"Park and Ride" Saturday 24th October

[clivedb]

A lot of parks! and a lot else besides!

Thanks very much to you all for a great ride - special mention of course to Aperitif who did so much - even if I was cheated on the raffle - in fact I never win, however benign the odds. All very imaginative and I have the wrapping paper and Mistral's unique card as a memento.

I await the longer reports and the photos but this was a fascinating route with a lot of different attractions - urban sites and river views - all framed in autumn colours.

And did I mention the company?

 

[Tollers]

Just to reiterate above sentiments ....thanks to all. I doubled my maximum milegage covering 70 miles door to door. I wouldn't have even tried it without you lot.

TT for suggesting this ride to me
Aperatif for his stirling planning and route
Mikee for continual entertainment
Davy for leading the way to chicken burgers
Sig for moist cake
Mistral for souvenier postcard
and the rest of you for being great company.

I look forward to next time

Tollers

Tollers

 

[Aperitif]

Well, we didn't do it. It was a sad moment, but the Jolly Farmer will have to wait for another ride.
Preparation went on throughout the eve before the BIG ride...

The meet at Euston went more or less according to plan - depending on who's plan you were following. I met mikee at Kings Cross and we rolled along to rendezvous point.
Tollers was there and we did the preliminaries like getting coffee and welcoming each other. It was an interesting conversation with the tall blonde in the queue, immediately behind me. The repeatable bit was that she was off to Wales - what a great start to the day!
Anyway, already digressing. Gersh had a puncture and left a message to that effect. Matt had to apply turbo boost as he overslept, and Davy arrived looking like a banana conforming to EU guidelines.

Off we went, Northbound and hit the first traffic jam in 30 seconds. Roadworks on the road to Mornington Crescent. Past my 'office' <euphemism alert> and toward Highgate and into our first of the 'Park and Ride' parks - it was underway, much to my relief!
At the top of Parliament Hill we took five outside George Orwell's house while Des discovered a broken spoke in his back wheel. he didn't make any fuss though (definitely not a 'Desdemona' ) and hoiked the spoke out and continued. A benefit of this ride was that we were never going to be too far from anything - I'm often guilty of being miles away at the best of times but we were well 'protected' in case of emergency, weather etc...
This ride was noteable for its cyclepath use - probably the most I have ever ridden in one hit. we passed Keats' House, traversed Hampstead Heath, inhaling the Autumn and continued touring the NW3 suburbs, mikee and Des O (and Des Res.) posed for a photo

- immediately attracting the attention of Mr Security Man. This bijou property sold for £40 million last year.
And we continued a tour of leafy streets toward Golders Hill Park

Past a never used Tube Station, the Bull & Bush pub and into Sandy Road, the Freud Museum and trailed down to Primrose Hill. (Davy had one of his random moments and disappeared!) Then around Regents Park with zebras and giraffes.
An unexpected demo in Hyde Park was an additional point of interest - Grace tried to make contact with Oxbob, who indicated he might meet us there...but to no avail.
Then a trickle across the figure of Prince Albert and down and out toward Chelsea, Putney and beyond - to Richmond.
The CycleChat emergency service was put to work helping a 'rider down' on the approach to Putney. He raced down the outside of the traffic lane and lost it when a car nudged out. No damage but he was a bit shocked. Five minutes sit down with us around him, followed by our escort service to Putney ensured he was back on track (to Box Hill apparently)
After trafficky moments (sorry), across Putney Heath, we reformed to pass through Roehampton

and enter Richmond Park - for a tea break and a few minutes chit chat.

Davy's custom designed sausage roll - the most expensive pastry shapes in London.
And Lo!
We espied a sight which warranted further investigation...American Football? Cheerleaders? The 'New England Patriots' outfits?!
Working on the principle that 'He who hesitates has lost it' - I ventured forth with camera to capture the evidence for all to see. I knew that New England were due to play Tampa Bay at Wembley and it was not a disappointment to capture this for posterity.

