FNRttC Friday Night Ride to the Coast in aid of Martlets Hospice 2nd September 2011

[Aperitif]

Although talking about it on the internet is probably contraindicated in the job spec.

Que? Plese -you speak bumpkin for me , thankin' you.

Is you sayin' that Greg is a loser b cos he no service neighbour's bike for free? I agree. You is da loser Greggs.

Hey! You sound like the bakery... you look like you eat there too? I only askin'

 

[SW19cam]

Signed up, and really looking forward to this ride. I did the DD last year, and was gutted to miss it this year (my girlfriend's fault. She will be forgiven one day).

I'm assuming the trains back to London will accept bikes?!

 

[Tim Hall]

I think there's two flavours of train to choose from, Southern and FCC. Both of which take bikes, both of which, AFAIK, don't worry about things like bike reservations. Turn up and get on.

Southern have a (theoretical) limit of 2 bikes per bunch of 4 carriages. I've yet to see this enforced. A winning smile and boyish charm seems to work wonders. Others report success using feminine wiles. The bike space is in the 2nd or 3rd carriage, depending which way round they've parked. It's by the disabled loo.

FCC seem to run a tattier set of rolling stock . Some of these have a nice big space at the front/back. Others have a sort of corridor affair halfway along.

 

[TimO]

I'm assuming the trains back to London will accept bikes?!

Yes. We're not quite on the scale of the BHF London to Brighton ride, yet, so they haven't got around to banning us from using the trains.

The alternative approach is to retire to a pub, or similar hostelry, and carry out important rehydration before investigating the return journey, not that any of us have ever done that, oh no ...

 

[StuAff]

Yes. We're not quite on the scale of the BHF London to Brighton ride, yet, so they haven't got around to banning us from using the trains.

The alternative approach is to retire to a pub, or similar hostelry, and carry out important rehydration before investigating the return journey, not that any of us have ever done that, oh no ...

You've forgotten the option of riding back...

 

[TheBoyBilly]

As a general rule of thumb, what sort of times are we looking to be at at various points of the ride. I am not particularly fit and this will be my longest ride. (33 miles is the most with no bother) but I am a regular commuter. I have been looking at the routemap and been trying to work out what is a reasonable time to reach say, Mitcham, then the top of Reigate Hill, then the bottom (whoa there!); then Horley and the rest stop. Turners Hill summit, Lindfield, Wivelsfield Green and the Beacon. Any thoughts. I appreciate that it's not a race and I will certainly be taking it easy and enjoying the ride and chatting away to whoever will listen . But I'd just like a bit of an idea.

Bill

 

[slowmotion]

Team User10571 member reporting for duty sir

Would today be a good day to switch to clipless pedals with just under a week to go? Never used them before


Hmm, need to check I have a first aid kit before I get on the bike.

Today would be a good day. You can fall over in the first 24 hours, and repeat the process in front of the assembled riders on the FNRttC a week later.

How do I know this? It is precisely what I did, that's how.

 

[Aperitif]

All these doom mongers - even Louis here. You'll be fine and it will not be a Wanda fall world.

[media]
]View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzJY96m3lkg[/media]

 

[wanda2010]

Today would be a good day. You can fall over in the first 24 hours, and repeat the process in front of the assembled riders on the FNRttC a week later.

How do I know this? It is precisely what I did, that's how.

I actually thought of you yesterday when I was practising indoors!

More clipping/unclipping practice tomorrow morning, then I'll head out for a short spin and see what happens

 

[StuAff]

As a general rule of thumb, what sort of times are we looking to be at at various points of the ride. I am not particularly fit and this will be my longest ride. (33 miles is the most with no bother) but I am a regular commuter. I have been looking at the routemap and been trying to work out what is a reasonable time to reach say, Mitcham, then the top of Reigate Hill, then the bottom (whoa there!); then Horley and the rest stop. Turners Hill summit, Lindfield, Wivelsfield Green and the Beacon. Any thoughts. I appreciate that it's not a race and I will certainly be taking it easy and enjoying the ride and chatting away to whoever will listen . But I'd just like a bit of an idea.

Bill

The short answer is 'how long do you want it to take'? On regular FNRttCs, I'm usually in Brighton at 7.30-8.00. I think on this one, it'll be more 'at your own pace' than one big group, sheer numbers would rule that out.

 

[StuAff]

I actually thought of you yesterday when I was practising indoors!

More clipping/unclipping practice tomorrow morning, then I'll head out for a short spin and see what happens

 

[TimO]

You've forgotten the option of riding back...

No, I ignored it, riding back is the work of Stan.

As a general rule of thumb, what sort of times are we looking to be at at various points of the ride. I am not particularly fit and this will be my longest ride. (33 miles is the most with no bother) but I am a regular commuter. I have been looking at the routemap and been trying to work out what is a reasonable time to reach say, Mitcham, then the top of Reigate Hill, then the bottom (whoa there!); then Horley and the rest stop. Turners Hill summit, Lindfield, Wivelsfield Green and the Beacon. Any thoughts. I appreciate that it's not a race and I will certainly be taking it easy and enjoying the ride and chatting away to whoever will listen . But I'd just like a bit of an idea.

I wouldn't like to suggest an exact time, but given that, as StuAff says, we'll probably arrive 7-30 to 8ish, that's less than 10 mph average speed. In practice of course we'll spend an hour or so with the mid-way refreshments, and it always takes longer to get out of London, because of the much busier traffic, and large number of junctions (with traffic lights). I'm not saying that there will be too much traffic in London, but there will be some, compared to many parts of the rest of the ride, where you may not see a car for half an hour! (although London to Brighton is probably busier in places than some of the other rides).

I'd suspect that if you work on the basis of 10mph, and maybe half an hour longer on the first stretch (ie 10 miles in 1½ hours) and an hours stop in the middle, then you wouldn't be too far off on estimates of time.

There will likely be some variation in this, especially if we leave late, or have some problematic mechanical, or Simon has to divert the ride for some reason (we have very occasionally had to divert around unexpected road closures), or the midway stop causes unusual delays, or 101 other potential reasons.

(Edited to deal with some typos, and to add a little extra bit in)

 

[redflightuk]

The short answer is 'how long do you want it to take'? On regular FNRttCs, I'm usually in Brighton at 7.30-8.00. I think on this one, it'll be more 'at your own pace' than one big group, sheer numbers would rule that out.

Just looked at last years Garmin data which shows a moving time of 4hrs 21mins. I stopped for about 30 mins at the halfway stop, with a couple of short pit stops on the way IIRC i arrived at the Madeira at about 5;30. I'll need to do a similar or faster time this year as i've got tickets for the Burghley 3day event just north of Peterborough. So it'll be a quick breakfast and off to the station.

 

[dellzeqq]

the first rider will be at the Madeira at 4.20 and the last at about 8.45. In between it's anybody's guess.

 

[TimO]

the first rider will be at the Madeira at 4.20 and the last at about 8.45. ...

I'm guessing that the Madeira won't be open at 4-20, so unless you're planning on leaving before breakfast, there's little point in getting there that early (and as far as I'm concerned, breakfast in Brighton is part of the point of the ride!)