Our ride to Southend is a bit of a one off. It's short and very, very flat. It’s all I can do to delay our arrival at the Rose Restaurant to seven o’clock – prepare yourself for small roadside disquisitions on socialist architecture and Princess Margaret driving a mobile crane around Tilbury Docks in a tasseled bikini.
It's not so much a bike ride as a night out on wheels. Perfect for the beginner or the less confident. There are magic moments – we go through the Rotherhithe Tunnel (not so scary at twenty to one in the company of seventy other cyclists as it is on your own during the daytime) and there are some surprisingly fine views. Not to mention socialist architecture and the infamous mobile crane. If you have friends who say ‘ooh, I could never do that’ then this is the ride to convince them that they could indeed do that.
We’ll leave Hyde Park Corner at midnight, arrive at the unlovely (but lavishly toiletted) Junction 31 services at about 2.40, be on the road again at 3.30 and be strolling along the seafront by a quarter to seven. The Rose is a minor miracle in Italian tiling, terrazzo and handmade bentwood chairs and serves breakfasts at a remarkable rate. There are nine trains an hour back to London, but, if you’re the kind of person who thinks that anything less than a ton is not worthwhile, you could join the goodly number of the tougher items who ride back in half the time it takes us to make the outward trip.
Registration, as ever, by e-mail to fnrttc@yahoo.co.uk with your CTC number, mobile number and confirmation that you’ve read ‘the basics’. If you’re not a CTC member you can join and get a whole year’s third party insurance and discounts at bike shops for a measly sixteen quid via the front page of our blog at http://fnrttc.blogspot.co.uk/ , where you'll find all there is to know about the Friday Night Ride to the Coast.
It's not so much a bike ride as a night out on wheels. Perfect for the beginner or the less confident. There are magic moments – we go through the Rotherhithe Tunnel (not so scary at twenty to one in the company of seventy other cyclists as it is on your own during the daytime) and there are some surprisingly fine views. Not to mention socialist architecture and the infamous mobile crane. If you have friends who say ‘ooh, I could never do that’ then this is the ride to convince them that they could indeed do that.
We’ll leave Hyde Park Corner at midnight, arrive at the unlovely (but lavishly toiletted) Junction 31 services at about 2.40, be on the road again at 3.30 and be strolling along the seafront by a quarter to seven. The Rose is a minor miracle in Italian tiling, terrazzo and handmade bentwood chairs and serves breakfasts at a remarkable rate. There are nine trains an hour back to London, but, if you’re the kind of person who thinks that anything less than a ton is not worthwhile, you could join the goodly number of the tougher items who ride back in half the time it takes us to make the outward trip.
Registration, as ever, by e-mail to fnrttc@yahoo.co.uk with your CTC number, mobile number and confirmation that you’ve read ‘the basics’. If you’re not a CTC member you can join and get a whole year’s third party insurance and discounts at bike shops for a measly sixteen quid via the front page of our blog at http://fnrttc.blogspot.co.uk/ , where you'll find all there is to know about the Friday Night Ride to the Coast.
