The C2C And Northern Cycle Routes Forum

Looking at doing a 3 day C2C trip at the end of May.

Reading all the info on the excellent web site makes me think that doing the route on a road bike with slick tyres isn't feasible, but would i be right in thinking there are enough road alternatives without veering too far off route?

It's the only bike i have and i'm not about to fork out for a tourer sadly.

welcome to the site, have you got copy of the sustrans c2c map?easily doable on road bike while not straying to far.

Hi

I am also planning to do the C2C over 3 days in the middle of May on 23C tyres.

Having looked at the map I reckon that there are reasonable road alternatives to the off-road sections.

I know the section from Whitehaven to Rowrah is tarmaced and should be fine. Would be very interested to know whether the Waskerly Way can be done on skinny road tyres

the road up fromrookhope is a no go but the rest of waslerley way should be ok,on puncture proff tyres

thanks for the info. From our overnight stop at Rookhope I was planning to take the road to Stanhope. Would it be OK to join the Waskerley Way at Parkhead? I am currently riding on Continental GP4000s tyres which are advertised as puncture resistant, hopefully these will suffice.

yeah ,you should be ok from there,just beware of broken glass around consett, crawleyside bank out of stanhope is a killer mind.

sounds great. I have heard Crawleyside is tough. Luckily I live in Cumbria and therefore able to do some training on hills. How does Crawleyside compare to Whinlatter?

Hi, I've done it several times on 23c tyres, you need to slow down on the rough stuff, keep your eyes peeled for glass etc & get good puncture protection tyres, I used Continental Ultra Gator Skins with no problems, some of the main route is challenging on 23c tyres but as I say doable, anything marked off road alternative should be avoided. Going over Whinlatter I'd just go straight over avoid all the forestry & pick up the route again in Braithwaite. Regarding Crawleyside.......... its very tough, l ride Whinlatter regularly with no problems but Crawleyside kills me, very steep in places, this may be because you have 100 miles behind you but I dont think so, the other horrible hill is the one out of Garrigill, the first 100 yards are a real eye opener & then it just drags on & on..
Good luck Rob.

thanks for all the advice Rob and the heads up on those climbs.
They sound more like Newlands and Honister than Whinlatter

This is a 230 m climb- the first mile is 1:4 then eases to 1:10 for next 2 miles before levelling off a bit !!

I believe the record for bottom to top is 19 mins !!

Once you reach the top then its almost downhill all the way to the coast.

Good luck