# First tour



## Nebulous (10 Apr 2011)

On the 2[sup]nd[/sup] and 3[sup]rd[/sup] of April I did my first long-distance ride, somewhere over 180 miles in two days. The plan was to travel from Aberdeen to Helensburgh, roughly a coast to coast. We were going on holiday for a week, so the plan was that my family would go on ahead and I would cycle down to join them. 

Now in the whole panoply of unprepared cycle trips I think this one deserves an honourable mention. I had no proper mapping, a road bike with no mudguards or panniers and as I found out later not enough tools. 

The other thing I discovered fairly early on was that my sense of direction and knowledge of geography is even worse than I thought it was. 

This whole thing is part of a journey that started with weight loss and some lifestyle changes, and somehow found its way to a bicycle, or more accurately, another bicycle. I’ve lost over a pound a week in the past year, and bought a road bike in October. Over the winter I’ve gradually built up my fitness, mainly on an exercise bike in the gym, but now that the weather has improved I’ve been building my miles on my bike, nevertheless the furthest I had done to date was 52 miles, so this was a big step up. 

The whole week beforehand I was trying to talk myself out of it. The forecast was poor, I hadn’t any maps of the route and the weekend before my knee had been quite sore. I stayed off the bike all week, then on the morning of the ride I tried to transfer some gpx files to cyclemeter on my mobile phone for directions. I had to wait for the postman before leaving, as I was waiting for an important letter (it didn’t come.) So I finally set off about half past ten. 

As though all this wasn’t bad enough, I was about 4 miles in to my journey when I realised my two drinks bottles were still in the fridge. I didn’t think that it would matter, as I could buy drinks from shops and stick them in my drinks holders. I landed up lost twice and then my wife phoned to say she had discovered my drinks bottles. By this time I had had a 10 mile detour, and we agreed to meet in Edzell to handover my drinks. I was confident I was back on the right road, but after turning off just short of Stonehaven I did a big loop and found myself heading down towards Stonehaven again. I had now done 45 miles, to find myself 18 miles away from home, on a first day that was scheduled for 106 miles.

So what did I do? Well I’m not ashamed to say I cheated. I changed the rendezvous with my wife to Stonehaven, bunged the bike on the roof of the car, and she took me almost to Forfar on the A90. I then cycled to Kirriemuir, Blairgowrie and eventually after quite a climb to Pitlochry. I had done just over 90 miles, as best as I can reckon, though my technology let me down – my iphone ran out of battery and my cheap wired Lidl cycle computer refused to recognise the magnet for a prolonged period of time. 

I booked into a youth hostel in Pitlochry, went for a curry and a couple (strictly) of drinks. I don’t think I was the most congenial of companions, curry and lack of experience sleeping in a dormitory, probably didn’t endear me to my roommates. 

The next day I set off, fortified by a surprisingly good breakfast after repairing a puncture in my back tyre, and discovering how difficult it is to get a decent pressure from a cheap mini-pump. 

To avoid the A9 I had another large climb to Tummel Bridge and discovered that my back brake calliper was loose, which meant one pad was dragging on my rim. I only had one Allen key with me – but unfortunately it was the wrong size. Eventually I found another cyclist with a multi-tool and managed to tighten it, but not before the brake pad had been well-worn down and the rim was looking a bit the worse for wear. 

I stopped in Killin and had a pretty perfect custard and berry cake and cup of coffee, but somehow on leaving I missed the cycle track and landed up on a rather busy A85 to Crianlarich. By now I was rather fed-up and toiling but the run down to Tarbet was pretty good and I was able to build up a bit of speed and got to Helensburgh feeling reasonably good. 

Highlights:- 

Just making it 180 + miles in two days despite my lack of preparation. 

Time to myself – I find I’m quite happy with my own company, especially when I have something to do, like cycle. 

Exploring new places, even when I was lost! 

Low Points:- 

Hills, despite losing a lot of weight I think I’m still too heavy to make a decent climber. Mind you I don’t think the fact I was carrying a rucksack on my back, which weighed more than a lot of racing bikes helped.

Headwinds and feeling so tired that I was plodding along in my lowest gear even on a relatively small climb. 

Still not having made 100 miles in a day. 

So the only question left is – when can I do it again? 





James


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## aberal (10 Apr 2011)

Brilliant mate. You done good.




Sounds like you had a rare old time and those distances are pretty darn good, even if you didn't make the ton. But dear oh dear, you need to get that backpack off your back. You'll do yourself some serious harm there. If your bike doesn't have the proper eyelets for panniers then you can buy clip on ones. Or better still - and here's a wacky old thought - buy a new bike!!!



Oh, and a multi tool....


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## funnymummy (12 Apr 2011)

Great tale James ,So will you do it again..?


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