FNRttC Friday Night Ride to the Coast - Whitstable 17th June 2011

[Purpledragon]

Hi

I really enjoyed the ride. Unfortunatly another puncture to add to the total, I had a rather bumpy ride along the seafront, I probably should have got off and investigated but I could smell breakfast by that point and did not want to walk.

Looking forward to another ride soon.

 

[Aperitif]

Agreed. Teef award yourself a pipe smoking photo.

Ta.

Another great ride. Good fun being in the TEC Team and towards the end of the ride we had the p**cture repairs down to a tee. I should of course say thanks to Aperitif, who was also on hand to help with so many of them.
I rode home in the headwind at a fairly slow pace. Not sure if the couple of pints of Guinness helped or hindered, but they were delicious all the same! I was also visited by the p**cture fairy on the way home. All the practise meant I wasn't delayed much. For those who asked about my pump it is a Zefal HPX http://www.zefal.com...duit.php?key=73


A year ago I set myself a challenge to do a 100 mile every month for a year and it wasn't until I got home I realised I had achieved this goal. I celebrated with a nice sleep!

A few pics here
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjvcs3KA

See you all shortly.

You did good work, Tim - it is always nice to have someone asking / getting ready with a new tube, partially inflated, ready to place etc rather than have an audience of ten. Davy was immediately on the 'phone (he made some fat boy comment about "letting the 'old folks' get their hands dirty" when at the debriefing table yesterday - I presume he was talking about youi...) and it kept the times that I stopped 'fluid' 10/10.

Great snaps Tim

the Crew of Four are just about to set off for a Nice to Pisa ride, and they've promised information and feedback on the route and hotels. Could be good........

I'm sorry if I seemed stressed out by our two unwelcome guests, Teef. I think the point at which I really got the hump was when they'd gone to the front, were riding as a kind of mobile road block, and then when somebody beside me (Bruce) used the word 'right' in conversation, they braked, wobbled right and almost took me out.

Totally respect this and not in any way trying to exonerate. I just want you to be able to trust people, and it is unfair if people like this come and leave a bad taste. We have breakfast and beer to do that.

Gas Tim, gas

Pump Tim, pump.

(FWIW 'No 14', I was carrying 6 x gas, as I thought it was going to be a 'rainy night gig' - as Tim O rightly pointed out upthread. The ride was a comfortable number on Friday, and the gaps were not so much that two minutes pumping left too big a gap... lovely pump too, particularly with the owner supplying the 'oomph'!
Useful stuff that gas though. On some rides, with a tec of self, Adam, Tim O and, say Ian, we could inflate a Zeppelin, as we are idle and would rather chat than waste elbow grease.

Whitstable grows on you...

 

[deckertim]

Gas Tim, gas

Iain. You should see my bicep though!

 

[User10571]

Got off the Victoria train at Bromley South to catch the local to Penge East, went to sleep and woke up in ... Victoria. Doh!

Ah!
Stuart.
The Achilles Heel of alcohothrill after a night's lost sleep....

I had the pleasure of Rebecca O-B's company on the returning train.
She to Victoria, I to Bromley South.
We chatted about this n' that.
She nodded in agreement, I nodded back.
We both were, I'm fairly certain, nodding off.

I de-trained (tech, but correct, term) at Bromley South during the last few minutes of a biblical deluge.
I did consider availing myself of a local service to Crofton Park, leaving me with a seven minute ride home, but desisted.
My decision being entirely based on really, really not wanting to wake up in Victoria and having to make my way home from there.

I rode home from Bromley South in the sunshine.

 

[Number14]

Useful stuff that gas though. On some rides, with a tec of self, Adam, Tim O and, say Iain, we could inflate a Zeppelin, as we are idle and would rather chat than waste elbow grease.

Whitstable grows on you...

I hope we don't have to do that. It's something that'll never get off the ground.

 

[Aperitif]

Ah!
Stuart.
The Achilles Heel of alcohothrill after a night's lost sleep....

I rode home from Bromley South in the sunshine.

Did you investigate the beach with Sgt P. today, User10571?

 

[User10571]

Did you investigate the beach with Sgt P. today, User10571?

The closest we were to a beach today was the foreshore in Gravesend where we partook of less than optimally healthy (but nonetheless desirable) comestibles from the Promenade Cafe - from whence we repaired to the RSPB place at High Halstow (largest heronry in the EU apparently) and affording us unprecedented views across the Thames Estuary.

Truly magnificent.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

The fact that I now have to break the habit of a lifetime and drink YELLOW beer when BROWN is available...

Ask for a Duvel, better make it 2 as the bottles aren't very big.

 

[_aD]

Don't fancy a red star? A blue one? Get one of these.

Yes please.

