[Closed] Liverpool - Leeds Canal, whats it like?

Isn't it about 130 miles ?

That a fair old ride for "newbies" isn't it.

The surface of the Leeds-Liverpool canal is generally wet and doesn't support the weight of a bicycle and rider well.

Oh, sorry - you meant the towpath surface???

Generally reasonable, can be muddy in places but given the recent weather I can't see that happening. You'll need dog-shit, condom and hypodermic needle-proof tyres for the urban sections, especially on the Blackburn - Colne run...

done it twice, one on a 29r and once on electric assist.
it is too far to do in a day...imho.
some bits are nice and smooth, some are gravel covered and some a muddy bits through fields.
good to do over 2 days with a nice pub stop.

It's 127 miles i believe, starting at 4am in Liverpool.
It's doable for at least one of them as he's an ironman entrant and a bit nuts!
One other lad is 20 and should have loads of pent up energy as he's single 🙂
It's the organiser i'm worried about, he bought a bike at the beginning of the year and carcked on with this idea, he's done a maximun of 60 miles in one go riding canals ets but no proper hill work. I did tell him to hit the climbs to train but he said they hurt too much 🙄

So, will a skinny tyred bike do you reckon?

a good tough touring tyre is ok, but a 2.2'' 29r tyre was far comfier.

From what i can gather the others will be on skinny tyres as well, 23c to 32c i think.
Oh well, think it's going to be a long day...

you can borrow my 29r if you want. 20'' frame.

😆 😆 😆 😆

😉

I can only talk about my local section - between Bank Newton and Bingley - which is a mixture of grass and good gravel with the odd rooty bit. Not much mud around at the moment, obviously.

A skinny tyre will 'do', and be a positive advantage on some bits, but will be a tad uncomfortable here and there on my section.

not many hills on the canal

We'll come and ride with you for a bit if you need some support.

We could bring cake.......

RS - Cake would be wonderful, if you can manage to ride just a 'little' faster than the three and drag them along whilst waving cake at them it would be helpful! 😆

Setting off from 'pool at 4am so not really sure how long it's going to take. The organising chappy reckons on 16 hrs which i think is being ubercritical, shouldn't take more than 12 i think.
Certainly, i did the C2C in 10hrs 45 min rolling time and that's got a wee bit of climbing thrown in!

Of the bits I know well

Burnley to Skipton - all ok to ride

Bingley to Leeds - all ok to ride

I wouldn't be using a 23c road tyre though - more likely a marathon or landcruiser

It's all i currently have i'm afraid. Do have some 28c tyres on my Boardman but i was kinda set on using the singlespeed for the fun of it.
May have to reconsider that though.

The surface is mixed, some places are well surfaced and others quite muddy. The well surfaced places are generally gravel and cobbles, so a 23 tyre is ok on these although not the most comfy and slightly puncture risky. However, the muddy bits will be a bit of a challenge.
Some mates of mine did it recently, doing the trans pennine trail one day and then back on the leeds liverpool the following day. All except one were on heavy touring tyres on cross bikes, so 28 or 32s. One had 23 tyres on and he struggled and ended up having to take the road to avoid some sections. So it's do-able but not ideal.

If you cannot fit larger tyres then if I was you I'd probably take the mountain bike although you will then be 'over-biked'. Just seen your post about 28 tyres on a boardman - this sounds far more suitable a bike. Just stay in one gear if that's your thing 🙂

I would certainly take a lot of tubes, there are a lot of thorns on the country bits and a lot of glass on the town bits!

Think it's the Boardman then, whilst i love riding my Mango on tarmac i don't want to spend 127 miles struggling over gravel on 23c road tyres.
MTB would be my old Mount Vision so way too much bike for that!

did it twice many years ago, once over 2 days to test the route and once in 1 day for the actual charity event

left 'pool at 5am, got to leeds about 8pm with reasonably fit riders but there were others who took much longer (18hrs for the last guy through, unfit but carrying lots of food/water/lights cos he knew it would be hard)

one lad did it on skinny tyres...said it hurt a bit but was do-able (except when he slipped and fell in). If you make it in 12 hrs on skinny wheels then thats some going if you're even of reasonable fitness, especially between Barnoldswick and Silsden (no path to speak of whatsover - just grass and uneven muddy tracks)

there's no path going through Burnley - you have to come off and find your way back onto the canal again (not easy if you've not done it before) and also at the Foulridge tunnel, but thats signposted

12 hour target will take some doing trust me.
16 hours is still tough.

I did it a few years on a fixed with 28mm tyres. No problems but body took a beating on some stretches

I'm in west Lancs and it's all easy towpaths from Maghull to Appley Bridge,the main problem being punctures from thorns,I'd take plenty of puncture repair kit,especially if they've been hedge trimming..

Sounds like it will be a long day for the organiser - it can be heavy going out in the cabbages and it feels like we've had a lot of rain this past week in the NW. Packing some sudacrem prob a good idea.

I cant see it being that muddy at the minute, but the knock on effect of that is that it will be pretty hard.

No one has mentioned above, but you HAVE got a bell havent you ??

Seriously you need one.

The thing I find hard about the canal is that you get in to a rhythm but then have to slow for bridge/people/narrowing etc

as above, buy a bell otherwise you'll be constantly slowing to a stance. get a comfy saddle and some of those ergo grips.
Your only other issue will be punctures

I did the canal in a day with a mate a few years back for charity , it took us from 6.30am to 9.30pm with about an hour and a halfs worth of breaks/meal stops.

