FNRttC Friday Night Ride to the Coast - Brighton April 26th
- Thread starter dellzeqq
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
Didn't you see the two police cars and one van in the entrance to the car park opposite Lidl? A certain amount of hullabaloo, yoofs and police getting together? Then just by Waitrose, another van and a car?
I was in Horley at lunchtime, talking to my dad. Apparently last night there was a public meeting with the the Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner as guest speaker.It seems he's very hot on zero tolerance of anti social behaviour. Perhaps the police presence was off the back of the meeting.
As above...I remember seeing a couple of fuzz cars...
Beebo
Firm and Fruity
- Location
- Hexleybeef
My first fnrttc was never going to be the full journey as i had to get home early enough to be in a fit state to look after the kids at 9am. I planned to turn back when we hit the M25, but the early pace was much slower than i had imagined. I said good bye to the tail end charlies as the main group left for blackhorse lane, i then had a 23 mile lone ride back home.
Some tips for the first time rider, the speed is slow to be inclusive for all. The group doesnt stick in a tight peleton, i would guess a times there could be 1km between front and rear, This means alot of regular stops to allow people to catch up. Yesterday was a cold night, i am used to riding in the cold, but only for the duration of a commute, being in low temps for a number of hours, including lengthy stops, means you need to be wrapped up more than usual, i hadnt factored that in, and was feeling very cold, especially once i was on my lonely ride home with no one to hide behind. I will make sure i over dress next time.
I must say thanks to martin, who i met just after elephant and castle, he offered to show me the route in to hyde park corner.
Some tips for the first time rider, the speed is slow to be inclusive for all. The group doesnt stick in a tight peleton, i would guess a times there could be 1km between front and rear, This means alot of regular stops to allow people to catch up. Yesterday was a cold night, i am used to riding in the cold, but only for the duration of a commute, being in low temps for a number of hours, including lengthy stops, means you need to be wrapped up more than usual, i hadnt factored that in, and was feeling very cold, especially once i was on my lonely ride home with no one to hide behind. I will make sure i over dress next time.
I must say thanks to martin, who i met just after elephant and castle, he offered to show me the route in to hyde park corner.
kimble
Veteran
Keeping warm while waymarking or stopped waiting for the back to regroup is one of the hardest things about the FNRttC, I find. You never know whether you're going to be there for one minute or ten, and the only thing that is certain is that if you decide to add a layer of clothing, inspect a hedge or attend to a non-urgent bike niggle, the call of "all up" will come within seconds.
The strategy I recommend if you find it a problem is to ride towards the back of the group, dressed for a lower speed and keeping moving for longer. TECing isn't a bad idea, as it's easier to judge when to add clothing if you're dealing with the mechanical (even if your skills are limited to moral support and torch-holding) that's holding the group up. OTOH, I find that trundling along with a struggling rider can exacerbate my knee issues, especially on the hillier routes like last night's. It's all about finding a balance, and only experience will tell you what that is.
Random moments from last night:
A hundred well lit cyclists in tight formation leaving Hyde Park Corner.
That comedy drunk in Balham saluting us with an air guitar performance, and advising that we watch out for lorries. You really can't make these things up...
A new record of three dead badgers.
Finally getting a clear-ish run of Reigate Hill. I think it's pretty conclusive that the speed camera isn't switched on.
The call of "Can someone please flush the loo!" to temporarily silence the scout hut's excessively noisy plumbing while fettling TC's bike.
That point where the sun was low above the horizon to our left, with the moon in an equivalent position to our right.
Sneaking off to a likely looking field and being told by the previous user that "it's basically the world's most beautiful toilet".
The view from the Beacon - that never gets old, though sometimes there's more of a view than others.
Topping up my sunburn from earlier in the week on Brighton sea front, surrounded by an air of accomplishment and bacon sandwiches, with the promised rain notable by its absence.
Cramming a frankly silly number of bikes into the Weatherspoons, with official endorsement.
Having a taxi pull alongside on the way back across Hyde Park Corner this morning, and getting "Wow, that thing really shifts!" (it doesn't - at least not under those circumstances) rather than the usual abuse.
Excellent bikes-on-trains karma throughout.