Lost in thought, I began feeling a little patriotic myself...
And then, not wishing to exclude anyone or anything, I invited an oversized buffoon with a huge head and dopey outfit to join in and be photographed.

The Patriot's mascot got in the photo too...
(Prints avilable on receipt of a large SAE )
Broomfield Hill! It always hurts. This sector was the 'transition zone' between the London out and Thames continuation, as designed by mistral. Perfect and I'm not going to describe it - someone else's job. It was good.

Tollers, Sig, User1314, mike e, Davywalnuts and mistral provide the ingredients for a nice photo.

Clive had got his hampton Court. Photo.
He was bent double and re-arranging his bag...
Davy led us to the pub - which had 6x for sale, along with the grub. Service was quick and the raffle had to wait until afterwards. mikee had organised a supplementary 'bonus' prize a very rarely read volume:

The lovely Sig, with her special prize.

Too many contemplative moments during the day, but this is one of the reasons why we rode...

and, although the giant rhubarb had been pruned and laid up for Winter, we still did a circuit of Smiths Lawn and arrived in front of The Long walk.

And so endeth the day...

Footnote: The cheerleaders photo refuses to load properly but does include boots - I'll try again later.

 

[ttcycle]

Well, fresh from cleaning the bike this morning (I wouldn't want 'Teef to get the impression that I am lax with the 'housework' now would I?), I thought I'd post a quick write up.

Have no photos I'm afraid - I don't have Mikee's special indestructible camera-small enough for M15 duties!

Met Sig at Liverpool Street (a tad late, some of us aren't used to getting up so early) and we rode to Waterloo with Sig telling me about her week and the weight of others cake expectations, getting there at 8:05am with no sign of Davy or Origamist. Sig spotted Mistral pedalling up in the distance and the three of us decided to carry on to Euston after we couldn't get through to Origamist on the phone.

Rode up to the Cafe Nero in Euston and saw Mikee and Tollers parked on a bench surrounded by many bikes and wandered in to grab a coffee and by the time I came out it was raining substantially. 'Teef was in denial 'what rain?' whilst trying to redistribute the contents of his laden backpack, which was stuffed full of goodies and several copies of a Park and Ride Tour Guide. We milled about a bit, talked to Tollers about that inevitable thing called work (seems so wrong on a Saturday in leisure time to talk about that) and about the new Ribble bikes. Met Des, Marilyn and Clive (who I'd seen on the Southend night ride I think). We were waiting for Davy, who was somewhere between bed and a road, Origamist coming from the badlands of South London, slightly hungover and having overslept and User1314 who'd suffered ten thousand punctures in one small morning.

Davy arrived on the zebra, looking like an inflatable banana in his waterproofs with a alien like flashing 'showercap' on his helmet. Origamist turned up not much after having timetrialed through London and was as previous reports on here have said 'a stretched out version of Davy'. 'Teef decided it was time to roll on out and as we trundled down to the road off the station entrance User1314 turns up complete with yellow rugby socks and the infamous shorts.

We ride en masse towards Kentish Town with 'Teef pointing out the nerve centre of where he works- we'll know where to send the turd parcels then? Shortly, we arrive at Hampstead Heath, our first park and there is a re-lubing session for Davy's whinning Zebra. 'Teef's route is through a juddering trail - Davy and I comment about how hard it is to steer in the shingles and how much of a full body workout it is. Re-grouped and moving on we soon enough hit a hill as we work our way around Hampstead Heath -groan, up Parliament Hill- Sig saying that she wasn't told about any hills!! I feel pretty much the same as we soldier on towards Orwell's house on 77 Parliament Hill. A brief stop here, for me to cool down and get my breath back and then we descend down the hill- clunk,clunk,clunk- shifting down the the gears -wheeeeeeee!!!!

