Night Ride Carlisle - Newcastle 19-Sep-2014
- Thread starter mcshroom
- Start date
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A fantastic ride - great to meet so many new people!
My first group night ride was an odd, almost dreamlike experience, but one which has given me new appreciation for the merits of riding after dark. The quiet buzz of tarmac, the absolute silence when you stop, climbing hills without seeing how far you still have to go
The fantastic cake and moral support by @mcshroom and @User10119 was very much appreciated
I'll definitely be up for more night rides! (although next time I'll need to come up with a better lighting strategy, and maybe work out alternative transport, thanks to the train fare from Newcastle to Edinburgh
)
Ed
P.S. Having now looked at the map I am extremely glad I didn't try to ride back to Berwick.
My first group night ride was an odd, almost dreamlike experience, but one which has given me new appreciation for the merits of riding after dark. The quiet buzz of tarmac, the absolute silence when you stop, climbing hills without seeing how far you still have to go
The fantastic cake and moral support by @mcshroom and @User10119 was very much appreciated
I'll definitely be up for more night rides! (although next time I'll need to come up with a better lighting strategy, and maybe work out alternative transport, thanks to the train fare from Newcastle to Edinburgh
)Ed
P.S. Having now looked at the map I am extremely glad I didn't try to ride back to Berwick.
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Those of a sensitive nature might not want to read this post 
This was a brilliant night ride (writing as a veteran of a number of these ones, but not the Fridays ones). It was also, possibly, the first one of these to be lead from the back!
The weather was kind to us, too kind at the start, the hills out of Carlisle were a very warm slog, not what you expect for around midnight in September. There was very very little, or no wind. It did rain, but only really as we approached Hexham and a little after we stopped.
I also found it exceptional in that a) I didn't feel, at any point, like puking (not even when we got into a impromptu chain gang), b) didn't hit the black hole of dispair anywhere along the route (not even at 03:00, the usual time for me to hit it) and my legs behaved themselves all the way around! I also managed to avoid the "lets have a rant at some luckless rider", which, as others will tell you, usually happens at least once. I think this is probably down to Mcshroom and CL providing the much needed coffee and cake stop (even if one of the cake choices was coffee cake!)
Looking forward, now, to the end of October and the one to Whitby (and it has renewed my resolve to sort out the ones for next year, something I haven't been on the ball with for this year's)
Thank you all that attended, good to meet new faces and to catch up with old friends. Thank you all for bearing with me as I crawled along, this being my longest ride to date this year.
Oh and the Frost River Gunflint Trail pack worked brilliantly, shall be using that instead of rack+panniers in Catalonia next year.
This was a brilliant night ride (writing as a veteran of a number of these ones, but not the Fridays ones). It was also, possibly, the first one of these to be lead from the back!
The weather was kind to us, too kind at the start, the hills out of Carlisle were a very warm slog, not what you expect for around midnight in September. There was very very little, or no wind. It did rain, but only really as we approached Hexham and a little after we stopped.
I also found it exceptional in that a) I didn't feel, at any point, like puking (not even when we got into a impromptu chain gang), b) didn't hit the black hole of dispair anywhere along the route (not even at 03:00, the usual time for me to hit it) and my legs behaved themselves all the way around! I also managed to avoid the "lets have a rant at some luckless rider", which, as others will tell you, usually happens at least once. I think this is probably down to Mcshroom and CL providing the much needed coffee and cake stop (even if one of the cake choices was coffee cake!)
Looking forward, now, to the end of October and the one to Whitby (and it has renewed my resolve to sort out the ones for next year, something I haven't been on the ball with for this year's)
Thank you all that attended, good to meet new faces and to catch up with old friends. Thank you all for bearing with me as I crawled along, this being my longest ride to date this year.
Oh and the Frost River Gunflint Trail pack worked brilliantly, shall be using that instead of rack+panniers in Catalonia next year.
OP
OP
mcshroom
Bionic Subsonic
- Location
- Egremont, Cumbria
Thank you again Tiermat for agreeing to lead the ride. It was just a week or so to early for me to lead it unfortunately (let back on a bike by the surgeon yesterday )
For those wondering about the October ride, it's a night ride from York to Whitby, being organised on Hallowe'en over on YACF. More information can be found over there
)For those wondering about the October ride, it's a night ride from York to Whitby, being organised on Hallowe'en over on YACF. More information can be found over there
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