England : West Midlands Overnight ride From Birmingham to Rollright Stones

[kimble]

After last year's small but perfectly formed ride, we're doing it again by popular demand.

It's a reasonably pleasant ride out of Birmingham, following the Rea Valley cycle route as far as King[']s Norton, before climbing Primrose Hill and taking to the lanes. There's a 24 hour Tesco at Stratford-Upon-Avon about 48km into the ride we can use as a halfway stop. The plan is to reach the stones for shortly after sunrise, then head to Banbury (a little over 20km away, mostly downhill) for breakfast and an abundance of trains back to Birmingham, That London, or elsewhere.

Meet on Friday the 22nd of March in the main concourse of Birmingham New Street station - by the coffee place and the departures boards - at 23:40.

If you want to meet us at Stratford, I expect we'll be at Tesco between 03:00 and 04:00.

This is an inclusive ride - we go at the pace of the slowest rider, nobody's left behind. If we don't make it to the Stones for sunrise (6:02am), then so be it. People who haven't done much night-riding before are especially welcome.

More details (including up-to-date route and list of who's coming) over in the Other Place...

 

[Davywalnuts]

Excellent, thank you. Its in the diary.. but so is my Mums birthday on the 23rd.. Hmmmmm...... Am sure I can make it work... Ta!

 

[kimble]

Any more takers?

We're up to 19 'yes's and 29 'maybes', with a reasonable amount of interest from the locals, which is promising...

 

[Wobblers]

A Friday night ride where I can actually cycle to the start?

You can put me down as a probable - subject to the prices of the trains from Banbury not being totally outrageous.

 

[kimble]

12 quid for an open ticket back to Birmingham on the Chiltern Line. Or you can half that with an advance fare on CrossCountry.

I believe there are pretty reasonable Chiltern Line fares to That London, too.

 

[kimble]

Still gaining momentum over on the canonical thread. Too early to tell weather-wise, of course.
In a fit of over-organisation I've put an Audax-style routesheet up for those of an analogue inclination.

 

[Davywalnuts]

I have mapped the route. I have checked out the cheap tickets. I have ascertained when I am required to turn up for my mums birthday meal on the Saturday afternoon. I just need a few more days and then I will know my attendance or not.

Routes a bit lumpy mind you, however...

 

[kimble]

Routes a bit lumpy mind you, however...

Occupational hazard, really. I've tried to keep it as flat as possible, while keeping to nice lanes (and some of them really are rather nice).
Unfortunately, the Rollright Stones are, by design, at the top of a Bastard Hill. And it's hard to escape Birmingham to the south without a climb or lengthy detour on the sort of roads that make Birmingham what it is. The route's flatter than the sort of riding I usually do in the South Birmingham/Solihull/North Worcestershire area. On the plus side, the final run in to Banbury is nominally downhill (much like that to Brighton from the Beacon).

 

[Davywalnuts]

Ahh, I've drawn the route on ridewithgps and its not as scary as first thought. Just two climbs that may be a bit scary on the single speeder, but thats it...

Its here if anyone wants it ;- http://ridewithgps.com/routes/2204220

 

[kimble]

There we go. Slightly less than the ISO standard 1000m of climbing per 100km, so not actually a hilly ride at all.

 

[jamin100]

hmmm, this sounds interesting...
Am tempted but will be at work all day on the Friday from 730am onwards. Not sure if I could make over 24 hours without sleep
not to mention the probably 70 mile bike ride :s

 

[dellzeqq]

I'm sorry to miss this one, but I'll be recceing YtH

 

[kimble]

I'm sorry to miss this one, but I'll be recceing YtH

Understood. If it goes anywhere near as well as the last one did, I expect there will be enthusiasm for a repeat performance (perhaps an Oxford variation, with a view to continuing to London) later in the year when it's a bit warmer and people have some more miles in their legs.

 

[Kookas]

Occupational hazard, really. I've tried to keep it as flat as possible, while keeping to nice lanes (and some of them really are rather nice).
Unfortunately, the Rollright Stones are, by design, at the top of a b****** Hill. And it's hard to escape Birmingham to the south without a climb or lengthy detour on the sort of roads that make Birmingham what it is. The route's flatter than the sort of riding I usually do in the South Birmingham/Solihull/North Worcestershire area. On the plus side, the final run in to Banbury is nominally downhill (much like that to Brighton from the Beacon).

It's hard to get out of Birmingham in any direction without dealing with hills. I was absolutely amazed by the ease of cycling when I took my bike to flat London.

Anyway, I'll join you on this ride. My only concern is that the Lezyne Macro Drive is only rated for 4.5 hours at full power, but I do have a Micro Drive too so it shouldn't be a problem as long as it starts getting lighter towards the end of the ride.

 

[mcshroom]

You shouldn't need full power from the light as riding in a group means that you share other people's as well, so I'd imagine it would last all night on a lower setting.

Not worrying about battery life is a major benefit of dynamo lighting I've found though