FNRttC to Brighton March 9th

[martint235]

Well that was fun!!! One of the best FNRttCs I've been on.

I'm not so sure I'll be doing the Saturday drinking bit again though. I "missed"* the 11.24 train and so stayed happily in the Madeira until it was time to go home with everyone else. I may have had a little too much lager to make riding a bike a particularly feasible idea but I got to the station. A couple more beers with McWobble at Victoria resulted in me falling over Lelly in front of a train full of people. I managed to get off at Welling and a nice gentleman kindly pointed out that I was walking away from the exit. Oh well. Home and straight to bed in the doghouse where I still appear to be today.

Needless to say I'm not planning on doing the Grimpeur anymore. After all Lelly needs the gears sorting.

*It was a semi-conscious decision

 

[mistral]

To echo many others; thank you DZ and the Scouts and to one and all for making this such fun.
The ride seemed to gather speed as we left the suburbs and a good pace was kept up all the way.

On the section between Turners Hill and Lindfield the front of the ride took off at speed, what a great bit of road that is. Had me chasing red tail lights about 30m back. When I got to Lindfield I sat down on the pavement, propped against a gatepost and promptly fell akip.

Greg and his team always do us proud, the hospitality is second to none. The FNRttBeers is always a great way to recover. Martin; it’s no different to the ride really, to get you through unscathed you have to pace yourself, know when to go easy and decide in plenty of time when to slow down and stop. But you have to remember there are no Waymarkers or TEC’s to sort you when you get into trouble

 

[GM]

As many have said before it was definitely one of best night rides. Thanks to Simon and crew and the Scout hut team, much appreciated.
Got home about 12.30 showered and straight to bed, didn't come round until 9pm. Look forward to the next one. Great photos Miranda glad your camera is
still intact.

 

[dellzeqq]

one of the night's magic moments - rounding the sharp turn south of Ardingly at close on 40mph, with Adrian on my right hand side. We see two deer. One that has just crossed the road, and another just about to cross the road. I yell 'deer' in a highly masculine and not-at-all squeaky kind of way. Second deer decides against crossing the road. Adrian says 'well, that's shaken them up a little'.

 

[iLB]

These reviews are great, I miss this.

 

[dellzeqq]

These reviews are great, I miss this.

well, our little bikelicious BMXtastic friend, you know what to do.........

 

[Tigerbiten]

I really enjoyed the ride.
Thank to all who organized it and helped out.

I had one idiot car driver that tried to overtake me with traffic coming coming the over way.
Did not make so started to pull in towards me.
At that point I thumped the bottom of the passanger door a few times just to remind him I was there .......

I got a nice clear run down Reigate hill after I passed Simon at the top.
I wanted to try and spin the trike out after re-gearing it, hence not wanting to be in the group.
I only hit 42 mph with one gear left, but then had to slow down as I was catching a car up fast .......

I really like the run down from Turners Hill to Lindfeild.
Most of the time I was in the top range of the HSD which for me is +20 mph.

I climbed Ditchling mostly in bottom gear, which for me is only ~2.5 mph flat out.
So I mad up for that on the run down to Brighton.
You don't need two riders to set the speed camara off, I did it solo at 37 mph ......

 

[Tigerbiten]

37 mph, what's that in real money?

Try very close to 60 km/h .......

 

[DaveJ]

64 km/h. It was a busy camera on Saturday morning.

 

[isobel siddons]

That was my first FNRttC - and it was a great experience.

THANK YOU to Tim and Adrian for fixing my rogue cleat. I was supremely impressed that Tim had a spare cleat bolt in his box of tricks ...

Isobel

 

[arallsopp]

Great pics Mice, truly great.

...and for me, a very enjoyable return to the FNRttCs. Its been far too long for my liking, or mental health.

Also a return of the flickbook video, I think. My previous timelapse unit rather died a death after some 15,000 miles taped to the front of the bike, so I'm experimenting with the VIO POV. Looks like its more than up to the job, but its taking my poor PC a long time to recompress 8 hours of HD footage

I'll post a link if youtube still exists when its done

Great to see you all, and marvellous to include new friends in our number. I really don't know what I'd do without you all.

Andy.

edit: oh, and a single red bent at 38.6 mph is sufficient to set off the speed cam. Given our successes, what's the chances we can get hold of the footage?

 

[ceepeebee]

goddammit you guys - so jealous now. Managed a 30 miler today and given the way my lungs screamed every time the road went upwards (yes, even more than usual) I did the right thing by bailing. Going to have to wait til Southend in May now - going to be in France for Felpham and I'm not exactly super speedy (oh and it's wedding anniversary that weekend)....

 

[Rube]

Thank you so much for my first ever ride in a group of people - well, I am actually new to cycling. Disappointed that I had take the train to Brighton. You are amazing people. Ian especially, a gentleman and some others who supported me on my painful downhills! And also TJ and Joan who tightened my brakes at breakfast. I can't believe I even attempted it, don't know what I must have been thinking...oh yes I remember now, my friend Joan (JMc)thought I would enjoy it - but seriously, glad she persuaded me, it's given me more courage on a bike...thank you so much

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Some bands should have died in air-crashes rather than splitting up and having embarrassing solo careers, others should have just made sure that the air-crash was total.

Jiles. With a J. Whodathunk it?

 

[Rube]

So will we see you again for Southend?

Well...as you're such nice folk...maybe. But not because of my cycling ability. Oh, and I do recall someone advising me to get kitted out in flashy gear next time (it was a young man kitted out in flashy gear himself)!