FNRttC to Whitstable, 18th October

[deptfordmarmoset]

Well, I can confirm that bunch of Saturday mornings just passed through Deptford. This is the front group and the longest light at the front was Simon's, I believe, but it was all a bit of a blur....

 

[User10571]

Anyone still in the Waterfront?
I'm running a bit late.
Currently between Sittingbourne and Faversham.
No. I didn't oversleep.

 

[ianrauk]

Well, I can confirm that bunch of Saturday mornings just passed through Deptford. This is the front group and the longest light at the front was Simon's, I believe, but it was all a bit of a blur....
View attachment 31036

I thought is was you on the bridge.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I thought is was you on the bridge.

He he, I really shouldn't have been out on a bike after 5 beers. You must have made pretty quick time getting there - you were all pretty spread out along the road.

 

[Beebo]

The rain stayed away all night. It must have rained in front as some of the roads were wet.
The run through London was easy, we were soon in the Medway towns, with the usual comments from drunks on the pavement. A few too many car passengers shouting abuse out of the windows. Simon managed to engineer a rest stop outside Gravesends gay bar.
Food at halfway was great, thanks to the wonderful helpers. We were soon on the last strech through dark rolling lanes and then the final blast across the marshes, when the sun finally rose.
It was good to meet Tim and Ross.

 

[Dogtrousers]

That was super. I have to admit that it has my least favourite London exit, but that makes you appreciate the nice bits all the more. There's a poem by Mervyn Peake called The Hideous Root, which describes a man whose beautiful wife always carries a horrible gnarled root with her, without which she loses her beauty. It's something like that.

I started the ride at the back, with Susie's dulcet tones ringing in my ears. This was my first outing on my new bike, and I've never used new-fangled gear shifters in the brake levers before, so I needed to get used to them. I'm getting the hang of them, but my hands still keep reaching for the down tube.

After eating various different types of cake at Strood, all good, and discovering that the hill after Upchurch had got steeper since last time, I found myself, for some reason right at the other end of the ride on leaving Faversham. Bang on the front. I half heartedly volunteered to do a couple of junctions but I found that competition is fierce up there. So next I found myself charging across the marshes at insane speed. Well, for me it was insane, maybe it was just a walk in the park for the front-of-the-packers. I managed to keep up, just about, but I was fading badly at the end.

Then egg on toast, train, home, bed.

Thanks all, and see you next time, whenever that is.

 

[slowmotion]

Simon managed to engineer a rest stop outside Gravesends gay bar.

I just looked up Angels in Gravesend. We all missed a trick. They offer free shots to people in " exotic dress ". I'm sure that lycra falls within that category. The young guy who came out to investigate the cyclists was absolutely charming. It made a bit of a change from the usual "chucking out time" pantomime. Good stuff.

It was a great ride. Hard work for me but I wouldn't have missed it for anything. The headwinds and rain didn't materialise which was a bit of a blessing. I spent far too long at the Waterfront with a tongue quite well oiled by yellow beer, and enjoying the wonderful company. Thank you to Simon and the waymarkers and TECs.....that "All Up" lady scares me a bit though.......did she work at a school zebra crossing once?

 

[redfalo]

the queen of rides.

it was too warm. few punctures. the weather forecast did not come true. nice, friendly people. little undertaking. beer for breakfast.
what a waste of a weekend.

 

[ianrauk]

What a cracking FNR. One of my faves the Whitstable ride. I think everyone got the weather report clothing wrong, some riders looking like they were dressed up for a sub-zero arctic expedition. The temperature never fell below 14degs all night/morning. And apart from a couple of little specs, stayed dry all night. It looked like we dodged or missed a few heavy shower's judging by the amount of standing water on some roads.

2 huge rolls, a homebaked cake and a cuppa for a Fiver? How bloody good value is that? @Trickedem 's good lady wife and helpers did a fantastic job as usual at the Church in Strood.

Only 2 punctures during the nights run, one was Utta in Erith and the other was a chap who's name I can't remember, in Seasalter. You won't believe this but I think there is photographic evidence, Mr Flying Dodo re-fitted a Marathon Plus sans tyre levers.. yes you read that right...with just his thumbs. That video of that old bearded bloke with the pedal straps, delete it from your favorites. 'teef would have been proud of Mr Flying Dodo's steel thumbs. Whether FD will have any feeling left in them is a different matter. Apart from the 2 punctures, the ride run very smoothly and a little faster then usual. There was a coming together of a couple of riders resulting in an off for one of them, but it was 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. A case of not shouting out you're slowing down and/or stopping and a case of not having a decent light and drafting too closely to the rider in front of you.

The Waterfront, boy they were on the ball. Brekkies (& beers) came out thick and fast. I even managed to snaffle a sausage off of Mr @slowmotion. It was a 3 sausage Waterfront Big Breakfast, and I scoffed the lot.

The SMRbtH was only myself and @rb58.
The run back through Seasalter marshes was hard work due to the headwinds and when we cleared the marshes, that's when the rain started. We didn't mind. We have done enough wet weather riding together in our time not to let it bother us. It was just a good thing it wasn't cold. So rain on and off all the way home. Retracing the FNR route back to Dartford and home.