Soon enough we're trundling along the posh bits of North London - Bishop's Avenue and some associated roads. 'Teef professing that he thinks formal ostentatiousness is more acceptable. More inclines, more undulating roads (read that as hills/inclines of differing sizes) which on the downhills were great - especially since the autumnal leaves were flapping in the wind and getting under tyres. We'd somehow missed a serious downpour and the rain was now a mere refreshing drizzle.

Find ourselves at yet another park (what a surprise!) with protestations that we'd do a big loop to get a couple of miles from where we came from- In Regent's Park we do a lap and head onwards. Sig and I at this stage are musing about imminent food and her cherry cake. Somewhere we get to Hyde Park, roll past a 'Bunker' of a unopened underground station (I think I missed these bits-too busy gassing to Origamist about the cold and the new bike). Find ourselves in Kensington for another park and a brief stop.

Make our way down to Richmond Park through Kings Road with Mikee exclaiming 'Is this Kings Road? I've never been here before!' However, his spirits weren't dampened with Des' explanation that we were going the other end of Kings Road- another time for shopping 'ey Mikee?! Our tyres wheel through a Roehampton estate where 'Teef says akin to Simon that this reminds him of socialist architecture. Arrive at Richmond with Sig noticing that the groups of people out training were a bit mad - I replied that us lot on our bikes today were probably viewed in the same way. We stop for some cake and tea at the roadie cafe (ie££££). Mistral handed out some lovely homemade flapjacks and Sig brings out her famous cherry cake. Des, Davy and myself stand drooling greedily at the cakes on display. 'Teef comments that Davy's choice of refreshment -his sausage roll had to be 'zebra' like. Some eagle eyed person spots a group of cheerleaders in the fields of the park. Unsuprisingly, 'Teef and Davy make their way over for a photocall. Much amusement and piss taking follows on their return to the bench. Apparently the poor mascot is some guy doing community service. We do a lap of Richmond - being too late in the day to be scalped by 'them' aka London Dynamo and yet again my lungs feel as if they've been removed by the time I get to the flat at the top of the long drag of a hill (who's idea was this again?!).

 

[ttcycle]

After Richmond, there was a changeover in ride leader with Mistral looking somewhat puzzled taking the reigns. We ride the back streets of old Kingston Town, bidding fairwell to User1314 who was off to the pub (slacker) and made our way to Hampton Court through Bushy Park. We stop here and look at the gilded gates of Mistral's gaff with another photo opp for tourist Mikee. Funnily, the peleton/eschelon had lined itself up in a row ready for photos and Marilyn took some photos of the CCers here too. There were a few grumbles from someone who shall remain unamed about how the quality of sighseeing had changed with the new ride leader but all was ok now that we were at Hampton. Further on we ride. Regrouping and resting from headwinds, Tollers and I try to convince Davy to come out in full zebra gear to match his bike, unfortunately all we got were some nifty little gloves which were of questionable taste...Davy and I struggle up another hill somewhere and my funniest memory is Davy exclaiming 'you're in the big chainwheel?!!' as I struggle up with my lungs bursting and all red faced - This was not by design, Davy, especially not when my legs were burning through pulling up on the cleats -'heave-ho' and changing to the smaller chainring would have been technically messy ie clipless moment and sliding back down a hill.

Since people were getting hungry, we rode on to Shepperton for our pub stop for late lunch. Along some shared paths- watching my front tyre go orange with the mud...Did I mention we had muddy, gritty bikes? Who would have thought there would be 'offroading'? I forget what the name of the pub was but it promised good british grub. Here a round of chicken burgers, food and beer was ordered and Davy's had somehow dissapeared into thin air. I ordered a cider pork stew which looked nicer than it ended up being- was just ok. The cloud and greyness cleared and shafts of sunlight came through with an accompanying blue sky.

