FNRttC Friday Night Ride to the Coast - Whitstable 6th June

[StuAff]

Oh, I forgot: Flashing front lights. No, please, no. If your batteries won't last a night in constant mode buy some decent ones....

Will the tights hurt your eyes less in lime green? as thats the colour they are now thanks to the wife washing them!

 

[Captain Defect]

I had a lovely time, it's such great fun riding along at night through London amongst the sights, the traffic, the late night revellers. The weather was just right, the headwind wasn't energy sapping and the FNRttC riders were great fun and good company, I laughed a lot. I like that.

It was nice to meet @theclaud , @User13710, @User30090, @rb58, @ianrauk (again) @humbert15, @slowmotion and of course our entertaining and ever patient leader @dellzeqq, apologies if I have missed anyone.

Highlights were

• Riding with great company,
• 3 pi$$ed nobbers
• The two extravagantly fragranced boys who were "camping it" up a bit for our benefit in Chatam.
• The shouty lady in Faversham who failed to see the irony of standing in the middle of the road telling 60 cyclists that we should not use the road.
• The full english breakfast
• And the Rock and Roll experience of having steamed treacle pudding and custard after the full English at 8am.
• The nice man who loaned me his pliers to fix the front mech, Ta!
• Oh yeah...the cycling Banana Man with lazer lights.

I cycled off to my dads in Blean along the C&W way with @humbert15 to arrive through the door just as the heavens opened! Good result.

Many thanks for the company, I had a smashing time.

a new nick name perhaps, cycling banana man with lazer lights is real good better than @ captaindefect however the good lady wife has washed the tights lime green, maybe i could be cycling lime boy with lazer lights? lol

 

[EltonFrog]

a new nick name perhaps, cycling banana man with lazer lights is real good better than @ captaindefect however the good lady wife has washed the tights lime green, maybe i could be cycling lime boy with lazer lights? lol

Nice to meet you Captain, you were very entertaining.

 

[Wobblers]

I was assigned to TEC duties, so a change of pace from the usual rushing to the front and waywmarking for me. Being in the splendid company of @ianrauk, @rb58, and @Agent Hilda all but guaranteed a pleasant time ahead. Oh.... there was also this dour tall northern person but he didn't manage to spoil things - even though he managed to run into the back of me! [1] Duties seemed to involve avoiding drunken oafs in Woolwich, feeding Ian whisky (Glenfiddich, this time), handing out my Topeak Road Morph (marvellous piece of kit, all TECs should have one), admiring the well oiled efficiency of Ian and Ross fixing the few punctures we had and waiting for @slowmotion to stop faffing put his jacket on.

The halfway stop at Strood excelled as always. DZ advised us on the sense of checking tyres for flats before leaving. On leaving, it turned out that someone did have a puncture... slowmo! That fixed, off we went. For about 100 metres. Slowmo again, with bulging tyre. Odd, it was fine when we fixed it. Tyre deflated, thoroughly reseated and carefully pumped up, no bulges, so off we went. Until Rochester, whereupon Slowmotion's tyre decided to let go in style. I was right next to him, and I can attest that it was sodding loud! This time, the tyre did the honourable thing and died with a large gash in the side. Lacking TimO, and his spare tyre and complete toolkit (apart from the anvil, though I do believe @StuAff carries one in his rucksack ) discussions were had as to whether or not to get out the pearl handled derringer and find a convenient ditch. Luckily for slowmo, Adrian managed to fashion a temporary fix with some duct tape and a tyre boot. It was also lucky for Rochester's midges, who got a free meal. I wonder what they feast on when they can't get Cyclist? I don't think the inner tube was pinched, every time I've done so myself it's gone as soon as I pumped it up, but the tyre wasn't bulging when we'd fixed it both times - possibly the bead was damaged.

In some ways, the ride properly starts after Rochester, when we get into the delightful Kent lanes (well, Sittingbourne excepted), in this case bathed in the light of the very early morning sun. At least, it does for me, that's my favourite part of the ride apart from the lovely dark lanes between Gravesend and Strood. Even better, the torrential rain and biblical storms promised by the Met Office failed to materialise. Breakfast and beer in warm sunshine capped off a wonderful ride. Alas, all too soon it was time to go, but the lure of a £12 ticket back to Brum had been too tempting. I bumped into @Captain Defect at the station, and Slowmo - well done on making it! And again at Victoria. And again at Hide Park! But yellow tights are hard to miss, aren't they?

There's a reason why Whitstable is perhaps my favourite FNRttC: it always delivers.

[1] Look, I called out "Easy", everyone else had already stopped, what did you think was going to happen, Martin?

 

[slowmotion]

EDIT: OK, I've been rumbled by McWobble, but here's my version.

