FNRttC London to Brighton Friday 25th July 2025

[LucretiaMyReflection]

Just over a week to go before the Brighton night ride.
Registration here
https://www.thefridays.cc/rides/london-to-brighton-25-july-2025

 

[lazybloke]

Anyone doing this, @Shadow, @StuAff, @Dogtrousers, etc? I registered late but hope to be there circa 11.30 or so.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Yup. Getting ready

 

[Shadow]

See you there!

 

[StuAff]

Will be on my way when the (delayed) train arrives...

 

[lazybloke]

Fab! An extreme lack of enthusiasm on my part, due to tiredness, but i had a word with myself and am on the train

 

[Dogtrousers]

I took am on a train.

 

[StuAff]

Problems with the Southampton line completely SNAFUd my options for getting to Waterloo, or near enough. Waited until 2225 & not one train had turned up. So, no option but to ride home. Thanks to tailwind, got back just before midnight (20 miles ..). A plan had come to mind. Decanted some of the load, set phone alarm...Woke at 3am, had the sandwich & apple I'd bought for pre-ride food....out the door again 0345, and made steady but rapid progress east. On the ramp up to the Marina Spoons at 0730, 14 mph average. Waiting for everyone else to arrive....

 

[LucretiaMyReflection]

Problems with the Southampton line completely SNAFUd my options for getting to Waterloo, or near enough. Waited until 2225 & not one train had turned up. So, no option but to ride home. Thanks to tailwind, got back just before midnight (20 miles ..). A plan had come to mind. Decanted some of the load, set phone alarm...Woke at 3am, had the sandwich & apple I'd bought for pre-ride food....out the door again 0345, and made steady but rapid progress east. On the ramp up to the Marina Spoons at 0730, 14 mph average. Waiting for everyone else to arrive....

Darn, I took the fancy pastry and straight to the train option so missed you. Bit of an Acts of Railway you had there.
I've made a Fridays ride album for photos from the ride.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/eDZTgVXhG3C9EB2Z7

 

[StuAff]

On a (good lord) working train service. Got to the station at 1035, thought I'd missed the thirty something past the hour Southampton service & would have to wait for the Portsmouth one on the hour, but it was 1043, so didn't have to wait. Any dwindling thought of riding home was terminated by the combination of mahoosive headwind & precipitation. Good to catch up with some peeps I haven't seen in a while, or as little as a couple of weeks A mere 70 miles since leaving work!

 

[Dogtrousers]

I think I've done around 40 FNRttCs but I reckon that I could count the number of @StuAff -less ones on the fingers of one hand.

The Fridays London exits become more furtive and backstreety as time passes. I think I like it. We wiggled and wobbled our way to Farthing down. One rider fell on the descent, but she reported she was OK. We crossed the M25 at Burstow and I spent a fair bit of the next 5km or so on my own in the spooky dark when I left the rear group.

Burstow Scouts were fab with the butties as usual. Ditchling Beacon was ruled out because of roadworks. We turned right at Turner's Hill and headed off through Cuckfield in the direction of Devil's Dyke. There are some speedy bits on this route and we seemed to move at a fairly brisk pace by Fridays' standards. We were at the top of Devil's Dyke at or just after 7. I left the group there, went back down DD and headed off to Burgess Hill for a train.

I'm now on delivery-waiting-for duty, struggling (not always successfully) to stay awake.

 

[StuAff]

Delay Repay claim submitted. Not for actual trains I was actually on, but the idea that someone can buy a ticket from Station A to Station B, stop off at a third station en route (for a legitimate break of journey), buy a ticket from a fourth station to another en route (because that's the one handy for work, and because that first ticket wouldn't cover that station)…makes computer say no. If need be I might have to interact with a human to get some money back.

 

[lazybloke]

I ignored feelings of unusual tiredness before turning up to this edition of the FNRttC.
As expected, I felt fine once on the bike, and enjoyed chatting away as we made our way south.

But there were few signs I wasn't quite right, particularly not being able to finish the halfway food.
Decided to call it a day at Turners Hill when I wave of dizziness hit me.

Was making my way towards Three Bridges station when my half-time sarnies decided to make a reappearance; felt quite a lot better after that, and really enjoyed the gorgeous morning sunshine as I rode back home towards Leatherhead.

Was sad to miss the route revision into Brighton, but managed a respectable distance of 115km/71 miles.

Was great to see familiar and new faces.

 

[StuAff]

I ignored feelings of unusual tiredness before turning up to this edition of the FNRttC.
As expected, I felt fine once on the bike, and enjoyed chatting away as we made our way south.

But there were few signs I wasn't quite right, particularly not being able to finish the halfway food.
Decided to call it a day at Turners Hill when I wave of dizziness hit me.

Was making my way towards Three Bridges station when my half-time sarnies decided to make a reappearance; felt quite a lot better after that, and really enjoyed the gorgeous morning sunshine as I rode back home towards Leatherhead.

Was sad to miss the route revision into Brighton, but managed a respectable distance of 115km/71 miles.

Was great to see familiar and new faces.

Glad you're (hopefully) feeling better & made it home safely. There was speculation at Spoons that the sarnies caused the issue, but from this it seems not.

 

[StuAff]

Delay Repay claim submitted. Not for actual trains I was actually on, but the idea that someone can buy a ticket from Station A to Station B, stop off at a third station en route (for a legitimate break of journey), buy a ticket from a fourth station to another en route (because that's the one handy for work, and because that first ticket wouldn't cover that station)…makes computer say no. If need be I might have to interact with a human to get some money back.

…and it got rejected. Appeal form does not allow the correct ticket information to be entered (just like the first one), and a 250 character limit for notes (pretty useless). So I've now submitted information via their contact form- which did include a section for delay repay. Why they couldn't include that on the rejection message…pass.