Night Ride London to Brighton, 5th Sept - NOW CLOSED

[hatler]

One side? About as far as I'd expect a 7litre archaic Ford to get.

Doh ! Now corrected.

On its second run it got about 20 feet before the bonnet lifted and creased over the roof.

 

[Tim Hall]

View attachment 55523
No need for that. This one comes with a handy helmet mount. I'm sure that a cap mount can be put together with half a reel of duct tape.

Ah. That explains the shape of some of the more exotic headgear we saw.

 

[hatler]

On the way down after the Beacon.

 

[hatler]

A city gent taking coffee.

 

[hatler]

Mrs H is a star!!!

Why do you think I married her ?

 

[hatler]

Rob, I cannot imagine that you having to put in some effort to keep up with Joe is anything other than a good feeling!

Have fun All!
I'll be with you in spirit...

Hmmmm. Mixed.

Good. He's getting faster, stronger, etc etc
Bad. I'm getting older and more decrepit.

 

[Dawn_C]

Morning all,

I just wanted to thank everyone for making me feel so welcome on Friday night (this was only my second FNRttC) – I had a brilliant time, absolutely loved it all, great route, great weather, and great cycling! Thanks especially to Olaf for organizing, and letting me join you all, and to the Wayfinders and Tail End Charlies who did a superb job.

Best wishes, Dawn

 

[hatler]

(Still quite impressed that I managed Ditchling Beacon pedalling entirely on the left leg. Made easier by not wearing a silly hat, of course.)

Bloody hell !! That is impressive.

 

[BromyG]

Thanks Olaf (@redfalo) for a great ride!
Many thanks also to @Trickedem, @Flying Dodo, @mistral and @User (hope I got the names right!) for your assistance and support when stuck with the only visitation of the night! Don't worry about the mysteries of the folding small wheel things, we Bromptoneers are usually self-sufficient! (and thanks too @Trickedem for the photo of my misfortune, didn't realise you'd taken that!)

 

[hatler]

Morning all,

I just wanted to thank everyone for making me feel so welcome on Friday night (this was only my second FNRttC) – I had a brilliant time, absolutely loved it all, great route, great weather, and great cycling! Thanks especially to Olaf for organizing, and letting me join you all, and to the Wayfinders and Tail End Charlies who did a superb job.

Best wishes, Dawn

It's oft quoted that the Fridays rate right up there with the 'most fun you can have on two wheels' competition.

It pays back in spades all the little doubts, fears, the moments where the "Oooo, I don't really have to do this tonight" thoughts become almost overwhelming. There isn't a ride I've done where, before the off, I've not seriously considered simply not turning up. The siren call of one's bed is a powerful thing.

And yet, every time, I keep going, and once I'm out of the front door, I just know everything is going to be great. And once the ride itself kicks off I question how I could ever, possibly, have doubted for a single second the decision to do it. (Which makes the next ride's round of repeated doubts all the more strange.)

 

[clivedb]

I just wanted to add to the thanks to Olaf for getting this ride organised and especially for not running away when it began to look as if he might have taken on a much larger responsibility than he expected. It was impeccably organised within the Legg template and was another great night ride, even though I think that was my slowest ascent of Ditchling. There was a man in a bowler hat behind cursing all the way up on a Brompton, so I didn't feel able to take a rest - how could I justify it given my multiple gears? It was also my pleasure of course to be able to bring Liam on his first (of many?) night ride, which he greatly enjoyed.

 

[clivedb]

Sorry about that, I think there may be a Brompton specific form of Tourette's.

I was just impressed you had so much breath to spare! Indeed I remain amazed by the way people get up Ditchling on fixed gears, recumbents, Bromptons etc

 

[kimble]

I was just impressed you had so much breath to spare! Indeed I remain amazed by the way people get up Ditchling on fixed gears, recumbents, Bromptons etc

There's nothing amazing about climbing hills on a Streetmachine. It's a touring bike, and is designed for doing just that, with 4 full-sized panniers of stuff thrown in for good measure - stable, low gearing, pretty much the ideal bike for twiddling up a hill slowly. I twiddled my way across Wales on it last week with full camping kit, so Ditchling wasn't that big a deal, even if my knee was protesting.

Climbing hills on bikes without low gears impresses me more, whatever their shape, as it tends to mean you have a much harder time keeping above stall speed - there's no option of taking it slowly.

But really, when it comes to climbing hills, it's not really about the bike. It's a simple matter of rider strength vs all-up weight. This is why people think recumbents are slow up hills: they're not, but they allow a rider of a given fitness to be much faster on the flat.

 

[HorTs]

I wrote a little review of the ride for my blog here - http://bit.ly/1v363Uz - I ment to post earlier but forgot. BTW, weirdos is meant with all possible endearment.

 

[hatler]

Harking back to an earlier thread for a Brighton FNRttC, there was much comment about the wonderful new Ladies and Gents at Gatwick. Following this recent visit, it was clear that things weren't quite as fragrant as previously, indeed, some might even have commented that they were, in fact, a bit smelly actually. And did anyone spot how many were out of action ?

Well, all is now clear. I have a friend in the world of airport design and he explained how the new owners of Gatwick wanted to make a quick and bold statement about how they are going to run things now they are in charge, and, apparently, jazzing up the lavatorial facilities is a relatively quick, pain free and cheap way of making a bold statement of intent.

Sadly though, they did it a little too quickly, and the design wasn't too clever, nor the execution come to that. They are a nightmare to clean (hence why so many are closed as they haven't got enough / won't pay for the cleaning staff), and the smell is a result of poor design.