CycleChat Ride - 2 May - Manningtree/Colchester/Tiptree (i.e. north-east Essex)

[Auntie Helen]

User10571 from YACF, who is not registered on CycleChat, said I could post this:

76 and a bit miles door to door doing this ride

A few seasoned yacf'ers and a significant bunch of others from another tribe enjoyed some excellent lane riding in a 50-ish mile figure-of-eight from Manningtree to Tiptree and back via Colchester.

A top route, chosen and led, for the most part, by Helen on her Trice.
A big thanks to her for that.

Excellent (mostly) traffic free lanes - even passing through Colchester (twice) was painless.
Superb company - without exception, it was a pleasure and privilege to spend a day riding with those from the other tribe.

Chapeau to those who elected to ride to, and from the Manningtree start - in some instances their 'to-and-from' mileages would've been more than three times as much as the ride itself

I suspect some of them are still en-route homewards as I write this.

I am one happy very bunny following today's ride.
Fed watered and cleansed, but now must go and saw some logs in preparation for tomorrow's ride

 

[MacB]

Helen, great ride(not as flat as intimated), nice spot for lunch and really good to meet faces old and new. Enjoyed your write up but the group photo, how much weight does your camera add???

Well, decided not to cycle all the way home so went from Ilford to Clapham Junction, ably guided by CoG and Redjedi...thanks guys. Still managed a new personal best of just over 115 miles. Got them straight into Cyclogs to let me glide to top spot for a brief period Did the whole day in the one gear and I did enjoy not having to think about gear changes. Didn't enjoy a couple of the short steep bits so much though.

Good luck to those doing the full return, I think you'd have to pay me to cycle any distance on the A12 again.

Thanks again Helen, well organised and good picks on brekkie and lunch, two items close to my heart

 

[arallsopp]

Still on the road. 200miles for me and Andy. More for aperitif. Dave on 'dunno'. Over the hundred though.
Burgers. Mmmmm. Shenfield.

 

[arallsopp]

(Home)

 

[Aperitif]

I have just arrived! Went past her majesty's villa on the way home...

Big thanks to ChrisKH who looked after Sig when the going got tough, and well done to both of them for helping us get out of the Grand Essex spatio-directional fiasco.

Thanks to Helen for an immaculate ride map which was no problem, unlike the rest of the supposed fail-safes.

Anyway, a quartet made it back to London. I more or less have been with, mostly on the bike for 23 hours.

Nearly 400kms - or 245 of your earth miles...maybe a bit more / or a bit less.

Would anyone like a cup of tea? I'm having one or two. Got to go to Stepney this morning and IKEA at lunchtime. Wow

So many interesting things and memories from todayyesterday and today. Hopefully the baddish ones will soon take their place in the forgotten drawer.

Night night! - oh tish - I can't get anything right!

 

[Aperitif]

Two other things: Thanks for the beer Gary!

And the A12. Crap and noisy on the way down. We had tech stuff but we kept getting thrown back into / around it.

I'm blaming stevevw for chatting too much as we sped along the lanes. Should have taken a right instead of a straight ahead to a dual c. (Much nicer than the A12!)

Funnily, we came into Manningtree via Tiptree - cut across the figure '8'...of course, the map was on my gps - with no battery life.

Once I get near Billericay - things are ok, but I did screw up really badly - sorry.

 

[mow]

Auntie Helen
Thanks for the organisation of the day, was good to meet some new people and get out in the fresh air again even if it was going HOME for me!

Where we going next...?

Mow

 

[gezza]

Nearly 400kms - or 245 of your earth miles...maybe a bit more / or a bit less.

that is obscene !!!! and downright disgusting !!

 

[Auntie Helen]

I am filled with astonishment at the mileage you chaps (and chapess - Sig) have done. Huge congratulations to you all!

When Gary appeared at our door yesterday evening to say you'd gone on the A120 I had a few premonitions of dodgy routes out of Essex... but glad to hear you are home safe and well.

For those bored next Saturday, there's a ride from Marks Tey (just west of Colchester) led by Wowbagger (the chap on the Tandem) for YACF. A few of us CCers will be going along. On Saturday trains run from Liverpool Street to Marks Tey too, what a bonus!

 

[arallsopp]

Ah... Marks Tey. I know it well. My turn to apologise now, to the guys, and especially to Sig for ensuring her ton comprised mostly circles. Lesson learnt. Apologies.
Will look at the GPS tracks file later today. Suspect it looks like an aborigine dot painting, re-interpreted by Pollock.

Up with the Tunk from 0700 this morning, so no time to check things over yet. Pretty sure legs are still attached. Guess ilovebikes and I topped out around 235 miles.
Thanks AH for a great day, and Chris for getting us out!

 

[Aperitif]

And what User10571 said applies. A mix of charming people all...splendid sight of the wowbagger tandem in full sail, nice bikes to view and the bar on Manningtree station is the place to go!

I'll post some pics later (including tan line treats! )

 

[tdr1nka]

You did the A12?!

I made the mistake of cycling back to London along the A12 from the 'V-97 Festival' in Highlands Park.
It was dark, tipping down with rain and constantly being passed by trucks at full tilt, I'm never doing that again.

 

[ChrisKH]

Well we (Sig and I) made it back to Benfleet at 12.30 a.m. 117.83 miles give or take a few, so congratulations to Sig (and me ) on our first ton. I have to say I was impressed how Sig kept going in what were sometimes difficult circumstances. I was really struggling to stay awake having dropped Sig off in the car in the early hours but felt much better when I got home and heated up a long forgotten Chinese takeaway. Two large mugs of hot milk later and I was in the land of nod.

Note to self: Get some better lights for night riding. I found it really difficult to see where I was going; almost nightblind most of the time and had to rely on Aperitif's light behind me. Thanks to Helen for arranging the ride and Chapeau to the four Mouseketeers who we left going towards Wickford. I couldn't have kept going onto London and would have given up at that stage and slept in a hedge. Oh, and thanks to Ilovebikes for lending Sig his 'bones' top. I suspect we wouldn't have made it home without it. Sig I'm sure will re-patriate after she has signed it.

 

[stevevw]

I can see a pattern emerging here.

Sorry about that I blame stevevw

I'm blaming stevevw for chatting too much as we sped along the lanes. Should have taken a right instead of a straight ahead to a dual c. (Much nicer than the A12!)

Well if the A120 was better than the A12 the A12 must be a very scary place to cycle.

Sorry for not saying my goodbyes to the A120 crew but when I saw the sign for Colchester said I had 9 miles to go when we had already done 5 miles I thought I had better get my head down as I should have been back soon after 5pm still in the scheme of things 2hrs 45min late is soon after 5

Thanks to Helen for yet another great CC ride with some fun people. Thanks to FFFF for showing me the uncharted parts of Essex. Thanks Aperitif for showing me the delights of the A120. And most of all THANKS to Gary for the beer at the Manningtree Bar Station.

 

[ianrauk]

wow. seems I missed a truly great ride... gutted.
But I was with you in spirit as I tried to drink Fulham dry yesterday..
Congrats to Helen who by all acounts devised a jolly good ride and got some jolly good people together
Congrats to those who reached that 100 mile milestone
Congrats to those who reached whatever personal bests
Congrats to the mouseketeers...... you nutters....