A great ride, we were dropped off by HPC and collected from Whitstable by my lovely wife, all for the price of a sausage & egg bap as it was Kai's first Fridays ride and twice the distance they'd ridden before.
Perfect weather aside from a bit chilly, I added the waterproof for a bit after Strood to warm up, I didn't realise Friday rides were allowed to be dry. The sunrise and sunny ride in was lovely great breakfast venue.
Kai suffered a bit with mechanical issues, slipping the chain at the Rotherhithe tunnel roundabout and on the hill out of Greenhithe, it ran OK until the big climb where it went twice in quick succession. It's a bit expected with a singlespeed conversion, despite the tensioner, and Kai was understandedly frustrated. The Tec's pounced on it then and after repositioning the tensioner it held for the rest of the ride. I've very much left Kai to do their own thing with their bike, but may grab it and look at upgrading the tensioner (this one has some flex in it and the jockey wheel could be a better fit for the chain) or otherwise sorting it.
The last 5 miles proved the toughest for Kai, I think they were physically spent by then and a fair amount of the pack went passed as we worked our way in to Whitstable, but we completed the ride and as always I'm a very proud father. Spent most of the day asleep, but checked on the way up and Kai has said they'll do another, although may pick one of the bikes with gears for it.
Thanks to everyone who had a part in things and especially Simon for all his cat herding and making it happen. I really enjoyed riding through my home turf, even passing the campus I'll be commuting in to on Monday, as well as the one I work at most days.