 

[dellzeqq]

My plan was to reduce the ride from 130 down to about 60. I didn’t want people queuing outside at Andy’s, and there are only 60 seets. So....... we were at about 65 registered riders on Thursday, and Kieran was primed with the sandwiches. If you’re one of the six riders who cancelled on Friday afternoon, your cheese rolls are waiting for you in Rochester.....

A ‘small’ ride, then, and a bit like old times. I had time to chat to people at the start, which was nice, and getting away from HPC was both less fraught than usual and more fraught than usual – we didn’t overwhelm the traffic as we have lately, but it didn’t take so long. With three wayfinders already on point the ride slipped smoothly on to the Embankment, and over London Bridge.

I think we sustained the first of a record number of punctures around Surrey Quays, and there was a steady stream of text messages from Paul letting me know of yet another flat all the way to Gravesend. Had it been raining, we’d have been miserable, but other than the merest sprinkle from time to time the night was dry, although the streets were soaked. Better yet the sky cleared as we left Gravesend, and our first foray on to unlit roads was gifted some moonlight, which was just as well, because the road verges were under water. My abiding memory of the night is of racing to the front of the ride along the Lower Higham Road between two silver streaks of standing water, just catching some escapees before they pedalled (or paddled) past the Lower Rochester Road turn.

The arrangements at Andy’s seemed to work reasonably well , and the sky was clearing rapidly when we set off again. From then on (setting aside the punctures) it was as a Whitstable ride should be – quiet, with the morning sun lighting up orchards and winter wheat, birdsong (I passed under a small cloud of swifts) and views across the Medway and the Thames. The road from Sittingbourne to Faversham was as sweet as ever, although we had to go through water a couple of times, and the southwesterly really struck up the band for the last seven miles in to Whitstable. The first riders arrived at the Waterfront at about eight – had we not had so many punctures we’d probably have been there an hour earlier. Faye and the team produced breakfast after breakfast with their usual grace, and by nine thirty we were in to the beer. What could be finer than the company of friends, a sea view and a pint of Summer?

We went back to London en masse - eight of us with our bikes in the one carriage, one of two dozing off from time to time. Claudine invited us round to Andrea's who fed us pork belly and roasties, followed by cheesecake and cream whipped to a Teutonic frenzy. Home, then, about nine o'clock and sleep about five minutes after. As good a day as one could ask for, and a lot better than the meteorologists had predicted.

Oh - I accosted a chap opening up the church in Faversham, and asked him about the tower. It symbolises both a crown and a house. It has nothing to do with Thunderbird 3. So now you know......

And Idris Elba

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7csSch8oS0&feature=related

 

[Aperitif]

Can't remember that any conversation, but I remembered the name; Idris. And the only two Idris I knew...

and ginger beer.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Sound like a great ride, I'm jealous, I'd like to try one of these FNRttC rides!

 

[Aperitif]

Sound like a great ride, I'm jealous, I'd like to try one of these FNRttC rides!

You idiot!

But.
Whitstable does grow on one. What it seems to grow is accidental appendages.
Remember this? 'Back in the day,'(6th June 2009), there was the Waterfrontery arrangement that begat this accidental photo (shown with 'phone transcript to a then 'non-participant', Susie).

Fast forward to 2011 and another mishap, with yet another of the experienced ride dudes...

Adrian showing no signs of flagging in the company of Claudine. The 'Salon des Refusées to FNR' will note the glorious sun-drenched scene, a gentle breeze - not enough to cool the hearty, sizzling breakfasts being eaten by those who rode the night away. (Hungry yet? )
More importantly, Susie, 'subject' of the transcript in the first photo, is now a regular rider, consuming hills and distance with ease, also offering free swearing lessons on a Saturday morning. My learning curve is almost a circle!

Whitstable. Where things grow on you!

 

[CharlieB]

Can't remember that any conversation, but I remembered the name; Idris. And the only two Idris I knew...

and ginger beer.

…and the Idris Strike Song from 1911 that resurfaced on the English Rebel Songs 1381-1984 album by the wonderful Chumbawumba…

You idiot!

But.
Whitstable does grow on one. What it seems to grow is accidental appendages.
Remember this? 'Back in the day,'(6th June 2009), there was the Waterfrontery arrangement that begat this accidental photo (shown with 'phone transcript to a then 'non-participant', Susie).

Fast forward to 2011 and another mishap, with yet another of the experienced ride dudes...

Adrian showing no signs of flagging in the company of Claudine. The 'Salon des Refusées to FNR' will note the glorious sun-drenched scene, a gentle breeze - not enough to cool the hearty, sizzling breakfasts being eaten by those who rode the night away. (Hungry yet? )
More importantly, Susie, 'subject' of the transcript in the first photo, is now a regular rider, consuming hills and distance with ease, also offering free swearing lessons on a Saturday morning. My learning curve is almost a circle!

Whitstable. Where things grow on you!

 

[ianrauk]

I want an Adrian flag hat.. the effin' tit...