If only I had...........

[helenheart]

From the vets to the newbies.
What would you do differently?
What do you wish you had known?
What advice did you ignore?
What's your best piece of advice now?
From the newbies to the vets - thanks, we're listening!

[Vitara]

One of the things I wish I'd done is put a toothbrush and toothpaste in my pannier and given my teeth a quick brush after each brew stop and lunch stop. Why? Well 2 weeks of constant high calorie, high sugar intake and reduce saliva production for 14 days came back haunt me 6 weeks later with severe dental problems, lots of pain, a root canal and £150 dentist bill.

I would add that my teeth were not in good shape at the outset, so may not be so critical for others, but it is something I now do while touring.

[wirral_cyclist]

Since I became sentient (25?) I've only really focussed on me brushing before breakfast and then again at bedtime with no dental problems (I'm 53 with fairly historic amalgam fillings so 'proper old school' - 2xday is it!). So unless you are on a 100mile/10 day sprint then high calorie, high sugar (prefer meat personally) feeding probably wont actually be needed, but obviously if you feel the need to 'feed up' - and lets face it LEJoG is a damn good reason, then after each snack a quick swill with plain old H2O is probably enough, and using your own personal Fluoride grinding paste after each pie/kebab/cumberland/cake/did I say cumberland? isn't going to hurt - well unless you cut down the toothbrush (It has been done!) and use the sharp end by mistake...

'after' breakfast I'm assured is best and does makes sense! - but old habits die hard...

[helenheart]

Here you go WC - these are your peeps!
http://thecumberlandsausageclub.org.uk/

[Mick F]

What would you do differently? Nothing really, maybe take a day off half way.

What do you wish you had known? My first JOGLE in 1994, I wore out a rear tyre down to the canvass. I wish I'd known about trailers instead of carrying weight on the bike.

What advice did you ignore? I never took any. I used my knowledge of the geography of UK.

What's your best piece of advice now? Do it both ways. I did this in 2006 and it takes away the heartache of trying to get to/from JOG or LE with your bike. Ride it home!!!

[pwa]

I did my only LEJOG in the late 1980s (probably 1987) and I did it on what I now know was a poor choice of bike. I kept breaking spokes and, as I knew next to nothing about bike mechanics, I toured from bike shop to bike shop. So my first advice to any newby would be to make sure the wheels are good, and have what you need to change a rear drive side spoke. My second piece of advice would be to take a longer and more scenic route, allowing the extra time needed. I rode up the A49 from Leominster to Shrewsbury and hated the close passing traffic. I would take a bit more time and deviate onto more minor roads. A personal preference, I know. I like quiet roads.

[irc]

If you are only going to do it once take more time. I took 13 days for a fairly scenic route of just over 1000 miles. If I did it again I'd take longer. Rob ainsley's suggestion of 3 weeks at 50 miles per day sounds pretty good. More time for teacakes, late starts after late nights, sleeping in the sun after lunch etc.

http://www.bikereader.com/contributors/ ... d2end.html

[geocycle]

If only I had.... Worked out in advance why you are doing it.... Is it to see the UK from the unique perspective of a bicycle? Is it about places and landscapes. Is it an endurance challenge? Are you trying to prove something to yourself or others? Is it about the people you are with or will meet? If you get this straight in your mind you will make the right planning decisions and enjoy it much more. For most folk it is a mixture but you need to decide what is important to you as you don't want to be caught between different goals.

[wirral_cyclist]

Having looked at another thread on here I think that should consider including The Lizard for Southernmost point, and as the Northernmost is just minor detour from JoG over to Dunnets Head you could include that easily - but then should you do Lowestoft for Easternmost...

We didn't do Lizard but are doing Dunnets on Leg#4 (Inverness-JoG) so as we still need to do Lizard, perhaps my piecemeal LEJoG can have a Lizard-Lowestoft leg#5

[horizon]

I haven't done it (my daughter has and I may do it one day) but the only advice I think I really would ignore strongly is to do it for charity. From what I read of other people's experiences, it is a already a gift to humanity that they have put themselves through it. It's too precious to divert that meaningful attention to something else.

