FNRttC Friday Night Ride to the Coast - Brighton 14th October 2011

[TimO]

After checking my gps, I have to say that I think that the speed camera in Brighton is switched off. I won't say more than that.

I know I did 36.5mph through it (for once cars didn't get in my way, but I didn't really push it), and it didn't trrigger. You can perfectly legally do that speed. At most locations the speed limit applies to motor vehicles, not vehicles in general. Lacking a motor they don't apply to us. One of the few places where a speed limit does apply to cyclists is Richmond Park, but they have specific bylaws applying to all vehicles there.

 

[dellzeqq]

marks out of ten please

essentially the idea is this. Every ride has a slowest rider. Part of my job is to keep the slowest rider moving forward for as much of the time as possible. I'm normally quite good at making sure that happens, but I didn't do that on Friday night, mainly because I wasn't sure what was happening at the back, but also because I didn't decide early enough. So there were times when the slowest rider was waiting for the tail to catch up, which wasn't clever, because I was needlessly concerned about the ride being overstretched. Had I known what was happening at the back, and who was involved, then I'd have moved off earlier.

Equally, if I know what the problem is I can gauge whether the ride can take the delay - if someone calls me and says 'we've stopped to fix a light' I would normally say 'forget it - get them on the move to the left of someone with a good light, and we'll fix it when we have time'.

 

[dellzeqq]

Ride as a pair so you are as wide as a car. Sit up as you hit the markings to give as big an area as possible (being Davy Walnuts would be an advantage here). Exceed the limit by a good margin.

says the man they call Mr. Double Flash!

 

[dellzeqq]

Blimy, that a feels like one of those apply for your own job occasions.

I'll take that on the chin......but I reckon we could have taken a quarter of an hour off the first half of the ride if I'd have sorted things out properly

 

[StuAff]

marks out of ten please

Ten. Pretty much covered it there (memo to self: switch phone off silent at HPC...!!).

 

[TimO]

... Had I known what was happening at the back, and who was involved, then I'd have moved off earlier.

Equally, if I know what the problem is I can gauge whether the ride can take the delay - if someone calls me and says 'we've stopped to fix a light' I would normally say 'forget it - get them on the move to the left of someone with a good light, and we'll fix it when we have time'.

There was probably some failure to phone ahead on this ride, but largely it just seemed to be too many problems, unusually. If you have two or three punctures and we fail to phone through, that's one extraneous delay, with nine or more stops (which we had on Friday), then it's three or more occasions when the head doesn't know what the tail's doing.

Still, we probably need to phone through immediately when the back stops, especially if it's a puncture and is going to take a while to deal with. The worst stops did get phoned through punctually, so I suspect there's not a lot extra which could have been done this time.

 

[thom]

If there are 4 or 5 TECs dealing with an issue, is it not better if when the issue is understood and manageable, to split up, leaving 2 or 3 TECs to deal with the issue (including the phone person) and sending the others forward with any attendant non TECs acting as the back, partly to progress the ride, partly to get to and deal with any other problems down the line ?

On the note, there is a spelling mistake : "what'd" ;-)
And perhaps saying something like
"TECs are a team of problem solvers that make the ride run smoothly, fixing mechanicals, offering rider support and communicating to the ride leader their progress", just to emphasise the overall aim of the team rather than the consituent parts.

My Garmin claims 42.8 mph at some point but the speed graph doesn't quite tie out. Would have been Reigate if it is correct, though I had no success triggering the speed gun....

 

[slowmotion]

There's something about London in the early hours of Saturday morning, isn't there? Like martinbrice (#359), I saw Mr Toad come to grief. I was directly opposite the side road when I heared his engine roaring down the hill....the problem was he was going very fast towards the junction, backwards. The brakes sent him into the most amazing spin, but did little to slow its progress towards me. For a split second I really thought the bike might come to grief, but fortunately a very substantial piece of street furniture "did the needful". I thought it best not to become more closely acquainted with Toad, and rode on shaking my head.

