slowmotion
Quite dreadful
- Location
- lost somewhere
I'm praying that the food might slow down the frantic tempo of your raindance.
FNRttC Friday Night Ride to the Coast - Southend 4th July
- Thread starter dellzeqq
- Start date
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slowmotion
Quite dreadful
- Location
- lost somewhere
Fab Foodie was with us TC, but we shrugged him off.
swansonj
Guru
It started out not drizzling. Then it started drizzling. Then, some time after the half way stop,it started drizzling a bit more. DZ treated us to lecture on Norman churches, which involved no detours, a lecture in Princess Margaret, which involved a hundred yards detour, and a lecture on socialist architecture, which involved a mile detour - but I rather suspect there were other lectures he forewent because of the aforesaid drizzle. Because we didn't want to stand in the drizzle outside the restaurant waiting for it to open, we stood around in the drizzle at our last stop before it instead. Charlotte and Liz, but especially Liz, won universal admiration not to mention awe. There was a mudguard problem but we are NOT TELLING DZ. And whilst people obviously prefer dry rides given a choice,I think there was overall more enjoyment in evidence than any previous wettish ride I've experienced. Just straightforward good fun.
Your secret is safe with me.
martint235
Dog on a bike
- Location
- Welling
Well that was quite fun! I didn't get properly wet until about 5am. Played my new role again as communication link between back and front of the ride, basically involves sprinting the length of the ride whenever there's a puncture or mechanical. I think it's more probably more fun than waymarking in the rain though.
There were a lot of people missing from this ride so it was an opportunity to talk to other people. I finally got to meet the legend that is @vernon . Top work on Bread and Cheese hill. Apparently next time, I need to get one of your pies though!!!
I'm not sure how the Dartford Crossing having 4 periods of suspended service for cyclists is "improving the service to cyclists" but I will write to them today to ask.
96.8 miles on the clock in the end (and no I don't feel the need to ride around the block to make it 100. Have beer and TdF on telly
)
Thanks to all who as ever made an FNRttC memorable!!!
There were a lot of people missing from this ride so it was an opportunity to talk to other people. I finally got to meet the legend that is @vernon . Top work on Bread and Cheese hill. Apparently next time, I need to get one of your pies though!!!
I'm not sure how the Dartford Crossing having 4 periods of suspended service for cyclists is "improving the service to cyclists" but I will write to them today to ask.
96.8 miles on the clock in the end (and no I don't feel the need to ride around the block to make it 100. Have beer and TdF on telly
)Thanks to all who as ever made an FNRttC memorable!!!
Fab Foodie
hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
- Location
- Kirton, Devon.
Mwoarrrr har harrrrrrr [/Cue: Thunderclap/]
w00hoo_kent
One of the 64K
- Location
- Maidstone or Greenwich
Home, have watched some TdF but been sent to bed as snoozing now. Really enjoyed the ride, great company and the perfect introduction to well mannered group riding. Joined the Ian led run back west, managed to kiss tarmac thanks to some poor bike shuffling (suspect I may have a bent derailleur hanger), got a puncture, spent some time hunting the Tilbury Ferry with the Hastings guys and finally got home with 89.5 miles on the computer, easily beating my last best day of 55 or so.
Thanks to everyone who helped out and put up with me. The weather was a bit dreich but not really an issue. Definitely not my last.
Thanks to everyone who helped out and put up with me. The weather was a bit dreich but not really an issue. Definitely not my last.
redfalo
known as Olaf in real life
- Location
- Brexit Boomtown
This was the warmest Friday Night Ride I've ever done. Even the drizzle felt like riding in a warm shower. Katharina claims she enjoyed it too.
It was one of the warmest ever - 18.1 degrees on the A1306, which is hardly a warm spot. If it was 20 degrees at the start, I'd not be surprised.