The strategy I recommend if you find it a problem is to ride towards the back of the group, dressed for a lower speed and keeping moving for longer. TECing isn't a bad idea, as it's easier to judge when to add clothing if you're dealing with the mechanical (even if your skills are limited to moral support and torch-holding) that's holding the group up. OTOH, I find that trundling along with a struggling rider can exacerbate my knee issues, especially on the hillier routes like last night's. It's all about finding a balance, and only experience will tell you what that is.
Random moments from last night:
A hundred well lit cyclists in tight formation leaving Hyde Park Corner.
That comedy drunk in Balham saluting us with an air guitar performance, and advising that we watch out for lorries. You really can't make these things up...
A new record of three dead badgers.
Finally getting a clear-ish run of Reigate Hill. I think it's pretty conclusive that the speed camera isn't switched on.
The call of "Can someone please flush the loo!" to temporarily silence the scout hut's excessively noisy plumbing while fettling TC's bike.
That point where the sun was low above the horizon to our left, with the moon in an equivalent position to our right.
Sneaking off to a likely looking field and being told by the previous user that "it's basically the world's most beautiful toilet".
The view from the Beacon - that never gets old, though sometimes there's more of a view than others.
Topping up my sunburn from earlier in the week on Brighton sea front, surrounded by an air of accomplishment and bacon sandwiches, with the promised rain notable by its absence.
Cramming a frankly silly number of bikes into the Weatherspoons, with official endorsement.
Having a taxi pull alongside on the way back across Hyde Park Corner this morning, and getting "Wow, that thing really shifts!" (it doesn't - at least not under those circumstances) rather than the usual abuse.
Excellent bikes-on-trains karma throughout.
Waymarking can be unusual from a "keeping warm" point-of-view. On the one hand, if you end up at the wrong location at the wrong time, you can wait half an hour for the end of the ride to come through. I had that once a couple of years ago, and it was towards the end of the ride, when the leaders had started to pull away from the rest of the ride, and the tail end was possibly really starting to suffer, so significantly slower. It was daylight however, so warming up, which is better than somewhere dark, cold and wet at 3am, which I've also done!
If you're not waiting too long, then sprinting back to the front is a great way to keep warm, although you do have to be prepared to exert some energy. It can be quite fun though, as a challenge to get back to the front before the ride stops, so long as you don't then mind that you may then rapidly find yourself waymarking again! I once end up waymarking twice within the last few miles of the Southend ride, and still managed to be the second person in the door of the Rose!
Basically, waymarking can keep you warm, if the ride is reasonably compact, and nothing untoward like a complicated mechanical or number of fairy visitations occurs. Unfortunately, such things are by their nature unpredictable, so a spare layer that you can throw on when necessary, is a very useful item.
If you're not waiting too long, then sprinting back to the front is a great way to keep warm, although you do have to be prepared to exert some energy. It can be quite fun though, as a challenge to get back to the front before the ride stops, so long as you don't then mind that you may then rapidly find yourself waymarking again! I once end up waymarking twice within the last few miles of the Southend ride, and still managed to be the second person in the door of the Rose!
Basically, waymarking can keep you warm, if the ride is reasonably compact, and nothing untoward like a complicated mechanical or number of fairy visitations occurs. Unfortunately, such things are by their nature unpredictable, so a spare layer that you can throw on when necessary, is a very useful item.
I was just behind the cyclist who got accosted. There was a bunch of the idiots, almost too drunk to walk. I don't know if anyone said anything to them but one of the imbeciles took it upon himself to chase the cyclists down the road. He was "running" like he was wearing an overloaded nappy and randomly trying to pull cyclists of their bikes.
He latched onto one cyclist and I started uncleating to help the cyclist when I heard a loud "YOU'RE NICKED!" come in from left field belonging to a copper who ran in to do the honours.
I stayed on for a short while while to watch the copper gift him some wrist jewellery before moving off. That's when I noticed how many cop cars were around. This place clearly has a reputation.
@ V for Vengedetta / @ - Glad you had a good time. We've survived colder rides 
. Burnham and/or Whitstable next? 
Great ride, including the inaugural Team Injured, Small, Broken and Wheezy section. Weatherspoons and the bikes. The other patrons with their low-key chatter/laughter/dress styles 
. The Guinness customer satisfaction person who was interested in my opinion of said drink .
