I Tried to Cross the UK on a BMX – John o’Groats to Land’s End, Standing Room Only – Part 3

What happens when you’re 6ft6 and try to ride a tiny BMX the entire length of the UK? Well… this.
This is part 3 of my journey from John o’Groats to Land’s End, attempting to ride 965 miles on a 20″ BMX

Find all the routes and gear here – https://www.keepsmilingadventures.com/

Make a route suggestion here – https://www.keepsmilingadventures.com/route-sugestions

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The gear i am currently using

The tent – https://youtu.be/n9GKHSf805E
Framebag – https://youtu.be/6LM3UJKDOEk
Seatpost bag – https://youtu.be/W1E_iWY6Ajo
Jones Handlebars – https://youtu.be/dhPBSdRros8
Gravel bike – https://youtu.be/Gnd_4LgTyrg
plus bike mtb – https://youtu.be/COTUOzLPbGk
gps device – https://youtu.be/BWeMmx62A9M
mtb shoes – https://youtu.be/OYVEnfXwT0k
All the gear from GNT – https://youtu.be/e5oKSoPoMk0
Vest bag – https://youtu.be/01nzgd-t550
Ortleib bar roll https://youtu.be/Uk9fLgS1ioo
Dynamo setup – https://youtu.be/SL7MhjB6Lp0
Questions answered – https://youtu.be/u1q9AEs9flE
Gb divide bike/gear- https://youtu.be/epcZ81wqFCo
Sonder looped bar – https://youtu.be/BqWGTxd2VaQ
Tarpstar tent – https://youtu.be/RcQoBdZSAb8

You are rejoining me on day five of my challenge to ride the length of the UK on a BMX. Starting from Jon Gros, I’ve already made my way out of Invenesse over the Kangorms across the fourth bridge and down past Edinburgh covering around 375 mi on this tiny little bike. This morning I was waking up about 30 miles from Gretner, so close to that border and slowly but surely getting closer to England. Oh, it’s a little cold this morning. Definitely the coldest night so far. last night. Uh it’s weird one yesterday cuz I felt so rubbish and yet I actually ended up managing to do about 94 miles again. Definitely had the luck of the uh the long downhill though. That definitely helped to get the the miles out. Uh, and I just managed to find a little woodlands right by the motorway. The motorway is like over there. The road I’m on is down there, too. I haven’t even looked at the map. I literally got here just as the sun was setting and I just went to bed straight away and I’ve slept straight through. So, I’ve had like I don’t know 10 hours sleep. It had been a pretty noisy night with the motorway so close, but surprisingly I actually slept all right. I think I was just so tired by this point. I woke up feeling a little better today, though. That said, it was another freezing cold morning, and getting out of the sleeping bag was once again less than fun. But once I was back on the road, I had it all to myself, riding this quiet stretch that runs parallel to the motorway, still heading slightly downhill. And just as I got moving, the sun started to rise, which honestly couldn’t have come sooner enough. [Music] [Music] Ah, wow. The sun is now out in force and it feels so good. Starting to warm up now. I’ve done about 15 miles. I saw a sign a few miles back saying Gretner was like 13 14. So, uh I think I’ve probably got maybe 10 more miles until Gretner. 10 more miles until the border. I’m out of all the out of liquids. I haven’t got any water. So, do need to find a shot. But that probably won’t be for another 10 miles. But I’m going to have some breakfast. Got some blueberry muffins. And uh she’ll keep me going for an extra 10 miles. I’m definitely definitely looking forward to hitting that border. And then if I can get on to the next stage, part five, and do half of that. Technically, that’s about the halfway point. setting myself just these small little goals. Definitely feeling it in my legs again today, but sun is shining so can’t complain. And blueberry muffins. While I was sat there eating my pancakes, yes, they were definitely pancakes. A couple of guys rode past. They looked like they were on their own special mission, and I couldn’t help myself. I had to go and see what they were up to. Going far. You going far in. One’s in. Me, too. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Do it on BMX. You do them. What are they? They’re just old folding bike. No, he’s fine. Yeah. How long have you been on the road? It’s about 50. Yeah. How many miles a day you doing? I just do as many as I sort of feel right. It’s been about sort of a 90 to 100. Yeah. All right. Well, fair day. How How long have you guys been? Yeah. Yeah. Just all the way. Oh, wow. Fair day, man. My legs were like, “Oh, I just got it. Such a grind yesterday. Everything was like Oh, yeah. It’s all right if it’s like long downhills or like and like long climbs, but it’s the the short steep ones. It’s just one beer.” So, you What is it like three speed or five speed? It’s like riding a fifth 10 15. You got to cycle downhill and you have to pedal down hills. Oh, really? Stop. Yeah, they just stop on the hill. You just roll through a hole. terrible. See, this is actually really fun downhill cuz I get to sit like this. Yeah. It’s like being a kid again. Oh, mate. Fair enough. All right, I’m going to crack on and get to the board today. How far are you going? We’re going to stop in for something to eat. All right, see you in a bit then. Have a good one. After a little chat with the guys on