Answers to your questions

This weekend I’ve been looking through the emails we’ve received so far at B2B towers and there seem to be a couple of basic themes that it’d be good to cover. Below i’ve sketched out a few thoughts on each of them. Please feel free to comment, question or add to the discussion.

What bike should I ride?

I suppose the answer to this question is "Do you have a bike at the moment?" If you have a bike you are comfortable with then that is the bike to do the ride on. Warren and I both ride road bikes (Warren's is modern and fancy materials and mine is retro and steel). On the ride last year (Lands' end to john o'groats that the buskers on bikes did) there was also a guy on a homemade bike (“The lady in red”... yes it had a name) mostly made from rust and another fella on a mountain/hybrid bike. If you don't have a bike already then something that you will use afterwards is a great
buy. I wouldn't suggest buying a mountain bike, unless you usually ride on rough terrain as the tyres are bumpy and make things slow on the road, but if you have a mountain bike you can always change those for more slick tyres.

Through all this it’s a good idea to think about what you will be doing. On the ride to Bestival you will be riding for 5-6 hours a day with 2 or 3 snack stops and a main meal break. We will aim to average about 10-15 miles an hour (or thereabouts). This is a steady but brisk pace starting at only three times as fast as walking, but it’s an average including the hills we may actually walk up. The obvious choice for this type of ride is a touring road bike, but whilst not the ideal, I would happily do this distance and speed on a Brompton, mountain bike or city bike. That is me though. Whatever bike you choose get used to riding it for more than an hour at a time so your bum gets used to it and your leg muscles are comfortable.

We will only be riding for two days, but we want to be ready to party when we get there. If you regularly ride a bike I would suggest getting out for a few 2-3 hour rides before we go. If you don’t or haven’t ridden much recently, then get in touch telling me what you’ve got to ride and what experience we have and we can work out a light training programme to help you along.

I’m not that musical/I only play a .... Is this OK?

Yes.

We are going to pick easy songs that most people can sing/play along etc. Warren plays guitar and I will have a banjolele or mandolin. Quite a few will be bringing ukuleles so there will be a small group of you strumming together. If you play an odd instrument, however well/badly, consider bringing thast and we can make a feature out of it.

Warren is in the process of booking a couple of weekend socials for those that can’t get here in the week. We can have a bash at a few tunes then. We aim to record a video of some songs with Warren and I playing so you’ll have something to practice to.