Thursday Night Ride to the Coast April 9th

[Aperitif]

Cooo-eeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
- MacBludgeon - thanks for the compliments. I'll think of something totally inappropriate later by way of a match report, but I hope you are bitten by the FNRttC. It is just so exhilarating to arrive at the coast of England's green and pleasant land and breathe in the buffeting scent of fried bread and publican's roll-up. Mmmmmmm!

The moment of truth, reached opposite the Swiss Re building in London (The Gherkin). You gave yourself a big task yesterday my friend - and achieved it. Good on Davywalnuts, ilovebikes and Radius who comprised the 'arrival' group - plenty of laughs - and SigSprinter () and ChrisKH - Cycle Chat's very own 'Sunny' and 'Cherry' - who led us to safety out of Sarfend.
Anyway MacBludgeon - well done. You have gone from golfer to Centurion Cyclist in six months which is a big achievement. I know the course we followed had 18 holes every kilometre but I do wish you would stop shouting "Fore!" every time you pull away from the traffic lights...
Last night I was very tired. The rain was heavy at the end and my ear hadn't seen the pillow since 04:00 on Thursday morning. I ate a cake, drank three cups of tea, demolished a tube of Pringles, bathed and walked Jack the Dog. A normal hour's walk took me 50% longer and I was shattered. (I think I caught something from topcat1...hello Dave )
More later. Technicalities of the day await, beginning with another pot of coffee on the stove!

 

[MacB]

brilliant pic Martin, that is one seriously big cheesy grin, really gets how good I felt. Knees feling better again, will do a few gentle miles, today, with the boys, if the rain lets up. My eldest is getting a bit miffed with how easiy I outstrip him now. I sense another bike required, I think he likes the look of a crossbike.

 

[TimO]

This is the route we took on Thursday night. It's from my backup GPS, an I-gotU logger, which was buried in my pannier, so the trace isn't terribly accurate. I've removed and corrected the more gratuitous errors.

Bikely appears to extract the elevation data from the GPS information (presumably only when it's available), and for this track it's an utter work of fiction! We are apparently 500 foot below see level at one point!

At some point I'll replace this with a better plot from the Satmap Active 10, but the battery ran out at one point, so there is a gap before I noticed and replaced it, so I'll use the I-gotU information to fill that hole. The Active 10 will produce a much better track, with reasonably accurate altitude information as well!

 

[ChrisKH]

Well I'm still to do my first hundred. But at least I know it's a distinct possibility even with a bad knee and the practice of spinning over grinding meant the symptoms didn't hit proper until the last ten miles. A bit more practice and a better bike and I'm there - can't have McBludgeon beating me on that front (well done btw).

 

[TimO]

Here is the substantially more accurate route, taken from the Satmap Active 10. I had to copy the bit of trail around Stanford-Le-Hope that was missing, but otherwise it's pretty much as recorded. I did have to run it through GPSBabel to reduce the number of data points, since 18000 points is more than Bikely is willing to deal with.

 

[Flying Dodo]

Before this, I didn't understand quite how hilarious it could be to make someone come back up a descent they just did, solely for the purpose of laughing at them when you tell them they're going back down again....and I still don't.

I think Simon realised you were finding the ride too easy, so he was trying to tire you out.

Still, well done for riding all the way back.

 

[Tony]

Topcat, that is a BIG jacket in that pic of me!

 

[Radius]

I think Simon realised you were finding the ride too easy, so he was trying to tire you out.

Still, well done for riding all the way back.

Thanks, I think he'll have to do a bit better than that

 

[Mista Preston]

Hello all. Just wanted to say a big thank you to all for making my first night ride and first time over 30 miles such a great experience. I managed 65 miles in the end so I am going to try to get over 100 next time out.

The night started for me in Bromley meeting Mr Allsop and Ilovebikes at the tap Only problem was Mr Allsopp was very ill. Anyhow he got us up to HPC and then was very sick again. Exit Mr Allsopp!.

So thank you to all I met along the way, chatted too, swapped stories and generally made the whole night a great evening out !. Lastly thank you to Simon and all the route directors and tail end charlies for making such a well organized ride run so smoothly.

I hope to convince myself that I can do Brighton next so I hope to see you all again.

Many thanks
Clive

 

[mike e]

Hi all,

What a great ride, it had all the right ingredients - company, weather, Southend's own welcoming comittee, and most importantly breakfast. In fact the Rose was so nice that four of us didn't leave there till way past 10 o clock.

Thanks to Simon, User10571, Adrian and all the other Navigators, TEC's and mobile signposts.

Congrats to all the newbies who made the ride, some who had never ridden at night or any great distance before.

Looking forward to the next episode of FNRttC.

Bye for now,

Mike.

 

[Aperitif]

Southend. Home to the Longest Pleasure Pier in the World. The latest venue for the Nightriders under the Moon. Egged on because of the impending Easter holiday, this ride took place on Thursday at midnight. In retrospect, this was impeccable consideration, as the weather on Friday / Saturday was grim.
So, off we went, with arallsopp unfortunately sick just before kick off, joining User1314 in the Nurses Arms until next time. A gentle roll through London 's streets, followed by a lot of passing banter along Mile End Road and outwards.
Cheam CTC had obviously pulled out all the stops for this one and the waymarkers were urging us onwards toward the Coast

Showing the way forward!
Regrouping adjacent to the cinema complex at Ilford, Radius and ilovebikes even found time to chat with Kermit the Frog who popped up.

Now, I'm not saying spot the muppet - oh no..! (© John Major)
Junction 31 of the M25 duly appeared on the flattish horizon and signalled refreshments. Luckily, coachloads of school age boys on football tour were exiting the cafeteria as we arrived - phew!
Mandy was doing her stuff behind the counter at Café Ritalin and Adrian was bystanding. It is impossible to see from this picture that he had selected, licked and nibbled a pecan twist from another place before deciding that he fancied a muffin from Mandy. Whoever got the pecan twist - moist wasn't it? No further comment about the muffin.