The only real climb on the route is around Wigan where there's about 25 or so locks spread over a fair distance (not really steep) and the section just before Skipton wasn't surfaced and mainly grass although this might have changed since we did it. If you are in the Leeds area and want to borrow a pair of Specialized 700/45 I have a pair you can lend.

I ended up wearing a 2" patch of skin off my perineum(very ouchy 😯 ) despite regular applications of petroleum jelly to my nether regions so be prepared.

Liverpool - Leeds Canal, whats it like?

The main challenge will be the boredom. Make sure you have plenty of music and/or good company to chat to.

and the section just before Skipton wasn't surfaced and mainly grass although this might have changed since we did it.

keighley to Leeds is almost all on tarmac/aggregate.

A hilly canal, earlier.
[img] [/img]

Done a fair bit of canal bashing on the Fargo recently on 2" Big Apples and Marathon Extreme DD 42s. The Big Apples only really suffer in wintry slime, the big contact patch usually finds something to hold on to in most other conditions. The Marathons are less comfy on smooth tarmac stuff by not being slick, but you don't get the occasional awkward skid on wet grass.

Silly thing is, my rear tyre is completely slick!
Oh well, will be 'interesting' at least.
I'm having to stuff a large bar bag with tools etc because I'm pretty sure no one else will have any. That's my job for the day then..

Do have a bell on the Boardman so no worries there, but its going to be a long day. The girls are driving support for us (i wanted to stop at pubs etc) and will be rattling collecting buckets at the arranged stops.

We tried to ride it late November last year.

Was a bog fest 10 miles in. We only made it to Wigan before we were pissed off. Took 6hrs to ride 30 miles.

You're welcome to borrow the Marathons if you're passing Doncaster on the way to the start, and they fit in your frame. Bit too late to post, shame.

Cheers for the offer, i'm in Rochdale though.

I did Maghull to apply bridge today. Its all ok no problems at all

Muddy, I've got some cross tyres, some panaracer mach ss things that I've done the 3 Peaks on.

Shout if you want them. 700c by 35mm wide

What do you reckon? currently running a siped 28c on the front and a slick 28c on the rear.

Meh, You'll be fine.

Tour of Flanders is all cobbled stuff and it was ok on slick 23s.

Done the liverpool to ormskirk bit a few times, bumpy, flat and watch out for the slippy bridge at Bootle, where the path crosses from one side to the other side of the canal, its metal checker plate and slippy there are also gaps in the plates, Bootle is just outside liverpool, next to the high rise flats.

I'm going to be grumpy all ride you know, my new road bike will (hopefully) turn up tomorrow but instead of a nice 'get to know you' spin out on carbon loveliness i'll be plodding along a bloody canal 😆

#firstworldproblems

Project that's impressive considering it doesn't go through ormskirk 🙂

Doesn't go through it but passes pretty close at The Saracens Head (nice little country pub at Scarisbrick)

From memory, there's a marina near there too

Project that's impressive considering it doesn't go through ormskirk

Sorry ment Maghull

I did a Liverpool Leeds charity ride last weekend. Saw no mud, the grassy bits (15 miles round Silsden) were damp and so increased resistance. Bell is essential - there are 235 bridges on the route which you can't see round.
Watch out for the side canals, we missed a junction and had to retrace when we came to a dead end. Foulridge tunnel is the only deviation and is well signposted

muddy - got some part worn (in a 3 Peaks stylee) landcruisers that you can borrow. I'm in Darwen.

davethebadger - Member

I did Maghull to apply bridge today. Its all ok no problems at all

Same here I rode from before Maghull to Wigan then up to Chorley Wednesday and back again yesterday this week, it was very dry but it has many shallow rutted sections along this route, plus the weekend will see many fishing competitions going on all the way to Leeds.

I wish your newbies all the best and pack some Sudocrem

My Tricross with 32mm Landcruisers would be the ideal bike for this... fast enough and dead comfy.

Right Si, will see you at Reedley Marina tomorrow morning.
Send us a text or email with your mobile number and we'll see you between 10 and 11 hopefully.

If there's anything you need, text me and we'll bring it along.

Good luck!

Pete.

Well, we did it.
LOTS of punctures including a complete tyre disintigration resulting in a delivery of an emergency replacement.
Tougher than i thought it would be, especially as we were all on various forms of rigid commuter/hybrid types. The fields from foulridge to the far side of Skipton really took it out of us and the lad who's organised it had a sense of humour failure along that stretch, bike thrown into the bushes etc!
Moved very slowly at some points as the newbies s started to flag, came in at 11:36pm after rolling for 19.5hrs.
Very proud of them all, especially the organiser who only bought a bike in Feb after not riding since childhood.

Many thanks to Rusty Spanner and his lovely wife for meeting us before foulridge and providing us with cake and encouragement.
We have some very sore people here now. I don't feel that bad although my wrists and neck are stiff.

Good effort! Let's hope the return leg's a bit easier 😀

Well done...not an easy thing to do and can be especially demoralising as you cycle round in circles near Skipton

That was my worst point too!

Well done. I thought punctures might prove a problem,the other year I had to show someone to the bike shop in Ormskirk as He'd ran out of patches,would'nt mind but he only set of from Liverpool!
If I ever do it I'll run tubeless & slime..

Well done lads.
It was a pleasure riding with you for a very short while.