It was good to reach the scout hut and get out of the cold. The food and drinks were fine, as were the prices. I loved the new route to Ditchling. The lanes are so much prettier than the normal "bowling alley" approach. I particularly liked the view of Streat Place, looking like something out of an old Equitable Life advert. A great house. The Beacon defeated me yet again but I had the consolation of being able to watch Miss Hatler making a better fist of it than me. She absolutely roared up the last yards to the summit with a huge grin on her face.

Down on the front I nattered away with Grace and Martin over breakfast before settling down to a few hours of the yellow stuff in the sunshine. I caught the train back with User482 before jumping ship at Clapham.

Thank-you to Simon, the waymarkers, and the TECs for all being so patient. Good fun.

 

[StuAff]

There was probably some failure to phone ahead on this ride, but largely it just seemed to be too many problems, unusually. If you have two or three punctures and we fail to phone through, that's one extraneous delay, with nine or more stops (which we had on Friday), then it's three or more occasions when the head doesn't know what the tail's doing.

Still, we probably need to phone through immediately when the back stops, especially if it's a puncture and is going to take a while to deal with. The worst stops did get phoned through punctually, so I suspect there's not a lot extra which could have been done this time.

+1. Certainly, we could have sent people ahead without prompting, but I don't think we could have sped up actually dealing with the issues that much. Thom's idea is a good one though. I think we were a bit unlucky with both the mechanicals and their timing & location. Andrew McW fixing his front puncture on Clapham Common only to find the back had gone as well. Justin's freehub going was not only terminal and unfortunate enough, but he also had to be escorted down to where he could get a taxi home. And as for Andy's punctures...the first at the bottom of Portnalls Road (to add insult to injury, when he was supposed to be meeting up with Justin), and the ones en route to the Scout Hut were worse...a bit nearer and it would have been walking distance (well, if he had SPDs or flats..). As it was, he gamely walked for a while in his socks before it was decided to have a go at sorting the deflation instead. If we'd done that first, it might have got us to the Hut quicker (and certainly we'd have liked to be there quicker!), but hindsight is a wonderful thing....

 

[Number14]

Splendid all round. Although the chap in front of me got the last slice of gooey chocoloate cake. And the hut was definitely warmer than outside, so no worries on that score

And it was absolutely gorgeous ......

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Lovely ride back with Mr Brice, enjoying the scenery across the Ashdown Forest in the bright sunshine. The coffee in Fletching was good too. If Fletching is posh, Martin and I may have damaged its reputation by dozing off on the grass bank in the middle of the village.

Dave

Fletching is so posh it doesn't have street lights. But it does have The Griffin.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

simon - one of the key roles of the TEC team, a minor but important one, is torch bearer. They also serve who only stand and light.

how about expanding the size of the TEC team to double the numbers on rides around 100 peeps so a few, albeit second order TECs perhaps, with the skills and tools of the top boys but without quite as much the zip on the road, can circulate in/towards the middle of the ride?

and maybe asking people to accept help from passing riders rather than give it the old 'I'm fine' when it is obvious fine has left the building and another word beginning with F has arrived in its place.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

PS Simon, Horley Badlands is on the OpenCyclemaps map so can be followed by anyone with a gps with that mapping on board.

I'll go and ride it in daylight soon and commit the whole thing to memory so you will get another hand up.

 

[thom]

how about expanding the size of the TEC team to double the numbers on rides around 100 peeps so a few, albeit second order TECs perhaps, with the skills and tools of the top boys but without quite as much the zip on the road, can circulate in/towards the middle of the ride?

That's a good point - often wayfinders moving up from the back are likely to lend a hand like this but sometimes its worth reminding people.
I think the point is to keep learning. At the end of the day the ride went really well, particularly given the coldness and relatively high deflation incidents. Feedback here is about ongoing marginal gains in efficiency.
Apologies for the "At the end of the day" cliche, perhaps more apt would be "At the Madeira breakfast counter"...

 

[Tim Hall]

At least two on the ride should have known the way through The Badlands (Jan F and Scott E) being local boys. They might have been confused by it being called The Badlands though, although they do know the bloke who bestowed that name on it.