The big problem with the Southend ride is slowing it down. We had a lively bunch at the front, most of them capable of doing the distance in one sitting in a little over three hours - making a seven hour (or, a it turned out, six hours and fortyfive minutes) ride out of it isn't easy. Right from the off I threw little spanners in the works, but the ride wasn't having it. No punctures, a succession of green lights and a distressingly efficient tail. We had some light relief in the form of a 'comfort stop' (note to self - every Southend ride to have a pregnant rider from now on). So we slipped smoothly down to the river and along the Embankment, barely turning the pedals, propelled by a southwesterly breeze that felt a little like a hairdryer. We rolled down in to the tunnel and then, rolled stylishly up out of it again - I was with Vernon whose cadence would have impressed the great Lance Armstrong. East London melted away - I barely noticed Plaistow - and, almost before we knew it, we reached the two long stretches that see out the first half.
Maplestead Road is, despite the speed bumps, a very comfortable road to ride. This, I think, is down to its simplicity - with playing fields behind railings on one side and the same house repeated hundreds of times on the other. The A1306 is a succession of marshlands, body shops, steel stockholders, sleeping artics, the tarmac edge of the road worn away by subsidence and diesel spills. You'd think it to be almost anywhere other than the southeast of England if it were not for the road-house advertising the talents of Jim Davidson.
We whiled away a full seventyfive minutes at the ghastly Moto Services, but, still and all, the task at hand was to cover the last 26 miles in three hours and twenty minutes. We came close. A small disquisition on ecclesiastical architecture at Chadwell (padded by a bit of audience participation), a potted history of Socialist Achitecture (with added West Highland White Terrier bits) at Batatown, a short stop to admire a swag of fruit and leaves rendered in lime (or, possibly, GRP) over a bungalow window, and a bit of a history lesson at Fobbing (do young people not know of The Headless Man?) contributed a half hour or so. Two punctures (no-one suspected that the first was a put-up job) and a hazy quarter of an hour looking toward Hadliegh Castle, the wonder that is Europort and the remnants of Coryton Refinery pushed us toward the three hour mark.
Then....a call from Chris at the Rose Restaurat, inviting me to bring 'em in. Which I did, taking in the Cinder Path, and, thus, squandering just a few more minutes. Given the tailwind, a quarter to seven was a decent result, and the quickfire Rose Restaurant service had people eating by seven. Job, as they say, done. Happy faces warm hands, hot tea. in surroundings that, for all their modesty, are as stylish as any in Southend. Susie, Arthur and I wondered at Martin's account of The Fridays En France (part Rabelais, part Arthur Miller), and thanked Chris as best we could for putting on such a fine show. Home to a very different Tour de France and sleep. It was, as they say, emotional.
The big problem with the Southend ride is slowing it down. We had a lively bunch at the front, most of them capable of doing the distance in one sitting in a little over three hours - making a seven hour (or, a it turned out, six hours and fortyfive minutes) ride out of it isn't easy. Right from the off I threw little spanners in the works, but the ride wasn't having it. No punctures, a succession of green lights and a distressingly efficient tail. We had some light relief in the form of a 'comfort stop' (note to self - every Southend ride to have a pregnant rider from now on). So we slipped smoothly down to the river and along the Embankment, barely turning the pedals, propelled by a southwesterly breeze that felt a little like a hairdryer. We rolled down in to the tunnel and then, rolled stylishly up out of it again - I was with Vernon whose cadence would have impressed the great Lance Armstrong. East London melted away - I barely noticed Plaistow - and, almost before we knew it, we reached the two long stretches that see out the first half.
Maplestead Road is, despite the speed bumps, a very comfortable road to ride. This, I think, is down to its simplicity - with playing fields behind railings on one side and the same house repeated hundreds of times on the other. The A1306 is a succession of marshlands, body shops, steel stockholders, sleeping artics, the tarmac edge of the road worn away by subsidence and diesel spills. You'd think it to be almost anywhere other than the southeast of England if it were not for the road-house advertising the talents of Jim Davidson.
