (1/3) a group of sixth formers that I met were using racing/road bikes. It is possible to use any bike for the ride and I am sure that Bromptons and other less obvious bikes have been used.
One thing that might influence your choice is the the type of accommodation that you want to use along with the pace at which you want to ride and whether or not you will have support.
If you are using B&B and are fully supported with a van then racing bikes are perfectly matched to the job. If you are riding unsupported and B&B then hybrids or tourers with panniers are fine as they are should you be going the whole hog and camp unsupported like I did.
There's no substitute for getting the miles in on the road and the weather has been mild enough for me to get in 65-70 mile rides every weekend since mid December on my trusty Galaxy. I just might go for another End to End this year using a newly acquired Flying Gate bike.
Get your hands on a bike asap and get out onto the road to harden up your butt. You will be sitting on it for a long time during the ride so you might as well get it used to the idea sooner rather than later
