Riding Through the Storm: 140 Mile Loaded Test Tour

In this Vlog we take on a 140-mile round-trip cycle from Leicestershire to Lincolnshire and back—facing head winds, and relentless rain. This wasn’t just a bike ride; it was a real mental and physical test as we prepare for the JOGLE (John o’ Groats to Land’s End) challenge later this year.

Join me as I document our journey mile by mile, sharing honest reflections on long-distance cycling, how I handled the wet and windy weather, and the lessons I’ve learned about bike touring so far.

Timestamps:
00:00 – Intro
00:44 – Issues on Day 1
01:40 – Weather
02:10 – Weight
04:30 – Right tools
05:44 – Time flies
06:38 – The grind
08:23 – Rain

#biketour #cyclinguk #training

[Music] [Music] so this is day two of our test tour I suppose we decided we best get the touring bikes thoroughly road tested And the way we’ve done that is we’ve cycled from Leicester to Lincolnshire 73 miles and today we’re cycling back And it’s proved to be really really useful cuz we learned quite a lot of things Secondhand bike bags from eBay are not great You take them out all seems really good Then the screws fall out through the journey But uh makeshift it kind of kind of at least teaches you how to fix things on the go So I managed to get through that Handlebars is probably the most obvious thing you can see Having two close handlebars seems like a great idea And to be honest it’s insanely comfortable Really useful when you’ve got no weight on the bike utterly useless when you do have weight on the bike because the moment you put a few kilos on the back it all becomes very very unwieldy to the point I didn’t even use them So as you can see I’ve kind of makeshift put them on the ends and that’s a far more comfortable practical place to relax as a bunny Also found that headwinds suck and picking uh we’ve kind of picked two of the worst days So we picked headwind all the way to and now on the way back and it’s supposed to be horrendously wet So I throw I couldn’t record anything on the way here cuz the wind was so bad It’s still quite breezy now but nothing compared to what it was Wind is ridiculous Like headwind 70 miles also learned a really really really hard lesson regarding weight So I’ve read a few articles and watched a few YouTube videos and a lot of them say weight doesn’t matter Well that’s a load of bollocks Weight really does matter So I took this out on a test test ride the day before we did this I did 25 miles loaded up my uh loaded up my pas with laptops and all kinds of crap just to get away and and to be honest it was fine I thought you know what they really have a point So I can basically just sling what I like in the bags and away I go So that’s what I did I put jeans and all kinds of heavy stuff for the simple fact that I thought due to the build of the bikes that it can be a perfectly capable machine And it is a perfectly capable machine This this bike actually rides the best with weight on it which makes sense That’s what it’s built to do I don’t um it’s we’re doing an average of 9 to 10 mph I think it’s 10 mph on average all the way across which as you can tell 70 odd miles means that we were in the saddle for at least what just under 7 hours So I think if I was doing 30 mile days 35 mile days I’d probably say that’s perfectly fine But when you’re doing 70 80 it’s just too long and too hard So hats off to anybody that does this with carrying heavy tents and all kinds of stuff because we’re not going to be doing that uh for the the the jog We’re going to be keeping this streamlined today I dumped a lot of my stuff which kind of reminds me of backpacking I remember when I first went off to Australia took all kinds of crap and then sent a massive parcel of all my stuff back within a month Oh actually within a week I think because you just realize you don’t need so much which is kind of the purpose of doing this test to find out what you actually do need and what you don’t need And truth is you really don’t need much if you want to be comfortable It does take a little bit of getting your head around this uh touring biking versus road biking versus mountain biking versus all these things that come up with different terms I think they all do have their place or they seem as though they are starting to see that they may have more have their place This is perfect for touring It’s uh you wouldn’t want to use this every day It would uh be very cumbersome very heavy you’d be much better to be honest on a mountain bike with uh these tires The speed thing is actually an easier thing to get used to than I thought So we’re averaging about 14 mph now and we’re slightly slightly tail side wind which is good Certainly beats uh headwind So when we came across we were coming through at about 25 to 30 mph gusts for 73 mi which made for quite frankly one of the most miserable experiences I’ve ever had on a bike Time does seem to fly by So for example when we came across the RTR 315 uh radar that hangs off the back cuz it lets me know if there’s traffic coming uh I was very disappointed We got about 60 mi in and then I started seeing a battery alert saying low battery on your on your radar I thought that can’t be the case I mean they said they’re supposed to have about a 7h hour battery life It’s more like 4 It’s only until I got to the destination and looked down that we’ve been out on the road for best part of 9 10 hours It’s like okay it actually does last the amount of time it is And 7 hours isn’t really that long when you’re cycling apparently I think that’s the difficulty The thing that I hadn’t quite got my head around was the grind element of cycling Feel like I said with running everything’s comfortable when you’re lying on the couch It’s not until you’re actually out there doing it that you realize what an absolute pain in the ass it is But the one big thing that running has over this is that running you can switch off and as I say I go in almost a meditative state and actually really quite enjoy it in its own mental kind of way and I do think it is actually quite beneficial for you certainly for your spirit Oh there we go stalk you things you see when you’re out on a bike Um if you’re on a bike you can’t do that There are too many idiots I’m driving around supercharged up just waiting to uh kill you quite frankly is how it feels So one of the great things about trail bikes is of course of touring bikes is that you can just take shortcuts and get away from traffic I say shortcuts shortcuts might be pushing it Bum bum bum bum bum So enter to the big anorak as here comes the rain which is now expected for the next several hours But I think we’ve had our we’ve had the best of it Never mind Five stopers is absolutely soiling it down But so far all the kit is actually holding up okay my uh waterproof jacket and he’s reproofing for the bags which is the most important So the bags are actually saying waterproof including the uh dodgy eBay special The seal skin cap is an absolute must and the cheap rock brothers panas seem to be doing exactly what they say on the tent But the rain has died down now which is uh quite an improvement Just need to make sure I get some waterproof trousers I know we’re living in an incredibly selfish world these days What if it’s soiling it down there are people cycling puddles everywhere Just slow the down What’s the point in absolutely it’s the third car I’ve had that’s literally head to towed me with water Just some VW Golf driving straight through a puddle Just drives you mad And so far I’ve had about two cars that have actually managed to pull onto the other side of the road when overtaking Two In best part of 5 miles I’m sure there was a time when you used just count the on the road whereas now you kind of count the decent drivers back into Leicester and out of Rutland And so we’re 56 milesi in now But yeah back into the local area We cheat our way through Bradgate Park Don’t know that’ll make it any quicker but it’ll be less hills couple of minutes if you want Yeah sure