their old school folding bike mission across the UK, I shot off and headed towards Gretner. By the time I got there, the sun was properly warming things up and yet I was back on the ice lollies. But more importantly, Gretner meant one thing. I was crossing the border back into England. That’s right. I’d actually pedal a BMX across the length of Scotland. With that milestone ticked off, I kept pushing towards Carlau. [Music] [Music] finding a nice little cycle path that followed the river. And somehow somewhere along the way, the two guys on the folding bike must have slipped past me again. I caught up with them while one of them was fixing a puncture. So I stopped to lend a hand. And when I tried to pick up one of their bikes, oh my god, I feel for them. They were so bloody heavy. Wow. Just finished stage four. So, now on to stage five. But shout out to them guys doing John L’s End on them old school folding bikes. I tried to pick up one of them. Oh my god, it’s so heavy. I don’t know what they’re carrying, but oh my god, fair play to them. It’s going to be one grueling slog for them, especially when they get down to Cornwall. They are from Gwal, but man, that’s going to be tough. I’ve done about 53 miles today. Now, for the next sort of 25 miles, it’s mostly uphill. After that, it’s nice and downhill for a bit, but I’m going to come into Penrift soon. But the main goal today now is just to try and get over the uh the 25 miles up up the big hill um somewhere towards Lancaster. I’m not sure I’m going to make it all the way to Lancaster today, but in theory, but technically once I get to around 50 mi of stage five, I am officially halfwayish. So, uh I’m just going to have a quick rest. My hands I don’t know if you can see, but this is so swollen. Um, yeah, it’s not getting any better. It’s not really getting worse. It doesn’t hurt. It’s just swollen. It is pretty much downhill though until Penri, so I’ll probably stop there. I always feel like Penri. It sounds like it should be in like Cornwall or something. Maybe Wales. Right, let’s go there and then I’ll probably stop for a bike to eat or something. Maybe some more ice lollies. My ice lolly drinks pretty good. Right, let’s keep going. Got that horrible, horrible headwind again. And now we’re in exposed land. Feels worse. At least I’m going downhill at the moment. [Music] Now, It’s time to go into the wind and up the hill. Next place to go through is Kendall. But I probably got like 15 miles of climbing before descending towards Kendall. Then Lancaster. I’m not sure I’m going to make Lancaster. But I do want to try and get up the top of this flank fast. But the wind, it’s not like really strong wind, but it’s just directly in my face. It’s directly slow me down. It seemed to be a day of meeting people, and this time I bumped into a roadie who was out training to ride to every county in the UK. We got chatting and I ended up getting dragged up and down the hills with him for a while, which definitely helped take my mind off what I was actually doing because ahead of me was a bit of a mammoth climb. [Music] The BMX definitely felt out of place in these hills, but once I made it to the top, the descent towards Kendall was so worth it. So much fun. [Music] What a day today has been. It’s been really fun. Met lots of people, lots of uh tough riding, lots of fun riding. I have once again managed to hit the 90 mile mark. It’s currently just after 7:00 p.m. though, so I need to find somewhere to camp. Just come through Kendall. I’ve got like 20 so 20 or so miles until Lancaster, so I’m want to try and find somewhere in between now. The weather is meant to turn right now. We’ve just got some beautiful sky. The sun is starting to set. Um, but it is meant to start raining. I’m not really sure what the other part of the forecast is apart from rain. So, uh, I need to go find somewhere to camp. So, right now, I’m just going to keep heading towards Lancaster and hopefully I can find somewhere to camp. Ideally, some trees because I’m not sure if it’s going to rain in the night and obviously I’ve only got the bivvie, so don’t even bring a tarp. But, you know, for all fun and games. Look at that sky though. Beautiful. Beautiful end to an epic day. 90.75 miles again. Okay, done 95 miles. Got about 15 miles to get to Lancaster and I found a lovely lovely little bit of woodlands that I can uh lay my bivvie on. If it does rain, well, it’s not completely sheltered, but it should be better than nothing. And uh it is on a bit of a slope, but should be fine. I’m so tired. I don’t think I’ll care if I roll down the hill. I don’t know if you can tell, but how swollen this is. I don’t know if it shows up on camera, but you see, it doesn’t actually hurt like to do this or this or this. It It doesn’t I can squeeze. It’s like just up my wrist where it’s like I don’t know. Tendonitis, I guess, is my guess anyway. Um doesn’t hurt when I ride. Actually hurts more like when I stop. If I got to take my bag off, that’s when it hurts. But again, another 95 milesi. I think I am uh maybe halfway, about halfway, I would say, in total distance. Maybe maybe Lancastle. So, I’ve got I’ve got around 65 more miles or 60 miles of this part, this section left to do. The problem I’m