FNRttC York to Hull 27th April 2012

[StuAff]

Have a good night everyone!

 

[martint235]

Have a safe and fun ride everyone. McWobble don't drink all the beer

 

[CharlieB]

Is anyone local planning to meet up pre-ride? It was The Windmill at the top of Blossom St last year.

 

[AnythingButVanilla]

I'm currently in the pub at York station. It's not raining and there's no bike stands to be found. I've had to lock Josie to the railings so fingers crossed that she's ok.

 

[Wobblers]

Have a safe and fun ride everyone. McWobble don't drink all the beer

Ha! I like to enjoy my ale, unlike you with your fizzy pish lager habit.

Sadly, though, I've discovered that I've got things to do tomorrow, so I'm not on this one. One day I'll see Hull... (now there's an ambition for you)

 

[User10119]

Platform 1, near the car rental place, there's loads of proper sheffield stands. Or really rubbish short stay not-fixed-to-the-floor toast rack by the ticket office.

 

[AnythingButVanilla]

Thanks. I saw the literally unsecure stands in the station and decided that chancing the rail was the better option.

 

[User10119]

On the train and heading back to York with the Very Lovely Valencia. Thank you one and all for a simply splendid ride. I struggled with elbow related issues in the last stretch and was woefully slow as a result. Particular thanks to TECs and waymarkers on the run into Hull, who must have been thinking of breakfast and rehydration with some urgency by that point! Great halfway stop, cracking good breakfast served up with extraordinary efficiency and a gold star to whoever booked the dry night weather-wise. No Elbows Were Broken in the Earning Of My Breakfast! Thank you dz, that was an absolute hoot.

 

[clarion]

I appreciate your efforts in that direction, Adrian.

We've just got home, having stopped off in that London to meet up with folks who'd been to the Big Ride, then popped in to my sister's at Brixton to see my parents. We're knackered, but not half so much as TGL, who did a fine job on his first FNR despite flagging rather at times. A big thank you to everyone who helped and supported him on the ride.

Finally, huuuge thanks to dellzeqq for a well-organised and smooth ride.

 

[BigGee]

Thanks to all for a great ride, which also gave me the chance to catch up with some old friends who live 10 miles outside Hull. I think I may well have done considerably more than that cycling back there this morning, as I managed to get a bit lost coming out of Hull I did get there in the end, with the carrot of a shower and a few hours kip as an incentive before heading back this afternoon.

Got back to London at about half six and then I got royally soaked cycling the 10 miles home, Anyway if you had offered me that at the begining of the weekend then I would have certainly accepted it. Ended up with 120 miles door to door, so pretty happy with that as well, my first 100 miler of the year.

And for those of you who saw me getting a lift to the minster, for the record, i had done 25 miles prior to that as an early warm up!

Great ride, looking forward to next week and being able to ride stright home after the ride. Hope to see you all there

 

[Mice]

The 2011 version of this ride was one of my favourites. Not just because I had never been to York or Hull, nor because the Stopsies was awesome, but because the stretch of road alongside an estuary near Goole is actually below sea level and you look up along an embankment to see the channel markers looking like traffic lights rather than nautical signage. Amazing! It is also a ride of Bridges, many of them - of which the piece de resistance of course is the Humber Bridge. Not exactly The Golden Gate but pretty darn spectacular all the same.

The 2012 ride didn't disappoint. I met LouiseL and User13710 at Victoria so that we could make our way through London's rush hour to Kings Cross, meeting MartinBrice, Dave and Paul on the way. LouiseL and MartinBrice were wearing their Chapeaux Des Audax and were set to return from Hull to London by, err, bicycle!

At York we headed to Pizza Express for supper before joining the others at York Minster. I happily admired a very new Specialized Ruby which weighs not much more than an A4 piece of paper! Lovely bicycle. At midnight, 28 or so of us made our way out of the City Centre - one of whom was the second youngest to do an FNRttC (to my knowledge) and was doing so on fixed. Seriously impressive. Chapeau to you!
Within what seemed like five minutes of cycling, we were in the countryside. Not something that's possible with London 'burbs which sometimes seem to go on forever. The sky was partly cloudy, the moon was visible from time to time and the company, route and Stopsies were spectacular. It was also pancake flat apart from three steep bits. There were several locals on the ride - Andrew Br (ok not that local!), Crinkly Lion and Kim who all shared various pieces of fascinating facts - the highlight of course being a Pylon-in-the-Field....! (Maybe to be known as Monty?)

