FNRttC Friday Night Ride to the Coast to Southend-on-Sea 30th April 2010

[StuAff]

That´s what some people suggested... but I cannot really believe this theory. How should wet conditions affect the probability of a puncture? Water does not make broken glass sharper, does it?

Nope, but rain (a) washes all manner of crud, including broken glass, onto & around roads and ( can have the unfortunate effect of covering and concealing that crud, thus preventing you the rider from spotting it.

 

[ianrauk]

no, but the damp and wet makes shards of glass stick to rubber far easier then if dry.....

That´s what some people suggested... but I cannot really believe this theory. How should wet conditions affect the probability of a puncture? Water does not make broken glass sharper, does it?

 

[Norm]

No, but it does make the glass more likely to stick to a wet tyre for several revolutions, rather than being thrown off. Wet rubber is also more easily punctured because the sharp objects have less resistance when being pushed through.

 

[redfalo]

No, but it does make the glass more likely to stick to a wet tyre for several revolutions, rather than being thrown off. Wet rubber is also more easily punctured because the sharp objects have less resistance when being pushed through.

Well, with a decent puncture protection layer underneath the rubber this should not matter.

 

[TimO]

I must admit I would have been inclined to consider more punctures in the wet not much of an issue, but the few recent wet FNRttCs have been an eye opener.

Whilst a "normal" dry FNRttC can have a handful of puncture or none, all the wet ones recently have had upwards of a dozen. Whatever the actual reason(s), it's an observed effect.

 

[Aperitif]

Mate, I know it was posted in the middle of the night but, even by your standards, that's incomprehensible....I think I've translated but my head aches now

Alastair, I hope the day went well for you in foreign parts (Isle of Wight is, isn't it?).
I hope Cunobelin bopped you on the bonce if your paths crossed and - to allay any fears about my mental state, I very successfully drank myself into oblivion on Saturday and had a really nice time today. 10/10

 

[arallsopp]

Wet = increased puncture risk. I've ridden over 600 miles on dry roads through April, and my pre ride clean up removed 2 flints.

I removed another 6 from the front wheel alone on reaching Southend, and am still cleaning up the rear.

Raceguard layer stopped them getting through, but they'd all sawn nasty little slits in the outer casing.

In the dry, that just doesn't happen. If a flint gets picked up, its found in a flint sized hole. In the wet, there's almost always a gash, with a little flint at the very core.

 

[topcat1]

Good to hear Andrew is already on the mend.

So except for a small stint on the front leading into the sevices at j31 I spent most of the ride trading flats at the back with my brother.
I even got a flat half way up bread and cheese but rode to the top before stopping
(All of mine were due to small pieces of glass.)

I did manage to get the camara out once the rain stopped but lost at least 70 pics due to not checking the settings .Mostly night pics.

http://tinypic.com/a/20haa/3

 

[matthew]

Simon,

The crash was unfortunate, I can think of one way we may have avoided it:

The two of us along side you (me and one other) could have kept going and let you stop for the call without stopping the pack.

With regards the ride breaking up.

TECs work best in packs of three or more, preferably where they all know the evenings route. Then when they do have a puncture, depending on the strength of the rider, they can either all stop and call forward for the peleton to slow or drop off two TECs to ride with the victim whilst the other continues to pick up the way markers and evolves a new group of TECs with a count of how many are behind.

Had I realised that Charlotte and Liz had gone back to the puncture I would have left my junction and picked up the way markers confident in Adrian's ability to bring the stragglers to the finish. We would have lost five bikes off the back and reformed with a new set of TECs.

The biggest problem on the Southend ride is simply that the route has so many permutations after J31 as we hunt for the best, with Brighton everyone knows the score so if the ride strings out we still all follow the same path.

 

[topcat1]

Yes that is Starsky and the Dukes.

 

[arallsopp]

Great pics Dave.

.

Looks like poor BeatleAndrew got bumped on the head as well as the arm. Have you seen who he's sitting with?

 

[Aperitif]

There's not many people who would give Noddy elbow room on a FNRttC - good on you Andrew!

 

[TC2]

Glad to hear Andrew is ok. Sorry Aunty helen we are both working on 8th.

 

[arallsopp]

Vid's up at Youtube.

Camera 'mount' malfunctioned just after the routing mishap, resulting in the camera dangling off the bike and failing to capture anything between Thundersley and Southend on the outward leg. Got it re-taped at the cafe, and it held on nicely for the return journey.

These rides are hard on tech, and maybe, just maybe, I should think about treating it with something a little more respectful than lashings of insulation tape

 

[Charlotte]

I'm still amazed that with the numbers of people who turn out for your average FNRttC that it all runs as smoothly as it does - and that includes this one.

Nonetheless, I think there are some subtle changes that could be made to make it even better:

1. An exchange of mobile numbers prior to the ride to make sure that the usual crew all know how to call each other. For those not blessed with stokers to answer the phone on the trot, hands-free wires or headsets.

2. GPS track published amongst waymarkers and TECs so that they can be 100% sure of the route (we just followed our noses in the last 20 miles). If anyone's techhy enough to use Google Latitude, one at the front and one at the back would be amazing.

3. Flying puncture-fixers as per the Martletts ride, all carrying 700x23c spare folding tyres, HPX's, cloth rim tape and lots of spare tubes (pre-talc'd of course...)


Julian(Liz) and I on the tandem only got asked five minutes before the off to TEC. Had we known that we'd be doing this, I'd have kitted up with better puncture-fixing gear and probably a couple of spare folding tyres. As it was, I must have pumped up about eight tyres with our extra-long frame pump. There's no point in leaving someone with a mended tyre without enough air in it.

At the very least, encouraging people to avoid thin race tyres if it's wet would be seriously handy. All the flats that we had were on lightweight elf-spoo tyres - the boys and girls on M+ and the like were fine.

All this said, Friday was still a roaring success. All the issues that were faced were dealt with by experienced, non-flappable types and Simon in particular was just the (bandaged) bees knees.