going to have is this one ends in Bolton and then I’ve got to try and make my way all the way through like Manchester and that area. And I I don’t know. It might be slow going. It’s not very hilly, but I got to make sure I can get through all of that tomorrow, which means I mean I’ve been doing 90 miles pretty consistently, but if I got to go through all the uh builtup traffic, I don’t know. I’m not 100% sure what I plotted for this part of the route. Um hopefully I plotted something easy to follow, but who knows. Day five complete. It was a good day. In theory, I’m around the halfway point. And in theory, I would say I’m over most of the hard stuff, apart from Devon and Cornwall, of course. If I can get past Manchester, it’s uh going to be a bit more familiar to territory around the Cotswwells down to uh I am taking the canal down towards uh oh where is it? Down towards Bristol um seven Seven Canal. Yeah. So that that’ll be a nice little thing, but that’s days away. I don’t know why I’m thinking so far ahead. Got a focus on getting through all the buildup stuff tomorrow. I might just have to absolutely gun it tomorrow. But for now, as always, I’ll see you bright and early in the morning. Hopefully the sky will still be a bit sunny. Hopefully this rain won’t materialize, at least where I am. I’m really hoping it’s not just like days of rain from now. I’m just hoping. Maybe it’s just a little shower hill there and hopefully we can miss most of it. I would cross my fingers, but actually my fingers are too fat and swollen. I’ll see you in the morning. Good morning. Good morning. Well, I’m pleasantly waking up to not being soaking wet. It’s not raining. It did spit a little bit in the night, but uh only for like a few seconds if it was any more. The trees did a good job at showering me. Today is the day I’m probably least looking forward to because once I get to around Preston, it’s going to be a bit of a probably a bit of a slog through all like the builtup stuff. Like I say, like I said yesterday, I can’t remember how I rooted this part. Hopefully I found lots of bike routes, but I think when I was planning it, I was thinking just find flat, just find fast. Um, just so I can make miles up, but we’ll see. I think the plan, so the plan was originally to get to Lancaster and I had a road route to Preston, but I think what I’m going to do is I’m going to jump on the canal and just follow that. At least then it gives me the next however long the canal is to Preston just time room to just unwind, not think too much about traffic and built up areas and I can just like easily follow the canal. It’s not going to be hard. And also the BMX is really good at them little low bridges. So that should be fun. But I’ve got about 15 milesi until Lancaster. It is Sunday. I’m out of like everything. I’ve got a little bit of food, no water. Um, I’m hoping something will be open in Lancaster by the time I get there, but might not be because it’s Sunday. We’ll see. There’s some rain clouds all the way over behind me. There’s some clouds there, but they don’t look too I don’t know. Yeah, it doesn’t look too bad. Like, there’s lots of blue sky. There’s some dark clouds in the sky, too. But it does look like I’m heading towards a lot of the rain. But I’m just hoping maybe if I can just miss it. It looks a bit scattery around. So hopefully I’ll just miss it. But this is day day six of the BMX versus the length of uh the UK. Let’s go. Legs are still feeling quite good to be honest. My wrist not so much. But we keep going. We keep [Music] [Music] going. I was happy this morning. Not only was I dry, but getting away from some of the busier roads was a welcome change, even if there was the odd little hike on the steep stuff. But with the weather looking like it was on the turn, I just wanted to keep making the good progress I had done every day so [Music] far. Quick stop to pick up supplies for the day. I’d be jumping onto the canal a little earlier than expected to head towards Lancaster. [Music] [Music] [Music] I’ve just come through Lancaster. Like I said, I was going to get on a canal. I got on it a little bit earlier as well, and it was a bit rough, but I’ve decided to keep going, following it. It’s not too bad. It’s a uh bit muddy, but not too bad. It’s mostly dry as well, so a little bit wet in places. It must have rained last night. I’ve done about 20 miles this morning, so that’s good. However, today is one of these days where every day before this, there hasn’t been any pressure to actually be able to do big miles. Today, the pressure is kind of on to have to do big miles to make sure I can get through all this built-up area. Now, before I started, I had like 65 miles of this section of the route. This section of the route just leaves me in Bolton. And I’m probably going to have to do another 30 miles at least from there just to get out um like through Manchester in that way. So, it’s a little uh annoying because today also I feel really like groggy and tired and can’t haven’t really been able to get into rhythm of anything. Um like yesterday I was able to get into a bit of rhythm. Today not so much. It’s half 9. I’ve done 20 miles. I’m probably going to have to try and push to do pretty close to 100 