This is Jonah. He's on the ceiling of The Sistine Chapel, thanks to Michelangelo. He brings bad luck to any enterprise, and I was he ( without the good looks and legs) on the Whitstable ride, not once but four times.
I started off overdressed and got too hot, so decided to have a costume change at a "catch-up" in outer London. This left me at the back with the TECs. I was determined to catch up and set off at my highest (very modest) speed.......taking the wrong side turning. Ian came after me yelling "Wrong Road!" Oh dear!

After the delightful food stop, I found I had a slow flat and was ashamed for not heeding Simon's advice to check them earlier. In retrospect, I'm a bit miffed at never getting the nitty gritty of the Princess Margaret story. Anyway, the pneumatic epic continued for a couple more episodes ending with a split side wall on my front tyre which was fixed with a masterpiece of the bush mechanics' craft which was relayed to Our Great and Glorious Leader for final approval. If given the thumb's down I would have to go home by train from there. Adrian pulled a rabbit from the hat... "It's slomo's turn to buy a round at Whitstable...." Sense prevailed.
Yes, I'm the very bad person who made you hang about for so long during the catch-up stops and I hope you will forgive me. I hope you had as much fun as I did, without the guilt. Many thanks to Ian ,Adrian , Mc Wobble and all the good people, too numerous to mention, looking after this particular slacker with patience and good humour.
Here's a pic of the coolest cabana in the entire Whitstable Biennale. It has a strict dress code (lycra) but the age code is not rigorously enforced.


Thank you to Simon, the TECS, the waymakers.... and all you lot.

 

[Captain Defect]

Oh, I forgot: Flashing front lights. No, please, no. If your batteries won't last a night in constant mode buy some decent ones....

Noted. Won't use flashing mode again

 

[Captain Defect]

Nice to meet you Captain, you were very entertaining.

Thank you. Its amazing what sleep deprivation does lol. It was my third in a row and everyone is so nice. What a great bunch you all are.

 

[Beebo]

View attachment 47210

If the 4am rain had arrived as predicted you may have erceived less jovial encouragement.
But I'm very aware that one day it could also be me in the same boat as Jonah, especially as I ride with mudguards!

 

[ianrauk]

Thank you. Its amazing what sleep deprivation does lol. It was my third in a row and everyone is so nice. What a great bunch you all are.

At the halfway stop, I did like you friends 101 ways of how to wear a buff

 

[humbert15]

Noted. Won't use flashing mode again

Likewise.

 

[EltonFrog]

I forgot to say thank you to Tim @Trickedem and his great team for putting on a FAB feast for us at Strood. Nice to see friendly faces and good humour at stupid-o-clock in the morning. Thank you.

 

[Dogtrousers]

And that also applies to head-mounted lights! There was one on a woman's helmet that kept blinding me every time she looked round. It should be in the roolz ...

Point noted. I'm aware of that problem, and I always try to cover the light when I look at people (a bit like a polar bear covering its nose), but I just find the head light too useful to give up. I only put it on full beam (it's another zillion lumen blaster in this mode) very occasionally in the dark dark lanes, otherwise it's on its lowest setting. However, I will give some thought to doing without.

Unfortunately I'm addicted to glancing at my GPS, so I'll see how using the inbuilt lamp on the GPS goes.

Mind there isn't another FNRttC that I can make until Sept I don't think (unless I can make it to Kaaaardiff) so it will be some time.

 

[Dogtrousers]

By the way, I'm thinking now that DZ does have a point about mudguards. My minor mudguard mishap was scheduled to be fixed on Friday evening with brand new guards but my LBS's supplier let them down. I was tempted to take them off altogether, but the forecast decided me against, so I rode with a Hideous Bodge. The Hideous Bodge was fine on the workstand, and on a few test rides round the block, but once it came to the real ride it was going "skree skree skree (rattle rattle) skree skree skree ... etc". Which prompted Agent Hilda to ask pointedly "Which part of your bike is making that terrible noise? It's not your ... MUDGUARDS ... is it?"

The only thing that could have made me feel worse would have been if I had choked at a regrouping stop on my Auntie Mabel’s fruit cake and her famous cheese and pickle sandwiches.

 

[Beebo]

I finished off with an extra 20 miles or so along the coast to Margate,

Rob, how did the ride to Marget go? Did you just follow the coastal path from right outside the Waterfront? Was it an easy route to follow?

Oh, and @CarlP thanks for the pep talk about Ride London, I now feel much more up to speed on what to expect. I my even do a quick recce of the 3 big hills as you suggested.

 

[martint235]

Rob, how did the ride to Marget go? Did you just follow the coastal path from right outside the Waterfront? Was it an easy route to follow?

Oh, and @CarlP thanks for the pep talk about Ride London, I now feel much more up to speed on what to expect. I my even do a quick recce of the 3 big hills as you suggested.

Which 3 hills does it go over? I'm guessing Box Hill is one of them?