Here are a few miscellaneous thoughts and suggestions for anyone thinking of doing the End-to-End ride:
- Most people go from Land’s End to JOG (supposedly because of the prevailing winds), but we liked the JOG->LE direction and had as many tailwinds as headwinds. Also, country roads are often sheltered because of the hedges.
- We were doing this mostly to be able to see the countryside and stop when we wanted, and found 40-50 miles a day was a good distance. You cover some ground, but you don’t feel at all rushed.
- It was good that we booked our start and end accommodation well before we left. In north Scotland, there aren’t a lot of accommodation options, and in Cornwall there are lots, but they get booked up early.
- Good also to book your train tickets because there is limited space for bikes. You can reserve at the time of booking.
- We used Lands End to John O’Groats Cycle Transport Service to get our bikes to Inverness and then up to JOG. They’re very good, and will help with all kinds of logistical needs.
- The bikes (Trek 520 and Specialized AWOL Elite) were great. We had 3 flat tyres and had to change a set of brake pads, but no other problems.
- The National Cycle Network routes are excellent. Occasionally, there might be a sign missing or obscured by trees, or the route ambiguous. But on the whole they are well signposted and clearly a lot of effort has been made to make the routes cycle friendly, even on the bigger roads where wide dual-use pavements are provided.
- Cycle.travel is a great (free) website for route-planning between the NCN routes. It chooses good routes for cyclists, just very occasionally coming up with a segment that’s more of a goat track than a cycle path.
- This all said, it was invaluable to use my phone as a handlebar-mounted Satnav. We used Locus Map Pro, which is an excellent app with more features than you’d ever need. We would plan each day’s route on cycle.travel, save the GPX file and import into Locus. Most of the time we could then just follow the route, but sometimes I’d switch on the navigation feature so it showed each turn. Without having active tracking, we would have gone off-route much more frequently because you only need to miss one sign and you could go miles before realizing.
- We started with far more clothing than we needed, and ended up shipping a box load home. Really, you just need cycling shirt and shorts, cycle rain jacket, and stuff to change into in the evening. Our cycle stuff was all synthetic, so we could wash it every evening and it would all be dry by the morning.
- It would have been nice to have Goretex cycle jackets, but ours worked well, only letting in water on days when we were out for over 6 hours in heavy rain.
- Neither of us like the padded bike shorts. Better to find a saddle that’s comfortable and wear ordinary shorts.
- Pannier covers are a good idea – they keep panniers dry and clean.
- We both used high-power rear flashing red lights which were clearly visible even in bright sunshine. I think they’re essential. You need to know that drivers can see you. (It’s especially a comfort when you’re cycling on a busy road in torrential rain.)
- That’s it. It was a really enjoyable trip and I’d happily do it again, trying a different route.