miles. I mean, the this route, this section of the route, and then the next section of route, they’re just going to be a bit grindy because they’re kind of all built up going through like Birmingham and like just all the builtup bits. Once I’m through there, I’ll be happy. Once I get through B uh once I get through Birmingham, I’ll probably be happy again. But the next couple the next 100 150 mi or so is going to be a [Music] Back on the road. Too bumpy. wrist is really hurting today. Just got to keep going. Keep grinding through this. Oh yeah. Heading towards Preston. I could already feel today was going to be a painful one. Not just with my wrist still giving me grief, but now I was also heading into the busy Midlands with all the stop and start traffic to deal with as well. [Music] It’s a day of battling the emotions. Just so tired, so bored of today. The path I’m going to be on is closed. So, we got to find the way back onto it later on. Just need some cheese twists. My wrist is uh well and truly swollen. Just a little. Just got through Preston. I think there’s like 20 miles left of this section to go and then onto the next one. Problem is the next one is also I have no idea where I’m going to be able to camp. Hello. Hello. So there’s like one section possible, but it’ll be doing another 30 mi once I start that route. And today it’s very very slow going. But silver lining so far it’s not raining. So that’s good. I managed to find my way back onto the route, but today my wrist was in a real bad way. I’d kind of been able to ignore it up until now, just crack on with it. But today, it was really painful, and riding along the canal was just not helping. The BMX doesn’t exactly absorb the bumps, and every little knock just made it worse. [Music] [Music] Oh my god. Today honestly think if it wasn’t for the wrist, I wouldn’t even be that bothered. My legs a little achy, but you know, I’ve nearly been on the BMX for 7 days. I don’t care. I could take it. My hands a little bit sore from standing up with the pressure points, but you know what? It’s not that bad. But just this wrist is the thing that’s absolutely killing me right now. I have done about 68 miles. I’m probably going to try and just do like I don’t know, maybe 20 more. But it’s just like I’m just leaving Bolton now. I got to try and make sure I can find somewhere to camp, but everything’s so built up. It’s just been one of them days where it’s just been it’s been very stop and start. I’ve had to just walk some of it just because the pressure on this. When I turn it around like this, I can feel it. It feels like it’s grinding. It’s like vibrating. It’s horrible. I can still lean on it. Doesn’t hurt. When I do that, but when I twist it, that’s when it hurts. Oh my god. I don’t know if you can tell how swollen it is, but it’s quite swollen. I think I’ve got a nice little flowy descent and then it’s flat for a while. So, we’ll see. We’ll see where we end up. I need to find somewhere to camp. Could do with getting a bit of uh water and some food. And uh today has been tiring. It hasn’t rained. I’m sure it’s going to rain at some point. Probably tomorrow. Probably when I really don’t want it. But, uh, let’s keep going. Let’s get these last few miles out for today. I just want to, uh, stop and rest as much as possible. But have no idea where I’m going to stay tonight. Every is so built up. Let’s keep going. For now, all I could do was take a couple of pills and hope the pain and swelling would ease off. The rest of the day was just a case of gritting my teeth and getting on with it as I made my way around the outskirts of Manchester. [Music] [Applause] Got about an until the sun sets. So, I’m going to enjoy the last hour of that sunset cuz today has been exactly how I thought it was going to be. Kind of a slo. I have done just under 90 mi about 87 88 miles and I’ve got about 80 about about the same again to complete that section of the route. That one takes me I think just south of Birmingham. So hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to complete that bit and then then it’ll start to feel a bit more, you know, getting into uh familiar territory. Now I’m currently kind of close to a place called Whimslow, I think, and there’s like this nature reserve. It’s kind of busy everywhere around it, but I’m hoping I’m going to be able to just find somewhere around here to just bivvie up tonight. Um haven’t checked the weather right now is looking absolutely stunning but um the earlier when I did check last night when I did check the weather it did say rain patchy rain clouds everywhere and it was like 80% chance it was going to rain. So I don’t know what’s going on but I’m sure it’ll probably rain tomorrow or maybe tonight. So, I’m hopefully going to be able to find a nice little uh a bit of shelter for the uh bivvie, but I’m just uh just going to chill here for the remainder of that sun being in the sky. And then hopefully somewhere around here. Not sure where, but I will see bright and early as always in the morning somewhere around here. Who knows? Good morning. A good morning. It is looking absolutely beautiful out here this morning. The sun isn’t actually up yet, so I’m a little early. It’s only 6 a.m., so I got about 20 