FNRttC Southend on Sea Night Ride Thursday 24th March 2016

[velovoice]

@SteveF63, that's brilliant! Perfectly captures what we try to be and do. It means a lot to read that as someone's first impression of our rides. Would you mind if we put that up as a quote on the website? Please?

(You can of course say No!)

 

[SteveF]

Be my guest..

 

[mmmmartin]

and that's a pretty excellent photograph too, you have an eye for that, obvs.

 

[velovoice]

Be my guest..

Fantastic! Please could you drop me a PM with any preference you may have as to how your name "appears in the credits".

 

[Fab Foodie]

My favourites were the mock denim ones. They don't seem to do them any more though.

I have some of those ... The horror ....

 

[StuAff]

That was a great night out. And another great night out. The first part of this week, as so many when I'm off work, is looking rather grotty and unsuitable for big mileage. But, next weekend is looking rather better, and it was a cracking start to the time off.

Network Rail had helpfully scheduled engineering work on the Southampton-London line on Monday-Thursday evenings from January right through to the end of March, so journeys include the dread rail replacement bus service. They should take folders on replacement buses- at least according to National Rail guidelines. SWT, on the other hand, state 'bulky luggage, prams and cycles' are not carried- so that sounds like self and Chutney would get told to naff off, on account of being too bulky, or being a bike, or both. And as I'd already got a ticket for Underworld, and combining gig & ride to somewhere not on the south coast without an overnight stay was a bit daft even by my standards of daft adventure, there would be luggage. Bailing on the ride…not bleedin' likely. The work is between Winchester and Basingstoke, so riding to an actual train after work not an option. Going to Basingstoke first, leaving a bike there all day, then hoping I'd have enough time between bus arriving and train leaving to get on it with that bike (if it was still there)…no thanks.

Fortunately, the managers at work are decent and reasonable guys who had no problem with me cutting breaks short earlier in the week and leaving at nine on Thursday (though it's job & finish, the most the late shift have made since I transferred has been ten minutes, not a given and not enough to help much). Best possible option under the circumstances- nothing to lug into work, back home on the 125, time enough to change & do final prep in not much of a rush- time enough for a tea- before catching an actual train service (Portsmouth line running as normal), with the optimal bike for the job, the now be-racked Litespeed. Having fettled the rack fittings (bits of inner tube serving to allow the Ortliebs to hook on properly to the rack tubing without the fiddly shims, plus protecting that tubing and dampening rattles) the five-minute hop to Hilsea proved the setup worked very well indeed- the extra weight barely noticeable once rolling in terms of speed, handling or noise, zero heel strike. The train itself was about ten minutes late (having arrived late on the service south), not good. But it arrived into Waterloo precisely one minute late, which was good.

And then out into the drizzle to catch the peloton. I reckoned somewhere in the City would be about right- I would be moving somewhat faster than the ride, who would be coming closer to me for the first couple of miles anyway. I reckoned without those two words (welcome under the circumstances)....Brompton puncture. Caught up with the TECs at London Bridge (I didn't spot them, but they saw me) at about a quarter to one. Job done for me. Yes it was wet, but anyone who bailed on account of the rain…that didn't register on the FNRttC Weather Nastiness Index. Steady drizzle in a tailwind, 'twas all. A bit of moisture got through my ageing jacket, eventually, tops of the gloves a bit moist but my hands stayed dry, that was it. Feet dry, Garmin unaffected. As for the Ortliebs- water shall not pass. I did find three drips inside the ride gear one at J31....then I realised it had dripped off me And it all cleared off in the last part anyway. No Wetstable or Brighton Nov '09 was this, not by a long chalk.

The pace didn't pick up much during the first part of the ride- roadworks proved unavoidable, along with further fairy visits. Junction 31 might have been a welcome stop, but as I posted on the night it's become even less welcoming. The hand dryers, and the exit road, remain the most attractive features. Actual retail provision, OTOH, has somehow got even worse…if you like queuing at length to buy preposterously overpriced products from a sparse selection, even before a Fridays peloton descends on it like a plague of damp locusts, from staff who'd really rather be somewhere else and aren't able to pretend otherwise, this is the place for you. I contemplated buying a cup of tea to supplement the food I'd brought. Then I saw the price. £2.35. £2.35!! OK, cheap compared to the room service & mini-bar prices at my digs for Friday night, but I'll come to that later. Settled for a Cup of Something Not Entirely Unlike Tea (as Douglas Adams put it) from the nearby machine, at a mere pound. Ross baulked at it, but it wasn't bad, even if the instruction to put sugar in didn't work. Also not £2.35. The Sainsbury's sandwich & cake slice proved a much better option that what was left in the chiller by the time I looked. And there was further cake. @arallsopp had brought sugar-free carrot cake (no, I didn't get that one either). Doubts on the potential tastiness of this were somewhat assuaged by the sure and certain knowledge his lovely missus Evey makes an exceedingly good cake. I liked it so much I just about managed to leave some for others who wanted it Also, forgotten what it was but tasted nice cake, @saoirse50 (making a very welcome return) made a rain hat from the foil...

