FNRttC London to BOGNOR REGIS (okay, Felpham) - 1st September 2017

[StuAff]

[QUOTE 4941256, member: 21629"]It can seem boring - get to start, ride, eat at 1/2 stop, ride again, get to finish, eat, go home.

I don't know if it was a wasp. Well, not a bee (no sting left) and not a hornet (they're almost painless).
That pervert creature decided to land right between my boobies. I didn't like that idea so it was caught without any ceremonies and sent out. But The Creature didn't like my idea and stung my middle finger. Strong burning feeling for about 20 minutes. I think I looked quite interesting standing at the roadside with middle finger in my mouth. Hehehe.

I've done about 175k or almost 110 miles home to home. My Garmin couldn't cope with such gigantic numbers so it refused to work between The Lobster Pot and Brighton train station (we've cycled to Brighton). So all data is approximate and compared to Fab Foodie's as our route from London was identical. Anyway, it's longest ride for me since I moved to UK.

My form was crap, I proudly admit that I walked up to 3 hills, one was that monster 17%, another I don't remember and the last one was right after that meadow cycling. At least my bike is easy to push.

I feel like a pile of destroyed building remains.[/QUOTE]
As ever, you're hard on yourself. Nice one on the mileage- more than me, btw, and I think I did more walking than that. Got baulked by a fellow rider on one climb (the one after the bridge, like yourself), at least a couple of others I've just thought **** this and walked the rest of it.
Bloody Garmins, eh?!!!

 

[StuAff]

[QUOTE 4941271, member: 21629"]Mine isn't bloody. It's got personality.[/QUOTE]
Yup, I know what you mean......every single model seems to have its particular set of (ahem) 'issues' that plague riders. My Edge 705s (plural, I'm on my third) have spontaneously shut down on multiple occasions for no reason whatsoever, decided not to give me directions even though I am following the track anyway, riding to the Hook of Holland from Eindhoven this year it interpreted part of the GPX track I'd done as the crow flies so I had to improvise the route for those stretches....the list goes on and on. And with each and every new device Garmin doesn't sort out those bugs, it just starts on a new set of problems.

Hoping the Hammerhead Karoo proves itself to be as good as it looks to be....

 

[sagefly]

I'm home, thanks to a record-breaking spint up Park Lane and no thanks to Southern Trains.

That's the furthest I've ridden all year by a healthy margin, and the longest ride I've done on The Red Baron by a factor of about two.


So, what were the epic mechanicals? I assume somebody had to find a blacksmith in order to rebuild their frame or something? (Fortunately under Fridays rules they will have been allowed TEC assistance to operate the bellows...) That's the longest overrun I've known that didn't involve an ambulance...

The Park Lane Sprint was epic today, I made it to Paddington in my 3rd best time!

 

[sagefly]

My bold
There's a question to be posed to Stuaff.......
Delighted to hear it was a good ride.
Puncture at the start?
Such pain.
Again.

The positive is we have new riders getting involved, anything that gets people cycling is a good thing, the odd flat tyre very much part of the learning experience.

 

[sagefly]

the rides are gentle.

 

[sagefly]

[QUOTE 4941315, member: 21629"]There are people with various fitness levels. What is easy for one rider can be tough for another.[/QUOTE]
Very true, I'm an encourager for people to cycle, 5 years ago these rides were very challenging for me!

 

[StuAff]

[QUOTE 4941315, member: 21629"]There are people with various fitness levels. What is easy for one rider can be tough for another.[/QUOTE]
My thoughts exactly. Once upon a time......

Summit of Ditchling Beacon, early morning May 9 2009. My first FNRttC, and I think the second-longest ride I'd ever done. The longest being the IOW Randonnee a few days earlier. The bike's long gone, as is much of the stuff I didn't need in that rucksack (which is still going strong). A few others on that ride were first timers too & have since turned themselves into considerably stronger, fitter riders than I. For my part: first century on the first FNRttC to Bognor three months later (on my birthday no less), pride of the fleet (the Viner) bought that same month…From little acorns....

