Thursday Night Ride to the Coast to Felpham 5th April

[redflightuk]

Thanks Simon and everyone for a great night out. Nice to meet you Ian and i'll see you on LonJog.
Enjoyed the route out of town and the rest of the route was great. Like Ian there were times when i couldn't quite get to the group ahead and the lights in my mirror stayed the same distance behind. I only saw one minor mechanical (chain off) which was sorted in seconds and didn't hear of anything major.

Thats my first visit to the Lobster pot and its great, lovely food and friendly staff, after breakfast i headed for Littlehampton and got the train back to Victoria, from there i took my usual route up Dartmouth park hill and Finchley / Barnet / Potters Bar and through the lanes back to the stables. Arrived at 4:30. Gave Red his tea stuck his rug on and put him out then did another 14 miles to bring the total to 201 km for the day. quick bite to eat a cup of tea then bed.

 

[TimO]

... At Clapham Jct I got a seat to Milton Keynes; ... Home just after 3 p.m.

I'm glad to hear you got a seat. I was seriously considering sitting on the floor of the carriage until so many people got on that even that wasn't possible! I managed to get home by about 12-15, and was still tired enough to have a snooze shortly after that. Living in London (OK Croydon) is very beneficial on these rides, since especially for the South ones (Brighton, Bognor etc) I can just get off at East Croydon and be home in five minutes (with a brief chance to try and beat the cars by doing 30+mph along Wellesley Road!). I don't think I'd have been able to stay awake until 3pm, I'd have fallen asleep on the train (and ended up missing my stop!)

... My best memory is of a lengthy stretch between waymarkers somewhere in West Sussex; I was a little faster than a group behind but not as fast as a group ahead so I seemed to be riding for three or four miles totally on my own with just the moon for company; loved it. ...

I've had a few occasions on rides when I've been cycling by myself for a way, and it can be novel, and occasionally quite spooky. On the last sponsored Brighton ride, I was in a group made up as we collected up the waymarkers, and we got separated into two groups, one slightly faster than the other. I found the slower group to be just a little too slow, but couldn't quite catch up with the faster one, so ended up by myself for quite a while, cycling in quite thick fog. I had to resort to using my second light that was fitted to a mudguard boss near the wheel axle, as a fog light, because the main light just reflected straight back off of the fog. It was really weird, because not only was I by myself, but the fog muffled the sound, and hid seeing very much as well! It was a bit like something from a horror movie (no zombies though).

 

[theclaud]

Please don't feel bad, I'm sure you dealt with things professionally given the information you had at the time.

Wot she said. It all happened rather quickly, and it's difficult to give an accurate account of all the elements, if you saw it quite clearly. I recall it as a traffic-light junction (?), and though I didn't catch what the occupants of the car were actually saying, the tone of it suggested harassment rather than idle curiosity. If I'm right in recalling lights, the moments during which driver and passenger were giving us the benefits of their attention would be the same moments during which they should have noticed the lights turning red - by the time they actually made the turn they had been hanging in the right-turn position for long enough to finish what they were saying to us and for the oncoming taxi to be approaching a comfortably green light (?) without slowing. I admit, having established that no-one was hurt, to a small feeling of satisfaction on noting the make of the car. Does that make me a bad person?

 

[ianrauk]

LOL....

don't bloody encourage him.....

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Of all the FNRttC's I've done who would have though that one actually done on a Friday would be the best?

The decision to ride fixed, a gamble to be sure, turned out to be good for mind and body, and, given it was Good Friday, soul as well. Some of my stops and starts were a little inelegant especially when tired around dawn, and the cro-mo forks and cockpit just aren't as forgiving as those on my black bike. No doubt I'll regain the use of the ring finger on my right hand in due course.

On the dual carriageway into Horsham, my arms were shaking uncontrollably with the shock of the cold on exiting the Cabin. FNRttC, and my own nocturnal perambulations around the sham, have taught me two things, it's noticeably warmer in town, and if there is no town, find a hill and you'll warm up.

What a glorious ride from there, the moon, the dawn chorus, cockerels crowing, slush puppies forming and a layer of frost appearing on the 'boot' of the recumbent. Fields were crossed in good order and a jolly little walk was had. Arundel was glorious and the castle glowed in the early morning sun.

A lovely slow flat spin, a discourse on the merits of scaletrix and the vagaries of Victorian signal methods in application to a 21C railway and we were there. Felpham. The Lobster Pot. Perfection on a plate (vegetarian style) Superb flat white. Charming staff though a little short on change. Probably not their fault that last bit; cyclists only carry notes and cards to save weight.

Jim and I had pencilled in a ride home via Arundel. I delayered. We set off. 200 yards later I was in 'sod this for a game of soldiers' and we stopped so I could put some layers back on. Titus caught us and a merry trio wound its way to Arundel without mishap or further ado missed a turning and ended up on the A27 south of Slindon by mistake and exercised the Fairmile Bottom option to climb Bury Hill, thus retracing the route of a former Felpham run. Titus then had the joy of the downhill into Arundel to put a smile on his face and Bil and I continued north on the A29.

Bury Hill. On fixed. With tired legs. As in; down. O.M.G. as my daughter might say.

In Pulborough we encountered a Good Friday Procession at the mini roundabout so seeing it as a sign not to continue along Stane Street I crossed myself to ward off the evil eye of Anglicanism and we went right and grabbed a cup of tea at the White Horse before retracing a little of the route south we had taken hours before.