If OTOH the whole meaning of doing it is derived from the cause you are doing it for (for example due to a deeply personal connection to a charity for instance) then perhaps that justifies it and is something different. But overall I get the impression that it's worth doing for its own sake and doesn't need further justification. Otherwise it's almost as though people are trying to divert attention from what it really meant to them, which is a shame IMV.

[eileithyia]

I haven't done it, have no great desire to currently..... that does not mean never.......
I realise many people only have their 2 weeks annual leave to do it in but if i were to venture forth i would probably look at taking all summer, join the dots up between places i have toured and places i have not... visit some of the Scottish Islands..... why rush through a narrow corridor when the whole country awaits......

[Ben@Forest]

What would you do differently? - Do LEJOG but only because I did JOGLE last time

What do you wish you had known? - That there's no place to get a sit-down meal in Dalmellington (though I think there may have been a restaurant which was closed for some reason)

What advice did you ignore? - Wear a helmet (chewed this over with a few friends and in the end decided I didn't want to carry it if I wasn't wearing it)

What's your best piece of advice now? - Just do it and don't obsess about your route - I can't believe how many people ask for opinions about their selected route on this sub-forum.

[PH]

...done it 20 years earlier!
It was enjoyable but not the best tour I've ever done, what it did do was show me how many wonderful areas of the country were worth going back to and just what was possible on a bike. If I had done it 20 years before, the list of places i still want to go might be a bit shorter.
Best advice I received - Plan your own route, the UK is long and mostly narrow and you can make a lot of changes to the common routes without adding much mileage. Our East of Pennines and through Lincolnshire route on quiet roads with very little urban riding was a touch under 1,100 miles and suited us well.

[tatakai]

Having just finished Jogle last week, I would have taken longer than 9 days and maybe done it at 70 miles a day than the 100+ I did do as the endurance aspect of it overtook the pleasure/ leisure aspect, the days I turned the bike satnav off were more enjoyable than when the annoying sod was on peeping at me all day telling me to go this way or that, with the satnav in mind if I ever did it again I would pay more attention to the actual route plan as it got a little frustrating being routed away from civilisation every time you came upon it, but as someone said don't obsess about it.
I would try to do it avoiding ALL (English/ welsh) A roads as they are just not fun.
I would go west coast of Scotland and take in a few islands as well rather than down the east and cross at Inverness (don't get me wrong the east coast of Scotland is still amazing, In fact Scotland deserves a whole long distance ride in its own right).
Oh and I would take 2 days doing Cornwall rather than 1, as having that 103 mile ride on the last day nearly killed me.

I did it solo, so IF I was every to be foolish enough and the missus lets me disappear for 10 - 14 days again then it would be a group with a support vehicle.

Oh and I forgot to add, don't listen to anyone that has not done an endurance event before, ANY ONE and EVERYONE can do it!! you do not need to be superfit, you do not need a lightweight carbon bike and you do not need to have ££££. You just need to tell yourself you CAN do this, do some appropriate training, book a date, tell a load of people and then have fun planning it and then do it, it never ceases to amaze me what my body can do.

[Mick F]

The thing is, it's an End2End, not a bicycle tour.
The reason to do it, is to do it, not to tour the UK.
If you want to tour the UK, tour the UK.

In 2010 I did a Grand Tour.
I took the train from Plymouth to Edinburgh then rode up to Inverness, over to the west and rode over the Pass of the Cattle to Applecross, I rode down the west coast, down the Mull, over to Aran, across Dumfries and Galloway, crossed the north Pennines, visited Whitby, climbed Rosedale Chimney Bank, crossed the Pennines into Lancashire and then to Wales. From there I did the Llyn Peninsula, down the west coast and over the Gospel Pass, then into England via Gloucestershire before riding home to Cornwall.

1,000miles in three weeks.