A PEDAL IN THE PEAKS

Just a heads up, this is a expedition that I want to do but need to do a lot of planning. From what I have learnt from various forums is that its a tough trip and unlikely that a single battery will complete it. Hmmm, challenge accepted!

Taking my fitness into consideration, I suffer from FLOB (fat lad on bike), available daylight, support crew, in case I fall off and the fact its a long way with some monster hills on the road sections makes it a challenge.

Some may say why? Well that's the easy bit, its to try and save a life, and for the memory of my wife, the children's mum, sibling and good friend. My philosophy is "use it or lose it" what could possibly go wrong!

Seriously, plans need to be done and sponsorship needs to be obtained, otherwise its just a ride and the charities don't get the benefit. As always, the only thing we gain from this is personal satisfaction, something to write about, blisters, muscle pain and a sore ar#e!

Seriously, there is much more to this than just a pedal, for instance, there is the small obstacle of a 700mt 1:8 incline to overcome in one place and a number of roads, paths and bridleways all rough and all up and down which connect the trails together, don't get me wrong, there are some lovely long stretches of gravel paths and a few places to stop and recover before the next stage, but there are some long stretches of nothing, with difficult access, so injury and breakdown is at a fairly high risk in these areas.

I will of course have a number of rendezvous places planned in, where the trail crosses roads and watering holes, but sort of once you start, you have to carry on.

I need to organise food and water stops (and some discrete application of lubrication) and have a back up set of spares, it just take a chain to brake to stop everything. Punctures are a given, but hopefully with tubeless tyres, at least they are fairly forgiving and I do carry a spare inner tube just in case. but i cant afford to carry everything, so the support crew will be vital.

i will have tracking and GPS on the go should anything go untoward and it does monitor my position and vitals such as heart rate and oxygen levels as well as fall detection and automatic emergency response, just hope I don't need it!

however, it only takes a fall or a mechanical failure to bring the whole thing to a stop and a long walk to a point of refuge or rescue, so its a little scary to be honest especially for a "fat lad" with dodgy knees and ankles!

I have been in training of sorts, generally riding off road around 20 to 25miles most days, but have had a few tumbles as well, one resulting in stuffing my ribs up on a post that I hit in the chest whilst doing a "dark" ride, and a knee that I have to strap up, coz it hurts around the 25 mile mark, but hopefully I will be doing this in the daylight, and my knee will hold up enough, fingers crossed hey!

Now my bike is an electric assist mountain bike, lets get that out in the open right now, but for all those that think I just "twist and go" well, you don't. The key word is "Assist", it doesn't ride itself, you have to pedal and the battery has a limited life with a 6 hour recharge and all the assist stops at around 16 mph plus around a 40 mile range if you go easy, and finally, it weighs 35 kilos, none of this super light carbon skinny wheeled road rocket, no a solid fat nobly tired mountain bike designed for pure off road use.

To put this into context, I have to either turn the power off or cycle above 16 mph to preserve the battery for the road sections and hills sections, if I don't, I will be cycling many miles with a heavy bike sapping my energy stroke after stroke of the pedal, so its all about consistent pace and endurance.

so a lot to do, but its slowly coming together, unlike my knees, which are slowly falling apart!

I will post a list of things I will need help with once I have got things off the ground little more.

Any suggestions can be sent to: info@micatravels.co.uk

Now does anyone have the numbers for knee surgeons on speed dial ???