End to End December

[willst0ne]

I am going to do the end to end in Decemeber. I have two questions I was hoping for some help with:

1. Does anyone know if it has been done in Decemeber before?
2. If so, have they a blog or website with usefull info?

Thanks in advance

[vorsprung]

The David Walliams JogLE was at a most unsuitable time of year. Might be worth looking at what they did. Not the bus full of celebrities, I mean the route

[wallyone]

Or you could look at the earlier thread http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=40877

[Archie2K]

I am going to do the end to end in Decemeber. I have two questions I was hoping for some help with:

1. Does anyone know if it has been done in Decemeber before?
2. If so, have they a blog or website with usefull info?

Thanks in advance

I didn't do an End-to-End in winter but the past two years I have done multi-day cycle tours at this time of year so I guess I can help a bit.

December 2008: South Coast. Got fog one day but really weather conditions were delightfully ameanable. Stayed in hostels and budget hotels every night. Weather was generally around 5C which is managable. Daylight does become a problem as it gets too dark to really see at 5pm (though twilight lasts a surprisingly long time before you really need to stick a light on). As a result I was arriving everywhere no later than 6pm, and being off season there were few diversions.

January 2010: Wales. Set off 2nd January. Had 3 and a half days of brilliant riding. Clear roads. Blazing sunshine. Minor roads still impassable due to the recent ice so had to stick to A-roads. On day 3 the weather was so cold my bike bottles froze solid on the bike during the day. Think it was minus 7 that day. Then the snow set in and the whole country became impassable. Riding on slush really isn't much fun on 28c road tyres but it's just about doable.

Blogs on http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/Archie2K

Problems you will face: Staying warm. The core stays warm thanks to the effort you put in to cycling. I had a base layer and a fleece only, and that suffice even in minus 7. The extremeties get cold. I had waterproof gloves with glove liners. I recommend waterproof socks (SealSkinz) over at least one pair of normal socks, sometimes two. It might be worth investing on overshoes, or at least putting tape over the venting on cycling shoes if you have them. You need to keep the extremeties dry and warm. I had a balaclava and a Buff for keeping the face warm. I used them.

Lack of daylight. I set off where possible around 7.30am with sunrise to maximise riding time without needing to use a light. I had a Cat-Eye front light with 3 hours of life on full charge, and a headtorch. I charged the light up each night if it had been used. Even so, you'll have long evenings to spend. Might be worth tacking a deck of cards, or hitting the pub each evening!

Problems you might face: Snow and ice. If this happens, unless you've packed winter tyres, you'd be lucky to continue. Are you prepared to wait for days in a Scottish village until the weather passes? If you do decide to continue in snow, it really stings to ride through. I recommend some ski goggles.

I don't regret the truncated Welsh tour. The chance of getting such dreadful weather is remote (and I got it just as bad in April incidentally!) and winter is a really beautiful time of year. People will think you are mad, but that's part of the fun.