2021 LEJOG

[Nessie23]

Congratulations Puffin.
Enjoyed your report and hope you are reunited with your bike soon.

[geocycle]

Lovely report Puffin! I can really associate with many of those experiences. Made me chuckle on a wet day.

[Tiggertoo]

It does appear that the whole bike/train relationship is fraught with peril.
I wonder if having your bike 'confiscated' in Inverness constitutes illegal seizure?
Would we assume you rode to Jo'G and then down to Wick? Extra bonus miles?
Well done, I hope the horse recovered from the presume 'dressing down' it received from the missus.

[AlanInBangor]

Thanks for the report, you were unlucky that the sleeper strike coincided with your return, has your bike arrived yet, and how much did they charge? I've been getting twitchy about the train aspect of our September ride and considering allowing for an extra day at the southern end in case of any silliness. No bike spaces are shown on any of the services either, which is a worry.

[Jamesh]

Good write up!

Makes me think we need a dedicated lejog rider and bike service? If I ever get made redundant I'll give it some thought!

Cheers James

[robgul]

Good write up!

Makes me think we need a dedicated lejog rider and bike service? If I ever get made redundant I'll give it some thought!

Cheers James

It's been done - services are available, listed on the Cycle:End-to-End site

Have to say Scotrail cocked up my booking back in 2005 for the Inverness to Thurso leg - double-booked and the jobsworth guard wouldn't let us on. Brandishing the printed confirmation in the Scotrail office on the station got them to arrange a taxi and trailer to drive us direct to JOG, saving the 17 mile ride from the station to JOG (we probably got there earlier than had we taken the train - and it was raining !)

[Lilyf]

Ah, the stress of trains!
When we did our LEJOG in 2016 we had everything booked (except our last leg as we couldn’t book our bikes onto that train).
We were booked from Stockport to Penzance with a change at Newton Abbot.
First panic.
On arriving at Stockport we were informed by a member of staff that there had been a ‘bridge strike’ just north of Bristol and no trains were using that line. The member of staff was very helpful and managed to get us tickets to Reading Station, where we would change for Penzance, and said our bikes would be fine. The train was packed and ours were the first bikes on so we were ok but others joined the train further down the line and had to stand by the bike spaces with their bikes. We did feel guilty but it wasn’t our fault. The train we transferred to at Reading was actually the one we would have caught at Newton Abbot and there was plenty of space for our bikes in a separate carriage.
Our LEJOG was relatively incident free although a taxi driver hit hubby, in a close pass, as we cycled from Penzance to our accommodation near LE. It had turned the driver’s mirror in. A short while later the same driver passed us on his return journey and his mirror was back in the correct position. At this stage we got his registration number. He knew he had hit hubby and had obviously had to stop further up the road to put his mirror back. The incident was reported to the local police and taxi licensing authority. Hubby had no response from the police but the licensing authority said they would have him in and he would get a warning and the incident would go on his record.
The only other incident was when we had to push our bikes up a steep cobbled path from a canal to a road. It was so steep that my bike started sliding backwards with the weight of my luggage and I ended up in a heap with my bike.
Back to the trains…..
Second panic.
Before heading home we stayed in Thurso and had booked onto the first train to Inverness.
The train was a few minutes late leaving the station and we had a couple of unplanned stops on the journey. We should have had plenty of time to change trains at Inverness (to Edinburgh) but as it was we had to leap off the train and charge across a couple of platforms to catch our next train. We made it with seconds to spare.
The train from Inverness should have been several carriages long but for some reason it only had two. We were crammed onto the train and couldn’t access our reserved seats. We were on silly little seats outside a toilet. This was the only working toilet on the train and it was soon out of action!
A few minutes into our journey there was an announcement that due to staff shortages the train would be stopping at Perth and would NOT continue to Edinburgh but they would provide a coach transfer.
Third panic.
Would we be able to get our bikes onto a coach?
Fortunately, this was allowed and our bikes went, along with our panniers, into the luggage compartment. We knew that we should have a couple of hours to change trains in Edinburgh but by the time we had called at every station between Perth and Edinburgh we didn’t have too long to hang around.
Our train from Edinburgh to Manchester was bliss. It was smooth, with plenty of space for the bikes and we got our reserved seats.
Fourth panic.
Our final leg to home. As hubby has a free train pass (a perk for pensioners who live in Greater Manchester and can only be used in GM) I went to buy my own ticket. All good. We got onto the train and waited for it to leave. After a short while a member of staff got onto the train and said that there was a signalling problem on our line and that we would have to change trains to get home via a different route. Again, this alternative train was packed but we did make it back to our home station and pedalled the final mile home.
Since then, when we have gone on a tour we have cycled from home back to home.
I can’t be doing with the stress of bikes on trains!!!!

