Northampton ride to London Saturday 24th March

[CharlieB]

Thank you Adam et al, for a lovely day out, with thankfully not too many no ferocious inclines. Some lovely towns and villages in a part of Bucks I'm not familiar with, although born and grew up in the county.

Re; the roads - the county council's published policy is 'We're working on it'.
Which basically means that they'll spend two days patching up my and other quiet residential streets (not too bad in relative terms), totally ignoring the heinous state of the main Amersham-Berko road through the town.

Good lunch stop choice, and I'll definitely try a circular from Chesham soon to there.

81½m for me, although I had to peel off at Stanmore, due to getting cold and not having adequate lights, I felt, to tackle the melée that is the Edgware Road. Rode into Northwick Park the following day to get 100+ for the weekend.

As I'm in Northampton for a couple of days this weekend for a radio conference, the tips on local sights from IanMac will come in useful, ta muchly.

 

[srw]

For those worried about the state of Bucks roads - they are working on it. Only last year they resurfaced the road between Little Chalfont and Chalfont St Giles - a dozen houses, none of which will go for less than a million or so. Last week they took a whole week to redo Chiltern Avenue in Amersham. Which runs straight past the Chiltern Council offices. It looks as if they're onto the A404 between Amersham and Little Chalfont next. At that rate they ought to be out in Wing by -ooh- 2050.

 

[velovoice]

That was a fab day out - thanks Adam for a great route and for keeping us moving along as a group. Great company - I think someone's already correctly described it as a rolling party. And the lunch stop was perfect.

Just under 50 miles for me, for the day. Then another 32 yesterday with a local group - much slower pace but the leader did manage to lose the back end of the group at a busy junction in Bromley.

Fantastic weekend all in all - I find myself at work on Monday a little tired, a little sore, a little stiff, but a lot happy.

 

[Davywalnuts]

A few questions, some remain unanswered

Why were Davywalnuts famous legs "not up to it"

Yes, ah ha.. sorry...

But yes, it looked like a great ride, loving the photos...

My legs, well, they had not fully recovered from Wednesdays heavy weight and stability legs session at the gym and that I woke up Saturday morning in a bed unknown to me and neither where I was.. but mainly my hamstrings were still cramping up, partly due to my hydration technics Friday night... ahem....

 

[ianmac62]

Sorry Stu, only joshing.

Anyway, I've found the answer to your dreams, a carbon fibre pannier rack.

Went on the Stevenage "Start of Summertime" Audax yesterday. A chap at the start had one of these. His mates were really taking the pee out of it. And it slowed him down, not because of its weight, but because every few miles he had to stop to check it was perfectly aligned.

Again, thanks for your company on Saturday. And thanks for the photos. And thanks to FD. Looking forward to LonJoG.

 

[ianmac62]

As I'm in Northampton for a couple of days this weekend for a radio conference, the tips on local sights ...

The website for the Charles Rennie Macintosh house is here: http://www.78derngate.org.uk/

Much of the original fund-raising was done by Keith Barwell, who is also chairman of the Saints.

The Bassett-Lowkes moved out from their Macintosh interior after a few years and had the modernist architect Peter Behrens build them a house, "New Ways", on the Wellingborough Road. It's still private - behind a huge hedge. Bassett-Lowke is a name famous in the history of model railways.

 

[ianrauk]

Was there a book runnning for the weight of Stuey's rucksack?

 

[User10571]

Was there a book runnning for the weight of Stuey's rucksack?

Balloons.
I reckon that's what he's got in there.
Balloons filled with air from his planet.

 

[Flying Dodo]

Like I said, I think Stu's bag was almost empty, as I had to rein him in a couple of times.

On 14th April, there's srw's Amersham ride, so as another part of everyone's extensive LonJoG training schedule*, I'm working on another route which will be about 10% hillier (no pain, no gain remember). I had wanted to look at Wellingborough, but there's an issue with trains, as there's only 2 per hour from St Pancras, and in theory no more than 2 bikes per train.

So, as Northampton is convenient and very train/bike friendly, I'm working on another route starting from there, which goes more to the east, but will be a similar distance of around 78 miles, probably for Saturday May 12th. For the weekend of 26th/27th May, you should look at doing 2 consecutive days of around 50 miles each, which should set you up nicely for the Tour, so I might look at a flat (yes really) Kent ride and something else.


* and no, I don't mean a DavyWalnuts "drink until I pass out and wake up in a dodgy bedsit somewhere in suburbia covered in odd scratches and no clothes" sort of training schedule.

 

[Davywalnuts]

HAHAHAHAHA!!! FD, Just almost wet myself laughing. No scratches this time however...

 

[CharlieB]

I'm going to throw my hat into the ring here and offer one as well. I'll start a new thread if there's interest.
Possibly Sat 19th May, a circular from Chesham out to Buckingham for lunch (lots of nice pubs and the like) and back. Only serious hills are at the start and end of the day, as much of it's across the flat Vale of Aylesbury. That would make it quite quick, and most of the roads are not too narrow. (the condition of Buckinghamshire roads notwithstanding, idem)
The version I've done on my own is about 71m, but by the time I've done a couple of tweaks to avoid central Aylesbury it would be about 75-80m.
Chesham's on the top end of the Metropolitan line, and is a bit slow to get to out of the rush hours, but this could equally start/finish at Amersham for a faster Chiltern service out of Marylebone.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Only 355g!! Amazing.

Sorry, I mean £129.99!! Outrageous.

Heavier and more expensive than a tubus fly, which has an 18kg capacity.

Sounds and looks like you had a great day out while I was getting slaughtered, sans bike, in Plaistow, Farringdon, and St. Pancras.

 

[Aperitif]

Heavier and more expensive than a tubus fly, which has an 18kg capacity.

Sounds and looks like you had a great day out while I was getting slaughtered, sans bike, in Plaistow, Farringdon, and St. Pancras.

At only 369 grams (stainless) and 341g 9steel) the FLY is a carrier for purists, who expect minimum weight combined with maximum benefits.

Add in some fixings and it's a tight call, ref! Ideally, strap one of those carbon fibre Tim things to each arm and carry loads of stuff - without spoiling the nice (Italian - other countries are available) lines of one's bisickle.

 

[wanda2010]

I'm going to throw my hat into the ring here and offer one as well. I'll start a new thread if there's interest.
Possibly Sat 19th May, a circular from Chesham out to Buckingham for lunch (lots of nice pubs and the like) and back. Only serious hills are at the start and end of the day, as much of it's across the flat Vale of Aylesbury. That would make it quite quick, and most of the roads are not too narrow. (the condition of Buckinghamshire roads notwithstanding, idem)
The version I've done on my own is about 71m, but by the time I've done a couple of tweaks to avoid central Aylesbury it would be about 75-80m.
Chesham's on the top end of the Metropolitan line, and is a bit slow to get to out of the rush hours, but this could equally start/finish at Amersham for a faster Chiltern service out of Marylebone.

In the diary!

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Add in some fixings and it's a tight call, ref! Ideally, strap one of those carbon fibre Tim things to each arm and carry loads of stuff - without spoiling the nice (Italian - other countries are available) lines of one's bisickle.

My fly enhances the look of my bike like an ear ring on a pretty person.