We whiled away a full seventyfive minutes at the ghastly Moto Services, but, still and all, the task at hand was to cover the last 26 miles in three hours and twenty minutes. We came close. A small disquisition on ecclesiastical architecture at Chadwell (padded by a bit of audience participation), a potted history of Socialist Achitecture (with added West Highland White Terrier bits) at Batatown, a short stop to admire a swag of fruit and leaves rendered in lime (or, possibly, GRP) over a bungalow window, and a bit of a history lesson at Fobbing (do young people not know of The Headless Man?) contributed a half hour or so. Two punctures (no-one suspected that the first was a put-up job) and a hazy quarter of an hour looking toward Hadliegh Castle, the wonder that is Europort and the remnants of Coryton Refinery pushed us toward the three hour mark.
Then....a call from Chris at the Rose Restaurat, inviting me to bring 'em in. Which I did, taking in the Cinder Path, and, thus, squandering just a few more minutes. Given the tailwind, a quarter to seven was a decent result, and the quickfire Rose Restaurant service had people eating by seven. Job, as they say, done. Happy faces warm hands, hot tea. in surroundings that, for all their modesty, are as stylish as any in Southend. Susie, Arthur and I wondered at Martin's account of The Fridays En France (part Rabelais, part Arthur Miller), and thanked Chris as best we could for putting on such a fine show. Home to a very different Tour de France and sleep. It was, as they say, emotional.
I had been watching the forecast all week as to what the weather was going to bring for the Southend ride. All forecast sites seemed to be in agreement that we were going to get wet at some point during the ride, however temperatures were going to be very mild.
So fuget.. raceblade went on the rear of the bike.. I know, I know.. mudguards on a FNR? What is the world coming to? Any way, I went to bed for a few hours and woke up to rain on the velux. aha... the weather report was playing with us, rain wasn't due until at least the early hours but it was here already. I shook a fist at the moon... we'll in it's vague direction as it was too cloudy to see it.
Anyway.. by the time I had eaten and faffed about the rain had stopped and the temperature was reading 19degs.. Good.. nice dry & warm run in to HPC. And it was. But what was this? Another raceblade on the rear of another bike.. holy temporary mudguards Batman, it only belonged to LongMartin. I was in good company then.
At HPC, the usual meet and greet with old friends and new and the legendary safety talk and in the words of our glorious leader "OK, We're on our way"
The usual run east out of London was fairly non-descript, the natives were playing friendly and even the traffic seemed to behave. Seeing as we seemed to be light on numbers we were moving along at a fair rate with very few problems..... it was still dry.
Only one mechanical of note. @slowmotion had an awful creak, we spent time trying to work out what it was. It was found to be a loose crank. We needed a big hex key to tighten it. Not one of a size that you usually find on a run of the mill multi tool. But HAHA.. I don't carry a run of the mill multi Tool. Oh No! I carry a Lezeyne special multi Tool that had a nice big fat hex key that would tighten Slowmotions crank. Sorry for the fuzzy pick. I was still shaking at the excitement of it all.
Once again the northbound of the Thames option was the Rotherhithe tunnel. Now I like doing this, it is great fun and a couple of loud woohoo's did escape from my cakehole causing me to giggle like a child to myself listening to the loud echo. But I can do without sucking in a gallon of petrol fumes
Halfway point was Jnc 21. Now I like this place. I bring my own sarnies and just grab a tea or a coffee. There is plenty of room for everyone and everyone's bikes. Dish of the day was Spicy hicken Chips... I stuck to my sarnies, and a most fabulous pork pie imported into London from Yorkshireplaceoopnorf by the legendary @vernon . And golly gosh it was good, it didn't even touch the sides.
We had a few of these odd things too...
LongMartin #bloody cyclist - with a rear raceblade.
