July 25th, London to Hastings: the Wen to Wen ride

[anothersam]

Have never been – sounds like it's worth a stop.

 

[anothersam]

Survey question: how far in advance do you usually plan the rides you want to do? In other words, how much notice do you need? It would be helpful to know approximately when I should come up with a date.

 

[man in black]

Survey question: how far in advance do you usually plan the rides you want to do? In other words, how much notice do you need? It would be helpful to know approximately when I should come up with a date.

As much notice as you can please

 

[velovoice]

I have been known to do a ride spur of the moment but given how quickly the summer weekends book up with events committed to months (if not a whole year) in advance, then 6 weeks' notice seems about right to me. That said and as we head into an already diary-packed summer, I already know I am not available til July. And if there's a delay of a few more weeks in setting the date, it may well have to be August if I'm to make it.

 

[theclaud]

how much notice do you need?

An absolute minimum of four hours.

 

[theclaud]

Does that include getting to the station?

Yes but doesn't allow for mechanicals.

 

[anothersam]

My headcount of interested parties and potentials so far:
theclaud
robjh
velovoice (still interested if it's London to Hastings?)
man in black
…iLB?

First highly tentative date for your consideration: Saturday July 25th. When I confirm a date I'm going to tell everybody except theclaud; I want to test the veracity of this four hour claim.

 

[velovoice]

Yes London to Hastings is fine - I would have voted for both if I could!
25th July no good for me - I'm helping man the Sustrans stall at the Dunstable Downs Kite Festival that weekend.

 

[anothersam]

If you know, can everybody please tell me which Saturdays will or won't work for you in August? I personally favour earlier rather than later, so how does the 1st sound?

 

[Arrowfoot]

OK, chances are I will try to stick to a date once I come up with one, especially with such a large proportion of the ridership potentially affected. Currently I'm looking at July or August. Not the 4th, because of the Dun Run, but other than that wide open.

1. Fix a date at least 6 to 8 weeks in advance
2. Run it thru google to see any event clash and check long term weather forecast
3. Plan a route and publish the route map early laid out with start and end time
4. State the average pace planned
5. List down the start and end rail stations
6. Then sit down and wait for responses.
7. Publish list of entrants every few days
8. And every day in the last week.

 

[anothersam]

Yeah OK, maybe I'm going about this in a half-assed way. Still, it's been useful seeing if there's any interest given the background provided in the links.

 

[anothersam]

So far I've got
#3 Plan a route and publish the route map early laid out with start and end time
Have done a lot of route planning but don't want to publish here just yet. Start time will be easier than end time.

#4 State the average pace planned
Going by the last time I did this ride, the average pace will be sociable with gusts up to let's-get-a-move-on-now.

#5 List down the start and end rail stations
For London to Hastings, the start station would be London, the end station Hastings.

I see a couple of possible event clashes (including the Prudential ride, which I just noticed) which may or may not be clashes for those interested in this particular ride. As for the weather, in my experience any forecast longer term than the next day or two has potential to be unreliable.

 

[anothersam]

This is the route of the previous ride. It's possible I may alter it to make it a little shorter, but it seemed to go down well last time as is. We left at 9 and IIRC arrived in Hastings at 7, which for the mileage sounds as if we were crawling; blame the hills, an unnecessary but fun tea and biscuit break with friends in Cudham (a half hour easily snipped), a relaxed lunch, and a bit of dawdling to enjoy the sights. Here's that ride report link again, to give you an idea of what you'd be in for. Skip the intro until you see the elephant if you want to get right into the ride itself.

After absorbing this, potential Wen-to-Wenners may see the virtues of a T. Wells to Hastings ride instead. Or, you may wish to bask in the accomplishment of the full monty.

 

[anothersam]

July 25th. This is the date. (Sorry velovoice!) Start time TBD, 8 or 9. That's a.m. – this isn't a Saturday night ride to the coast.

Ignore the poll now, it's from London to Hastings. Or if you're not up for the whole thing you can hop on (or off) at Tunbridge Wells. (Of course you can hop off anywhere, helped by various stations along the route.)

The route will either be as in the post above, or this, which is about 8 miles shorter and goes through Battle instead, with added traffic. They diverge at about the 60 mile mark. If you're signing up for this please assume either route.

sign up sheet
anothersam
theclaud
gr3g0ree

 

[theclaud]

sign up sheet
anothersam

Yes please.