I mean I think I would be both the organizer and the only attendant.
Not necessarily. We're "on the continent" in 2025. Is southern Spain "on the continent"?
Winter Solstice SROTY 2024-12-21
- Thread starter saphena
- Start date
Not necessarily. We're "on the continent" in 2025. Is southern Spain "on the continent"?
I was rather thinking about next weekend, not next year
And yes, southern Spain is on the continent... same as Northern norway. Both extremes. But doubt most people about to move "on the continent" will consider both points in route but for a real long all continent trip.
Anyway, maybe I missed something... what does exactly mean that "being on the continent" next year?
So far the Shortest Ride Of The Year (SROTY) has taken place in Great Britain, east coast at sunrise, west coast at sunset. We've done several such rides and have exhausted the supply of new routes in GB. So for 2025 we thought we'd do a similar ride somewhere in continental Europe for greater variety.
This weekend is rather short notice but December 2025 is a year away, plenty of time to organise a ride.
Well, you can count on my proposal.
Though while it is a pretty interesting definition (8 hours road time estimation by google for a 10 hours daylight range, meaning it the longest shortest day in Europe) I understand somehow too far for almost everyone from a "europe" point of view.
If you think it feasible maybe I could consider it sort of "test ride" and have a reason to do next saturday...
Seriously? are you one of those people who needs an actual excuse to go for a ride??? Test ride away
Seriously? are you one of those people who needs an actual excuse to go for a ride??? Test ride away
jajaja... No, i do not need excuses to ride.
but doing that EXACT ride implies running out after finishing my job week without even time to rest, spend money in at least one hotel night... and suffer the winter temperatures (yes... I know I live in a very warm country and what I consider "cold" is what most people consider "a very warm day". But this is what I used to...
)But was just being "poetic". You are right being considered a "pseudofficial" test or not will not make much difference in decision. It is mainly a matter of having enough time to prepare and get ride of some family owes in the weekend
We're a hardy lot here in the UK and part of the challenge of the SROTY is in the time of year. As Saphena has said we've done England to Scotland via Wales, Scotland to Scotland across the Highlands and England to England across the south coast. I'm in favour of a Continental SROTY and looked at your suggestion (Murcia to Sagres) and came up with Faro del Estacio to Faro do Cabo de Sao Vicents which by my calculation allows 9 hours to complete a balmy or is that barmy 554 mile ride. My 7 year old granddaughter did the maths and came up with an average speed in excess of 65 mph which allows for two 5 minute fuel stops and one 20 minute lunch stop.
Sounds strange that calculation.
I am right now checking in google maps, and from one lighthouse to another it is calculating 8:36 at this moment. Traffic in saturday should be lower at start and end hours due to weekend low activity, thus final calculation should probably be reduced. In fact past night it gave me (at night) 8:16 same route.
I know that calculation uses to be, in long distances, 5% over estimated. That is probably related with the fact a motorcycle is faster than the average estimation for a car in heavy traffic areas. I know perfectly that road (have made parts of all this way dozens of times, and is one of my regular use roads), and 8-8:30 is perfectly affordable without any need of speed excess - apart of start and end stages, it is all a highway road, where legal speed is 120 km/h (75 mph) 80% of distance, 20% 100 km/h (62 mph) with sole exception of two short points in the Sevilla surrounding area limited to 80 and 60 km/h.
The sunrise is defined at 7:14 GMT at la manga area in murcia, and the sunset at 17:23 GMT in Sao Vicente.
That makes a 10:10 time margin to cover a distance that can be moved in 8-8:30. About two hours for stops and rest.
Actually, if I also check google maps for your actual SROTY in Google Maps, it gives me a road estimation of 7:37 hours - 400 miles, for a time distance of 8:12 - much less spare time. I imagine you know the true options and are lower (i guess estimation includes rush traffic that will not be present that day), but the fact is in theory my building is more flexible.
Either way that's why I would name it "test"
Unfortunatelly I doubt I will be able to do that this weekend. My wife has kindly reminded me some unavoidable parts of my family dues...
But if not I will be trying some other day, even not being exactly at solstice.
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Let me ask a general question now we speak about...
You usually do this as a riding group, or system uses to be we meet at the starting point at sunrise, and then each one travels his/her own pace, not eventually meeting again up to the sunset point?
You usually do this as a riding group, or system uses to be we meet at the starting point at sunrise, and then each one travels his/her own pace, not eventually meeting again up to the sunset point?
My calculation, Estacio to Sao Vincente was made using
https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/@2514868
https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/@2263648
Which shows sunrise as 08:15 and sunset as 17:22, I assume that to be local time, either way that's 09 hours, 07 minutes to complete the 554 mile ride. Granddaughter caught me checking this and explained she subtracted 30 minutes to allow for fuel stops, comfort breaks and nibbles and rounded the time allocation to 8½ hours to make the maths easier, she's only 7, she then stamped her little foot and said it is, it is, it's over 65 mph average she then put a finger to her lips and said "shhh, don't tell Nanny"
Good luck in your ride and let us know how it played out.
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I suspect John's granddaughter has failed to appreciate the 1-hour time difference between Spain and Portugal. Spain is on CET, while Portugal keeps WET - essentially, the same as us. So sunrise in Murcia today is 08:15 CET, sunset at Cabo de Sao Vicente is at 17:22 WET - which, as Jesus said, is just over 10 hours. So 550 miles, most of it on motorways, should be straightforward.
Regards,
Martin
Regards,
Martin
The problem there is spain and portugal use different time zones.
Portugal uses GMT, like you, and Spain mainland is GMT+1, central europe.
So one of the times has to be converted to calculate difference. And then you discover you have one more available hour, more than 10. Part of the advantages of living in the far south
Also travelling east-west so long distance add some extra time to equations. Earth arc distance of your SROTY is under 300 miles, while my route is more than 450 miles arc. That makes a couple extra 2 degrees of longitude sun distance, and thus 8-10 extra aditional minutes time gain.
Regarding Speed, spanish speedways are pretty safe at 70-75 mph average. If you keep driving under 65 mph you will be the slowest guy in the road, not really safe
Hope you do not put your granddoughter to calculate routes in west europe where highway speed limit use to be 130 km/h - 80 mph
(Though I have to confess I keep under 75 even there... too much noise for me over that )
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That'll be me, I gave her the numbers to play with. She's going to put me in time out on the naughty step, I know she is :-(
I see now, my bad.
She volunteers, it usually pans out as "what you doing there Papa"... "I can do that for you"
Then try to hide your activities if routes are to be made in France, Germany, Austria... I guess the euro highway speed limits can put you into deep troubles with her.
@saphena I will finally not be doing that ride tomorrow. Some family stuff for the xmas meeting, and some motorcycle maintenance hard to move to the future.
But if you think it could be interesting as a try out for those future "european" options I can organize to do it in the next weeks (having so time to fit agenda) as sort of test. Sunrise and Sunset times will not move much and I can even setup the plan to fit the solstice times rather than that day ones.
And take the chance to meet @howie and do the test together
But if you think it could be interesting as a try out for those future "european" options I can organize to do it in the next weeks (having so time to fit agenda) as sort of test. Sunrise and Sunset times will not move much and I can even setup the plan to fit the solstice times rather than that day ones.
And take the chance to meet @howie and do the test together
Exgreen064
Well-Known Member
Good luck with the ride tomorrow, gutted I can not be there, first missed one for years.
I like the idea of a continental SROTY.
I like the idea of a continental SROTY.