in message <[email hidden]>, Tim Hall
(') said:Some of the rest of the time, when not riding my bike or earning an
honest crust, I'm an Assistant Scout Leader. We're planning a cycling
weekend in the next month or so - something like x miles along the
South Downs Way, overnight at youth hostel, x miles along the
DownsLink.Using the youth hostel will allow us to travel light - no tents
needed, nor food, except packed lunch for the 1st day. What personal
kit the scouts will have (change of clothes, minimal wash kit) will,
unfortunately, be carried in small back packs as not many/any of them
have racks or panniers.Anyway, the big question is, how far should we realistically expect
them to cycle on either day?
At age 16 I cycled from Edinburgh to Cheltenham in six days, at an
average of about 60 miles per day. I carried a change of clothes and a
down sleeping bag on the bike, which was a gas-pipe job and quite heavy
in itself. I did no special training for it, and suffered no
ill-effects - except the one day I tried to do 110 miles (Manchester -
Bridgenorth) which was too much and I bonked.
We have two twelve-year-olds who regularly ride with our club, and
happily do thirty mile trips (and keep coming back for more); one is
from a family of cyclists, the other isn't. But both are probably a lot
fitter than the average twelve year old.
Quoted message said:I'm a bit out of touch on the level of
fitness of young people these days, and as a keen cyclist myself,
wouldn't flinch (too much) at what Joe Public might consider a Long
Way. However I have very little off road experience, which will also
be a factor.
The last couple of Sundays I've done about thirty miles of fairly
intense off road last Sunday, and forty-six miles of mostly flat road
this Sunday. I would say that's about equal - off-road is harder work
than on-road but it isn't twice as hard.
Quoted message said:For the SDW section, I'm thinking of 15 - 20 miles. Does that sound
reasonable? For the Downslink (much flatter part) I'm thinking about
the same, maybe more. I think the key will be not to go too fast,
take pleanty of breaks and keep them fed and watered.
My experience of youngsters is that if you don't underestimate them
you'll be surprised what they can do. I would design a route which
gives you a bail out point at twenty miles with the potential to do
more, and then don't tell them about the possible bail out point unless
on the day you find it's necessary. Flexibility is good: they'll
certainly be able to go a lot further on a nice day with a favourable
wind than they could on a day of foul weather.
--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
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