Bill on Bike starts here

Hi,

I am planning to become an End-to-Ender in August this year i.e. cycling from Lands End to John O'Groats. It's a mad thing to do and I was seeing it as something to do in a few years and then thought why wait? I cycle to work most days a round trip of 7 miles and I have been doing some longer trips. My last one before Xmas was 50 miles - a lovely country route south of Manchester but it took me 7 hours. I aim to do about 70 miles a day in about 7 hours. However, on the way to work I don't usually overtake any other bikes apart from on today which was a shock to my system!

A couple of friends have offered to cycle some of the way with me and my daughter Grace and wife Sheila have more or less agreed to be my back up team. I plan to stay with friends on route certainly in England.

I have several routes to choose from from the CTC and I have emailed them today about whether I need to get a faster slicker bike. Bob Colderley who has done the trip said my current bike - Rayleigh Pioneer bought in 1998 with my first book advance was plenty good enough.

I have a fancy yellow cycling jacket that Sheila gave me for Xmas that's really cool in more ways than one and makes me feel more connected to this dream of mine. I used to do a lot of cycle trips as a teenager and ocne did 70 miles in 8 hours on a 3 speed bike - Coventry Eagle. I have a dream of a novel based on a guy who just disappesr on his bike. I have written a few pages of it and might inflict some of it on you here.

Taht's it for now