How much does a self planned Lejog cost ....

[TheRedEyeJedi]

I noticed one of the big organized tours is offering 9 days, supported trip, with camping at night for £1600 ...that doesn't include transport to and from the end /start and it struck me that it is a lot of money for camping. Im not knocking it as I can see the appeal for some of just turning up and riding but I thought it might be a good idea to show some costing for an alternative self planned effort.

Obviously it has famously been done with no budget...by starting off naked and begging and borrowing clothes and bikes ..... and at the other end of the spectrum some of the record attempts run into the tens of thousands of pounds for support and kit.

I just thought it might be useful to share my workings for the costing of a 6 man, self supported b&b attempt that we will be doing in April/May this year. Its my second E2E after completing solo in 2014 .... I know travelodges are not everyone's idea of perfection but they do have the advantage of allowing you to take bikes in the room, being located perfectly on route and being close to pubs and towns for the evenings....plus they are cheap and hassle free!

This is obviously just costs for logistics.... what you spend on food, drink and amusement during the day(and night ) is up to you!
This is based on 2 people sharing 3 twin rooms each night.

£300 ....Van hire + petrol to take 3 of us and bikes from Oxford and then drop off van at Penzanze early on Saturday morning (the other 3 will follow on in car driven by a wifey)
£1840 ... 12 Nights accommodation (which is 8 Travelodges, 4 B&Bs and 1 three course evening meal included) this gives us a stop over in Inverness the night we finish.
£280... JOG Bike Taxi service to take the 6 of us and bikes from the finish 90 miles back to Inverness (we then have an over night stop booked in Inverness before flying home the next afternoon)
£480 ... JOG bike taxi charge to box up the 6 bikes and luggage and courier it all back to our homes
£204 ... 6 BA flights home from Inverness to Heathrow

£3100 total and £517 each.

My routes are here...
https://ridewithgps.com/users/218007/routes

By no means is this as cheap as it can be done... I have been working on a budget of £550 per person and that allowed us to avoid public transport getting to lands end and also allowed for taxis, flights and couriers on the way back...which I am a big fan of personally. We also need to get there and back as fast as possible to minimize holiday leave from work ... in a perfect world I would just cycle back!

Just thought it might be useful to have a thread where people can see the costing's of different types of attempts.

[Si]

I found that there were extra costs when I did it: beer money, lunches, snacks/refuelling as you go along, getting into attractions, spares, plus just buying random stuff along the way, for instance books, plasters, new hat, gifts, etc. Guess it all depends on what you want to do when not on the bike...I like visiting museums, historic houses, etc so that was a bit of a cost.

Most of this wasn't necessary, but added to the enjoyment.

[phil parker]

Camping, unsupported, I spent about £30 a day, plus train fares booked in advance at less than £100 in total.

[BottomGear]

Just totting up costs and my unsupported 15 day Jogle trip will come in at about £550 (not including Food & Drink)

That's travel from the SouthEast by rail to JOG £90, with my en-route accommodation mainly split between B&B & Hostels and camping.

[rareposter]

I noticed one of the big organized tours is offering 9 days, supported trip, with camping at night for £1600 ...that doesn't include transport to and from the end /start and it struck me that it is a lot of money for camping. Im not knocking it as I can see the appeal for some of just turning up and riding but I thought it might be a good idea to show some costing for an alternative self planned effort.

To be fair to the Ride Across Britain, it includes all food & drink - breakfast, evening meal (which is all exceptional, genuinely excellent quality, loads of choice, big helpings), all ride food at feed stations (usually a step up from the average Sportive but still basic sustenance), full route signage, full mechanical support, broom wagon, post-ride massage and the camping is fully supported too so the tent is ready for you when you arrive at base camp and is taken down for you once you've left.

To call it "£1600 for camping" is sort of missing the point. Once you're on the ride you really don't need to do anything other than eat, drink, ride and sleep nor do you need to spend any money which some people like for the sheer simplicity of it all.

[honesty]

I seem to average a little bit more than about £1 a mile when I take into account food, transport, accommodation, extras. So for me I'd be looking at somewhere in the region of £1000. I use B&Bs not camping though.

[TheRedEyeJedi]

I noticed one of the big organized tours is offering 9 days, supported trip, with camping at night for £1600 ...that doesn't include transport to and from the end /start and it struck me that it is a lot of money for camping. Im not knocking it as I can see the appeal for some of just turning up and riding but I thought it might be a good idea to show some costing for an alternative self planned effort.

To be fair to the Ride Across Britain, it includes all food & drink - breakfast, evening meal (which is all exceptional, genuinely excellent quality, loads of choice, big helpings), all ride food at feed stations (usually a step up from the average Sportive but still basic sustenance), full route signage, full mechanical support, broom wagon, post-ride massage and the camping is fully supported too so the tent is ready for you when you arrive at base camp and is taken down for you once you've left.