I got home at 3.30 or thereabouts and recall falling asleep shortly before 5pm even though I'd told my brother I was going to stay awake til normal bedtime
. Woke at 1.18am and moved from the sofa to the bed to continue sleeping. Awake at 7am and still shattered but am going for a (very slow) run at 9am.
Brighton is definitely one of my favourite rides.
. Burnham and/or Whitstable next? Great ride, including the inaugural Team Injured, Small, Broken and Wheezy section
. Weatherspoons and the bikes. The other patrons with their low-key chatter/laughter/dress styles . The Guinness customer satisfaction person who was interested in my opinion of said drink .I got home at 3.30 or thereabouts and recall falling asleep shortly before 5pm even though I'd told my brother I was going to stay awake til normal bedtime
. Woke at 1.18am and moved from the sofa to the bed to continue sleeping. Awake at 7am and still shattered but am going for a (very slow) run at 9am.Brighton is definitely one of my favourite rides.
U
User10571
Guest
I knew something wasn’t quite right when my eyes opened from the early evening slumber I was enjoying.
The bedroom light was on. I don’t normally sleep with the light on.
Cogitate…. . Analise. …..
Then the realisation….
OH! B0LL0X!!! It’s 23:35 and I’ve overslept!!! (Again)
Swift, dynamic analysis told me I’d woken earlier, (as planned) switched off the alarm, and then made the fatal, fatal mistake of “I’ll give it another 30 seconds on the pillow”.
Gah! The night was about to turn into pants. Big Pants.
A call to the Leggy-line had Agent Hilda on the other end announcing to one and all “User10571’s still in bed”.
I wasn’t in bed, FFS!
I was up, donning the Lycra at blistering speed, and trying to figure out where the ride was, where I was, and where might be the best chances of our paths crossing.
‘Amen corner. I’ll see you at Amen corner’ I said to AH, figuring I could peg it down to Eastfields level crossing via Mum’s in Norbury and then go salmon-like, against the flow and meet the ride there.
So confident I was that I’d be able to make that RV with the ride there, that I managed (and don’t tell Dellzq this) to have a mug of tea between my uncivilised waking and leaving chez moi. Natch!
Figges Marsh - that’s where I met the oncoming stream of hi-intensity LEDs, and with a shout of “Hello cyclists” DZ swiftly assigned me to some peloton corralling duties, and from thereonin I was at one with the ride.
Doing this ride was a bit like meeting up with a friend you’ve not seen in a while. But where you know everything will be fine…
I don’t think I did a L2B overnight last year. But doing it last night was a sort of reassurance…
There weren’t going to be any nasty surprises. No unexpected §h!t surfaces. No unexpected inclines. It all happened as one would expect it to, and in the finest of company.
I was blessed with having a bike at my disposal that inspires rapid descents and being thrown into corners to an extent hitherto unknown to me. Hurrah! to the Scott! It rocks!
The scout hut did, as is usual, excel themselves with the spread they put on. Nom!
Moment of hilarity occurred on seeing the most intrepid of our tool wranglers about to embark on (indeed, they had already started) the dismantling of a Shimano STI in order to retrieve the busted end of a shifter cable. The sheer optimism of this was outstanding, to say the least.
Rider of said machine ultimately went down the HTFU route and completed the ride on a wrangled 2 speed.
The trick to keeping warm is to wear enough clothing and cycle in such a way as not to break into a sweat. Because the sweat will then get cold and it’s subsequently very difficult to recover any body warmth from that situation.
So quite what I was thinking when I went hooning off in Ardingly, chasing the likes of Tanya and Ed is beyond me. Suffice it to say during the hanging around in Lindfield and Wievlesfield the temperatures in my core and extremities plummeted and I was starting to get the shakes. A cereal bar from Pippa helped to rescue me from this.
As has been mentioned elsewhere, the sun and moon doing their almost syzygy-esque thing to either side of us will be a lasting memory from this ride. As will the route to Ditchling base camp through Streat – utterly lovely compared to the other way, which I’ve always felt is a bit of a wearing grind.
Ditchling itself is sooo much easier now that it has been resurfaced – yes I know it was last year – but it’s a first on the new surface for me.