After lunch or before lunch in Davy's case, Mistral dished out some special postcards for the autumnal mousketeer adventure and the raffle was distributed, myself and Sig had four prizes each and poor Marilyn and Clive had no winnings. Mikee brought along a special raffle prize - which went to the lucky Sig-a guidebook for Kingston upon Hull, She was also the lucky recipient of the tour de france jigsaw puzzle and myself some very useful tyre levers and an odd Christmas facts booklet:?:. Thanks again 'Teef - the raffle was excellent- especially with the wrapping paper.

Now we were fed and watered, we made our way to Staines to drop off Origamist at the station with plans to meet TopCat here after work but unfotunately he was stuck out in Teddington as his train plans had gone awry. We double back and head out to Windsor to try and make it for the sunset. Somewhere on the way I spotted a pheasant plodding along on the side of the road. Talked with Mikee about how he got into bikes -cue long story including mtb's and madcap ideas for rides. Thank you to Marilyn and Clive who were unwitting windbreaks for me at this point. We get to Windsor Park where Davy bid us farewell. The line of yellow, red and orange leaved trees, the majestic Japanese Maples juxtaposed with the green fields, lit by the stream of sunlight filtering through was amazing. We did a lap of the Polo fields and just as we were heading into the final section we had a mechanical and turned round - a bead of cold sweat rolled down Mikee's temple as the thought of a ride home to Hull loomed. Cycled back to see Sig's machine on it's saddle being attended to by 'Teef. Jokes about pretalced inner tubes followed as we gleefully watched 'Teef doing all the hard work extracting the almost glued on tyre from the rim and pumping up the untalced tube.

Onwards and upwards, we reached the lovely view at Windsor Park. A few contemplated whether it would really be that illegal to cycle down the 'no bikes in any capacity path' and then with a check on the time decided to try and whizz down to the castle on the legal road for the boozer next to the station. We stop a couple of km from the station and see a dejected Topcat sat by the castle looking bored. (TC - you can post the nightride picture with me and WW if you wish-lol) As the time is so close for Mikee to get back in time for his train there is no bevvie stop and the majority of us decide to go home on the train leaving 'Teef and TopCat to cycle home in true Mouseketeer fashion.

There was what felt like an age that passed as we tried to get a groupsaver for 7 then 6 then 5 people, the queue behind us got lengthier and lengthier as there was much eye rolling from us cyclists. Finally Mikee et al with tickets in hand grumbling that it would be quicker to ride back (also making a couple of pence profit out of us generous few) clambered onto the train. Since we were sat by the toilet there were amusing stories from Mikee about how the toilet has another button to lock the door after he discovered this in the most embarrassing way possible. Sig and Mistral dished out the remnants of the food. Soon-ish we were in Waterloo (minus a few members who departed at different stops) making our own ways home.


So thank you everyone for making it such a great ride. 74.25 miles all in all for me. See you at another one!

 

[ttcycle]

Ah yes the broken spoke, mudguards affair and the rider to Boxhill...forgot about those!

 

[ttcycle]

Is it just me or does that photo with Davey and the cheerleaders look like he's elevated off the floor? lol.

 

[ttcycle]

Great Pics 'Teef and excellent write up! Thanks for putting so much into the ride!

 

[redjedi]

Excellent write-ups TT and Teef. It almost feels as if I was there

From now on you will be our official CC reporter TT, but that will mean a lot more early starts for you

Disappointed I missed out on home made cake and flapjacks, Martins raffle and the cheerleaders (not necessarily in that order) . Not so disappointed about missing the off-roading, mud and rain.

See you all on the next ride (I promise )


In hindsight it was probably a good idea to get too drunk to ride. I just went for a small 5 mile spin to test my arm and it was a bit uncomfortable. I think I need another week before I attempt any long distances.

 

[redjedi]

Is it just me or does that photo with Davey and the cheerleaders look like he's elevated off the floor? lol.

Davy always jumps for joy when he sees young ladies in tight shorts

 

[Aperitif]

Davy always jumps for joy when he sees young ladies in tight shorts

Yes. That's because he's got 'pinch points' built into his...the girls said he would make a good quarterback actually...

