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

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Origamist

Legendary Member
That was a great ride and route - fast, smooth roads, some stunning views, lots of new faces, pleasant weather in the main, friendly staff at the cafes/pubs, and copious amounts of moist cake (thanks CL).

On the ride to the Minster from Dringhouses I passed a cyclist (who I later learnt was Hulver) but selfishly sped past as I was worried I’d be late. As I passed York train station I picked up Simon et al just in time to lead them through the morass of drunken and disappointed England fans in the centre due to Lendal Bridge being out of action.

The Minster was a beautiful, pre-ride loitering spot. We made it out of York quickly and without incident and were soon on quiet country roads. I was TECing for the first half of the ride, but the closest we had to a mechanical was a slipped chain. The tailwind meant that the group was moving along at a fair pace and we were soon in Melbourne for a brief tea-stop.

Sutton Bridge was a doddle (thanks to Adam) and Yorkshire soon became Lincs. As we approached the Humber Bridge Mikee suggested an off-road route – this led to flashbacks of Bognor, but the path was gentler than many of S London’s roads and we kept our fillings. The path turned out to be an inspired detour as it afforded wonderful views of the Humber Bridge with dawn fast approaching. After stopping at Mrs B's (what happened to the limited menu of jacket spuds, jacket spuds and jacket spuds?) I made a tactical blunder and had a sausage roll, when carrot cake would have sufficed.

The rest of the ride is a bit of a blur, but I managed to clumsily fix my camera to the handlebars at dawn, rode more towards the front, and chatted to anyone who would put up with me for 5 mins or so.

We made excellent time as Grimsby was on the horizon by 6.30ish. A bit of drizzle welcomed us to the coast, but the cafe was a well drilled outfit and we were all clogging our arteries in next to no time.

I was toying with the idea of cycling back to York after hearing of talk of problems with the trains. However, I quickly came to my senses and convinced a small but select band of FNRttCs (3BM, TC and ILB) to accompany me to the train station pub. This venue contained more than a few “characters” that were already sloshed by 9.30 (I think it’s what literary types call “local colour”). Young Andy looked like he was trying to swallow his tongue when “Heather” a large, tattooed and uncompromising sort regaled us repeatedly with tales of her impending incarceration at Her Majesty’s pleasure for GBH. Thankfully, this group had booked a taxi to “top town” and departed in a fug of burps, expletives, and good-byes.

We stayed for another pint, but decided the train situation was worth a risk and we made it to Donnie and then York (part of me hoped we would get stuck in Scunnie - maybe next time?).

Later in the day I visited the bike show and spotted Clarion of this parish, but left soon after as I needed a power nap. Three hours later I awoke and was whisked off by my friends to Oscars where I had a chicken burger and a bottle of Rioja; a comforting way to end a brilliant day.

It was great to catch-up with the old contemptibles and meet so many new people: Dalestar, Hulver, Crinkly Lion, Sharky, 3BM, Marin, Fiona, Landslide, Longers, Mr Bunbury, and Uncle Phil (who had “sensibly” affixed a name tag to his saddle-bag!).

A final big thank you to Simon and Mikee for making it all run like clockwork and the doughty chap on the MTB with 2” knobblies who made me feel like a cheat for running 700c slicks...
 

Shaun

Founder
Moderator
Loving the photo's and vids BTW, and despite living in Hull for years and being on quite familiar terms with The Bridge, I've never seen it at dawn before ... :sad:
 

hulver

Fat bloke on a bike
Location
Sheffield
Thanks to Simon, all the helpers and everybody on the ride. It was a fantastic ride, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I hailed User10119 on the way to the start, she was quite sensibly walking up a one way street to the start, and I wasn't. :biggrin:

I met up with quite a few forumers, some for the first time. Watched Admin almost roll Arch's trike, exchanged a few brief words with HubGearFreak who I'd not seen since last years Cycle show.
After the preamble and User10119 handing out cake to be carried on the ride we set off. The trail of red flashing lights working their way through the back streets of York was quite a sight. It seemed like only a few minutes later we were stopping at the first stop for coffee (or beer) and mars bars.

Then on again. After what seemed like quite a short time again we were getting near the bridge. I got some encouragement from User10119 who was eating up the miles, despite claiming that she would start to suffer at the 50 mile point. (She looked fresh as a daisy at the end).

The off road section gave a fantastic view of the bridge in the distance that quickly got larger. I did have a slightly worrying point here, as it seemed like everybody had disappeared. I'd left some people taking pictures when I set off down the trail, but I stopped under the bridge and couldn't see anybody behind me, or anybody in front. Then Mr. Legg appeared from in front of me to sweep up the back markers and a big bunch of cyclists appeared behind me.

I was ready for the cafe stop at the Humber bridge, and managed to share out one of CrinklyLion's cakes while we were queueing for food.

The ride over the bridge itself was awesome.

Then it seemed like no time at all we were in Cleethorpes, by the sea. I think it's one of the first times I've ever gone to the coast and not actually seen the sea until you're right at the sea front.

My guts were still fighting with the baked potato I'd had at the bridge cafe, so I couldn't face any breakfast. I tried to buy a train ticket back to York, but was told by the bloke behind the counter that the trains weren't running past scunthorpe, the replacement bus wouldn't take bikes, there wouldn't be any room on the train for more bikes anyway. He also started moaning about this terrible pain in the diodes down his left side. I left him to it and headed back to the cafe.

A few sugary drinks, and a chat with MSeries and we hatched a plan to cycle back. We'd ride back over the bridge to Brough and attempt to catch a train there. If that didn't work then it would only be 30 ish miles back to York from there anyway.