I wasn’t looking forward to the long queues at the Madeira, given the numbers present on the ride. But the staggered departure from atop the Beacon meant that on both occasions I went to the counter I queued for a couple of minutes at most. The Madeira’s bacon and hash brown roll exactly hit the spot. Twice.
Somehow, I was persuaded after that, to park my bike inside a branch of Weatherspoons, and to partake of a very keenly priced bottle of Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc. The rest of the day remains a bit of a blur. Some real fear of falling asleep on the train and waking up in Bedford. Some sleeping in a chair in front of the Mac for a couple of hours. Some cooking and eating of chilli con carne. And then, about 12 hours sleep.
Thank you all for a very fine night. And morning.
The bedroom light was on. I don’t normally sleep with the light on.
Cogitate…. . Analise. …..
Then the realisation….
OH! B0LL0X!!! It’s 23:35 and I’ve overslept!!! (Again)
Swift, dynamic analysis told me I’d woken earlier, (as planned) switched off the alarm, and then made the fatal, fatal mistake of “I’ll give it another 30 seconds on the pillow”.
Gah! The night was about to turn into pants. Big Pants.
A call to the Leggy-line had Agent Hilda on the other end announcing to one and all “User10571’s still in bed”.
I wasn’t in bed, FFS!
I was up, donning the Lycra at blistering speed, and trying to figure out where the ride was, where I was, and where might be the best chances of our paths crossing.
‘Amen corner. I’ll see you at Amen corner’ I said to AH, figuring I could peg it down to Eastfields level crossing via Mum’s in Norbury and then go salmon-like, against the flow and meet the ride there.
So confident I was that I’d be able to make that RV with the ride there, that I managed (and don’t tell Dellzq this) to have a mug of tea between my uncivilised waking and leaving chez moi. Natch!
Figges Marsh - that’s where I met the oncoming stream of hi-intensity LEDs, and with a shout of “Hello cyclists” DZ swiftly assigned me to some peloton corralling duties, and from thereonin I was at one with the ride.
Doing this ride was a bit like meeting up with a friend you’ve not seen in a while. But where you know everything will be fine…
I don’t think I did a L2B overnight last year. But doing it last night was a sort of reassurance…
There weren’t going to be any nasty surprises. No unexpected §h!t surfaces. No unexpected inclines. It all happened as one would expect it to, and in the finest of company.
I was blessed with having a bike at my disposal that inspires rapid descents and being thrown into corners to an extent hitherto unknown to me. Hurrah! to the Scott! It rocks!
The scout hut did, as is usual, excel themselves with the spread they put on. Nom!
Moment of hilarity occurred on seeing the most intrepid of our tool wranglers about to embark on (indeed, they had already started) the dismantling of a Shimano STI in order to retrieve the busted end of a shifter cable. The sheer optimism of this was outstanding, to say the least.
Rider of said machine ultimately went down the HTFU route and completed the ride on a wrangled 2 speed.
The trick to keeping warm is to wear enough clothing and cycle in such a way as not to break into a sweat. Because the sweat will then get cold and it’s subsequently very difficult to recover any body warmth from that situation.
So quite what I was thinking when I went hooning off in Ardingly, chasing the likes of Tanya and Ed is beyond me. Suffice it to say during the hanging around in Lindfield and Wievlesfield the temperatures in my core and extremities plummeted and I was starting to get the shakes. A cereal bar from Pippa helped to rescue me from this.
As has been mentioned elsewhere, the sun and moon doing their almost syzygy-esque thing to either side of us will be a lasting memory from this ride. As will the route to Ditchling base camp through Streat – utterly lovely compared to the other way, which I’ve always felt is a bit of a wearing grind.
Ditchling itself is sooo much easier now that it has been resurfaced – yes I know it was last year – but it’s a first on the new surface for me.
I wasn’t looking forward to the long queues at the Madeira, given the numbers present on the ride. But the staggered departure from atop the Beacon meant that on both occasions I went to the counter I queued for a couple of minutes at most. The Madeira’s bacon and hash brown roll exactly hit the spot. Twice.
Somehow, I was persuaded after that, to park my bike inside a branch of Weatherspoons, and to partake of a very keenly priced bottle of Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc. The rest of the day remains a bit of a blur. Some real fear of falling asleep on the train and waking up in Bedford. Some sleeping in a chair in front of the Mac for a couple of hours. Some cooking and eating of chilli con carne. And then, about 12 hours sleep.
