MacBludgeon said:well, that's to be decided several times between now and the off. Possibles are:-
do night ride and train home - unlikely
do night ride and return - highly likely
Direction, quality and makeup of the return is up for grabs. I can say that heading straight North will take you Chichester, Midhurst, Haslemere, Hindhead, Aldershot and, coincidentally, Farnborough. This is about 45 miles of your finest riding from Felpham and leaves 20ish miles to Staines and about 36 miles back to HPC. I need to decide if I want to brutalise myself again in the region of Haslemere, I probably will. however I hope that I get a bit more sleep in the week preceding this ride.
I've done it twice on 23m tyres. It's about 1km long. We have time in the budget for people to walk it.gbs said:If the chalk road is skinny road tyre manageable or alternatively is not excessively long (say 1 k or so) I would like to go.
see above - 1km, and you can walk it if you wantbeatleandrew said:Is the off-road section of this route very long? I'll be on a road bike which could be a bit upset with me if I direct it over ground that's not to its liking.
usually half a dozen or so. Aperitif can answer for the pace, but 15mph is what I'm told.beatleandrew said:How many people tend to ride back to London afterwards and what kind of pace do they make?
StuAff said:Might I suggest as (relatively speaking) a local, best route out of Felpham (in terms of avoiding too much traffic and a couple of rather hairy roundabouts, plus scenic beauty) would be: round to and then along Bognor seafront, through Aldwick (I keep going another way, but this one is simpler and probably shorter), then up the B1266, turning off onto Vinnetrow Road to head north towards Chi- going this way takes you up to a bridge over another exceedingly hairy roundabout and leads directly onto a nice easy cycle route into & through the city centre. Well, that's the way I'm going....
send me an e-mail on fnrttc@yahoo.co.uk....beatleandrew said:Count me in for this one then! I'll be heading back to Kingston-upon-Thames so a return via Surrey Hills suits me fine.
Thanks for your replies!
dellzeqq said:Listen. Get over it. You believed it at the time, and that's what mattered. You're not the first, and certainly not the last to be taken in by that kind of crap. Ask Notsototalnewbie. And there's otherwise sane people hanging on the meteorological prognostications of my cat.
And I never said slight. Did I? (If I did, then that was naughty. Apologies)
Wheeledweenie said:I did get over it actually, much to my surprise :@) Am seriously considering the August ride but don't want to hold the whole ride up, hence why I need to know it's tacklable. Hmmmm, so tempting......
GrumpyGreg said:The uberhill of Houghton is sensibly being bypassed in favour of a delightful (I've checked) off road excursion which can be walked, without shame, by those riding velos of the glass and eggshell or teeny-weeny tyred variety.
in my judgement your worries are misplaced. I'd lose some weight off the bike if you can, and go for a longish flat ride in the interim, because I think that the greatest strain on this ride for those not used to the distance will be on the back, shoulders and (ahem) seat, and it doesn't hurt do a bit of breaking in. I recall you had straight bars - consider fitting bar ends which will come in handy on the flat - there are stretches that go for miles at a time without any real ups and downs. And, to be absolutely clear, you will certainly not be the slowest.Wheeledweenie said:I did get over it actually, much to my surprise :@) Am seriously considering the August ride but don't want to hold the whole ride up, hence why I need to know it's tacklable. Hmmmm, so tempting......