FNRttC Friday Night Ride to the Coast - Whitstable 5th October

[dellzeqq]

You'd be surprised. Due to being above rather than behind the front wheel, the Streetmachine is pretty non-soaky to ride through puddles on, and the sort of thing that would fill your shoes on an upright isn't really a problem (my feet get soaked by riding behind mudguard refusniks, instead). I value my dynamo hub, though, so don't deliberately ride it through anything deeper than a couple of inches..

some of them were six inches deep. And others were over fifty yards long. It was really wet out there.

I'm in awe of those who stuck it out - I had to, but they chose to. I detest riding in the rain, even light rain, and this rain was steady and went on and on and on. It wasn't as heavy as Manchester to Morecambe, but those who went on that one will recall that it was a fairly warm night and we knew that it would stop sometime around four. November 2009 and February 2010 had heavier rain, but on neither did it last seven hours.

I'll construct a roll of honour for the mailing, but, one person's persistence, selflessness and steadiness in adversity went above and beyond anything reasonable. Step forward ..........

 

[StuartG]

23

I am impressed you could still count. I tried and failed ...

 

[wanda2010]

^^ A special person for a special group.

 

[wanda2010]

I am impressed you could still count. I tried and failed ...

I now remember talking to Xi at one of the puncture stops (trying to use leylandii for shelter) and couldn't get the words out properly and had to stop. Fortunately he was shivering a tad so we made a good pair!

 

[Dogtrousers]

A note on kit:
Steel rims in the wet - I'd swear that applying my front brake made me accelerate sometimes. Fortunately I'm picking up a more modern front wheel this afternoon from a certain famous Ditchling coffee supplier. Hopefully the forks will spread enough for me to spring it in.

Towards the end of the dark part ride my front light, a Silva X-trail, started switching off randomly. When I got home I took it out of my saddlebag and it was in flash mode (it doesn't have a flash mode) - it's drying with batteries out now.

Sealskin socks. These always make my feet cold so I was wearing some thin wool socks underneath. This combination was completely ineffective as the wool socks ended up sodden, either by wicking in from the top or because the sealskin doesn't work, or both. They then stayed sodden.I was hoping that my feet would warm up on the wetsuit principle. They didn't.

Garmin: I discovered a hidden feature of my Garmin 60CSX. A self preservation artificial intelligence mode. It obviously discovered the weather forecast using its sensors and then went and hid. I searched and searched but couldn't find it anywhere and in the end set off without it. Once the coast was clear it came out of hiding and it was waiting for me when I got home with a smug look on its face.

 

[AnythingButVanilla]

I'm in awe of those who stuck it out - I had to, but they chose to.

I'm in awe of everyone who turned up never mind actually rode even part of the way. I turned the light off at midnight on Friday and said to himself that you were all just setting off and as I did so I could hear the rain getting heavier by the minute. You're all troopers!

 

[StuAff]

I'll construct a roll of honour for the mailing, but, one person's persistence, selflessness and steadiness in adversity went above and beyond anything reasonable. Step forward ..........

Hear hear! Danke schön!

 

[StuAff]

Garmin recovery update: No problems charging, and it successfully connected via USB last night. Though I lost the data for going to Fratton station/through London/the ride itself, it did have the last of my errands from Friday. The joystick that goes through menus etc is being extremely recalcitrant (a weak link in the design, from previous experience) but does work in all directions. Eventually. Currently sitting in a sunlit conservatory sandwiched between two (large) silica gel packets, which will hopefully drive out any remaining moisture.

 

[BalkanExpress]

So much has already been said and I will join in the call of thanks to all those in Strood who made us so welcome and helped us warm up

Beyond that here are a few random thoughts.

What is it with Whitstable and wildly misplaced forecasts? Last year it Mr Walnuts' classic "we've been lucky with punctures so far" but a new standard was set on this ride by the comment made around Dartford by someone I shall not name that "It seems to be easing off".

Normality. At some point during the ride I ceased to realise that it was raining: rain had become the norm. I only became aware of this in Erith when, rather than stand in the world's crappiest bus shelter (Copyright TC) a bunch of us just stood outside, in the rain and carried on chatting as if it were a perfectly dry evening.

Temptation: I didn't have a bailout to home option so by the time we were in Strood the choice was press on or spend several damp hours killing time at St Pancs. But earlier on I nearly snapped, it was Dartford as we passed the Premier Lodge then the Holiday Inn and finally the Hilton, A warm shower a dry be, My brain was too tired to articulate the thought and then we were off and up the road.

The lake at the bottom of the hill just before Faversham: having been a good boy and backed off on the descent as Simon had gently requested I saw the great expanse of water up ahead... big gear.. build some momentum... unclip and feet up Butch and Sundance style... and ... ploughed through it . A moment of pure childish fun in an evening of grim determination.