Thank you all for a very fine night. And morning.
mmmmartin
Random geezer
Totally agree, I always take at least one extra layer. Windproof is always useful. The FNRttC blogspot says: "Wear layers - it gets cold out of town. Carry a lightweight waterproof unless the forecast is bone dry. Bring gloves on all but the warmest summer nights."
I did all that thankfully but my extremities suffer, especially my feet. Next time I will carry some of those chemical glove warmers to put above my toes which will hopefully fix that problem.
I noticed that our glorious leader chose to bring the knees out, or one of them anyway, the other remained coyly hidden behind a knee support. Some of us like to flaunt our circulation superiority...
U
User10571
Guest
Phew!
For a moment yesterday I was worried that I had started to see double.
Such a relief to find that wasn't the case.
Wallet rather than memory may contain more accurate record.
You can come again
. Perhaps there'd been a bit of Wanda's or Mistral's elixir of eternal youthfulness knocking around in a hip-flask somewhere. User482 also looks suspiciously youthful, and he definitely had a hip-flask, so my case rests...I had a great time. That seems an odd thing to write, considering that my gears were fubared for most of the night. Entirely my own fault - I'd ridden to Rustington (yawn) from London on Tuesday and the somewhat fudgy shifting on that ride should have alerted me to the fact that things might be wearing out. I should have replaced the cable before this ride, but as I'd only been doing the odd five-mile trip around London in the meantime, I had forgotten about the unsatisfactory shifting... until Portnalls Road, which I clattered up inelegantly in between gears. I tweaked the cable at the top, with some supportive illumination and commentary from Ross, Simon C and Nigel. With hindsight, of course, the said tweaking was probably the immediate cause of the imminent snappage, which happened as I went for a big downward shift at the bottom of Reigate Hill in preparation for the stop. Dave J was the first of several people who helpfully proferred a spare cable, which we installed before realizing that there was still some of the old one stuck somewhere in the shifter. Ian decided that the sensible thing was to forget about it for a bit and limp onward to the halfway in the ugly but serviceable chainring/sprocket combo available, and worry about it all over a cup of tea and a sandwich. Adrian kindly announced that he wouldn't have to shoot me and leave me in a ditch after all, and off we went. I had to forego the usual pleasures offered by Lonesome Lane, but was cheered by the likelihood of getting at least halfway.
At the Scout's hall, the fettling began in earnest. It came as a small surprise that the only pair of tweezers on the ride belonged to "Ard" Ross. They didn't work, and neither did the jewellers' screwdriver produced by Kim. User10571 saved us from an explosion of pingf*ckets, and in the end we gave up for the moment on the shifter and a neat and satisfactory two-speed botch was effected. So many people offered to help out that I might as well just copy and paste DZ's ride list to say thank you, but I think it's fair to say that I mainly owe my continued participation in the ride to Adrian, Kim, Tim H, Dave, User10571 and Ian. It says quite a lot about the spirit of the ride that I got to turn down a ride on the front of a semi-recumbent tandem and was offered more free STI shifters than a single handlebar can hope to sport. Over the rest of the ride I grew quite fond of the two-speed set-up - the lower option being low enough to get me to the top of Turner's Hill and the higher one being just high enough to get a bit of wellie on the lovely descent to Lindfield in the company of Tim O. I wasn't quite so fond of it that I was relishing the thought of attempting Ditchling in a higher gear than DZ has ever managed, and I was a little disgruntled at the prospect of being defeated by it for the first time, when Adrian saved the day with his Plan B - a small, select detachment that would conduct a high-security mission via the Secret Ditchling Tunnel. I can't say any more about the mission here, but TMN, Agent H and Wanda cooked up a great cover story involving the tired, the broken and the small. Gordon P was the mission's secret weapon.
There's not a lot more that someone else will not say better, but a dry night with a tailwind, a beautiful moon and an equally gorgeous sunrise, a sun-soaked breakfast and band of beer-soaked friends is as good as it gets. I wasn't on scintillating cycling form, but I felt a whole lot stronger than I did on the Felpham ride, and have rediscovered The Joy of it All just in time to kill off the gloom of winter. And I've just had sausages and a free Dura Ace upgrade. What's not to like?
