127 mile canal ride for charity training suggestions

[Pjays666]

No mate I'm pete

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

Weird, my mate has just started doing exactly what your doing and he lives in burnley. Similar fitness levels as well.

 

[Pjays666]

Whereabouts in rossendale are you bromptom

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

3 miles past rossy rd lights.

 

[Pjays666]

Weird, my mate has just started doing exactly what your doing and he lives in burnley. Similar fitness levels as well.

You will have to get him to contact me if he wants a cycling buddy always looking for people to train with

 

[Pjays666]

So your near reservoir then are you

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

Near enough

 

[Pjays666]

I'm only a couple of miles from you then bit closer to rosy rd lights than you

 

[rovers1875]

Just pray its dry, We did it last June it had rained for a week beforehand and rained the full day we did the trip. Over three days no special training would be needed. Our group did it on a range of mountain bikes and hybrids, all coped very well. We had several punctures between us and one totally gashed tyre. The only other problem was mud clogging up the brakes and gears. As others have said you will meet all type of surfaces. Just make sure you know the way when you leave the towpath at Gannow and Foulridge Tunnels. A good training run for you would be from Burnley to Skipton and back (around 40 miles) as you get most types of surface, you can rehearse the bits mentioned above (re tunnels) and there is a nice chippy on the canal bridge at Skipton. Good luck and enjoy it, I'll give you a shout as you pass Huncoat.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

Over this distance bike setup and saddle comfort will really matter so you need to get that sorted.

Don't attempt it on knobbly tyres; slicks will be much faster.

Tyre choice depends on towpath surface, there are parts of my local towpath that are large loose gravel, my slicks are near impossible to use comfortably or safely, the cobbled sections aren't much fun on rock hard 700x28s either & other parts are wet slush at times and require some skill and concentration when using slick tyres.

OP, assuming you don't know or have chance to recce the route, use google maps to get a feel for it and get in touch with the management or local 'friends of' groups to find out what you'll be riding on, it isn't necessarily going to be all pan flat road grade tarmac and on a narrow section cruddy path, it will be a big wet shock if you get it wrong.

For a self confessed novice on a likely variable quality, relatively narrow surface, next to an unprotected waterway, comfort and control should be your prime concerns rather than outright speed.

 

[User6179]

700x35 schwalbe sammy slicks CX tyres are perfect imo for canal towpaths

 

[Globalti]

When you see how the canals had to wander in order to find a level you'll understand why they were so effectively wiped out by the railways.

 

[vernon]

That sounds like a nice gentle pace Vernon

you know what i mean but I'll edit the message to remove the ambiguity.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

Road surfaces on the ll canal are:

Beautiful virgin Tarmac
Smooth Tarmac
Tarmac
Rough Tarmac
Potholed tarmac
Disintegrated Tarmac
Lovely well graded gravel
Awful loose gravel
Flat well used packed mud
Well used mud
Awful rutted puddled bumpy mud
Six inch deep slippy rutted loose watery death trap mud
Mud with an inch of metal shuttering sticking out for a few miles - this is a bloody death trap and tyre shredding section.
There are beautiful flagged section
There are loose slippy flagged sections
There are nice granite sett sections with tar in the crevices
There are rough granite sett sections that have over 23mm wide crevices - nice for tram lining
There are beautiful herringbone block laid sections
There are collapsed drain sections where food gravel has built up
There are singletrack sections


And some other surface types I've probably forgotten.

So I suggest using appropriate non slick tyres. I used my Brompton with marathons pluses on, to do most of it in a day (I did the same mileage on 2 canals, I took a wrong turning). It was 13 hours of purgatory, and that was in the middle a dry period in summer.

It wasn't the Brompton that was hell, it was the wrong tyre choice.

 

[Pjays666]

Right training has started now been off the bike for a month with man flu and ear infection so was needing to get out. Been from Burnley to the foulridge exit and back, only 20 miles but aching already.