FNRttC FNRttC Maldon May 24th

[rb58]

Special thanks to John/Orange at the front, Ross, Tim & Greg at the rear and all the waymakers. The Fridays rides work because of the 'team', and because of the Fridays members.

Huge thanks to you @Nick Saddlesore - that was a cracking night out on a bike. A classic in the best FNRTTC traditions.

 

[Outlaw Hobbs]

Perhaps I can add my thanks to Nick and the team who make the whole event possible and smooth running. After getting myself separated from the group by carelessly missing a turn I was lucky to retrace the route and find the sweeping up team patiently waiting and generously uncritical.
After breakfast two of us in the early stages of learning to use the nav functions of Garmin (Jeff) and Wahoo (myself) enjoyed following the route to Witham emailed by Ross in the week. Eventually getting it right despite heading off in the wrong direction to start naturally.

 

[kimble]

Huge thanks to you @Nick Saddlesore - that was a cracking night out on a bike. A classic in the best FNRTTC traditions.

Absolutely. I was particularly taken by the high proportion of newbies, and bikes with sensible handlebars and normal pedals generally.

Also notable that the fairy stayed away (presumably because @Nick Saddlesore had the token visitation himself before the start). At one point I swooped down a dark lane to meet two white lights on my side of the road, with the respective riders peering at the ground as if they'd lost something. Apparently they'd hit a broken bottle, as I discovered for myself with a worrying crunch about half a second later. Miraculously, no deflations! Glad I brought the tourer (admittedly out of general laziness) with its sturdy Marathons rather than The Red Baron...

We seemed to make excellent progress, presumably through a combination of lack of mechanicals and exceptionally good traffic light karma. I was interested to see the German-style cycle infrastructure of Enfield. Clearly a step up by British standards, but I'm not convinced by those bus stops...

The Essex bit featured a stunning assortment of surprisingly well-surfaced lanes. And, having bisected the DunRun route at a tangent, I've now bagged a few more Rodings for my collection. What's not to like?

ETA: Apart from Lpoo St. What have they done to the cunning level-access rear exit? Is's all hoardings that lead you into some sort of neocapitalist private-public thunderdome thing, with a lift that spits you out at the right elevation, but with no obvious sign of a public road amongst the forest of identikit posh office buildings. I rode my bike on a random tangent until I got to somewhere I recognised, and then had an argument with the befuddled Garmin over which way was best to go to get to Euston. It's like I've been away from London for too long, or something. (Except I also made the rookie mistake of exiting Mordor Central right in the middle of a pride march, and hadn't even remembered to bring my bi-cyclist badge.)

 

[Mr Orange]

Really enjoyed this ride! Many thanks to @Nick Saddlesore for leading and having some faith in allowing me to arrange way markers at the front. Thank you to everyone who kindly marked various junctions and of course to the tail end Charlies.

My thoughts should you be interested: https://www.myorangebrompton.com/2019/05/brompton-london-to-maldon-night-ride.html

 

[LucretiaMyReflection]

Great ride - thanks to everyone, especially Nick, Mr Orange and all the waymarkers / back markers really enjoyed my first ride. Hazard bingo was fun, and turning back to see all the bike lights strung out across the dark lanes.
Everyone was very welcoming. Riding alongside people, having a quick chat, in depth talk or companionable silence.
I was the rider with the orange steel bike (Bertie), port/starboard glowing armbands and later on, with the dinosaur strapped on my pannier
Bertie appears in photo on Mr Orange's blog with Mark and his Wolfson.
Headed off after breakfast on NCN16 to Bishop's Stortford, for a total of 162km and then the train home. Turned out to be mostly trail and gravel so slow but very peaceful.
I've posted a few pics on the fbook group. Looking forward to the next one.

 

[kimble]

Was there a story behind the dinosaur? I didn't get round to asking...

 

[Nick Saddlesore]

Was there a story

It's an old one.

 

[LucretiaMyReflection]

The dinosaur was spotted during a round of hazard bingo and decided it fancied a trip to Maldon.

"Pothole"
"Pothole"
"MASSIVE pothole"
"Glass"
"Dinosaur!"

 

[StuAff]

It's an old one.

Positively prehistoric, I think you'll find....

 

[mmmmartin]

This is great writing, really captures the spirit of FNRttC.
https://www.fnrttc.org.uk/maldon-may-2019