Olaf's TSR: Very Nice, has set me thinking that i need to (considerably) fatten up the piggybank

 

[clivedb]

Currently sitting in a sunlit conservatory sandwiched between two (large) silica gel packets, which will hopefully drive out any remaining moisture.

You really did get wet, Stu - although a towel might be a more practical alternative.

 

[Mista Preston]

Martin girl's blouse, size large, where are you?

^^^^Post of the year award^^^^

Seriously well done to all who even attempted it. I went out yesterday morning and got soaked from the surface water alone !

 

[dellzeqq]

I had no problem with people packing it in, and wouldn't want an unkind word said about any of them.

I'm afraid poor Martin came in for a bit of stick after he bailed in Greenwich (9 miles). The Hero of Nelson's rep was severely trashed by one of the more senior FNRttCers. The words 'blouse' and 'jessie' were much in evidence. I heard the words 'never going to let him forget it'. Ah............how soon things change

 

[martint235]

I had no problem with people packing it in, and wouldn't want an unkind word said about any of them.

I'm afraid poor Martin came in for a bit of stick after he bailed in Greenwich (9 miles). The Hero of Nelson's rep was severely trashed by one of the more senior FNRttCers. The words 'blouse' and 'jessie' were much in evidence. I heard the words 'never going to let him forget it'. Ah............how soon things change

I was fortunately too far away to hear these things (I do seem to remember being on a ride where the utterer of the word "blouse" bailed but I've been too nice to mention it since).

Any other ride I would probably have completed but (un)fortunately the Whitstable ride passes tantalisingly close to my house (only the Ramsgate ride has come closer!) and a quick assessment of my status (wet, cold), my probable future status (wetter, colder, further away from home) convinced me I was better off in bed. As has been mentioned, there have been wetter rides (I was soaked before I got to the start of the Manchester ride) but I've always managed to stay in a better frame of mind on those.

Respect to all those who started it this ride, it took effort to get out of my front door on my part. And serious respect to those that completed it. Well done!

 

[Trickedem]

Well that was memorable! I learnt and relearnt a few things on this ride:
1. Nothing, I repeat nothing is truly waterproof. Goretex Northwave boots....big spongey padding around the ankle, acts exactly like a big sponge. Sealskinz socks, great in theory, but unless they are the length of waders, water gets in the top and it can't escape. I think I was starting to suffer from trenchfoot towards the end. My two pairs of waterproof gloves were equally useless.
2. I talk a load of rubbish and Optimism is sometimes the reason. As soon as I uttered the 'easing' sentence I regretted it...Sorry! Tiredness and alcohol worsen the condition considerably. I have a vague memory of having a conversation with Stuart G on the train home and I am fairly convinced I was talking completed b*ll**ks. Sorry Stu.
3. My wife is wonderful. Not only does she allow me to go for a night ride that writes off most of Saturday, she even arranges a team of volunteers to bake lovely cakes and turn up in the early hours to serve them to my cycling friends. Love you x x x x
4. I am stubborn. I had every reason to finish the ride at Strood, the least of which was the broken rear spoke. But I am so glad I swapped bikes and carried on down to Whitstable. I rode like a maniac to catch you all, but didn't think it would take till Sittingbourne to catch you up.The ride from Faversham, with the sun breaking through the clearing clouds was wonderful. I have ridden this section so many times and it does have something magical about it.
5. The Fridays are a wonderful group of people. Just turning up at HPC for this ride took guts and well done to everyone, however far you got. Despite the misery of the wait at Erith and particularly after the unfortunate incident with the drunken yobs, everyone seemed to be in good spirits. Ed, I hope there is no lasting damage to you or your bike.
6. A sunny morning and a good breakfast can cure lots of life's ills. I really enjoyed relaxing and drinking at the Waterfront. Fascinating erudite good humoured conversation and beer are a great combination. I think a number of the world's most pressing problems were solved, but unfortunately nobody wrote anything down.

 

[srw]

Anyone who got as far as HPC on Friday night is an absolute hero. I'd wanted to do this ride because I haven't been near the Fridays for too long - and this promised to be a LonJoG reunion and a chance to catch up with the P&Lite Usual Suspects posse. But my sleep has been completely screwed up since the end of August, and I've been spending far too much time in work for various reasons, and neither R nor I got around to signing up until it was too late. I'm now extremely glad we didn't. We'd have been far too stubborn to drop out, and would have absolutely hated it - I can do tired plus either cold or damp, but not both.

Good on you to those of you who dropped out half-way through. It takes balls to admit that going home is the better option! Mice - I was reading your report and thinking that your real name is utterly appropriate, both for you and the rest of the riders - people to be wondered at.