NCN Route 1: Dover to John o'Groats

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MrBassTrombone
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NCN Route 1: Dover to John o'Groats

Post by MrBassTrombone »

Has anyone out there ever cycled the complete National Cycle Network Route 1 all the way from Dover to John o'Groats (in one go) ?
pete75
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Re: NCN Route 1: Dover to John o'Groats

Post by pete75 »

Doubtful. People have done Lejog moreless in one go - the record is held Gethin Butler in 44 hours but he probably stopped to get his head down for a few minutes from time to time. NCN 1 is over 1600 miles so it'd be very difficult to do it in one go without a half decent sleep stop.
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irc
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Re: NCN Route 1: Dover to John o'Groats

Post by irc »

You would need to be a bit of a masochist to do a tour of 1600 miles on Sustrans routees.

NCN 1 somewhere in England.<br />http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?page_id=133536
NCN 1 somewhere in England.
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?page_id=133536
MrBassTrombone
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Re: NCN Route 1: Dover to John o'Groats

Post by MrBassTrombone »

pete75 wrote:Doubtful. People have done Lejog moreless in one go - the record is held Gethin Butler in 44 hours but he probably stopped to get his head down for a few minutes from time to time. NCN 1 is over 1600 miles so it'd be very difficult to do it in one go without a half decent sleep stop.


When I said " in one go" I really meant in about two weeks with overnight stops....
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Paulatic
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Re: NCN Route 1: Dover to John o'Groats

Post by Paulatic »

There should be a medal for anyone who could follow the whole of a NCN route. Doubt I've managed it for more than an hour.
1600 mils in 14 days is 115 mils a day. An extremely hard task on good roads, I would say, for the normal mortal, impossible on any NCN route.
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mjr
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Re: NCN Route 1: Dover to John o'Groats

Post by mjr »

A grass field? That's better than the sand, gravel and dirt tracks between the Norwich City Council boundary and somewhere near Whitwell:
Image
I rode it from the westernmost point on the curve to Norwich this year. Never again.

The change from tarmac in Norwich to gravel outside reflects the historic attitudes to cycling of Norwich City Council (generally encouraged - and this helps because they have an agency agreement with the county for their area) and Norfolk County Council (tolerated), in my opinion.
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dakari-mane
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Re: NCN Route 1: Dover to John o'Groats

Post by dakari-mane »

Am planning on doing the whole of NCN4 in September. Starting at Fishguard & finishing back in London. Just wish you didn't have to buy so many ruddy maps to cover the whole route (too expensive for an incomplete route so I'm not going to buy any, I'll just will wing it).
pete75
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Re: NCN Route 1: Dover to John o'Groats

Post by pete75 »

mjr wrote:A grass field? That's better than the sand, gravel and dirt tracks between the Norwich City Council boundary and somewhere near Whitwell:
Image
I rode it from the westernmost point on the curve to Norwich this year. Never again.

The change from tarmac in Norwich to gravel outside reflects the historic attitudes to cycling of Norwich City Council (generally encouraged - and this helps because they have an agency agreement with the county for their area) and Norfolk County Council (tolerated), in my opinion.


Looks ok to me. Have ridden many miles on tracks like that and worse on 32mm tyres without problems.
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
Richard Fairhurst
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Re: NCN Route 1: Dover to John o'Groats

Post by Richard Fairhurst »

dakari-mane wrote:Am planning on doing the whole of NCN4 in September. Starting at Fishguard & finishing back in London. Just wish you didn't have to buy so many ruddy maps to cover the whole route (too expensive for an incomplete route so I'm not going to buy any, I'll just will wing it).


Enjoy - it's a great route. I did it all over several holidays and loved most of it, apart from getting lost in Newport. (The missing section there has been fixed since.)

Bear in mind that the Fishguard-Carmarthen bit is hilly - nothing too stratospheric, just the sort of mile-after-mile up-and-down that can sap your energy. Once you're past Carmarthen it's reasonably plain sailing.

There are printable maps available online if you don't want to pay the cost of the printed maps.
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mjr
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Re: NCN Route 1: Dover to John o'Groats

Post by mjr »

pete75 wrote:
mjr wrote:A grass field? That's better than the sand, gravel and dirt tracks between the Norwich City Council boundary and somewhere near Whitwell:[...]


Looks ok to me. Have ridden many miles on tracks like that and worse on 32mm tyres without problems.

I think you'd want 50mm on much of it. I was running 28 front and 37 rear and it was very slow going, rather dodgy on the steeper downhills and absolutely no fun IMO. The picture doesn't really capture that typical rims will be submerged under sand or gravel at some points. I simply couldn't ride one section and walked off to a nearby near-parallel road, switching back only when the alternative was an uphill drag of A1067 - that section was slightly better, but it deteriorated again.

If the roughstuff fellowship want to use that sort of thing, good luck to them, but why can't it be labelled it as a bridleway or MTB route and not part of the National Cycle Network?
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
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dakari-mane
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Re: NCN Route 1: Dover to John o'Groats

Post by dakari-mane »

Richard Fairhurst wrote:Enjoy - it's a great route. I did it all over several holidays and loved most of it, apart from getting lost in Newport. (The missing section there has been fixed since.)

Bear in mind that the Fishguard-Carmarthen bit is hilly - nothing too stratospheric, just the sort of mile-after-mile up-and-down that can sap your energy. Once you're past Carmarthen it's reasonably plain sailing.

There are printable maps available online if you don't want to pay the cost of the printed maps.

Cool, thanks for the advice! I did a similar thing going up the length of England I started at the lizard in Cornwall & it was a "tad" hillier than I was used to :D

Maps found & downloaded! Cheers!
MrBassTrombone
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Re: NCN Route 1: Dover to John o'Groats

Post by MrBassTrombone »

dakari-mane wrote:Am planning on doing the whole of NCN4 in September. Starting at Fishguard & finishing back in London. Just wish you didn't have to buy so many ruddy maps to cover the whole route (too expensive for an incomplete route so I'm not going to buy any, I'll just will wing it).

Who needs maps? I have a Bryton Rider cycle GPS and plan the whole thing at home.....
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