The idea of doing the Coast to Coast started as a joke when a new bike was bought.  After looking at a few websites of people who had done it, the idea developed into a definite plan, and a date was set for mid-October 2001.  This gave us about 10 weeks to prepare & train (and change our minds!).

After buying the C2C map, we spent a night in the pub to decide how many days to take, and where to stop.  We decided to aim for three days, allowing the fourth in case it was required - hotels would obviously have to be re-arranged.

Our training programme was fairly basic, but given constraints of time, work, other hobbies, darker nights, etc we managed to get out about 3 times a week.  Looking back, we could have done with more work on hills, and certainly carrying full panniers.

We had decided on using panniers, and carrying with us everything we needed.  We did not have any support available during the ride, and were not aware that it was possible to get your bags transferred to your next stop.  Although we had only taken what we thought was necessary, the weight of the panniers (10Kg each person) caused each hill to seem steeper and make the bikes very unwieldy.

We have included a spreadsheet showing items that we took along with their weights.  We have marked up which items we did not use.  Please see our comments about clothing on the spreadsheet.

We were regularly checking on some of the C2C websites for latest Foot & Mouth information.  We printed out the up to date diversions, but decided to stick to the original route where possible.

With route planned, pubs booked, and lifts sorted, October 19th arrived and we started our journey...