FNRttC Friday Night Ride to the Coast - Whitstable 17th June 2011

[Paulus]

Still raining heavily here at the moment. Reluctantly bailing out.

 

[theclaud]

Stopped raining at Paddington.

 

[Tim Hall]

and it's not raining in Islington

It is are not raining in Tokyo

 

[theclaud]

If you dodge the rain you can buy me a YELLOW beer. If you don't I'll buy you a BROWN beer

You're on. That way there's the promise of consolation.There are some pretty accomplished rain-dodgers riding tonight, as it happens...

 

[theclaud]

looking at the current rain radar, I reckon we are going to get lucky. Feel free to remind me of this prediction over breakfast.

I'm joining you in this wave of premature smugness. Feel free etc...

 

[frank9755]

Newhaven last year also rained a bit from Balham to somewhere.

Yes - very wet all the way to Gatwick.

And the last ride to Whitstable in 2010 was pretty damp, too.

Hope everyone arrived reasonably dry.

 

[ceepeebee]

Did contemplate coming to wave everyone off after getting a pass out to see half man half biscuit last night but thought it wouldn't go down too well with the GLW. Lovely morning here in Crystal Palace, hope it's the same at the waterside.

 

[TimO]

Yes - very wet all the way to Gatwick.

And the last ride to Whitstable in 2010 was pretty damp, too.

Over the rides I've done, it's been pretty good, only a handful of wet occasions, and most of them didn't stay wet for the entire ride. Even the worst couple of rides, from a precipitation viewpoint, only rained significantly for the first half.

The biggest issue with rain, is that it invariably increases the fairy visitation rates dramatically, which slows the ride down, when you want to be going faster, to keep a bit warmer.

Looking at the radar last night, it looked like a later band of drizzle could hit at some times in the middle of the ride. If that occurred, it probably didn't have much impact, since it was a lot less than the rain on Friday evening. I suspect they pretty much got away with the weather, which is good, and very lucky, considering what it was like earlier!

 

[TimO]

... and indeed a few Tweets from Kim and swarm_catcher suggest that it was dry, and they did miss any deluges.

 

[PaulRide]

That were grand. As Simon said, it was a staccato ride but there were some smooth well-paced passages between the 11 punctures. Weather was much kinder to us than I think anyone had expected.

 

[wanda2010]

"Weather was much kinder to us than I think anyone had expected."


So I loaded myself up with stuff I didn't use - well, I used two items. Really must travel light. It's getting ridiculous

Apart from that, I had a good ride, chatted with some old and new peeps - hi everyone and was given some good ideas re gear ratios and bikes frames for (very) small people.

The new, lighter me will be trialled at the August ride, without chains slipping, hopefully!

 

[TimO]

... between the 11 punctures. ...

Like i said earlier:

... The biggest issue with rain, is that it invariably increases the fairy visitation rates dramatically, which slows the ride down, when you want to be going faster, to keep a bit warmer. ...

Of course, it's not the rain per se, it's the wet roads, which I guess you still had. I'm glad to hear that the weather didn't deliver the conditions that everyone was worrying abnout.

 

[theclaud]

If you dodge the rain you can buy me a YELLOW beer. If you don't I'll buy you a BROWN beer.

I owe you a YELLOW beer.

 

[CharlieB]

I can't begin to describe how fun and these outings are. I'm not at my best for witty and eloquent prose, so I'll leave it at that and let others produce more descriptive accounts of a wonderful and largely rain-free ride.

It's been a while since the last Whitstable ride, so I'd forgotten what a pleasant and varied trip it actually is.

Firstly, let it be on record that I owe McWobble a large pint, after breaking his reflector in a clipless moment at the Surrey Quays stop.

Tried to ride back with Ian, Bruce, Ross and Rimas, as I wanted to get a hundred in today, but unfortunately the legs were shot this morning, and I had to bail at Faversham. Having had a kip on the HS1, things improved and I was able to ride back to Harrow from St. Pancakes on my normal commute route.
Reckon I got about 95 miles in, so I wasn't far off.

Thank y'all for the usual mix of good humoured company and organisation, as ever

P.S. the guy, whose name escapes me now, I was talking to at the Monument about the rude stickers - we never got to exchange addresses - please PM me and I will oblige as discussed!

 

[dellzeqq]

indeed. More later, but that was a great night out. We had 11 punctures, but the TEC team dealt with them so rapidly, and the weather so clement, that the waiting was almost a pleasure - congratulations Davy, Nigel, Paul, Ian, Bruce, Tim and Martin.