There was still no rain and the temperature was at a balmy 17degs upon leaving Jnc 21. But worse was to come once in the countryside. the temperature dropped to an all night low of 16degs. Heavens above.. all we needed was a good few hours of steady drizzle. Oh bowlacks that hexed it.. and the drizzle did come, and it did fall from the sky and it kept falling from the sky. And with the rain the punctures started.... all fixed quickly and efficiently with the minimum of fuss... though I must report that one of the punctures, from a lady at the back who shall remain nameless, (but her bike is in a pic above) naughty naughty dirty bike...tsk tsk
And the rain did drizzle, and the glorious leader stopped the ride to talk stuff about Princess Margaret and other stuff, and the people did listen.
And the rain did drizzle, and the glorious leader stopped the ride to talk stuff about Castles, and the people did listen.
And the rain did drizzle and the glorious leader carried on talking.. whilst people complained about the rain that did drizzle.
It wasn't long before we were at Leigh-On-Sea and the path taken.. In five years of going to Sarfend with the Fridays I have never seen the tide in.. so a first
The drizzle stopped, and the drizzle started again. Friday peeps if squint and/or use a magnifying glass.
And so to the Rose cafe. We were early but they were open and serving food to the riders with their usual fast efficiency.
And the rain did drizzle and the drizzle became rain which did became drizzle. But did stop for the departure of the SMRbtH. Glory be!! But hey, if it wasn't going to drizzle then it was going to torment us with a bugger headwing in places.
It was nice to have some new faces joining the ride home. @w00hoo_kent His first FNR & SMRbtH. And the 4 Hastings chaps. A pretty uneventful ride apart from 2 punctures, strangely enough at the same place. Vange... bloody Vange.
A quick refuel stop at Stanford Le Hope to all that enter here and it was time to say goodbye to W00hoo and the Hastings guys as they were heading for sarf of the river tio Kentish land via the Tilbury Ferry. Very sorry we didn't manage to say goodbye. Classic case of head down, cycle, cycle and forget which roundabout you needed. Though either/or lead to Tilbury. Thanks for coming along anyway chaps.
So myself an Martin safely negotiated the one way system at Grays and reached the Dartford crossing just after 10. It did mean a wait as the cycle crossing vehicle does not run from 9am to 10.30am. For the improvement of service to cyclists of course. We knew Mr @rb58 was wanting to get the 10.30 crossing so we waited..
The ride home from Dartford doesn't take long and was home in time to embarrass the missus and ian jnr by turning up to his football training in full lycra mode.
So thanks Simon, Suzie and all the Friday peeps. The drizzle certainly didn't put a dampener on this ride.
105 lovely miles for the night/day.. see y'all next month.
So fuget.. raceblade went on the rear of the bike.. I know, I know.. mudguards on a FNR? What is the world coming to? Any way, I went to bed for a few hours and woke up to rain on the velux. aha... the weather report was playing with us, rain wasn't due until at least the early hours but it was here already. I shook a fist at the moon... we'll in it's vague direction as it was too cloudy to see it.
Anyway.. by the time I had eaten and faffed about the rain had stopped and the temperature was reading 19degs.. Good.. nice dry & warm run in to HPC. And it was. But what was this? Another raceblade on the rear of another bike.. holy temporary mudguards Batman, it only belonged to LongMartin. I was in good company then.
At HPC, the usual meet and greet with old friends and new and the legendary safety talk and in the words of our glorious leader "OK, We're on our way"
The usual run east out of London was fairly non-descript, the natives were playing friendly and even the traffic seemed to behave. Seeing as we seemed to be light on numbers we were moving along at a fair rate with very few problems..... it was still dry.
Only one mechanical of note. @slowmotion had an awful creak, we spent time trying to work out what it was. It was found to be a loose crank. We needed a big hex key to tighten it. Not one of a size that you usually find on a run of the mill multi tool. But HAHA.. I don't carry a run of the mill multi Tool. Oh No! I carry a Lezeyne special multi Tool that had a nice big fat hex key that would tighten Slowmotions crank. Sorry for the fuzzy pick. I was still shaking at the excitement of it all.
