LEJoG or JoGLE or Ride Across Britain?

[Andy Stow]

Hi all,

Infrequent user of this board, but I just bought my plane tickets planning to do a LeJOG this year. I'm British but have lived in the US since I was 8 years old, and I still have lots of family in the UK.

I'm in for three weeks, arriving LHR on 27 August, departing 17 September. My plan was to use the 2 week route from Britain's Best Bike Ride, maybe with a rest day or two, giving me a good buffer if things go awry. I'm in good enough shape that I could do the ten day route if I really wanted (I don't.)

Something like this...
27 Aug: Arrive Heathrow, train to Penzance
28 Aug: Penzance - Land's End - Wadebridge (77 mi)
29 Aug: Wadebridge - Chulmleigh (66 mi)
30 Aug: Chulmleigh - Glastonbury (75 mi)
31 Aug: Glastonbury - Ross-on-Wye (81 mi)
01 Sep: Rest day?
02 Sep: Ross-on-Wye - Market Drayton (89 mi)
03 Sep: Market Drayton - Mellor (82 mi)
04 Sep: Mellor - Sedbergh (53 mi)
05 Sep: Sedbergh - Langholm (77 mi)
06 Sep: Langholm - Peebles (50 mi)
07 Sep: Rest day?
08 Sep: Peebles - Perth (78 mi)
09 Sep: Perth - Braemar (50 mi)
10 Sep: Braemar - Inverness (82 mi)
11 Sep: Inverness - Altnaharra (76 mi)
12 Sep: Altnaharra - John o'Groats (74 mi)
13 Sep: Rest day?
14-16 Sep: Train close to London, visit some family
17 Sep: Depart Heathrow

My original question was whether mid-September is late enough that I'd be better off doing JoGLE, but now I see that the babble Ride Across Britain is the 7th-15th September. I'm fit enough to do it but I'd do some longer rides in August to be sure. Maybe it being a rolling party would make up for doing the ride in fewer days than I planned. Also a big group would give my wife peace of mind. I can change my return ticket so it's not cutting so close if I do it in the next 8 hours or so.

So...

• Is RAB a fun event? Does the £2,150 (£240/day) compare favourably with what I'd spend on lodging & food doing it solo? I was planning to use inns/hotels/B&Bs, buy meals, and take camping gear only as emergency.

• If I go solo, should I be fine as long as I make sure I'm not spending the night somewhere the same day as them?

• JoGLE or LEJoG in mid-September?

[rareposter]

There's a very long running thread about the Ride Across Britain event here:
viewtopic.php?t=46635 (note by the way this was started in 2011!)

and a slightly shorter one here which has links to the longer one:
viewtopic.php?t=152331

I'll state openly that I've worked as a Ride Leader on the RAB event many times (although it's freelance, I'm not employed by Threshold (the organisers), or Deloitte (who used to sponsor it) or Babble (who currently sponsor it)) so feel free to take what I say whichever way you choose. Certainly the longer thread linked to above gives "a wide range" of views including some from people who've ridden it and (as with all forums) many views from people who haven't been anywhere near it!

Is RAB a fun event? Does the £2,150 (£240/day) compare favourably with what I'd spend on lodging & food doing it solo? I was planning to use inns/hotels/B&Bs, buy meals, and take camping gear only as emergency.

Define "fun". What one person finds fun, another would find hellish. And vice versa. It's good value for money in terms of having everything sorted for you. No need to find accommodation, think about dinner, plan and re-plan your route etc. There's full mechanical support, broom wagon and so on.
On the other hand, it's a fixed route (so no wandering off to the beach cos it's a nice day or deciding to take half a day to stop and look round a town or tourist attraction) and accommodation is all in tents, usually on racecourses or big school playing fields. There's a hotel option as well but it's one or the other - you can't decide to stop in a tent this night and go to a hotel that night for example.
As with everything, there are pros and cons to it, it's up to you to decide whether your version of the pros outweighs your version of the cons.

If I go solo, should I be fine as long as I make sure I'm not spending the night somewhere the same day as them?

I wouldn't worry too much about it. As above - most people will be on a large field somewhere each night with maybe 100 or so scattered across 2-3 hotels nearby. If you're riding the same route on the same day, then you could see loads of cyclists or - if you started much earlier or later - you could see no-one.

JoGLE or LEJoG in mid-September?

Pick whichever one suits your logistics. I've ridden it with days of rain, with baking heat, with headwinds/tailwinds and everything in between. There's no rhyme or reason behind the weather; it's the UK and it can quite easily be 4 seasons in one day.

[Andy Stow]

Thanks!

I'd probably find it fun, but maybe leaning towards type 2 fun. The longest rides I've done so far are across Missouri (430 mi in 5 days) and across Illinois (455 miles in 4 days) including a 177 mile day. Both trips were with just a few guys, all camping and carrying all gear except for a hotel the last night in Chicago. I've done some day rides with thousands of people and enjoyed them.

I'm leaning towards just doing my own thing after reading bits of those threads. Cheers!

[Andy Stow]

Just thought I'd post an update. I finished my LEJoG a few days ago on Friday the 13th of September, had a great time with no unsolvable issues, and my bike and I are now back home in the US. I followed the GPX routes from the book, and did 14 riding days, with rest days in Ross-on-Wye and Perth. About 1075 miles total, including Penzance to Land's End, and JoG to Wick. I walked bits of some hills in Devon and in the Cairngorms (The Lecht is a beast!)

Oh, and the A836 heading east from Thurso on the last day was the busiest, most oppressive bit of road on the whole ride, with a constant stream of mostly campers passing us. Maybe not helped by it being a Friday afternoon.

Two nights camping.
Three nights in hostels (two with my own room).
Remainder in hotels and inns, tried to keep it around £100/night.

I took a train to Penzance to start, but hired a car to return to Heathrow at the end. Luckily they had an estate car for me in Wick.

I did daily updates in a thread on the road.cc bike forum, or if you find me on Strava you can see probably a couple of hundred photos.