FNRttC Southend on Sea Night Ride Thursday 24th March 2016

[StuAff]

J31 has actually got worse. Srsly....

 

[redfalo]

J31 may be as horrible as it is, but how was the ride?

 

[Trickedem]

Well that was fun. It rained most of the way to the services, but it wasn't as bad as predicted. The tailwind was nice, but wet conditions led to more visitations than normal,so arrival at the front was going to be after 9am. I had my first p£%&ure on my Brompton and it was a rear wheel too. Thanks to the fellow Bromptoneers who came back to help.
I didn't see a sunrise as such, but by the time we got to Rayleigh, the sun was out, which woke me up nicely.
I wasn't able to stop for brekkie, so broke off early to head to the Station. But I look forward to hearing the reports on the new venue.

 

[hatler]

No further reports ?

The beer must be good.

 

[velovoice]

No further reports ?

The beer must be good.

It must be! Haven't heard a peep from @Flying Dodo since arrival...!

 

[Flying Dodo]

I wish to lodge a complaint! They had Peroni on tap and various different bottled beers of varying hues, but no black beer ie Guinness. Apart from that, it's all lovely with very nice toilets. The food was good too-really tasty bacon for example. Veggie options available.

Proper ride report to follow later, assuming my increasingly noisy rear hub, which is slowly disintegrating, allows me to get home.......

 

[srw]

Congratulations to those of you who made it. I was asleep before 11 and woke up at 7. Then after breakfast (including a pint of strong coffee) I fell asleep for another couple of hours. All of which suggests that I made the right call to stay at home.

I hope that by Whistable or Brussels I'll have regained my equanimity and can actually turn up when I promised.

 

[srw]

Well quite, you wouldn't want to risk falling foul of the x strikes and you're out rule.

No, indeed. Can you call across to one of the chief little helpers and find out what X is these days?

 

[saoirse50]

Really enjoyed my return to fnrttc. It was definitely a ride of two halves. First half provided me with lots to moan about, one of my favourite pastimes, so I was happy. So good to chew the fat, banter and blarney with old friends and familiar faces, some of whom I haven't seen for a while, even if the opportunity for that was provided by a couple of unscheduled stops in the freezing rain! Let's be honest, always the conditions that provide the best banter anyway. Plenty of good chat and giggles in J31 services, where I was seriously tempted to lie down under the hand warmers. Andy came up with a few creative ways of keeping them running for that purpose, but each strategy seemed to involve the abuse of small rodents, so I reluctantly gave up on the idea.

Then, sunrise, rain stop, and blue sky peeping through gave us a second half to remember fondly in the future, which made me so pleased I hadn't turned round and gone home at Fenchurch St (first Brompton induced cold wait point). Then I spotted the snowy locks and familiar riding style of the inimitable Peter Walker who had ridden out from Southend to meet us and rode and chatted with him for a bit. The last few miles in what was rapidly becoming warm sun were a joy and the final leg stretch along the seafront to the cafe just perfect. Brilliant blue skies, warming sun, tailwind. The new cafe is a real find, well done leaders. Bachetta rider (unforgivably, I have forgotten your name) generously let me share his bike lock, as I seemed to have brought along a cable with no means to secure it! I picked a table in the sun, right over the beach on a great terrace and waited till Peter rocked up so we could breakfast together.
It was such a lovely day, I wanted to carry on riding, but I'm not too fond of any of the return ride variations to London..too much anonymous urban riding. Plus I didn't have limitless time. So rode back along the seafront to Chalkwell, took the train to Limehouse and then rode to Wapping, down to the river and east to the Greenwich tunnel, under the river and west to Tower Bridge, then a little trip to St James Park and finally home the long way via Vauxhall Bridge and several SE London parks. My legs by now were feeling a bit leaden. And I realised I must have ridden over 90 miles since 11pm last night. The last mile home was a bit of a struggle as I was by now running on empty. Staggered in, happy and tired. Sat in the garden with a glass of wine, some French bread, cheese and salad. Fell asleep in the sun. Perfect Easter. Terrific fnrttc. Thank you, Friday peeps.

 

[User10571]

Really enjoyed my return to fnrttc. It was definitely a ride of two halves. First half provided me with lots to moan about, one of my favourite pastimes, so I was happy. So good to chew the fat, banter and blarney with old friends and familiar faces, some of whom I haven't seen for a while, even if the opportunity for that was provided by a couple of unscheduled stops in the freezing rain! Let's be honest, always the conditions that provide the best banter anyway. Plenty of good chat and giggles in J31 services, where I was seriously tempted to lie down under the hand warmers. Andy came up with a few creative ways of keeping them running for that purpose, but each strategy seemed to involve the abuse of small rodents, so I reluctantly gave up on the idea.