minutes until the sun actually officially rises, but it is light. I found a nice little spot in them trees back there, which was really good. It was probably the colder coldest night of the trip so far. Um, not nothing too bad or anything, but just on that slightly colder side. Today marks a significant day because it’s day seven. One once I finish today, it’ll be one week of riding a BMX straight every day for seven days. Now, today’s plan is pretty much to get through the rest of uh this section of the route, but I have kind of changed it a little bit because I might go and see my sister who lives in Stratford. Got to find my way out of this place as well. Um Stratford Pon Haven. It’s not too far off where I’m going. Would have been going anyway. Um, it’s just I’m gonna go kind of through Birmingham instead of around it. It does mean if I’m gonna make it there, I’ve got a big day. A good 97 milesi I think it was in total. Um, so we’ll see if I can make it again. It said today I think we’re okay from the rainfront. I think it’s just going to get a bit windy. Hopefully there’s a tailwind because you know BMX headwinds are no fun at all. But um yeah, day seven is a little bit chilly this morning, but it’s time to get on. I’m heading down towards like Stoke on Trent. Next 20 miles are all kind of a uphill grind, but none of this section of the roots were like very hilly. It’s just uh it’s just a very grindy pedly non-stop pedal. No, no long downhills to uh rest. And uh my wrist is a bit painful right now. So, where the hell am I? How do I get how did I get in here? And how did I get out? I think we’ll need these on this morning cuz it is a little chilly. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. That’s the wrong [Music] hand. At this point, I was starting to think that everyone who kept telling me the rain was coming was lying because it was yet another beautiful morning. It was another day though where I was still between all the builtup areas which meant dealing with the morning traffic on occasion. But the main priority today was just trying to take the pressure off my wrist. [Music] [Music] I managed to find a nice trail called the Bolf Valley Way, which was half uphill and half downhill, but was nice and easy to follow. The pressure was really on though today to get through the miles and push past Birmingham. [Music] [Music] today. There is quite a horrible headwind and uh as we as we have found out on this trip, headwinds are the BMX is kryptonite because it is just like standing up and being a sail. And also the wind is usually just pretty cold. Um, haven’t been able to take the jacket off yet. It is pretty sunny. It’s a bit cloudy in here and there, but still sunny at the moment. The wind is starting to pick up now. I got to follow the canal for a little bit towards Stafford and then uh on towards Birmingham. I think today is going to be quite a lot of canals. I mean, it makes sense cuz we’re in the land of just thousands of canals everywhere, but um I’m just I’m just tired. I’m just very very tired now. My body feels fine. Just my brain is just like everything since getting to England has just felt slow and sluggish. I think cuz there’s no long descents where you can relax and unwind. It’s just flat flat flat pretty much. So, this is pedal pedal pedal. But, um, I’m going to head towards Stafford now. Hopefully, it won’t take too long to get to there and then I’ll probably just try go on a bunch of different canals out of Birmingham towards um, Stratford Haven. I’m hoping I’m going to be able to make it in time before it gets dark. I’ve only done 30 miles, so another two of them to go. I’d been on the canal for what felt like forever. Whether I actually had or not, I’m not too sure. With the wind in my face and riding a BMX, it kind of felt like I was the sail on a boat. Progress was so slow. And if it wasn’t for the pain in my wrist, I think I might have actually enjoyed the canals a bit more. But every little bump, rut, or vibration through the bars just sent this jolting pain straight into my [Music] wrist. I did get a bit of shelter from the wind though as I passed through the cano chase. The trees giving me a bit of a break. before I had to try and figure out how to navigate my way through the busy city of [Music] Birmingham. So done today. currently uh just trying to follow the Sustrand signs into uh in into Birmingham. Why do they where they put them? It just like I don’t know how they decide. Oh, let’s put these tiny little stickers in the most hidden little places. That way, that way. That way, that way. That way. I’ve got like 10 miles until Birmingham and then however long it is from there to Stratford. I just want to get on the canal so I know where I am. I’m so done with today. After a while of following the Sustrand signs, I just gave up and started following the road signs instead. It turned out to be the right call. Somehow I made my way through the rubbish fililled streets of Birmingham. I’m not quite sure how, but I managed to clock another 97 miles today. And the first time on this ride, a proper bed and a shower thanks to my sister. Do more exploring deeper than knowing just what is essential for life that is thriving. Go deep. Mute out the chatter.