141 miles for the ride...My 100th Century.. get in!

 

[wanda2010]

@Trickedem

I dunno who made that Victoria sponge, but I only got one piece. Don't suppose there'll be any made and available before the year's end? That was the best VS I've had this year

 

[Trickedem]

@Trickedem

I dunno who made that Victoria sponge, but I only got one piece. Don't suppose there'll be any made and available before the year's end? That was the best VS I've had this year

I have passed on the compliments to the chef, my wife! I will have to see if I can bring some along to CC Chrimbo drins

 

[AndrewClark]

Well that was a nice night out!

I made a clothing mistake & wore my Paramo top over a base layer. This was far too warm for the conditions & I was sweating buckets.

A good ride out of London, no seriously stupid traffic, I had one car go passed with a shout of "You sad cahhnts !"

Unfortunately either the pizza I ate before I left Liverpool, or the muffin I had at Euston disagreed with me, and by the time I reached Strood I was feeling most uncomfortable. I had a roll, a gorgeous brownie & some tea to refuel and set off again.

The feelings of bloat & nausea got worse, and I didn't enjoy the next laney bit at all. It was just a case of head down & keep pedalling , sorry if I seemed a bit miserable.

I perked up as we got to Whitstable, but only had a light breakfast and no beer

We lounged around a bit and chatted, then Kim & I took the Crab & Winkle to Canterbury.

The train was delayed, which meant we had to sprint from St Pancras to Euston. Kim just got her train, mine was an hour later so I had a baguette & a beer before Mr Branson's minions spirited me home.

Thanks to Simon for organising the ride and all the people who helped along the way. Hope to see you again soon.

 

[kimble]

Circumstances have conspired to make me miss an awful lot of FNRttCs this year. I reckon this ride almost, but not quite entirely, made up for it.

Ever one for cycling by numbers, I was one of the few dressed for the predicted minimum of 13C (my thermometer didn't drop below 14C all night), and it might as well have been July. I've no idea what the wind was actually doing, but it only seemed to be actively against us a couple of times. There were a couple of bouts of inconsequential drips, though the wet roads told a different story.

Agreed about the hill at Upchurch. I don't think of this ride as a hilly one, it being 40km of flat followed by what I consider to be standard rolling terrain, but for some reason I really noticed it last night. The clue's in the name, I suppose.

The Strood halfway stop was like a well-oiled machine, and tremendously good value. I probably ate a bit too much, and suffered somewhat on the second half of the ride as a result. Nothing I'm not used to, however, and the legs kept going without too much trouble. Which was just as well, as I put a bit of welly into it for the last couple of miles as the rain began.

Crab & Winkle to Canterbury was on form as usual, though I reckon the loose stones in the wooded section are getting worse. We stopped briefly to sign a soggy petition in favour of extending the C&W route over the railway by a new bridge into the centre of town - this will be worth it for not having to get lost in the twisty maze of badly-surfaced residential roads before finding the start of the path.

I'll handwave over the HS1 shenanigans. It's starting to become traditional, and I'm thinking it'll be prudent to aim for an earlier train to London in future.


Splendid.

 

[dellzeqq]

It's always wonderful to have the speedskaters with us. Ed buzzed around like a bumblebee on rocketfuel, David grinned from ear to ear as his fourteen kilo street bike roared by, Tania rose like a soapbubble on hills, and Andy @andyman stole the show with a grin even bigger than David's (do they train for smiling contests?) and the revelation that Ed's latest marathon speedskating marathon was so quick that.........I'm still shaking my head in wonder.

We are so fortunate in our halfway stops. I never dreamt it could get this good. It isn't just the food, it's the spirit in which the food is offered. From Ogmore to Garthorpe, Faygate to Stock, Burstow to Strood, we have people get up at some ridiculous hour to lay out plates of cake, charge up urns for tea and coffee and give change to a bunch of cyclists who are not, perhaps, at their best, and sometimes dripping wet.

And why? Because they enjoy it. I don't believe we make that big a difference to the income of a village hall or a truck stop. They do it because they like us.

And then there's the breakfast stops. Let's think of Huill and Mumbles, Felpham and Brighton, Southend, Burnham and, of course, Whitstable. Once again, they get up early. And, once again, it's service with a smile. Not that it doesn't go two ways - I receive the most kindly comments from the people who give us breakfast that I'd pass on if I thought they wouldn't turn your heads. Suffice to say that on Saturday morning we turned up early (I'd pushed you all on to beat the rain) and you were, apparently, patient to a degree and just plain nice to be with.

Which, of course, is both as it should be, but never to be taken for granted. So........thankyou one and all. As the song has it............


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6oGytt0Hiw

 

[Steve Jones]

patient to a degree

Not surprising. Patience probably ought to be in the job description for wayfinding. It's an essential quality for anybody waymarking some lonely, desolate, dark corner waiting for the tail end to come through after being delayed whilst some poor soul struggles with fixing the punctured rear-end of a Brompton.