FNRttC to Whitstable, 18th October

[frank9755]

Well that was pretty epic. First one for me this year so lots of new faces in addition to a few familiar and much-missed ones. The temperature would have been warm for July, but that was not the reason it gave me a warm glow! It was just such a pleasure to spend a big chunk of time with lovely people doing something we enjoy so much: sitting in a bar, chattering and drinking beer until we fall asleep going for a pleasant ride with fine company through the deserted lanes of Kent.

I was bringing Uta along for her first FNRttC so, rather than doing a few faster turns trying to keep up with the skaters followed by spells of waymarking, I trundled along at a steady pace in the middle of the group. It was an unusual but pleasant experience, particularly as every half an hour or so, someone I'd not seen for a while would pass me and slow down for a chat.

I also wore contact lenses for the first time on one of these. While the soft focus effect of being fairly blind is quite pleasant, it was amazing how much easier the lenses made it to recognise people...

Another first was that I'd never had a puncture before on an FNRttC but, just as I started chatting to Susie de Walnuts about the total lack of them on the ride, my bike, being ridden by Uta, contracted one. I was a bit miffed as I had completely de-flinted it earlier in the evening. Turned out to be a snake-bite, which was even more surprising. But thanks to a bit of expert help from Ian and Adam, it was soon fixed and we re-joined at Gravesend.

One question: why do so many people have flashing front lights now? On many occasions, I gave in to the urge to wave people past me as I was being strobed to distraction by my flashing silhouette. Please think about it, flashing people: flashers are for commuting in town so that cars will see you more easily. The two last places you would want them are when you need good visibility to see by on a dark country road, and on a group ride where no car could possibly miss seeing you - because there were 79 other bike lights, and there were no cars anyway! Please be kind to other cyclists and adjust to constant mode.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I normally go to flashing under street lights, to save battery, and constant when there are no lights, working up to full searchlight beam for the really dark lanes. And no doubt I sometimes forget and leave it flashing in dark lanes sometimes. The flashing silhouette problem never crossed my mind. I will mend my ways in future.

By the way, one friendly chap leaned out of his vehicle on the embankment and said enviously "If I had my bike I'd be joining you". The vehicle? A van ... a white one!

 

[ed!]

It's only my second FNRttC ride this year, and I wonder where the year has gone.

As always, I had a fantastic time, made even better by managing to dodge the rain - thanks to Simon and everyone else involved.
I'm hoping to come to a lot more of these next year :-)

Re: Flashing lights - apologies, I was guilty of this, mainly as a means of conserving battery too, and never really thought about it as being a distraction. Likewise, I'll remember this in future.

 

[slowmotion]

I'm afraid I was guilty of flashing. Sorry.

 

[dellzeqq]

I'm afraid I was guilty of flashing. Sorry.

sig line alert!

 

[CharlieB]

Four years of commuting through NW London has taught me one flashing, one steady. Apologies.
As for waymarking, if you get really bored waiting for the TECs, you can always play with the bendy bollards that are springing up (geddit?) everywhere.
A fab night out - too warm even.
Thanks to everyone. Is that the first time we've got to Faversham and it's still dark?

 

[Tim Hall]

Umm, as one who couldn't do this ride, where are the pictures? I've seen deptfordmarmoset's, but surely there must be others.

 

[Aperitif]

Flashing in slow motion is a sight to behold. I'm sure many would like to be as old.
Congratulations on your personal milestone, Ian - not just for the number 100 but for the dedication in counting them! May you still be writing on your 1000th. (18 years at one a week - approx)
Great photo essays everyone. I hope you all bought Fay a drink, and - I'm sorry I missed you, Frank. One day.

 

[Aperitif]

Great mindless think alike...

 

[Flying Dodo]

I very nearly didn't do this ride. On Thursday night at about 8 pm, my left elbow suddenly starting burning and becoming very painful, all within 30 minutes. It swelled up, and being so painful meant I didn't get a lot of sleep as we didn't have any painkillers in the house. Friday morning saw me nipping out to get some ibuprofen which seemed to help a bit, although according to the doctor I saw Friday afternoon, I've got bursitis, so hopefully the antibiotics I've now got will sort it out. As the elbow felt ok-ish, and I didn't want to be a party pooper, I headed off to London.

At the magic hour of midnight, after the peloton had departed, I stayed behind at HPC with the Speed Skaters, as their star champion Tanya was slightly delayed, and Andy wasn't 100% sure of the route. So we then had a fast dash up to Westminster, only to catch everyone up as soon as we turned onto the Embankment. I let the Speed Skaters race ahead, and proceeded to loiter at the back. It's always a delight when Susie gets asked to be the All Up Lady, as not only is she always laughing, but we end up having some quite esoteric discussions about a very wide range of topics. Suffice to say, that Susie can now recognise most people without looking at your faces.......

What a night! That's one of the many thoughts running through my head, as we powered our way through the mean streets of London. Although that also set me off along the lines of the Four Seasons Song. In fact, I'm not sure why, but just recently I've been making a few musical connections with the FNRttC. A few months ago I'd commented about Ride of the Valkyries for zooming down Reigate Hill, and for last month's Southend ride, I had the endless refrain of Love is all around in my head, although I think this was probably a combination of "Wet Wet Wet" and some of the song's lyrics, such as "I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes", which just seemed to summarise the complete wetness of that ride.

