I'm a bit late with my write up, and I'm sure much has already been said, but anyway, here I go.
For my normal cycle to HPC, I basically use my commute, with just a little diversion for the last 1½ miles, so it's a route I can do largely on autopilot,and which has been honed to an optimal route over several years. To get to Waterloo, I had to diverge from that route substantially more, and found the traffic along this way, through Brixton and onwards, to be a lot busier, and it was relatively exhausting compared to my normal route. I fluffed it a bit on the final
junction, but that was easily recovered from.
Arriving at Waterloo, there seemed a lot more people than usual, but I think that was just an effect of having everyone under a roof, unlike at HPC. Overall I think the Waterloo start is rather good. It's more protected, and arguably more scenic than HPC, and you fairly rapidly return to the "standard" Whitstable route, so for going in that direction it works very well. It would obviously pose substantial issues with going in other directions. I think you could use it for the Southend ride, crossing back over the north side of the Thames at one of the bridges, but it would be a bit of a bugger going towards Brighton or Bognor, for the same reasons that I found the route there not brilliant, the roads seem busy, although conceivably you could find a tolerable route, with some experimentation.
The weather closed in a bit worse than we had expected, which was a shame. Having said that, I've done several FNRttCs a lot wetter and colder than this one. I rode most of it only wearing a long sleeved jersey, or a short sleeved jersey with a long sleeved over the top (after the stop). My route to the start was mostly comfortable in a short sleeved top, but once it started raining it would have been less comfortable in a short sleeve alone. Not really an issue, it just made it slightly less fun than would have been optimal, but you can't have everything.
The first sequence of fairy visitations was a bit of a humdinger. The tyre was an absolute bugger to get off the rim, which you know doesn't bode well for getting it back on. It was a Bontrager tyre, which I've never used personally, and after the faff it caused, I'd be reluctant to start using them! After various people struggled to get it off (and this included Adrian swearing quite profusely!) I eventually determined a technique that got it off with only two tyre levers and mild swearing. Getting it back on was another story, and required three of us using most of our hands, a VAR lever and a couple of additional tyre levers. This inevitably meant that at least one of the following punctures was caused by a tyre lever causing a snakebite puncture. I've done a lot of repairs over the years, and this was the first one that proved utterly impossible to get on without using a lever. A VAR lever is sometimes helpful and can make things easier, but if you fiddle a little longer, you can generally avoid using them. This tyre/rim combination just didn't want to play, and started becoming difficult with a lot of tyre to still get onto the rim.
Brian deciding to abandon when we had the fourth puncture (this was after we thought we'd succeeded and cycled off before having to grind to a halt again) was met with a sigh of relief from me, just as I was about to remove the tyre for the fourth time, and then try and deal with a fourth remount, which I knew had a fairly high probability of failing again, and being hard work (we were all getting a bit knackered by this point). Does anyone know if he did get back to his Brothers place successfully? We left him awaiting a Taxi, which I wouldn't normally want to do, but Simon had already moved on the main ride at least once, and there would have been a lot of waymarkers spread out. We'd probably spent close to an hour dealing with things at this point, and we had to leave.
After that we had a constant stream of punctures, but that's fairly normal for a wet ride. Combined with the number of people on the ride, it was highly unlikely we'd get away with no visits, so the dozen (or possibly more, we lost count!) that we had was about par for the course. The remainder got dealt with pretty rapidly, often people had already started sorting them out by the time the TECs caught up, and aside from digging out a CO
2 cartridge, we often didn't have to do too much. I suspect the total time for the remainder of repairs took about the same time as the first wheel alone! Otherwise there was a bit of minor fettling to a Tandem brake, that was rapidly dealt with, and apparently dellzeqq's chain made a leap for freedom, but the TECs missed that.
The halfway stop was very welcome to see, and as ever when volunteers help us out, was well organised, and gave us a lot more space than we often get with cafes, which given the slightly wet conditions was nice. It let most of us get inside and get a seat. Major kudos to Tim Decker et al for a very fine job. I had a couple of sandwiches, helpfully pickled by Tim himself, and I think I also got the last slice of chocolate cake, that was impressively fine and sticky, so I was refueled for the remainder of the ride.
We didn't get an impressive sunrise, with the overcast conditions, but the run into Whitstable is always nice, albeit that last bit of slight upwards slope as you just come into Whitstable proper, which can be a little disheartening if you're getting a bit knackered. The Waterfront did their normal fine job of plying us with food, tea coffee, orange juice and beer. I didn't go for the sticky toffee pudding this time, but was served a double breakfast without explicitly asking for it, but I would have, had I not been as un-compos mentis as I normally am after a night-ride!
After hanging around for various conversations, drinking, and occasional snoozes from most people present, eventually the last seven of us departed for the station, and all managed to fit onto one train. Since it was only a four carriage train, four of us managed to fit into the proper bike space, and the remainder I presume loitered around one of the doors, and since we saw them at both ends of the journey, that obviously worked. After departing Victoria, four of us went in search of another brief drink and possibly food.
The Windmill on Clapham Common was selected, being a sensible direction for three out of four of us. Davy, User, A.N.Other (I can't remember who, sorry, I'm doing pretty well to remember three of us!), and myself toddled up to the Common, but the Windmill was crawling with people off of the nice sunny and warm common (where did the wetness all go?), so we decided to move on further. User sprinted off towards Balham, so we passed at least half a dozen other open pubs before stopping just in Balham, which was fine for me, since it was still on my way home. We stopped for a pint, and in the end Davy and myself grabbed a burger and chips to eat at this pub (I've got no idea what it was called!). User was enthusiastic to take us onwards to a curry, but we'd hit the point of utter knackered and sleepyness, so had to decline and variously shot off in each of our directions homewards.
So overall a fine ride, aside from being a bit delayed, nothing too disastrous happened, the weather was a mite murky, but I hope everyone had a good time, I certainly did. Thanks to Simon, the waymarkers, the other TECs and everyone who cycled on the ride and enjoyed themselves.
For completeness, my track on GPSies is
here.
Felpham vs Whitstable: I don't think they're dramatically different in how much effort they require. The wind and conditions make more of a difference, so both routes have been easier or harder on occasions. Brighton is probably the harder from the point-of-view of hills, since none of the other rides has anything really as bad as Ditchling Beacon, but then again, Brighton (and sometimes bits of Felpham) also have some nice downhill "Weeeeees".
), 'my' group of 20% heroes and 80% support, were engaged in a very interesting conversation with a driver further up the road. Hmm.
. I did try to abstain 
.