 

[Fab Foodie]

Rye
Chips
Coke
Water

 

[StuAff]

Rye
Chips
Coke
Water

Nice
Job
Mate!

Military Road or a more coastal route next?

 

[User10571]

Epic pics.
'Specially the first two.

 

[stoatsngroats]

Great pics!
I have to ask, in preparation for myself and my OH to join one of these rides next year, is it, you know, the done thing (ahem) to join in on an ebike?
This is most probably the only way we ( one of us, I won't say whom!) would be able to join up!

 

[Fab Foodie]

Morning all!

Just a quickie before I doze off.....
Home at 0255 to find a lone candle burning in the garden to welcome me home and a cold beer (ahhhh @Hill Wimp ). 348km or roughly 220 miles. A PB by 70 miles. :-)
@StuAff correct about Sustrans (ok, I should have known better) causing much delay. The decision to have the Rourke built for durability rather than lower weight was a good one.

The route in essence is a beaut. Fabulous scenery, some challenging climbing as well as some nice lengthy flat bits to get into a rhythm. Recommended.

Lot of quiet thinking about stuff on the way about cycling and why.

Fell a bit battered this morning.

Twas a lovely ride to Bognor, great route, I think the prettiest (thanks @Flying Dodo) and lovely company as always.

Laters darlings, laters....

 

[Flying Dodo]

Great pics!
I have to ask, in preparation for myself and my OH to join one of these rides next year, is it, you know, the done thing (ahem) to join in on an ebike?
This is most probably the only way we ( one of us, I won't say whom!) would be able to join up!

I don't have a problem with e-bikes - I've electrified my cargo bike for instance.

However my concern would be range. This ride is 72 miles long, so if someone were tempted to use the motor all the time, the battery might not last, especially if it's a cold night. It would also be a heavy bike for lifting over the cow barriers. But those are not insurmountable problems.

 

[mmmmartin]

Great pics!
I have to ask, in preparation for myself and my OH to join one of these rides next year, is it, you know, the done thing (ahem) to join in on an ebike?
This is most probably the only way we ( one of us, I won't say whom!) would be able to join up!

We couldn't give a monkey's how you do it. So long as it's a bicycle. Motorbikes? off the agenda. But if you have a problem with it the TECs might not be able to fix it and that's a problem.

 

[StuAff]

Morning all!

Just a quickie before I doze off.....
Home at 1455 to find a lone candle burning in the garden to welcome me home and a cold beer (ahhhh @Hill Wimp ). 348km or roughly 220 miles. A PB by 70 miles. :-)
@StuAff correct about Sustrans (ok, I should have known better) causing much delay. The decision to have the Rourke built for durability rather than lower weight was a good one.

The route in essence is a beaut. Fabulous scenery, some challenging climbing as well as some nice lengthy flat bits to get into a rhythm. Recommended.

Lot of quiet thinking about stuff on the way about cycling and why.

Fell a bit battered this morning.

Twas a lovely ride to Bognor, great route, I think the prettiest (thanks @Flying Dodo) and lovely company as always.

Laters darlings, laters....

Go
Back
To
Bed

What I'm sure didn't help (apart from relying on Sustrans...oops) is that the usual Kentish SMRBtH contingent were absent. They'd have kept to the roads, kept your pace up, and you would not have ended up doing that much extra mileage. I'm sure @User21629 would have helped your pace as far as Brighton, she can shift a bit even though she insists otherwise (even carrying that wrist injury, may it heal quickly) but you were on your own from then. Pretty much every big-mileage trip I've done solo, I've ended up going off-piste at some point because of acts of navigation fail- Garmin cocking up, 'bike paths' turning out to be unsuitable for anything other than a gnarly type on an MTB, etc. Were it me, I'd have double-checked the route with a fine tooth comb (and still got bits wrong), had paper back-ups, and allowed more time than I needed. Case in point: Hastings to Rye. You went up Barley Lane, right? Then that stretch that's pretty much impassable except on foot, before the actually-rather-nice bit through to Fairlight....I'm not going that way again!!