The JoGLE – Review Time 🕛A SummaryHmmm 🤔 its been a while since I’ve done a review of an expedition, so The JoGLE a Cycle Ride from John o Groat’s to Lands End, a ride with no official route you decide how you want to get from A to B 🤔, a literal pain in the ass 😂, around 1000 miles in the saddle for me but some people have extended that and done 2000 miles, a Rollercoaster of a Journey Full of Twists and Turns and Ups and Downs, an Epic Adventure with lots of problems along the way to keep things interesting as well as some testing weather 🌧️☀️🌪️My Route Day 1 – Thurso – InvernessDay 2 – Inverness – FortwilliamDay 3 – Fort William – DunbartonDay 4 – Dunbarton – LockerbieDay 5 – Lockerbie – WindermereDay 6 – Windermere – RuffordDay 7 – Rufford – Stafford Day 8 – Stafford – KidderminsterDay 9 – Kidderminster – BristolDay 10 – Bristol – ExeterDay 11 – Exeter – NewquayDay 12 – Newquay – Lands EndHighlights – Just a few too many to listSoo many highlights along the way, cycling along the coast from Thurso to John o Groat’s then down to Inverness , an aAwesome Sunny Blue Sky Day Cycling from Inverness to Fort William along the Loch Ness, riding along the tow paths in the midlands nice flat ground allows for faster riding, riding through Cities like Worcester and Bristol, the rugged coast of Newquay, scenic riding through the Lake District and of course the ride along the the calm coast from Marazion to Mousehole and on to Lands EndInteresting EventsWhere to start 🤔😂, getting a Flat Tyre in Natland and realising I had every size socket except the one I needed for the back tyre, previous punchers had been with the front tyre which is quick release, this meant chaining the bike to a lamppost and getting a taxi to the Halfords in Kendal grabbing the right socket then replacing the innertube causing a 2 hr 🕛 delay, think there was 3 punchers that dayBooking a hotel at a motorway services without realising till the sat nav got me to a field in the middle of nowhere in the dark this meant pushing the bike through a wheat field then lifting the bike with heavy paniers over a fence into a an area of dense trees making getting the bike through pretty challenging, the lady at the Hotel was slightly confused when I came in with a bike 😂The next day turned out to be interesting too, to start with I had to get through them trees again and get the bike over the fence again and back onto the country road by the time I pushed the bike to the road I realised I had a flat back tyre probably from the thorns in the area full of trees, replaced the tube and realised that was the last tube so the plan was to stop at a Halfords enroute and stock up, Sods Law 5 mins down the road the front tyre was flat must have been a slow pucture from the same place, by this point it was 7:30 am on a Sunday morning, because it was a Sunday Halfords wasn’t going to open till 10, found a bike shop online that was open from 9am according to their website, pushed the bike 1hr to the shop and it was obviously closed, headed to Halfords got the tyre off chained the bike headed to Tesco to stock up on snacks, back to Halfords just before 10 stocked up with 4 tubes sorted the tyre and on the road around 10:30, so much for the 7am start 🤷🏻♂️So after a bad start things were going well nice Sunny weather the midlands is very flat with some scenic tow paths, made good speed got a 3rd flat but that was quickly resolved, things were going well was on schedule to reach Cheltenham despite the delays 🚴🏼♂️, but then disaster struck on the the outskirts of Kidderminster in the middle of section of temporary roadworks while attempting to speed through the section before the lights changed I manged to ride over the edge of a traffic cone badly buckling the wheel, breaking a spoke and the spoke then getting caught in the Derailleur the pressure of trying to ride then bent it and the bike wouldn’t move 🤦🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️ managed to get onto a path in the middle of this traffic jam because of the temporary lights (I didn’t cause the traffic jam) spent the next couple of hours trying to fix it, got the Broken spoke out the Derailleur bent it back to a near straight position, took the back break off as it was stopping the buckled wheel turning, a couple of times it seemed to be working when the bike was upside down but as soon as there was any weight on the bike the chain would immediately slip off after 2 hrs it was time for plan B 🤦🏻♂️, booked a hotel and pushed the bike to a hotel on the outskirts of Kidderminster walked an hour