British Cycle Quest

[Dizzie]

Sorry if this subject has been asked many times before but is there anywhere, here/facebook/twitter etc. for the BCQ. I am in the early stages, 13 now done, and after 3 this week in the Peak District it would be great to chat to anyone local who can give an idea of the terrain to a point. I am from Norfolk so can do undulating, but faced with Millers Dale and Middleton Top my motivation was at a low point, unlike the road ahead.

[PH]

I've never come across any, it's a secret society, you're not supposed to admit to doing it till you've got the trophy.
There is a google map with all the points on, I use that and cycletravel to plot routes and that gives a good idea of what to expect, if you can't find it I'll sort out a link.
Be warned, a disproportionate number of them are at the top of hills! Not that I'd know of course, I don't know which I'd be more reluctant to admit - That I'd been doing it for about 15 years, or that I'm still only about a third of the way through.

[soapbox]

I think PH has this covered. I've also been at it for about 15 years and am only just over halfway, and I only know of one other person who is doing it (plus a mate who accompanied me a couple of weeks ago to bag a couple in Shropshire and was so smitten that he's into double figures already).

Google maps is your friend with the terrain, if you can get the 3D thing, but generally speaking, even if the BCQ sites aren't at the tops of hills, if you're in hilly terrain, you're going to have to put up with the hills.

For what it's worth if you ever get up to Lancashire, my part of the world, Newchurch is at the top of a hill, Slaidburn is surrounded by hills, Hollingsworth Lake can be accessed without hills but the options are limited with busy main roads, but Styal, Inglewhite, and Leighton Moss are all easy terrain.
The Merseyside & Environs, and Cheshire sites offer easy/flat cycling terrain, too.

[eileithyia]

Likewise if you want the Parbold one it is at the top of a hill, but it is easier if you approach from Standish then you whizz down the hill and try to trigger the speed camera

Holme on Spalding Moor might be flatish lands but the hill up to the answer point will catch you out....

We recently ticked off a couple nr Cheddar, and descended to one of the answers (luckily) the climb up would be a bit tough.

But at least the one at Bamburgh is relatively flat lands.... you win some and not others.

We have been doing them for a number of years now and about a quarter through, partly due to not really getting on doing it for a couple of years for various reasons, but find them great as a way of building a ride around points, a couple of times we have managed to tick off 3 in a ride and on others only 1-2. They are very useful if you are holidaying away from your local area as it gives purpose to a ride and also means you learn a bit more of things around the area..... I would not have known about the Globe on the Dorset coast or what some monuments had been erected for, nor the story of a 15 year old who helped save sailors in a storm (don't worry haven't given away the answer).

Oh and a warning, take a camera with you, I know most phones now have decent cameras, but when we started I did not have a phone with camera and found a couple of the answers were not accessible; a monument near the Tissington Trail was draped in scaffolding and tarpaulin while it was being restored and a bridge in a park was blocked off as the area of the park was being completely re-furbished..... but at least if you have a photo as proof of passage. Also in these days of google, it helps back up that you actually went there rather than just googled the answer.

Have fun as we've been really enjoying doing it, then there is the one in France.....

[Jdsk]

Google Map:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&z=7&mid=1icPlv81S_X1jaz9YWYS6QI6sBVI&ll=55.5979345395449%2C-2.8830054999999977

Jonathan

[eileithyia]

Oh and be warned Holme Moss it definitely at the top of a bloomin great hill as it was the venue for the Holme Valley CC hill climb competition last weekend.

[PH]

There's also the golden rule - The more effort you put into getting to a BCQ point - The more likely you are to pass right by it at some other as yet unknown time.

[Sid Aluminium]

Neil Hemingway. Completion.

https://www.cyclinguk.org/article/neil- ... 7StHysgdjs

We are not worthy.

[eileithyia]

There's also the golden rule - The more effort you put into getting to a BCQ point - The more likely you are to pass right by it at some other as yet unknown time.

My frustration is all the places I visited pre BCQ start and now found I could have loads more ticked off by now if only I'd known! Also my big frustration, my son has been over Holme Moss twice in the past few years and each time forgot to get the answer to the question up there.... grrr!

[pedalsheep]

There's also the golden rule - The more effort you put into getting to a BCQ point - The more likely you are to pass right by it at some other as yet unknown time.

My frustration is all the places I visited pre BCQ start and now found I could have loads more ticked off by now

I know the feeling! I lived on Mull for a number of years, about 200 yards from the BCQ checkpoint there and I don't know the answer! Obviously I would love to go back to Mull but it's an awful long way from the Isle of Wight!

[eileithyia]

There's also the golden rule - The more effort you put into getting to a BCQ point - The more likely you are to pass right by it at some other as yet unknown time.

My frustration is all the places I visited pre BCQ start and now found I could have loads more ticked off by now

I know the feeling! I lived on Mull for a number of years, about 200 yards from the BCQ checkpoint there and I don't know the answer! Obviously I would love to go back to Mull but it's an awful long way from the Isle of Wight!

We completed the IOW in 2 visits a year apart on our annual trip to the New Forest, when we usually have a day trip.... when Andrew was a bit younger we got all the westerly ones, then next with a ride of 70 miles collected the easterly (inc the ride to the ferry). We managed 3 ferries that day much to Andrew's delight.
Most weeks we ride past the one on Parbold Hill.

[FerociousDog]

Google Map:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&z=7&mid=1icPlv81S_X1jaz9YWYS6QI6sBVI&ll=55.5979345395449%2C-2.8830054999999977
Jonathan

When you click on a thread and wish you hadn't.Then you click on a link in the thread ......

[Jdsk]

: - )

Jonathan

[Dizzie]

Thanks all for repying. I didn't realise I had joined such an elite group. I am amazed that there are not loads of people doing it, it is such a great idea. I think it was an article on Neil finishing that led me to BCQ, nobody had ever mentioned it before. It is still early days for me, I signed up November but lockdown stalled me as I had done the local ones. However we changed the Motorhome January ready to hit the points further afield and managed 5 on our October tour of the Peaks. Lincoln and Rutland were both enjoyable so motivated to do more. I enjoyed the Peak ones after the event and it led us to view other sights in the area like Bolsover castle which was awesome.
What sort of bikes do you all use? I laughed at my husband for getting an electric bike so he could join me on some rides, but he had the last laugh.

[eileithyia]

I've used anything from MTB, to my race bike, to my touring bike, to my commuter/winter bike.... My race bike in the days when i raced with a road bike and clip on bars and was at an event in a different area then after race went BCQ hunting with my son.... (it was on such an occasion we found we could not access the answer in a park due to refurbishment), MTBs when we picked up one near Tissington and then went on to collect the one on High Peak.

We laughed at the the idea of unfit 30/40 somethings turning out on electric bikes when they first hit the shops, then we started to see the other possibilities, when a 80yo former Tour of Britain winner can use one as part of his rehab and the local 75-90yo can use them to get out to the cycle cafes and continue their social life, you realise there useful is so much more than just getting the never fit out on a bike...

Even my fairly fit bike hirer uses them in Mallorca in the hot months for his commute from home to 'office' so he does not arrive sweated up, but keeps a car off the road.

I certainly would not rule one out in the future should I find my health / fitness failing especially with vast array of bikes that are now available as electric.