...a quarterback and three-quarters front.
There seems to be no end to 'our Davy's' talents: attracting damsels at Hyde Park with his flashing, schmoozing Whitstable wenches and now, "Ra-ra Richmond Park"
In fact, the New England Patriots girls were a bit suspicious that he was a supporter of their opponents today as I'm sure I heard one of them whisper "Look at his Buccaneers..." - well, it sounded like that anyway!

 

[ttcycle]

Excellent write-ups TT and Teef. It almost feels as if I was there

From now on you will be our official CC reporter TT, but that will mean a lot more early starts for you

Disappointed I missed out on home made cake and flapjacks, Martins raffle and the cheerleaders (not necessarily in that order) . Not so disappointed about missing the off-roading, mud and rain.

See you all on the next ride (I promise )


In hindsight it was probably a good idea to get too drunk to ride. I just went for a small 5 mile spin to test my arm and it was a bit uncomfortable. I think I need another week before I attempt any long distances.

Ahh but you see, RJ - you missed out on a stonker of a ride - it was after the boneshaker of a pathway that I found out you were a little too steeped in alcohol to be greeting us on the ride; think a fellow hung-overee - Origamist said it was wisest for you to rest up and it sounds like that was a good plan.

Official reporter - hmm I like the sound of that...anyone prepared to offer me a freelancing job?

 

[mistral]

Another one to treasure.

The world's in turmoil; our financiers & politicians do their best to render our (and most likely our offspring’s) pensions worthless, we have global warming, the arms trade marches on (sorry Mike), we in the west struggle to deal with the waste we generate while those in the developing world continue to struggle.

Against this backdrop, an eclectic bunch somehow manages to assemble despite the vicissitudes of a rambling barely coherent CC thread.

On paper in any case, a potentially dreary urban/suburban cycle ride that meanders through or past (sometimes not even close to) a number of green spaces lifts the hearts of all concerned. A dreary Saturday, grey, wet, and sometimes windy, but the weather becomes irrelevant and is sidelined.

The day is made magical by common purpose, a warm welcom & embrace is given to all who turn up, however late(!). There is banter and jolly japes, support and teasing in equal measure.

The trials and troubles and pressures and stresses of life is nullified.

Until the next one, I thank you all for helping to keep me saner than I may otherwise be.

 

[Aperitif]

despite the vicissitudes of a rambling barely coherent CC thread

I'm nabbing that as a compliment!

 

[mike e]

Hello everyone, I feel quite tired and put it down to the early start and late finish of my day. The end of the day is ok for me, it's early mornings that I don't like. Anyway back to the ride. Great write up from Teef and tt and I notice no Davy appearing on here so I'm guessing.....

1) Another messy night of beer, women and kebabs
2) Still "thinking" about his new "friends" he met in RP

There were many highlights to the day, as ever, and it was nice to meet some new faces. Having said that I think it might be new face as the only person I'd not met before was Tollers....

mike e, nice and easy northern summary:-

people, excellent...a good mix of characters
route, excellent...a lovely sub station in Kingston been a highlight (pic soon)
weather, could have been better but could have been a lot worse
food, excellent...the pub grub scores high again and the 6X (cheers Teef)
raffle, even better than last time, a big effort made with fancy wrapping paper
sightseeing, excellent...more places ticked off in mike e's book of places to visit
"extra's", Mick's postcard, girls in RP, Davy's helmet cover to name but a few

Any lo-lights, hmmmm

Unfortunate TC1 couldn't meet us earlier, so only saw him briefly in Windsor
The train to Waterloo kept stopping giving me nervous moments leading to....
The usual mad dash across town (if I ever puncture on one of these sprints to KX then I'd be knackered in more ways than one - miss train = long ride home)
No beer on the train at all due to Leeds Utd fans, train was very boisterous, trying for a big word there, was just going to use noisy...

So, I will post some pics on Monday night. When's the next???