[Tiggertoo]

There are a lot of advantages to doing an out-and-back tour, no hassle with lovely British trains being one.

Since I will not be able to do LeJog this year - flights are problematic - I plan to ride the Natchez Trace (https://www.nps.gov/natr/index.htm) in October as a warm-up. Unlike in Britain, there is no public transport so the only option is out-and-back. The benefit is to get used to bikepacking on a relatively easy route. There are no turns on the Trace, so one cannot get lost - and no need for GPS either. Limited B&B's - or any accommodation except camping (not going to do that) so my schedule is going to have to be 100 miles a day or more. So, out-and-back, 900 miles - 9 days or less.

[puffin]

There are a lot of advantages to doing an out-and-back tour, no hassle with lovely British trains being one.

Since I will not be able to do LeJog this year - flights are problematic - I plan to ride the Natchez Trace (https://www.nps.gov/natr/index.htm) in October as a warm-up. Unlike in Britain, there is no public transport so the only option is out-and-back. The benefit is to get used to bikepacking on a relatively easy route. There are no turns on the Trace, so one cannot get lost - and no need for GPS either. Limited B&B's - or any accommodation except camping (not going to do that) so my schedule is going to have to be 100 miles a day or more. So, out-and-back, 900 miles - 9 days or less.

That looks awesome.
The only thing that puts me off cycling abroad is all the hassle of converting the bike to drive on the right, but rides like that make it worthwhile. Enjoy!

[Tiggertoo]

" converting the bike to drive on the right"

Interesting you should say that, on my one day LeJog the year before last I was always in the middle of the road and a bloke I was riding with kept telling me to get over to the left, I told him that having ridden in America for so many years, my bike just naturally wants to be on the other side.

[puffin]

" converting the bike to drive on the right"

Interesting you should say that, on my one day LeJog the year before last I was always in the middle of the road and a bloke I was riding with kept telling me to get over to the left, I told him that having ridden in America for so many years, my bike just naturally wants to be on the other side.

Brilliant! In similar vein , I rode a horse who had come from Belgium and she kept walking on the right.

[robgul]

" converting the bike to drive on the right"

Interesting you should say that, on my one day LeJog the year before last I was always in the middle of the road and a bloke I was riding with kept telling me to get over to the left, I told him that having ridden in America for so many years, my bike just naturally wants to be on the other side.

Brilliant! In similar vein , I rode a horse who had come from Belgium and she kept walking on the right.

Semi-serious note . . . bikes sold in drive on the right countries do have the brakes the other way round, i.e. front on the left side of the bars. (When I managed an LBS I had to swap all the brakes over on brand new Bianchi bikes, and another couple of brands I can't recall - as well as for customers that had bought a bike abroad. Not a legal requirement but advisable for reasons of hand-signals and braking.

[Tiggertoo]

I understand that when anyone takes a bike down to Australia, they have to turn the tyres backwards and ride with the saddle pointing to the rear.

[puffin]

I understand that when anyone takes a bike down to Australia, they have to turn the tyres backwards and ride with the saddle pointing to the rear.

Lol!!!

[puffin]

A quick update, still no sign of my bike from Scotrail.