So MSeries, MarinYork, a.n.other (who's name I didn't catch and I wasn't exactly at my best anymore but who was wearing CycleChat kit) set off back towards the bridge.

We took it slowly, mostly because my legs wouldn't turn very quickly anymore anyway and by 11:30 we were back across the bridge. The headwind was terrible, at one point crossing the bridge I thought it was going to start pushing me backwards.

the CycleChatter pealed off towards Hull to catch a train, and the 3 of us headed towards Brough. When we got to Brough there was a train in 45 minutes that would take us back to York, I persuaded the others that it would be a great idea to catch it, so catch it we did.

MSeries and parted from MarinYork at the station, and I left MSeries at the Knavesmire and headed home for a nap. I did want to join him at the show for a while, but I was just too tired.

It was only on waking from my nap and unpacking my bag that I found the second User10119 cake that I carried all the way from York to Cleethorpes and back. :smile:

It was very nice, and I felt very guilty when I was eating it that I hadn't shared it with anybody on the ride.

Thumbs up to everyone on the ride, I hope to do another one.
 

Sh4rkyBloke

Jaffa Cake monster
Location
Manchester, UK
We were told that the replacement busses *might* take bikes by the chap at Cleethorpes... and that they definitely wouldn't by the conductor/ticket inspector on the train... he staked his reputation on it as he left with a smug chortle. I believe the word for him and his ilk is to$$er.

Anyway, the coaches (plural) were waiting and we were told that bikes were no problem. Sorted!!
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
Admin said:
Oh, and thanks Arch for letting me play on your trike ... great fun ... :biggrin:

No worries - I hope I didn't injure you fighting you off from a second go....:sad:

Obviously, my memories of the night are limited, but they include the fantastic site of cyclists arriving in little bunches at the Minster, lights bobbing, and the lady pushing a bike on the pavement by Hull road who asked what was going on. I shouted "Ride to the coast!" and someone else shouted "Come with us!" and she replied "I would, if I wasn't slaughtered!"

It sounds like a fantastic trip. I hope it'll be repeated?

I was impressed to see Uncle Phil fairly early on the Knavesmire, he having got a lift back, and nice to catch up with Danny later in the day and Hulver on Sunday, on the CTC Grand Charade (parade my foot, it's all gone to the dogs...)
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
Oh, and is the route available anywhere? I sort of know the area towards the bridge, but a good route would be great to have, and that track looks nice.
 

hulver

Fat bloke on a bike
Location
Sheffield
I've uploaded my gps track here

I'm sure it could be shrunk down a bit from it's quite large size, but you should be able to upload it somewhere like BikeHike and have a look at the route we took.

And also see me apparently doing 70mph inside the bridge cafe. :sad:
 

TimO

Guru
Location
London
hulver said:
I've uploaded my gps track here

I'm sure it could be shrunk down a bit from it's quite large size, but you should be able to upload it somewhere like BikeHike and have a look at the route we took.

And also see me apparently doing 70mph inside the bridge cafe. :rofl:

I ran it through GPSBabel to reduce the number of data points to 1000, and converted it to a GPX file. I've uploaded it to here on GPSies. If anyone wants that GPX file, or one with a greater or fewer number of points, feel free to ask, it only takes a few seconds to do the conversion.

(The command I used was: gpsbabel -i gtrnctr -o gpx -f "FNRttC-York-Cleethorpes.tcx" -x simplify,count=1000 -F FNRttC-York-Cleethorpes_simplify1000.gpx).
 

mcshroom

Bionic Subsonic
I ran it through Quo and boringly produced a road map pdf of it, oh well I'll catch up with this new fangled stuff eventually :rofl:

Thanks Simon and everyone for the great ride on Saturday. I've just got back near a computer but the memories haven't faded - especially Arch's trike up on two wheels when admin turned the corner too fast :o)

Glad to hear everyone managed to get back ok. My train (the 9 30 ish one) crawled as slowly as the driver dared to Scunthorpe, and just managed to lose enough time for the line to have been reopened when we got to Scunthorpe, so my train did get through, but it was still worrying. That bar in the station seemed a little lively too.

I really enjoyed the ride, and I'll now have to work out a cheaper way of getting to London to join up with a few more rides.
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
mcshroom said:
I ran it through Quo and boringly produced a road map pdf of it, oh well I'll catch up with this new fangled stuff eventually :smile:

Thanks Simon and everyone for the great ride on Saturday. I've just got back near a computer but the memories haven't faded - especially Arch's trike up on two wheels when admin turned the corner too fast :smile:

Hmm, I think I missed the two wheels bit, probably a good thing....

Any chance you could let me have a copy of the map pdf? I'm also not up to scratch with GPS thingies. I'll PM you my email, if I may.
 
Not many people know this but...Stu always travels with underwater breathing apparatus and parachute in his backpack - to meet all eventualities. Here, he is contemplating a dive, while dellzeqq is looking for the scrote who stole most of his spokes...
'Ah, Cleethorpes mon amour!' (Any update on the GBH woman in the pub Matt / Andy / Ed? I assume you got her number...) :smile:
339j2c0.jpg
 

threebikesmcginty

Corn Fed Hick...
Location
...on the slake
Aperitif said:
'Ah, Cleethorpes mon amour!' (Any update on the GBH woman in the pub Matt / Andy / Ed? I assume you got her number...) :biggrin:
339j2c0.jpg

Yeah, we got her number. It was tattooed on her arm with all the other useful info she needs to recall throughout the day - name, address, etc.

I'm still having therapy to get over the whole unsavourly business - had two pints of it last night :smile:
 
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