Once again the northbound of the Thames option was the Rotherhithe tunnel. Now I like doing this, it is great fun and a couple of loud woohoo's did escape from my cakehole causing me to giggle like a child to myself listening to the loud echo. But I can do without sucking in a gallon of petrol fumes
Halfway point was Jnc 21. Now I like this place. I bring my own sarnies and just grab a tea or a coffee. There is plenty of room for everyone and everyone's bikes. Dish of the day was Spicy hicken Chips... I stuck to my sarnies, and a most fabulous pork pie imported into London from Yorkshireplaceoopnorf by the legendary @vernon . And golly gosh it was good, it didn't even touch the sides.
We had a few of these odd things too...
LongMartin #bloody cyclist - with a rear raceblade.
There was still no rain and the temperature was at a balmy 17degs upon leaving Jnc 21. But worse was to come once in the countryside. the temperature dropped to an all night low of 16degs. Heavens above.. all we needed was a good few hours of steady drizzle. Oh bowlacks that hexed it.. and the drizzle did come, and it did fall from the sky and it kept falling from the sky. And with the rain the punctures started.... all fixed quickly and efficiently with the minimum of fuss... though I must report that one of the punctures, from a lady at the back who shall remain nameless, (but her bike is in a pic above) naughty naughty dirty bike...tsk tsk
And the rain did drizzle, and the glorious leader stopped the ride to talk stuff about Princess Margaret and other stuff, and the people did listen.
And the rain did drizzle, and the glorious leader stopped the ride to talk stuff about Castles, and the people did listen.
And the rain did drizzle and the glorious leader carried on talking.. whilst people complained about the rain that did drizzle.
It wasn't long before we were at Leigh-On-Sea and the path taken.. In five years of going to Sarfend with the Fridays I have never seen the tide in.. so a first
The drizzle stopped, and the drizzle started again. Friday peeps if squint and/or use a magnifying glass.
And so to the Rose cafe. We were early but they were open and serving food to the riders with their usual fast efficiency.
And the rain did drizzle and the drizzle became rain which did became drizzle. But did stop for the departure of the SMRbtH. Glory be!! But hey, if it wasn't going to drizzle then it was going to torment us with a bugger headwing in places.
It was nice to have some new faces joining the ride home. @w00hoo_kent His first FNR & SMRbtH. And the 4 Hastings chaps. A pretty uneventful ride apart from 2 punctures, strangely enough at the same place. Vange... bloody Vange.
A quick refuel stop at Stanford Le Hope to all that enter here and it was time to say goodbye to W00hoo and the Hastings guys as they were heading for sarf of the river tio Kentish land via the Tilbury Ferry. Very sorry we didn't manage to say goodbye. Classic case of head down, cycle, cycle and forget which roundabout you needed. Though either/or lead to Tilbury. Thanks for coming along anyway chaps.
So myself an Martin safely negotiated the one way system at Grays and reached the Dartford crossing just after 10. It did mean a wait as the cycle crossing vehicle does not run from 9am to 10.30am. For the improvement of service to cyclists of course. We knew Mr @rb58 was wanting to get the 10.30 crossing so we waited..
The ride home from Dartford doesn't take long and was home in time to embarrass the missus and ian jnr by turning up to his football training in full lycra mode.
So thanks Simon, Suzie and all the Friday peeps. The drizzle certainly didn't put a dampener on this ride.
105 lovely miles for the night/day.. see y'all next month.
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martint235
Dog on a bike
- Location
- Welling
Vernon's cadence is a wonder to behold. I dream of being able to hold that rpm. I am, and always will be, a grinder rather than a spinner
mmmmartin
Random geezer
A good night out, and the weather was better than expected. Two hours of heavy rain from 5am left us in the right frame of mind for breakfast and that bacon sarnie was lovely. Conversion at my table centre on
which was hilarious and on arrival at home I discovered I was locked out. It was the perfect end to a wonderful trip.
Wobblers
Euthermic
- Location
- Minkowski Space