(Only joking about the pecan twist by the way...it was an almond one!)
Plenty of people attended this ride, and, as MacBludgeon said - plenty of nice conversation and an easy pace for the most part...only one or two hilly bits but nothing substantial. Apologies at this point to a

"gentleman who looks like Santa Claus and his stoker - a slender young woman of surpassing beauty and fierce intellect." (© Simon Legg 2009 - but true. wink.)

<by the names of wowbagger and notsototalnewbie - I did a dig in yacf> I performed a lousy bit of cycling and took my eye off the pace of things in front and ended up 'undertaking' them - which was crap, so sorry about that you two.
Saved me piling into someone I suppose but not particularly good. We had enough stops to keep the group together. Take note all you who seem apprehensive; as long as you feel comfortable with the distance and are adequately protected against the elements, the Leader and his co-equipiers care for you all the way. Go for it if you are thinking about something different!
Birdsong is the first sign, a crack of day 'breaking' - somewhere over there the next...followed by finely tuned gurgles as breakfast at the Café loomed.

As the Friday morning freewheelers cycled along the seafront, they were mindful of the local byelaws.

The Rose Restaurant
Just as everyone stashed their bikes the miserable alehouse cock from next door announced 'can you get rid of those bikes - gotta delivery coming in a minute..?' So we moved them. Then the lorry wanted to reverse across our breakfast table - we moved that, and lastly moved all the bikes that were stacked out into the 'path' of this constipated (well, there must have been some reason for him to have been...hang on, there were three miseries by this time - his mate was charming also...) driver.

Whitedraymanvan concealed the bikes from view - a nice selection of wheels! I wasn't going to let all those Garmins, Polars, and lights (Let alone Lightspeeds, Specializeds, Scotts et al) out of my sight!
Oh! And then I finally got to see my breakfast - take a look User1314, this is what you were missing!

A small plate of 'Crockery'
You'll see no meat on my plate but there were sausages, and bacon to be had with others' nosh. Notice the chips. Davywalnuts ate two breakfasts as he didn't want to feel 'uneven'.
On the promenade, the day was beginning for the proprietors of Southend seafront.

The rockshop, seen here from the upstairs window of the restaurant...

...and Tony won a SuperShapeshifter (TM) device from the amusement arcade next door...he was working out how to use it...
Sig sensed a moment was imminent and reached for her camera.
And then it was over! MacBludgeon patiently waited for Davywalnuts to attend to his 'comfort needs' and we would be away.

The plan was to let ChrisKH lead us out comfortably from the Coast to somewhere anonymous, give a brief description of how to get to Upminster-ish and say ta ta! The goodbyes worked perfectly! Then we had a dose of spatio-directional difficulty in Basildon. Even a helpful explanation from the manageress in Staples office store (thank you) was not enough to help as I had forgotten by the time I crossed back over the road...We spent so long umming and ahhing, I was feeling a Basildon bond. But that's nothing to write home about so we'll move along...to Billericay! Then, in homage to Dayvo of this forum, to Brentwood, where we parted company with Sig - not before a peckish Davy had decided that a little snack of cherry cake would be just the thing for a growing boy.

Who said let them eat cake?
All this while, Alastair - MacBludgeon of the boards was finding it difficult. Trying to do 100 miles is not for everyone. It needs a certain determination. Couple this with a bodyclock makeover in the form of a midnight ride to the Coast and it gives the perfect recipe for fatigue. Except that we wouldn't let him be tired - well, only for short periods at a time. In fact the description 'determined ba$tard' springs to mind - as we now know. Anyway, the Davywalnut pee breaks gave everyone a 15 minute breather each time. We had two hours rest in a four hour journey...

ilovebikes pulled himself together to rack up yet another 100 miler, Radius and Davy too.

Radius drafting-as usual.[/I] Just when he got 100 miles 'up'.
Our maiden centurion MacBludgeon is a man from Hampshire where a busy commute is indicated by a pile of fresh dung in the carriageway opposite. Ho ho ho! The A12 - route One into Londres! It was a nature trail par excellence, with lesser spotted Dentressangles and Stobartus Eddieus Maximus in abundance. It was noisy but the weather was holding and, after picking up meds and refreshment...

...where Davy fell in love at first sight...
...we toured into town with MacBludgeon racking up the miles in relative comfort. Bow flyover posed no problems, we saw Stratford under construction, we were still cycling, it wasn't all rolling countryside with squashed animals in the road - it was urban - but cycling it was.
Waterloo under the rain came into view after a minor detour through Aldwich and we said "Goodbye MacBludgeon, hello Burger King!" Monsieur Walnuts went berserk as he was ravenous (again) by this time. I guarded the bikes until the youth returned and got a brew of coffee. Bliss! The weather had turned miserable - as if to signal the end of the day, and we parted - Andy and Jack Southbound, Davy and I to the West, but not before a new bike rack was invented.

"Three doors"
Thanks to all for the organisation - and to the Company of Returnees, thanks and well done! See you all (and more) next time I hope!
And, because I manage to keep clear of the photostuff usually, here's when I got 160 kilometres on the 'clock' - FNRttC is hell - everyone talks in miles!

Thanks again all,

E&IE

 

[Radius]

Radius drafting-as usual. Just when he got 100 miles 'up'.

Oi!

Nice write-up M.

 

[Speicher]

Who is the handsome bloke in the last photo of your write up, Aperitif?

 

[Aperitif]

It's a narcissy...I

 

[Speicher]

Nah, you're not a cissy!