Sunset Cruisers

Cancer Research Total: £1105 & Help for Heros £591

 Many thanks for all your donations.

It makes a huge difference to us but mostly to those that will benefit from all of your’s and ours efforts.  For us personally it shows that 10 months and a 1000+ miles later of hard training, letter writing and cake baking (Yes - cake baking!) didn’t go to waste and that through the highs and lows of our journey the charities ultimately came out on top!

We can’t show you how much we appreciate your suppport in the preperation for this ride or during or even after the ride, all we can say is that it will be remembered for a life time for all the right reasons!

Dave & John

Well this weekend was our harshest ride so far with 63 miles on Sat and nearly 34miles on Sunday.

 Sat was all about the hills, neither myself or JC really knew where we were going but OMG we must have climbed 30+ hills with varying degrees and it took best part of  8 hours-ouch!

 To put this in perspective a few weeks back I had tackled some rather large hills along the coast heading east of Brighton and it took in total about 6 hours to cover 58miles (including stoppages). However Sat we estimated we stopped for a total of 1 hour throughout the day, which means the difference of an hour must of been purely hill climbing!

 But when you have JC’s mix of the Rocky soundtracks and ACDC to keep you going in the background then you’re in safe hands!

 As for Sunday it was safe to say it was a killer….but hey come ride week it’s going to be tougher….so keep that sponsorship coming in, PLEASE PLEASE make these 10 months of training worth it.

 SC out

Good news people we managed to get a write up with the Worthing Herald via a phone interview last Friday and had some photo’s taken down on the promenade in Worthing last night. So keep an eye out for this week’s paper?

We  hope to have some more media coverage coming our way in the form of Splash Fm and maybe just maybe Meridian News???

 Slightly worrying issue arose but hopefully easily rectified, Dave’s bike needed a new brake disc and pads fitted this week (it’s coming down all those hills like High Salvington for those that know it). But that’s the beauty of hill training, 10 mins of vain popping hard work and 40 secs of bliss freewheeling and terror…………. well………..especially when the traffic suddenly stops at the bottom it is!!!.

 Johns bike also developed a cold with his 3 speed hub not engaging properly, “Great” we haven’t even left yet and the problems have started already, good Job we have a best mate who’s an awesome bike mechanic!

 Well were have to wait and see if anyone comes to our rescue after the paper goes out Thursday 1^st regarding the other items we still need, nutritional food, helmets, clothing: Jerseys and shorts.

 Also if anyone knows someone that works at a rental firm and can lend us a van (?) we need one to take up to Lowestoft for the 30^th July or for a loaner over the weekend 7^th-8th that would be very much appreciated with lots of free publicity in return for the gesture!

Well with just over a month to go Dave headed East last Monday and took on the Telscombe cliffs and beyond to the east edge of Seaford. He cycled 52 miles in around 5 hours excluding the occasional stop for refuelling, so it appears our first estimation of around 10mph on these bikes is bang on! Only sheer determination saw him pull through as he climb a horrendous hill out of Newhaven heading West bound. Of course the best bit is he will do it all again this weekend looking for the magic 60 mile marker which puts him in line with Beachy head-Eastbourne, these length of rides are essential and will have to be common place over the weeks to come.

 Dave and John both know they have to “turn up the heat” on all training with only 5 weekends to go, so climbing hills during the week has been a priority for the last few weeks and last night saw them take on High Salvington (Remember these bikes are not built for this kind of ride).

 Also the guys have decided to ditch the trailers they were going to tow, a hard decision had to be made as it could of compromised the whole project and “there’s making it difficult” and there’s  “making it ridiculously difficult”. They won’t escape carrying the extra 10kg limit they imposed on themselves of clothing and provisions, but it’s better than carrying an extra 10kg of trailer!

Bring on the weekend…

Bad News

Well since our last post we have been busy trying to raise corporate sponsors, unfortunately just heard from another one (as I have now come to expect) and it’s no surprise that they can’t help. This is the common thing about doing anything for charities,  companies are hit up so often by us “Charity folks” that unless they haven’t already designated their budget for the year to their chosen charity already, or that you meet their criteria….(?) you have in short an incredibly slim chance of getting anywhere no matter how unique your activity is or how much free publicity your prepared to offer in return.