Top ride home in good company, thanks Jim. A little over 100 miles in all.

Happy daze.

 

[kimble]

Good to meet you, Tim, on that standing journey from
On the Thursday evening, met Kim on the Birmingham-Northampton-Euston train and chatted all journey and so can't report on what videos our fellow-passengers were watching.

I noticed there was someone watching video in the seat in front of the bin. It didn't seem to involve shaving anything, though.

And thanks again for bringing the Clapham Junction to Milton Keynes service to my attention. That would avoid the need to wake up for the ride across central London.

Wasn't the full moon and the glistening of the fields brilliant? My best memory is of a lengthy stretch between waymarkers somewhere in West Sussex; I was a little faster than a group behind but not as fast as a group ahead so I seemed to be riding for three or four miles totally on my own with just the moon for company; loved it.

I get that quite a lot on these rides. A recumbent has different strengths and weaknesses, so it's easy to end up hopping between groups on rolling terrain. My favourite bit from last night was the lovely long stretch of road after Christ's Hospital, where thanks to Stupid Lungs objecting to the cold I wasn't able to maintain anywhere near my usual speed, so just lay back and trundled along, watching the moon setting as the sun rose over the frozen fields.

Who else rode the off-road bit? The path was frozen solid and much more rideable than it has been on previous occasions. I wasn't sure why everyone seemed to be walking it. I also seem to have worked out a relatively simple method of getting the Streetmachine over those kissing gates: rather than a dubious two-person lift of a bike with an unintuitive centre of gravity (SWB 'bents tend to be a lot more front-heavy than people expect), I lift the bike sideways onto my shoulder (resting by the edge of the seat) and simply walk through the gate with instruction from someone who can see what the rest of the bike is doing. Sorted.

As for something out of a horror movie, I didn't see any zombies on this occasion, but I'm fairly sure there was a ninja lurking in the darkness. Or it might have been User10571.

 

[TimO]

As regards cold after the half-way stop, if it is a cold night, I normally carry one extra thin layer to put on at that point, because I know temporarily it'll be a bit cooler. I did that on this run, but mainly because I had it easily to hand, I could have lived without it. I did the first half of the ride in mitts, and probably could have the second half, but as with the extra layer, since I had some thin gloves, I put them on (and they had the benefit of not being egg encrusted).

Most of the bikes (especially if lightweight like Red) go over the stiles easily enough, but the trikes tend to be a bit more of a heave! In the past when I've used the Kaffenback, with pannier and spare stuff, I've taken the pannier off before lifting the bike, since it's steel frame alone is heavy enough without the few pounds of spare tyres and whatnot that I carry in the pannier!

I was happy to ride all of the off-road bit on my 25mm tyres, but had to walk a bit when people got in the way enough to make it impossible to cycle even slowly. That mostly happened at the stiles. Even the icey bit downhill at the start was fun, and I only skidded slightly. I did have the foresight to not take it at full speed, because I knew that a hard stop at the end would be "interesting".

 

[Tigerbiten]

Another fantastic ride.
But I suffered a bit from the cold getting to the trike.
The gears cables half froze so changing the back hub up a bit hit and miss.
Also the oil/gease in both hubs gets a lot thicker when it gets sub-zero and just sucks the energy out of my legs.
I hope I didn't slow you all down to much but the legs where running on empty most of the second half of the ride.

 

[BalkanExpress]

Sounds like a great night out and I'm sorry I missed it, especially as SW20 used to be my 'hood.

Shame about the BMW incident, but if you head off over Wimbledon Common you have to ready for the odd cockwomble

 

[hatler]

I said that to Simon on the ride, I liked this way out of town as well, a lot quieter than usual

But it was a Thursday evening before a four day weekend, so not directly comparable with a Friday night exit down the A24.

 

[thom]

A few pictures from cyclecam

 

[Rube]

Saw the photos...really lovely, but I can now see very clearly...that you guys are truly hardcore! I think I must re-examine myself and be true...there is no way I could have done this. Big respect.

 

[thom]

Saw the photos...really lovely, but I can now see very clearly...that you guys are truly hardcore! I think I must re-examine myself and be true...there is no way I could have done this. Big respect.

From my point of view this was harder than the average ride because it is one of the longer rides and it turned out to be much colder than the average ride. Ok it didn't rain (or snow for that matter) but actually its normally dry.
So you know, the Southend ride at a warmer time of year and when the days are longer is a very different proposition, within reach of even a casual cyclist with a reliable bike and decent lights. The genteel Brighton trip is slower paced for a purpose too.
Never say never ;-)

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Saw the photos...really lovely, but I can now see very clearly...that you guys are truly hardcore! I think I must re-examine myself and be true...there is no way I could have done this. Big respect.

FNRttC always looks full-on in the photo's, but honestly, in real life it is rather more cream egg than granite rock.

 

[StuAff]

From my point of view this was harder than the average ride because it is one of the longer rides and it turned out to be much colder than the average ride. Ok it didn't rain (or snow for that matter) but actually its normally dry.
So you know, the Southend ride at a warmer time of year and when the days are longer is a very different proposition, within reach of even a casual cyclist with a reliable bike and decent lights. The genteel Brighton trip is slower paced for a purpose too.
Never say never ;-)

Hear hear!