5000 mile bike ride to meet Britain's coastline creatives

On Sunday Nick Hand, the man who's soundslide films celebrating the crafts people behind some of the legendary names in the British Cycling industry have proved so popular over the last few months set out on a new challenge – to ride 5000 miles around the coastline of Britain (and a few of its islands) recording more soundslide films with artisists, artisans and crafts people who live on or near the coast.

His route starts in Bristol and is taking him clockwise around Britain and he is sticking as closely as possible to the coastline using quiet roads and tracks where possible. He has set himself the target of riding 50 miles a day and three days in he's ahead of schedule (averaging 60 miles a day) and heading for Tenby. Nick will be uploading his route to his site www.slowcoast.co.uk as he goes, (a potentially valuable resource for anyone thinking about following in his wheel tracks), although bear with him uploading data to a website in the pitch black of a tent is not necessarily a straight forward process. You can also follow his progress on Twitter and he'll be blogging regularly too.

The first soundslide film of the journey is already up, Merlin Crossingham director of the latest Wallace and Gromit adventure talking about Aardman Animations in Bristol and although he has plenty more planned, if you know of an artisan, artist or craftsman living on or near Britain's coastline that you think Nick should visit – you can let him know via the contact page on his site.

Given his films on legendary saddle makers Brooks and Bristol's Argos Racing Cycles it's not surprise that he is doing the ride on a new Argos frame, built especially for the purpose from Reynolds 725 with a a 525 fork and sitting on a Brooks B17 saddle – Royce supply 36H hubs and USE his seatpost. There's a full list of the components and accessories used to build up the bike and of all the kit he is taking with him on his site.

Nick is doing the ride to raise money for the Parkinson's Disease Society – his brother Bob has an early onset form of the condition if you would like to sponsor him you can do so via his page at justgiving.com. If all goes well Nick hopes to be back in Bristol in early October just in time for his annual family cycling holiday in Cornwall.