The FNRttC chit chat cycling combination is just fantastic. A brilliant party on wheels. There was a Londonesque barrage of potholes on one particular stretch of road. Frequent shouts of "Car Down. Water. Hole. Bump" highlighting a cocktail of things to avoid leaving not much time to decide which one to avoid first! At some stage a deer leapt onto the road and ran off as fast as possible - a newbie FNRttC, clearly.

The Stopsies was brilliant. How does His DZship find these very special people who at 3am on a Saturday morning hang around a deliciously prepared assortment of rolls, cakes, sausage rolls, tea and coffee in the hope that at some stage during the following hour an extremely odd looking bunch of people will turn up, eat them out of house and home then disappear leaving nothing but clearing up to do! I hope they raised great monies.

The early morning birdsong was a very non-London experience. The dawn sky was pink, there were gaps in the cloud and the views towards the Humber Bridge were stunning. Both the ride and breakfast in Hull were unfortunately Admin free.... Also for different reasons there was no Martin235, Frank9755 or The Claude. Hopefully Southend?

On Friday morning I had been in Selfridges (London) and had found a small but diverse range of bicycles including Schindelhauer who use a carbon track (wrong word) system instead of a chain. They let me ride it round the shop. 24 hours later I am riding Vernon's bicycle that has the same system up and down the streets around the Cafe. It was incredible. It was so light on the feet it felt like air. I will be back in Selfridges somewhat sooner than I thought - for a little bit of research at least! If only I had asked more questions on the FNRttC about what it's like riding fixed/single speed.....

So a really great ride. Thank you for your great company. Thank you DZ and Susie - these FNRttCs are just the best. I took some pics. https://picasaweb.google.com/108733...authkey=Gv1sRgCNHmm_Og6N3bkAE&feat=directlink

M
.

 

[User10119]

Kim isn't, technically, a local. A bit like McShroom - we just borrow them a lot! And Clarion/TGL are locals, at least spiritually... But we did manage to rally up a reasonable handful for the northern contingent. Phantasmagoriana, CrinkyUncle and myself are all actual Yorkies. The two Aidans (one of whom, incidentally, had ridden down from Durham then rode back as far as Scotch Corner clocking up a person best of 395km on the trike. But I think that might still be quite a short ride in his terms...) and the other Adam have also been spotted on the odd York-ish social ride occasionally. I'm sure there's others but for some reason I'm a little blurry and unclear right now.... curse those bad influences and their beer for breakfast!

 

[StuAff]

Sounds like I missed a good one, again..crossing the Humber Bridge at dawn on the Cleethorpes ride (2010) was amazing. Couldn't get the leave to do this (and visit my dear chums who live near York). Next year, perhaps.....

 

[vernon]

On Friday morning I had been in Selfridges (London) and had found a small but diverse range of bicycles including Schindelhauer who use a carbon track (wrong word) system instead of a chain. They let me ride it round the shop. 24 hours later I am riding Vernon's bicycle that has the same system up and down the streets around the Cafe. It was incredible. It was so light on the feet it felt like air. I will be back in Selfridges somewhat sooner than I thought - for a little bit of research at least! If only I had asked more questions on the FNRttC about what it's like riding fixed/single speed.....

Mice, you were the highlight of the ride for me. It was a hoot to see the look of excitement and disbelief when I offered you a ride on the 'Woodruff' and the pleasure that was so evident in your expression when you got back from your jolly on it.

The transmission is a Gates belt drive system and can be used with Rohloff, Shimano Alfine and single speed bikes. I'll have to look up the Schindlehauer brand.

The ride itself was a more successful one for me than the 2011 in that I didn't have to get off and push on any of the climbs. The low gearing of the Woodrup contributed to the ease of climbing aided and abetted by me being three stones lighter than last year's ride. Crinkly Lion's cake was exceptional and it was good to be able to put face to names for User13710, Clarion, McShroom and Butterfly amongst others. I looked at the calender of rides having been told that the Southend ride was flat and sadly it clashes with a Stone Roses concert on the Friday and a school trip to London on the Saturday - a busy weekend.

For those who are curious about the most boring square kilometer of land which we cycled past, here it is:

​

I suspect that the pylon is outside of the square kilometer and that the square has no physical structures/features on/in the ground.​

​

Next year I will be svelte and keen and able to participate in some of the London based rides.​

 

[Andrew Br]

It's been a fantastic weekend so far; a lovely ride to Hull, several beers at breakfast, a few more this afternoon then pizza followed by Tricky and Martina.
Oh, and more beer.
And it's not properly Sunday yet.

Only downer; my arse hurts.
I'll live.


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