4 Corners / Full Monty

Firstpeke

Well-Known Member
#21
Well I am not sure that's what has been said..... it is all down to timing!

When I did mine I made sure to get to JOG and LE during opening hours.

St David's is a bit of an anomaly, which may prove a problem if not pre-checked prior to your ride attempt.

I got there at around 22:00hrs so had several options, but fortunately the Lloyds ATM was in service.

There are other sources of receipts, but they should be checked before turning up and hoping for the best.

As with LE and JOG, some premises may have widely differing opening hours outside the tourist season.

Check, not just by looking on Google, but by calling your potential receipt sources!

Fuel may also be a challenge.... I have recently been thwarted by several Tesco 24hr sites which were closed, despite the website saying they were open!

Caveat viator!

If it's any help I plan my ride route in Tyre, using Google to find fuel stations first... the tyre app gives me mileages and times between points and these are put into a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet can be used to check approximate times by entering a start time at the top of one of the columns and having entered all the sector times and mileages with cumulative time and mileage, simply changing the start time alters all the results to give me the time at the relevant stops....
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Megabuck

IBAUK Verifier
IBA Member
#22
Here's the verifier's opinion...

You could nest an E2E Gold when riding either a Four Corners or a Full Monty - but it would make already challenging rides even more difficult. That's not something I'd recommend. It means riding 150 to 250 extra miles between LE and JOG, on top of the minimum mileage for either ride; giving up 3 to 4 hours of potential rest time to get the extra certificate.

Regards,
Martin
 
#25
Dear all.

Please help me with weather window. I have 3 days. 13 Sunday, 14 Monday, 15 Tuesday.

Which 2 days would give me best weather for full monty. I'm starting from Lowestoft early morning, so the first day will be mostly below Scotland.

Is it mandatory to buy something with receipt at all 4 corners or would the fuel receipt alone do?

Thank you
 

GSears

Dambuster... Bouncing panniers...
Premier Member
IBA Member
#27
Any Printed Receipt. Just remember the time constraints at LE and JoG.
Must have the location though.
 

Firstpeke

Well-Known Member
#28
Another thing which I haven't seen mentioned is that nested rides do not count towards mile eater awards....

I've never seen the sense in nesting rides myself other than just to get a certificate!

No doubt someone will put me right.....
 
#29
I failed in my full monty attempt. I had Tried to replicate the same time and route as in another thread here.

Started off from Lowestoft at 3:45 am, reached lands end at 1 pm. Reached at David's at 7:45 pm and I thought fuel station was about to close but they have changed their working times and are open till 10 pm now.

Heavy rain alert across the Wales for the rest of night. Even though I had plenty of time to do full monty I was fully drenched, wet boots, cold and it wasn't worth for me. 6 hours to get back home and was stopping every now and then due to rain. Had Cancelled full monty and found a MC Donald's with just 9 minutes to spare for SS 1000. Feeling lucky there as I had started receipt for ride from home itself.

Apart from 1 hour of extra break till st David's and adverse weather I don't understand how can we do Lowestoft to lands end in 6 hours as I took 9 hours with a high speed run. My average speed till st David's was 70 mph, that's 3 corners.
 

GSears

Dambuster... Bouncing panniers...
Premier Member
IBA Member
#30
The Full Monty is one of the hardest rides in the UK.

You called the ride when you needed to. You had an alternative ride that succeeded. Both good decisions.
You can re-plan. You ONLY completed an ss1000. For most people that would be an outstanding achievement.

Well done on the ss1000
 

Firstpeke

Well-Known Member
#31
Nothing wrong with recognising you are not going to be able to complete a ride.... been there, done that..... more than once!

I did the Full Monty and have to say it was a hard ride... especially mid-Wales at night with rain...

Finished with less than twenty minutes to spare and was more than relieved to have managed it, but it was hard....

My route was a start and finish at Cairn lodge on the M74, JOG, Lowestoft, with a Travel lodge break just before there... then LE, St Davids then back to Cairn lodge... I was well tired by the end, a twenty minute stop with a coffee and bacon roll then off home...

I may do it again, but am hoping to do the Lighthouses next year...

Well done on the attempt and obtaining the SS1000 as a fallback, as Gordon says, that in itself is an achievement!
 
#32
It's the weather that didn't support me. My first priority is always 25 C weather which didn't happen at all, and all of a sudden heavy rain across Wales which made it impossible for me get out of wales.

The best decision for me should have been to get the nearest lodge and sleep but I rode in rain for 6 hours till my house. But I didn't want to waste another work leave without pay.

Hope to try full monty again. It's doable by me surely. Thank you for all the support guys.
 

Firstpeke

Well-Known Member
#33
Well that's UK weather for you.... and of course the old adage that planning goes out the window at first contact with the enemy, or the ride in this case...
I have found that whenever a ride involves the M25 it invariably rains, in a frog strangling volume of precipitation....

There's always another opportunity to ride, providing the decision to knock it off isn't left too long.
 

Firstpeke

Well-Known Member
#35
Just to flag one ting folks will need to know about Lloyds bank ATM in St Davids......

My latest look at the Google Streets view shows the bank is closed permanently, so the other ATM at the NISA supermarket in New Street.
Edit: Just looked again and the image changed to 2022 and shows it open but..... see below.

Not sure if anyone else posted this, but thought it best to pop it in here!

https://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/news/23578458.lloyds-bank-st-davids-set-closure-later-year/

Now closed

Nisa Supermarket ATM St Davids.jpg
 
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