Are you trying to put cycling out the reach of everyone who dosen't want to pay a ridiculous sum of money? I've no doubt that your bike is probably way better than my bike could ever be, but I don't have any interest what soever in sinking so much money into something that's going to be used a few times. It's not a hobby.
I hope you don't take the comments you've received as pure, unadulterated snobbery. There's a lot of truth in the idiom "buy cheap, buy twice" when it comes to cycling gear. While you don't have to go to Hincanpie-esq levels of spending (), buying the cheapest equipment you can will only serve to make your excursions less enjoyable. A used touring bike such as the one George linked to would be a lot more suited to the sort of thing you're planning. You may be able to pick up a decent used hybrid bike for £200 (that's what I paid for my Specialized Globe), but then you'll have to add a rack, panniers, pump, bottle cages + bottles, spare tubes, etc - this all adds up. I'm all for people getting out on their bikes - had I not gotten into cycling I'd probably still be a 23 stone slob - but you will probably end up hating cycling if you insist on buying a rubbish bike.
If you really do only want this bike to do your tour on, then you might want to consider hiring a bike rather than buying one. At least then you'll know you've got a fully serviced, mechanically sound bike to do your 580 miles on. Just make sure you take a bunch of patches and some spare tubes, as you'll almost certainly get a puncture.
As for getting ready to actually do the ride, I echo the sentiments of the others. Doing 50 miles in a day is not a big deal if you are reasonably fit, but sitting on a saddle for hours a day is something you need to condition yourself to. I cycled to Brighton with a friend of mine last year, covering about 75 miles over 5 hours. Prior to this he'd only ever cycled 13 miles in one go. He coped just fine with the physical exertion, but he said that the saddle ruined him, whereas I had no such problem. If you're taking it easy and only cycling 10 or so miles at a time then stopping to rest then it'll go a long way to alleviate the problem, but it's still something you should be aware of.
By the way, I'm not saying this to try to put you off - quite the contrary in fact, it sounds great. It really will be a lot more enjoyable if you put in some time and effort in order to prepare, and that's really the point I think we've been trying to make. I hope you've not taken some of the more "militant cyclist" opinions too harshly - some people are very passionate about their cycling
Now this is reasonable and a great read! Thanks. I understand you've got to pay and truth be told, as long as I get something that will keep it's value, I have no problems paying the extra and selling it later on.
Would you know of any decent places to rent bikes, as that's a superb option I hadn't considered.
The whole saddle issue is something that I hadn't thought about, guess I'll need to get a bike fairly soon so as to get used to it.
Thanks again for the great post.
). The south coast and towards the Alps/Pyrenees are likely to be good. Also the north east and into belgium.
