FNRttC Friday Night Ride to the Coast York to Cleethorpes 18th June 2010

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Well, we're off to Pock and have explored quite a lot of the routes north of the 1079, so we were thinking of exploring the other side anyway :wacko: If nothing else, I might be able to file a few fill that hole reports on the off chance that they get done in time!
 

kimble

Veteran
Ooh, just spotted this thread.

Add me please! As a pesudo-northener I've been looking forward to this one, and it seems that the trains to York aren't much sillier than the ones down to London.
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
dellzeqq said:
actually, in a fit of sucking-up that borders on arse-licking, I have gone out of my way to invite Shaun. Out of curiosity, mind. And don't try and tell me that you're not curious as well.

Will his bike have complete internet capability? Will it glow in the dark every time Patrick Stevens starts a thread? Will he have four satnav systems? Damn, I need to know!!!!!!!


Give him enough cake, he'll show you how he can turn the forum off from his phone....

Just make sure he turns it back on again!
 

MSeries

New Member
I may be up for this, however I am not an experienced FNRttC coast rider.BUT I am a very experienced cyclist. Here are some of my palmares. London-Edinburgh-London 2005, Paris-Brest-Paris 2007, London-Edinburgh-London 2009. What's more I live in West Yorkshire and I'm reasonably familiar with East Yorks and North Lincs. I understand you want self reliant riders, will someone like me be allowed in ?
 

StuAff

Silencing his legs regularly
Location
Portsmouth
MSeries, you'd be very welcome I'm sure. Experience is certainly not required, but it's always handy!
 

TimO

Guru
Location
London
Ultimately it's Simon's say who does the ride, and who doesn't, but I think as long as there's room, anyone who willing to attempt the ride, and who stands a reasonable chance of being able to complete it is going to be welcome.

We've had some people with very limited experience of cycling any distance, on some very indifferent BSOs, and they've been welcome, and ultimately completed the ride successfully, which is good, since part of the point of the exercise is to encourage more people to do this sort of thing.

An LEL & PBPer like MSeries is going to be no problem (and indeed will risk being roped into Waypointing. ;)).

(Not that I'm going to be on this one).
 

MSeries

New Member
TimO said:
An LEL & PBPer like MSeries is going to be no problem (and indeed will risk being roped into Waypointing. :wacko:).
I will be no problem, I promise !! :bravo: and I don't mind helping with waypointing or shepherding the slower riders either. I don't know what the proposed route is but I have ridden to and across the Humber Bridge several times from North, and West Yorks.
 
OP
OP
dellzeqq

dellzeqq

pre-talced and mighty
Location
SW2
So....Mike E, Adam and I met up at York Station, and chatted with two amiable rogues who had just stripped the fruit machine - twice. And then we went up to the Minster, which was nice, and decided that starting from in front of the Minster would be top. And then we went for a little tour, and admired Georgian York, and settled on a route out of town, which is very, very simple. And then we set off, turning neither left nor right, and went through a town gate, over a bridge and on to the Hull Road, and, in minutes, we were out of the centre of York and on a broad quiet road travelling eastward.

Three miles from the start we were over the ring road and out of the streetlights, wandering down the B1228, which is a fine road to cycle at night - not straight, but flat and well-marked and almost devoid of traffic. Then we branched off to the left and headed in to Melbourne, where we came across a pub with people in, so, despite it being around one o'clock, we asked for and were given coffee, and spent a pleasant half an hour explaining ourselves - not easy when you start with 'we're riding to Cleethorpes'.

We said our goodbyes and turned east and then south, going through North and South Cliffe and then North and South Cave, Mike giving way a bit on the route as we realised that this first stretch was going to be longer even than HPC to Faygate.

And simple it is - the route has few turns, and no hills to speak of. We did some winding about the A63, through Welton, and then Mike took us by back roads and a car park to our halfway stop, which is hard by the Humber Bridge and looks very, very nice, with plenty of space for the bikes outside.

We paused only for a little while, because it was starting to rain. Mike led us up a slope to the bridge, and we went over by the bike path to the side. I'll ask the toll booth staff if we can take the road, because at this time of night there's next to no traffic.

We then went through Adam's home town, Barton, and headed east. The wind was now against us, and the rain was coming in horizontally. My legs turned the colour of raw liver, but, nothing daunted, we entered Cleethorpes along a wide tree-lined avenue and reached the seafront just before six.

Cleethorpe's seafront is unpretentious, and, at that time of the morning, closed, but, in an inspired move, Mike took us to the railway station, which had a pub, serving beer, having opened early to fortify Grimsby Town supporters, whose team must win today to avoid dropping out of the football league for the first time in 100 years. I believe there is a photograph of the beer.

And, after Mike and Adam had had a couple of pints we went to Brown's, which does a decent breakfast for a fiver. Mike and Adam caught the train to Barton, Mike looking forward to his second crossing of the bridge, and I caught the train to Doncaster, which, after a couple of stops, carried not only Grimsby supporters, but Scunthorpe supporters and Leeds supporters to Doncaster, where I caught the train back to the Great Wen

So......we think the ride is about 67 miles. It's flat, but very susceptible to the wind and rain. The weather is everything. We've been invited back to Melbourne for coffee, and we'll probably take up the offer. We won't get to the Humber Bridge for sunrise - that's a disappointment, but there you go. Taking in to account the two stops we should get in to Cleethorpes a little after eight.

I'm still nervous about the numbers, and we'll probably take no more than 60 - maybe 70 if it turns out that some of the more local riders are out of the MSeries mold and happy to take on some TEC'ing. There are about 34 on the list at present, and Mike has a few more names. There are a couple of riders who have no experience of this kind of distance, and I'll go through things with them - one problem is that we're quite a way from railway lines for most of the ride. If the weather is kind we'll have a lovely night. If it isn't we'll all feel in need of the pubs that open all hours.
 
OP
OP
dellzeqq

dellzeqq

pre-talced and mighty
Location
SW2
as a postscript - Grimsby are being beaten by Burton, and will slide out of the league. Sad
 
OP
OP
dellzeqq

dellzeqq

pre-talced and mighty
Location
SW2
AdrianC said:
Is that no hills like Southend?
not quite. It rises and falls gently, and there are a few little ups that rise 15 or 20 metres or so, but there's nothing as tough as Bread and Cheese, or even that little bit outside Fobbing, and the centre of the Bridge is probably the high point of the ride.

People are big on garden hedges in East Lincs, and you can see why. The downside of it being flat is that when it blows, it blows

List will open later today - hulver, if you send me an e-mail on fnrrtc@yahoo.co.uk I'll send you the guide.

Simon
 
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