Then, sunrise, rain stop, and blue sky peeping through gave us a second half to remember fondly in the future, which made me so pleased I hadn't turned round and gone home at Fenchurch St (first Brompton induced cold wait point). Then I spotted the snowy locks and familiar riding style of the inimitable Peter Walker who had ridden out from Southend to meet us and rode and chatted with him for a bit. The last few miles in what was rapidly becoming warm sun were a joy and the final leg stretch along the seafront to the cafe just perfect. Brilliant blue skies, warming sun, tailwind. The new cafe is a real find, well done leaders. Bachetta rider (unforgivably, I have forgotten your name) generously let me share his bike lock, as I seemed to have brought along a cable with no means to secure it! I picked a table in the sun, right over the beach on a great terrace and waited till Peter rocked up so we could breakfast together.
It was such a lovely day, I wanted to carry on riding, but I'm not too fond of any of the return ride variations to London..too much anonymous urban riding. Plus I didn't have limitless time. So rode back along the seafront to Chalkwell, took the train to Limehouse and then rode to Wapping, down to the river and east to the Greenwich tunnel, under the river and west to Tower Bridge, then a little trip to St James Park and finally home the long way via Vauxhall Bridge and several SE London parks. My legs by now were feeling a bit leaden. And I realised I must have ridden over 90 miles since 11pm last night. The last mile home was a bit of a struggle as I was by now running on empty. Staggered in, happy and tired. Sat in the garden with a glass of wine, some French bread, cheese and salad. Fell asleep in the sun. Perfect Easter. Terrific fnrttc. Thank you, Friday peeps.

That's not exactly anything remotely close to a direct route home.
Well done!

 

[mmmmartin]

From the All-Upper:

• things that matter:
  • glorious finish with a run downhill then flat along the seafront to a decked terrace with a view over the beach as the tide came in
  • excellent route, much better than the recce was, although the exit from The Great Wen was sometimes painfully slow because of traffic jams at 1am
  • Peroni berr is actually quite niceafter breakfast, albeit filthy foreign fizzy muck
  • Beach cafe has great loos, very clean and the deck terrace allows you to bask in the sunshine
  • grub served quickly, nice espresso coffee
  • it didn't rain as much as we feared it would, mostly light drizzle in the first half then none in the second half - and it was quite warm-ish I thought.
  • there was a tailwind all night
• things that don't matter:
  • front Brompton puncture at London Bridge, (underneath the railway so we were dry and there was streetlight visibility), then a rear Brompton somewhere in Essex in daylight and not raining - assisted by a phone call and a selfless return dash by three competent mechanics. Also a visitation to a veteran of the tricycle racing scene so we just stood around and chatted while he fixed it in two minutes. And one shortly after the halfway stop, which was a good chance to stand around and gossip for a while.

Generally waymarking and TEC teams worked very well although @ianmac62 arrived at breakfast with no waymarkers in the final few miles, so someone needs to have a word with the All-Upper

All in all, after breakfast I was thinking that gentlemen in England now a-bed shall think themselves accursed they were not here. It was great ride.

 

[StuAff]

SMRBtL completed about 1600, after a fairly slow but enjoyable ride in Mouseketeer tradition. Litespeed safely stored in hotel luggage room, couple of hours kip then up to the Roundhouse via Boris bike ( surprisingly acceptable). Underworld on in half an hour or so. Back in Essex (musically) More to follow, probably tomorrow.

 

[StuAff]

Going back to Romford?

They might just play that one.....

 

[rb58]

Things I learned:

1. The Altura Night Vision hood was well worth the £5 it cost. Sometimes I didn't even realise it was raining.
2. A handful of nuts and dried fruit scores well on the energy v weight scale.
3a. You need a manual to fix a puncture on a Brompton :-)
3b. Bromptons are taking over the world.
4a. @ianmac62 and I went to the same school.
4b. But not at the same time.
5. The £2 we pay for a year's worth of FNRttC is probably the best £2 I ever spent.
6. Parts of Essex smell bad
7. I really missed these rides in 2015.

See you next time!

 

[rb58]

I really recommend buying the black ones, as opposed to the silly yellow version .

I think the yellow ones must have been a bet