FNRttC Friday Night Ride to the Coast Brighton 23rd November
- Thread starter dellzeqq
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
slowmotion
Quite dreadful
- Location
- lost somewhere
Wishing you all a great ride. The sky looks nice and clear right now in London, stars even, so it should be good. Commiserations to TMN. Bones in the foot hurt. GWS.
GrumpyGregry
Here for rides.
Here in sunny Horsham the mercury is falling. Good luck lovely people and gws TMN.
Andrij
Über Member
- Location
- Thulcandra
Sorry I missed the start. 
It being payday, some colleagues and I decided to support Britain's vintners and brewers (and a few American distillers) - didn't get back to my bicycle until midnight.
Bon voyage!
It being payday, some colleagues and I decided to support Britain's vintners and brewers (and a few American distillers) - didn't get back to my bicycle until midnight.
Bon voyage!
rb58
Enigma
- Location
- Bexley, Kent
Riders, 36. Miles, 57. Punctures, 11. International airports, 1. Loose cleat bolts, 2. Cold fingers, 10. Beacons, 1. Bacon rolls, 1. Shining stars, millions. Heroes, 36. Gritty Agent Hildas, 1. SMRbtH, 0.
Great ride everyone - a fitting finale to FNRttC 2012. Thanks to The Big DZ for being inspired to organise these mad adventures.
Great ride everyone - a fitting finale to FNRttC 2012. Thanks to The Big DZ for being inspired to organise these mad adventures.
U
User10571
Guest
Kudos to all.
srw
It's a bit more complicated than that...
OMG. Not good. Not good at all.
SMRbtH X 2
Myself and Rimas.
The rain wasn't that bad, not heavy, just a persistent drizzle. It wasn't cold. If it was then the train would have been an option.
So it was a quick non stop 55 mile ride home. And a 131 miles for the ride.
bleedin' knackered - off to have a couple of hours kip.
Myself and Rimas.
The rain wasn't that bad, not heavy, just a persistent drizzle. It wasn't cold. If it was then the train would have been an option.
So it was a quick non stop 55 mile ride home. And a 131 miles for the ride.
bleedin' knackered - off to have a couple of hours kip.
Steve Jones
Active Member
I dug eight stone slivers out of my tyres on the train back. Most very sharp. Fortunately the Armadillos have thick rubber and a tough carcass so the hadn't worked through, but if you want to know why there were so many punctures, then I much of it was almost certainly fresh, sharp stones washed off the saturated fields cutting through tyres, especially the lighter weight ones (that and a couple of glass punctures). After a few days, the traffic will probably round these little knife blades off.
Of course several people blamed me for daring to mention punctures at Clapham Common. Even now they are probably sticking pins into wax effigies.
Probably a good idea for everybody to examine their tyres carefully as you'll probably find most have some stone slivers embedded just waiting to leave you feeling a bit deflated at an inconvenient point.
A vry nice ride though, and mostly things mechanical and bodily are operating tolerably despite the damp conditions on the return.
Of course several people blamed me for daring to mention punctures at Clapham Common. Even now they are probably sticking pins into wax effigies.
Probably a good idea for everybody to examine their tyres carefully as you'll probably find most have some stone slivers embedded just waiting to leave you feeling a bit deflated at an inconvenient point.
A vry nice ride though, and mostly things mechanical and bodily are operating tolerably despite the damp conditions on the return.
Well...I think we got away with that one. Yes there were eleven punctures, but all the puncturees were capable of a turn of speed, and all I had to do was to keep the 'tail' of the ride moving while Ian, Ross, Rimas, Rob, Adrian and Tim fixed tyres and sprinted back to join the rest of us. Eight of the eleven happened before the halfway break, and I'd say that the first riders were in Gatwick no more than twentyfive minutes after their predicted time - and a slice of that was caused by my puncture and my failing to get the ride organised while fixing it. As for the three after the break - no time was lost at all.
I decided to change the route at Gatwick and take the Cuckfield Variation, which only cuts three miles off the distance but lops half an hour off the time. This worked, and we got in to Ditchling just after six and just as the rain started. It drizzled as we wound our way up the Beacon, over Hollingbury and in to Brighton, but forty minutes in the rain is a lot better than one hour and ten minutes, and people arrived at the Madeira not greatly discomfited.
Highlight - the fog on Lonesome Lane. Piling down there at 20mph barely able to see. Lowlight - having to turn away three young people who had read a post on the UCL Cycle Club website suggesting that they didn't need CTC insurance to do the ride. Thom did the explaining and they took it very well.
I decided to change the route at Gatwick and take the Cuckfield Variation, which only cuts three miles off the distance but lops half an hour off the time. This worked, and we got in to Ditchling just after six and just as the rain started. It drizzled as we wound our way up the Beacon, over Hollingbury and in to Brighton, but forty minutes in the rain is a lot better than one hour and ten minutes, and people arrived at the Madeira not greatly discomfited.
Highlight - the fog on Lonesome Lane. Piling down there at 20mph barely able to see. Lowlight - having to turn away three young people who had read a post on the UCL Cycle Club website suggesting that they didn't need CTC insurance to do the ride. Thom did the explaining and they took it very well.
