The Fridays Tour

[dellzeqq]

(draws deep breath....) it's a question of numbers. If sufficient people want to take the coach, we'll hire the coach. If not, we won't. When I'm a little more sure about who's going to John o'Groats I'll send out an e-mail to each of you and ask a simple yes or no question - 'do you want to take a coach from Wick to London for £100 or just under?'

I'm also waiting on a response from another, smaller ride arriving in JoG at the same time as us.

When I've got a number I can decide if it's a goer.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

^ I have now spat decaff over my keyboard for the second time in 30 minutes.

 

[srw]

30 bikes, £50k - that's an average of £1667 each. Are you sure they're worth that much?

On average - I wouldn't be too surprised (although I might have been indulging in a bit of rhetorical exaggeration). Think of the number of bits of blingy carbon and titanium you see stacked up outside the Madeira of a morning. They don't come cheap.



(And I ought to confess that there's a possibility that average will be pushed up after we go and view a bike at the weekend...)

 

[Aperitif]

A C50 might be in the region of £4k bare...with rider, priceless and a Planet-X basic Sportive oh hum..about 1667 english pounds. A titanium top spec tandem is going to send the 'mean' into orbit!
Perhaps everyone can pack an inflatable Poundland lilo and inflate same, strapping to each bike for the return by coach. What's packed neatly will not get damaged. Anyone seen the furniture van swallowing bikes after Dunwich?
(Enjoy your bicycle viewing Steven!)

 

[thom]

Some photographic reportage.

The Forth Road Bridge should offer similar vistas.

 

[StuartG]

The more I think about the return issue, the more it becomes a no-brainer.

There are only two options for getting all the bikes back: ride 'em back or arrange private transport. The train is not an option for more than a few people and a risky one at that. So for those not doing the Sunday Ride Back - we have to book transport. Again there are two options:

* All the way to, say, London.
* To Edinburgh (where there is a wider range of options (trains etc) to continue).

Separating riders from bikes has issues that re-uniting requires temporary storage and Dell's dining room or Waverley station forecourt might be found wanting in the 20+ market. So if you follow my logic I don't see any alternative to booking a vehicle(s) that can take both. A coach is the obvious one.

Whatever configuration/destination/cost Dell can come up with will be ideal for some, less ideal for others. The issue is that if those that feel it less ideal then opt-out it makes it more difficult if impractical for doing anything at all. Hence I suggest that people think very carefully before opting out and making their own arrangements. This is a club ride and we should all act in the interest of all club members. That means some making small sacrifices - particularily on the convenience front. If saying I must opt out because I need to be in X on Monday at 9am screws everybody else from being home on Monday or significantly raises the cost - then you are not going to be popular.

I'm not saying that you should not opt out, but please do not put self before the interest of the group as a whole. I'm sure Dell can cope with a few wrinkles for a handful of exceptions. But if the group, as a whole, isn't going to trust Dell to find the optimum solution rather than their own - this ride is going to fall apart (or at least become a little unhappy) before we reach Scotland.

Sorry, but i had to get this off my chest.

 

[AKA Bob]

Well said Stuart

 

[dellzeqq]

I've put my (£5000 if you don't mind, Mr. Teef) bike in the hold of a coach coming back from the Dunwich Dynamo. Steel bikes to the bottom, a blanket, carbon bikes on top, lots of bungee (sp?) straps. People of a nervous disposition could wheedle their bikes in to the van. Wheels would go on the back seat of the coach (or suspended over the frames in the van), and luggage would travel in the seats. Note to self. Why is there a boy in my daughter's bedroom this morning? As you were.

I'm grateful for Stuart's post, but I'm not going to make any one way back compulsory or close to it. I think, having talked to the coach company, that we would be back in London before 9pm on Sunday - although I appreciate that people might have a way to go from there. The van and the coach would travel to the same point, and the bikes from both unloaded - probably by the boy in my daughter's bedroom if he wants to keep his head on his shoulders. If people have to get back south earlier, then the clever thing to do would be to fly, but there would be the option of transporting the bikes (for money) in the coach or the van. I'm not, however, contemplating taking the coach out of its way to Inverness Airport. For you, Stu, the train and bus beckon.

There's also the second van option, which seems expensive, but at £25 a bike it's cheaper and (dare I say) more reliable than postage. Oddly - the price of the van is bumped up to £444 by VAT - coach travel is zero rated.

I do think that if the second ride joins us we will get sufficient to make the coach an economical option. Unfortunately the second ride is being masterminded (ha) by a delinquent teenage BMX rider who thinks nothing of posting pictures of girls in bikinis on these very boards. If I discover that he is the boy in my daughter's bedroom then he'll definitely be doing the Beacon standing on the pedals.......

 

[mistral]

I agree with Stuart - and I'll add my vote to his proposals

He's right to remind us all, this is a club event, Simon does more than enough in the interests of others, gratis. Trying to cover all the bases and make sure everyone is 100% happy is likely to be an impossible task, not to say a huge time commitment.

The coach may not be the cheapest option, but it will almost certainly be the easiest for us to use and Simon to organise.

 

[AKA Bob]

Do you need an official visit?

 

[mistral]

The "boy" is probably a (fine) young man

 

[StuartG]

... the second ride is being masterminded (ha) by a delinquent teenage BMX rider who thinks nothing of posting pictures of girls in bikinis on these very boards.

bu**er my lecture - if that guy has signed any up for the ride - I'm swopping ...

 

[dellzeqq]

The "boy" is probably a (fine) young man

whatever. I'm under strict instructions not to be scary. Does that mean flushing the toilet before putting his head in it?

 

[rvw]

Wilcox duo accommodation now all booked (we think...)

Bingham - East Bridgford Hill
York - Crook Lodge
Derwent - Derwent Manor
Jedburgh - Glenbank Hotel
Kinross - Kirklands
Newtonmore - Ard-na-Coille
Tain - Golf View
Wick - Mackays

 

[dellzeqq]

Wilcox duo accommodation now all booked (we think...)

Bingham - East Bridgford Hill
York - Crook Lodge
Derwent - Derwent Manor
Jedburgh - Glenbank Hotel
Kinross - Kirklands
Newtonmore - Ard-na-Coille
Tain - Golf View
Wick - Mackays

yaaaay!!!!!