Anyway, I'm digressing again. We had a brief halt somewhere around Deptford (I think) as we spotted a rider standing by the side of the road, as after checking it seemed his colleague had decided he needed something urgently in a corner shop. Rule No 44 - make sure you've got enough food & drink to keep you going! Shortly afterwards, a young lad cycled up to me, with a can of beer in his hand and asked what we were doing. After explaining it all, and inviting him to join us, he declined as he had to get home, but I'd given him the web site to google. In fact at the back I don't think we saw any unpleasant behaviour from road users, just a lot of curiosity and expressions of amazement and encouragement.

Arriving at Greenhithe, we could see there must have been a large rain cloud passing a bit in front of us, as the road was soaked, so we were very lucky, as I'd been expecting most of the ride to end up being quite wet. Uta's unfortunate puncture was dealt with quickly by Frank and we swept on, catching everyone else up in Gravesend, by the "specialist" club. And then finally we got out into the proper countryside and relative darkness for a short period, until we heaved to, at the bright lights of Strood, and Tim's family and friends who'd put on a magnificent feast and they didn't seem tired at all - unlike some of the riders who I'd noticed were doing a lot of inspecting the insides of their eyelids.......And speaking of inspecting, DZ's impromptu bike inspection was a nice idea, although it brought forward a few howls of indignation from some, who denied having flat or even squidgy tyres. Heading off again, we sadly didn't go via the submarine, but zoomed through Rochester. On turning left to go up Dock Road in Chatham, a group of local lads seemed impressed at us going through the bus station, which they referred to as "going through the sausage"!!?? Clearly that's about as exciting as it gets there, now that the Navy's no longer there!

As the tail end arrived at the lights on the Medway Tunnel roundabout, I made an executive decision to tell everyone in front of us (who'd clearly been waiting for some time) to go through the lights, which I know some people didn't feel happy about. However, there weren't any cars around, and I think those lights are programmed by someone who only recognises 4 wheels, as they always seem to stay permanently on red for cyclists, and I noticed they still hadn't changed even after we'd gone round the roundabout and stopped on the exit road. And after that, the ride was able to stretch its collective legs a bit, going through Upchurch and Lower Halstow. After going past Morrisons in Sittingbourne, I sympathised with the tandem crew, as a driver was trying to be helpful and let them pull out up to the lights, not realising that they'd prefer to be able to do it it their own time with a clear run up, to get through on green.

Just before the short drop down Bysing Wood Road, someone stopped in the road and had the rider behind run into them, causing a little incident, but we were soon off again. Generally at this point, the mood of the ride changes, as people start to wake up a bit and realise that it's less than 10 miles to breakfast, and this ride was no exception, as the front end zoomed off. Around Graveney we came across Adrian L halted due to a soft tyre, which turned out to be a puncture on a Marathon Plus tyre - very unusual. Although I needed the steel levers to get the tyre off, it wasn't that hard to put back on, especially with Ian's encouragement. And then to Whitstable and the usual fast turnaround of food. I noticed Frank managed to offload the CC jersey on someone! Sadly I couldn't partake of any beverages afterwards, as I had to race off to Canterbury, to get a train to Ashford, and then to Polegate, to see the splendid people at Enigma where Rebecca was picking up her new Etape. Drool.

Anyway, well done to everyone involved in another fabulous event.

 

[Trickedem]

Around Graveney we came across Adrian L halted due to a soft tyre, which turned out to be a puncture on a Marathon Plus tyre - very unusual. Although I needed the steel levers to get the tyre off, it wasn't that hard to put back on, especially with Ian's encouragement.

Flying Dodo..... All man....Marathon + fitting without tyre levers

 

[Tim Hall]

I very nearly didn't do this ride.

<snippity>

On turning left to go up Dock Road in Chatham, a group of local lads seemed impressed at us going through the bus station, which they referred to as "going through the sausage"!!??

On a previous FNRTTC through the Splendid! New! Modern! Futuristic! bus station at Chatham, kimble (for it was she) remarked "it's all very nice, but it's still a f*cking bus station in Chatham"

<more snippity>

Anyway, well done to everyone involved in another fabulous event.

Nice report there FD. Thanks.

 

[Flying Dodo]

We lounged around a bit and chatted, then Kim & I took the Crab & Winkle to Canterbury.

The train was delayed, which meant we had to sprint from St Pancras to Euston.

Why not cycle to Faversham and get the alternate HS1 from there to St Pancras - or simply get the train at Whitstable and change at Faversham? Overall it would be quicker in time, and cost-wise it would be cheaper than the train from Canterbury.

 

[Trickedem]

What a great ride. I always feel a bit guilty leaving home to head off on a ride, knowing that my wife is just about to go to work preparing the food and rallying the volunteers. However she and the other volunteers really enjoy doing this, helping the mad cyclists and more importantly raising some money for charity. I am pleased to announce that over £250 was raised for Step and Learn the charity that is based in the hall.

I took a few photos of the ride which you can view here

 

[Aperitif]

What a great ride. I always feel a bit guilty leaving home to head off on a ride, knowing that my wife is just about to go to work preparing the food and rallying the volunteers. However she and the other volunteers really enjoy doing this, helping the mad cyclists and more importantly raising some money for charity. I am pleased to announce that over £250 was raised for Step and Learn the charity that is based in the hall.

I took a few photos of the ride which you can view here

Nice to see the (by now, surely) iconographic ice cream cone atop...The Wataffontery Café. £250? Piece of cake, Tim. Congratulations to the spirit of your team - probably goes way beyond the odd night ride.