But have no fear we don’t back down, we stand up, dust off and try the next one!

Equipment still required:

• Helmets: we found two in Evans that would suit to a “T” as they were lightweight and looked bang on for the style of bikes but they were just way to pricy at £120, we have 15% off vouchers from previous letter sent to Evans but can’t justify their costs really and would rather give the cash to the charities.
• White Jerseys we have found a cheap supplier all we need now just need the cash to buy at least 4 each and some shorts, luckily a friend is going to print up for us with all our sponsors!    
• Nutrition for the week to keep the 5-6000 calorie burn off a day at bay.

 Good news

 We managed to secure trade discounts for the nutrition from 2 of the biggest suppliers in the country, down side is we just need the cash to pay for it-ha!

 Until next time SC out!

Thanks for all donations so far and keep them coming…much appreciated.

Well training and more training isn’t the only thing that’s been happening for the Sunset Cruisers team. Oh no… we have been booking up hotels to our expense, only to find little old Travelodge’s working out to be more cost effective than the B&B’s of England. We are booked in a few B&B’s but let’s face it too many English breakfasts day after day and we will return fatter then when we went!

 What we still need equipment wise:

Corporate sponsorship still as ever incredibly hard to come by but we have found someone to print our jerseys  for the ride (YEY) we just got to find the jerseys now for free, so if you know anyone that will supply them that would be fantastic because our funds are running low. Also didn’t get a response from “Sports in Science” on sponsorship from a nutrition angle,  so if any of you Facebook fans know someone that can get us a good deal on nutrition for the ride (energy/recovery drinks food, gels, bars) that would be fab-bulk buying will be order of the day.

 Dave got himself a luggage trailer at long last to carry all the kit but he will be taking that for a spin on the weekend as he tries to break the 50 mile barrier, with only 8 weeks to go we all are aware how 60+ milers have got to be the order of the day every weekend if we don’t want to die. Also got himself an 115db air horn that will scare any driver rather than the other way round for once-so watch out!

 SC out

So it’s been a while since the  last post but this Old Mans been away for a week in Calonge, business not pleasure-unfortunately!

 So what’s been happening, well Marky Boy finally got his butt back in the saddle after finally been given the all clear from the doctor on his neck.

 JC also finally got his mountain bike back after he’d cracked his frame training in Wales the other month and this Old man cracked the 40 miler barrier the other weekend with a 60 miler on its way real soon. As we got to start knocking out 60+miles on a regular basis if we don’t want to die on these bikes.

 As always we are still looking for sponsors to help with equipment or funding but I guess when you are not a celebrity it will never come easily, I even plug the ride to suppliers in my day to day job with hopefully a few interested nearer the time-I guess we will just have to wait and see.

 The shirts got a test drive last night with a few well wishes from passers by on my 25 miler to Brighton and back-so roll on the weekend and hopefully we can spread the word.

 We still need (if anyone asks):

 Cycling clothing vests for logos to be printed on.

1. Promo vest/T-shirts
2. Nutritional/recovery stuff for the ride
3. Oh and places to stay along the way-only a few confirmed so far!

 Lots of photos coming soon and updates will be more frequent with only just over 2.5 months to go, donations are promised to the tune of a few hundred more but will get these nearer the time! SO BIG THANKS for that!

So since the last time, as you would expect more training has been happening with in particular Dave and John embarking on a 30 mile tour of the coast last weekend and parking up on the very busy seafront in Brighton, the bikes are always head turners wherever we go but the attention they received over the weekend was ridiculous with people asking all sorts of questions from “what were we doing!” to “did we build the bikes ourselves!”

Unfortunately Marc couldn’t join us as he is still out of training due to his car crash the other month, but he hopes to be given the all clear soon from his physio.

Click here to view new Facebook photos

Other News

So in light of the events of the weekend Dave has organized for Tracie of Artifax (www.artifaxonline.com) to make up some initial T’s with our message and sponsors to help promote the ride throughout the training and the places we visit over the next 3+months. This will ultimately end up on our trailers which we will each be towing (however Dave and Marc are still trying desperately to source one without breaking the bank).

If your company wants to get noticed then click here for one of the media packs or enquire how else you can help with the equipment we need and receive our Top Tier Media pack for free. All adverts will be on everything we do for over the next 3 months until the ride.

SC out.