To call it "£1600 for camping" is sort of missing the point. Once you're on the ride you really don't need to do anything other than eat, drink, ride and sleep nor do you need to spend any money which some people like for the sheer simplicity of it all.

Ok I didn't realize it included food too and that does make it more appealing .... as I said I am not trying to knock it.... if you don't want to deal with feeding or housing yourself then I can see the appeal

Point stands you are still paying £1600 plus your travel to and from the end (which is one of the hardest bits to sort)...lets say £1900.
For £1900 each in a group you could plan it yourself, buy a satnav, have a luxury B&B stop every night plus a meal out and pay for some sports massage ... and have several hundreds spare.
Just thought it might be useful to see some working from up coming trips so people deciding between self planned or fully managed trips could make an informed decision.

[700c]

Last time I did it, I spent a grand total of £472, travel and food included.

Mostly camping, with 1 night at home & 1 night at a friends house.

[toontra]

One advantage of a quicker ride is the lower cost. My most recent LEJoG cost £250 (accommodation a combination of Travelodges & B&B's booked well ahead, and to/from advance train tickets). Daily food was probably a bit more than I'd normally spend on food! - if included that probably adds an extra £80, so £330 all told.

[Deckie]

When we did our JoGLE (May 2010) we were unsupported and the transport of the tandem was generously covered by a friend. We spent three nights in SYHA hostels (including the now closed Carbisdale Castle), five with friends & family and seven in Bed and Breakfasts. Total cost (including rail tickets to Wick) was about £550.

Saying that we were very careful with our costs, the largest of which was food (one area you can't stint on!). We did go short on one day and I particularly suffered for the next two.

[rareposter]

I think part of the appeal of a fully paid, all-inclusive event is the lack of any further costs.
Early on in the ride a couple of years ago, one guy broke his bike. Pretty catastrophic failure, unrideable.

Within 15 minutes, a Halfords car was with him, down came an immaculate Boardman road bike from the roof and the rider was on his way again, he completed the full event. Although he did have to give the bike back once he got to JOG!

Compare that to a non-supported effort (solo, club ride, whatever it may be) when you've spent all that time and money planning everything in advance, booking and paying for your accommodation up the country and suddenly being faced with an incident like that where you end up either cancelling altogether, probably not getting much refund from your pre-booked accommodation, potentially having to spend several hundred ££ on getting the bike to a safe place, getting it repaired or just throwing it onto a train home. In essence, that £1600 buys you insurance, it buys you a safety net and that, to many people is priceless.

This sort of got covered in the "where have all the E2E'ers gone?" thread which was asking about why people do it solo, do it in organised groups etc.

[Chat Noir]

Looked at the costs of my ride last year, from York to LE, up to JOG then back to York. Overall, accommodation was just under £500, all pre-booked and with some nights shared (so would pull costs down). Like many others on here, I find that planning and organising the ride is half the fun.

The costs from LE to JOG in 8 days were £260 accommodation (this includes night in the hostel just short of LE, now sadly not operating as hostel, and a night at JOG, ie 9 nights) and food for 8 days, probably between £15 and £20 per day, but will round up to £160, so £420 total. Obviously, no travel costs to either end but I had accommodation and food for the other 8 nights and 10 days I was cycling, which works out at £240 and £200 respectively, £440 total. You can get to and from the ends for much less than £400, especially if you share the travel costs. Camping the whole way would certainly reduce accommodation costs.

So, a really challenging and satisfying 18 day ride cost me about £860. My partner came to meet me twice during the ride so would need to add fuel and some other associated costs. If anyone interested in more detail, the account is on the End to End website but, being a double, I should caution that you may find it doubly boring …
http://www.cycle-endtoend.org.uk/hosted/668.pdf

[denniswpearce]

Have you thought about this one man band company, offers very good value, I am doing the 12 day Lejog in June with them. Good value at £1100.
http://www.great-bear-tours.co.uk/#

[wilddavid]

Have you thought about this one man band company, offers very good value, I am doing the 12 day Lejog in June with them. Good value at £1100.
http://www.great-bear-tours.co.uk/#

I rode LEJOG with Great Bear last July. Carl who runs Great Bear offers excellent value for money. You are also picked up at a meeting point as set out by Great Bear and transported to Lands End via mini bus. Once completed you will travel from John O'Groats in the bus and dropped off usually where you got on at the start of the trip. This really does make life easier for you, certainly in terms of organisation. You are then able to concentrate of the riding. As Denniswpearce says it really is good value for money. Check it out. You will love it.

[TrevA]

I wouldn't pay £1600 to camp. Our Jogle cost about £2000 all in for 2 of us. We did 17 nights in B&Bs and hotels varying from £35 to £70 a night. We managed to get cheap deals on Travelodges for around 6 nights. We spent £30-40 a day on food and drink. Train fares were less than £100 to Jog and £150 first class from Penzance to Derby £75 each.

If you camped and cooked your own food, I reckon you could do it for £30 a day + train fares.