ian_scott_bike_ride

Sailors' Families' Society Francis Reckitt House
Cottingham Road
Newland
Hull HU6 7RJ
Tel: 01482 342331
registered charity
no 224505

	Society says 'On yer Bike' to General Secretary!
		To raise the profile of the Society throughout the country and to generate funds towards the appeal, the Society’s General Secretary, Ian Scott is going to cycle from Lands End to John O’Groats. Ian aims to meet up with families and many of the organisations that we work closely with on route as well as generating publicity about the work of the Society. Ian will be writing a blog, which can be found below, so you can keep up with his travels, sores and all! So please help us if you can, no amount is too small. We will be delighted to acknowledge on the website the support of any company who is able to donate. If you would like to offer words of support please feel free to sign our guestbook.
	Why Lands End to John O' Groats? The idea to cycle from Lands End to John O' Groats originally came as a way of gaining sponsorship as part of the Society’s appeal to raise £100,000 to buy three new caravans to place around the coast of the UK. The Society currently has 5 caravans and we can not satisfy the demand from the families we support, in particular during the school holidays, for a week’s break. So we need to increase the number of caravans to six and we also need to replace our two oldest caravans that are beginning to show their age. Click here to find out more about the Society's holiday scheme. In addition we intend to increase the publicity about the Society and make both the general public and the organisations we work with more aware of the work we do. It is therefore our intention to visit families and organisations such as the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen and the Royal British Legion en route.
	The Route There are many ways to cycle from Lands End to John O' Groats, but not many of them go via Hull! The shortest route is up the west side of England and then there are various routes through Scotland However, our caravans are all based on sites owned by Haven Holidays and they are helping us raise some money on some of their sites by volunteers riding from one site to the next. Most of their sites are on the East Coast of England so the journey will be further as we go up the East Coast from Lincolnshire. Our transport to Lands End and back from John O' Groats is a motor home kindly donated by a local caravan company for the duration of the trip. This will become our home for the duration of the ride. The back up team consists of Ian’s wife Christine and a very old family friend also called Ian. For the detailed planning of the route we have used the AA Close up Britain Road Atlas which is 1.5 mile to the inch. Land's End is on page 2 and John O' Groats on page 327! The Atlas has the National Cycling Network routes marked which is a big help especially in the second week as we will be able to take advantage of some of the NCN routes. Thanks to Haven Holidays we will be able to stay on some of their sites that we intend to visit en route which is a great help. At other times we plan to stay at various sites but having the motor home gives us the flexibility not to be tied down to reaching specific destinations should we experience any unforseen problems.	CLICK HERE FOR IAN'S BLOG
	Training The last time I rode a cycle on two consecutive days was when I rode to school nearly 40 years ago! So cycling is a new experience for me. Since getting the cycle just before Christmas I have been getting out as much as possible although I could not see much point in going out in driving rain and gale force winds during the winter. Although most people think that Humberside is as flat as the proverbial pancake, luckily the Yorkshire Wolds drop down into the village behind where I live. So when I have an hour or two to spare I am usually going up and down the dales to get some hill experience in. I am finding the hills difficult and I am not going to exhaust myself trying to ride up every hill so I intend to walk up the really steep ones if necessary. As we near the end of July I have increased the mileage and so far this month I have done nearly 500 miles with the longest trip of nearly 75 miles. This weekend I am going on a mini tour to Bedale (85 miles) and round the Dales that will see what I can do it on consecutive days. 24th August - The training is now over. 1703 miles, 135 hours in the saddle. Is it enough? We will be travelling down to Land's End tomorrow and starting out from Land's End at lunchtime on Tuesday. Please click on the link above to see how I get on.
	The Bike Having taken advice on the best type of cycle to use, I bought a Claude Butler Dalesman touring cycle, designed for long journeys. To the uninitiated it looks like a racing bike with drop handlebars but it does have wider tyres, and mudguards as well as a rack on the back. It has got 27 gears and on some of the hills I think I could do with a few more! The saddle so far has proved quite comfortable but I will let you know after a few days into the journey. I am told that Sudocrem is the preferred ointment of choice and my 8 month old grandson has kindly leant me some of his!
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