to to the hotel, then an hour the next morning to Halfords the next morning to get there for the 8am opening time, after an initial assessment they give me a couple of quotes so I eagerly asked how soon could they do it, “2 -3 Weeks” they told me 😯😭 they had to order parts in from the supplier to repair the Derailleur so asked if they could just bend it back into place and just sort the wheel , again they said there’s a backlog of jobs and it’s going to be a couple of weeks, I explained the situation, they had a look to see if they had a spoke and to my relief they got to work on it straight away, new break pads, cassette, chain, slimed the tyres to stop me getting as many punchers and stocked up on more tubes to be safe, 11am I was back on the road Woohoo 🚴🏼♂️😃, time to make up some miles a nice ride into the night to Bristol 🌃Ended up losing my back light so decided to grab one from the Halfords in Preston the one they recommy needed the seat taking off, so I took the seat off got the light on when putting the seat back on I managed to overtighten the seat clamp and break the bolt 🤷🏻♂️ so back into Halfords to get a seat clamp , probably around 1hr 30 delay with the detour 🕛The Ride to Lands End the last stretch what could possibly go wrong 😂 the chain started slipping which made the 3000ft of elevation a little challenging, then on the last 20 miles of the journey the back tyre got a tear not supprised given where and how it had been ridden the last 12 days this ended up causing 2 punchers that the slime wasn’t able to protect against 🤷🏻♂️The Riding ⛰️🛣️🏙️Well the Riding, hmm it was definitely a rollercoaster 🎢 of a ride, from the nice flat towpaths of Cheshire and the Midlands , scenic little villages with fun rolling hills, the beautiful ride through the Lake District and along the Loch Ness, to the the challenging ride from Fort William up through the Highlands in wet weather with winds gusting to 18 MPH a challenging section which meant pushing the bike at times because the wind was either a headwind or a crosswind rewarding when reaching the peak and then flying down the other side towards Loch Lomond, not checking the sat nav and then getting off track thinking I could just follow the path I’m on and get back on track then ending up cycling through deep mud that would clog the mud guards, getting stuck on the A30 on route to Newquay with l steep hills and busy traffic a lot shorter route 1hr 30 mins shorter but no thanks ill take the longer scenic route, managed to spend 15 miles on there sat nav said another 42 so I was off at the next junction, some challenging steep climbs in Cornwall but pedalling to the top very rewarding when you reach the top and you usually get to fly down the other side as a Reward 😃 with amazing views 🏞️ and a nice breeze to cool down , rode through towns, cities, villages, fields, forests , dirt tracks, nice flat towpaths, bumpy towpaths which are great for getting punchersWeatherFrom scenic Sunrises, Sunsets and Blue Sky Days to Heavy Rain with Strong Headwinds, and the occasional tailwind which is a treat it means you can fly SummaryAn Epic Adventure, sure there are times when things aren’t going to plan you have to laugh through them moments and keep going and adapt to the circumstances because things aren’t always plain sailing, there are times when it’s wet, windy and things aren’t going to plan and you think why am I doing this but a couple of hours later the weather settles and you get some amazing views and then you remember “This is why I Ride” 😃🚴🏽♂️I recommend everyone to do it spread it out do what works best for you anyone can do it, it’s a Journey of Self Discovery, a Personal Challenge, your own Personal Rollercoaster the only objective is to get from John o Groat’s to Lands End you decide on how you want to get there 🎢🚴🏼♂️, the Beauty of cycling is you have access to routes you don’t in a car or other forms of transport, and you can stop anywhere you want to stop and take some pictures or have lunch in a scenic spot in the Highlands on the A82, or the east coast along the A9 you can just leave the bike and the against a wall jump over a wall into a Field Relax have lunch then carry on riding, if there is a traffic jam in a City glide past the cars and get to the front, you can go as Fast or Slow as you like, the UK has some amazing national parks, pretty little villages, historic cities and National Cycle Routes just waiting to be explored so if you fancy an Adventure what are you waiting for plan your journey and ride the rollercoaster!!! 🚴🏽♂️🎢😃🏞️🤔