Right after leaving J31- weather still moist, though not for long- there was another mechanical. Oh, the irony. Titus had not long asked everyone to check their tyres over, better to find a problem whilst we were warm, dry and well lit. So whose bike was it that had the visitation? Yup, our ride leader. After first light, I was on a hill with one of the newcomers (ex-submariner, Trek Domane, forgotten his name) on Titus' instruction to signal drivers to slow down when word came that @Trickedem had punctured. On his Brompton…cue long wait, and an Origamist rescue team made its way back down the road.

There were more delays, but the meandering route option had much more attractive scenery than the direct one, and the dawn had brought a lovely morning, all the better to see it by. And the ever-welcome Wowbagger. That Roundabout brought a smashing bit of action (for some motorists rather than us, thankfully), but the hoped-for arrival time had well and truly gone to pot. I got to Beaches not long after nine. Excellent choice there. Very good breakfast, served quickly, in a great location.

Thoughts turned to the prospects for the (F)MRbtH, which as it does from time to time, was an option for me on a non-south coast ride. Best way to kill time before hotel check-in. In the absence of some of the Kentish usual suspects, and Ross visiting his mum, the group for the westward run was myself, Andy and Brian. I was nominally leading, on account of having a route set up on the Garmin, tried and tested route from when I've ridden back in before, should (operative word) have worked just fine. Fun and games ensued. To start with, it failed to give the prompts- fortunately it decided to after a while, and we all knew the first stretch anyway. All OK (with the ride and the nav) from there until the A13, when the Garmin decided not to tell us about the need to take a road across the carriageway when the all too short bike path finished in a dead end- a quick U-turn ensued. Not long after that, the turn indicated brought us onto a grindy climb with fast moving heavy traffic, from which we quickly decided to turn off. Once we turned off, we realised the road we were on headed south again, the second option was going the right way. From there on, the navigation committee and its equipment (Brian & phone, Andy's eTrex and my Edge) went for the play-it-by-ear with a bit of map checking option, and that worked out well, through Bulphan, Upminster and Hornchurch. Andy had the Woolwich Ferry in mind for their journey south of the river, and worked out where the parting of the ways would occur. After parting company, I carried on west (didn't bother with trying to follow the somewhat discredited route, west is all I really needed), on to Barking, past that stupid sculpture, East Ham and onwards. Once I got towards the West End, my routing got a bit more fudged- roadworks/congestion/tiredness/lack of knowledge, but got to Tottenham Court Road and the modest digs (Radisson Grafton Hotel…it was a lot cheaper than the Ibis!!) soon enough, if a bit later than planned- not long after four. Checked in, bike stowed in basement luggage room, crashed out for a couple of hours, woke up, then up to Chalk Farm Road (Boris bike from Warren St then on foot) for some lager, lager, lager. Terrific show as always from Underworld. Back at about half-eleven.

Despite the long day/night/day, woke at six or so. After a comprehensive tasting of the breakfast buffet, most excellent, I left at about half-eight, only to discover the front tyre was flatter than the proverbial. It must have picked up a flint on the ride back in & deflated overnight. Got the pump out, no joy. No inflation whatsoever, and that's a decent pump. I had neither the skill nor the inclination to sort it myself properly and quickly. I look on Google Maps, there's a Cycle Republic (the recently rebooted Halfords standalone) across Euston Road, it opens at nine. They have a track pump outside for anyone to use. Worth a try, no dice again. Nine, straight in the store. How much to fix it? £2.50 for a new tube (but they were happy to use mine). Nine quid or so to replace it…or sign up for their loyalty card and get it done for free. I went for that option. Had a browse (all the stuff from a Halfords, plus much more, and quality too) whilst it got sorted. Back to Waterloo for the ten o' clock.
And relax (some more)…

Well done @AKA Bob for an excellent job as ride leader, and great to see friends old and new as always. And after all this time (well, it feels like a long time), it's good to be back night riding. Only four weeks till Whitstable

PS: June 3. IOW. You know you want to. If you don't, you should want to.

 

[StuAff]

Thanks for the positive comments, several people put a lot of effort into this ride and the others this year. The Fridays is a bit like a swan moving elegantly across a lake: on the surface there is a graceful almost effortless elegance to the movement but underneath there's a lot of frantic paddling. Their reward, of course, is knowing the rides are enjoyed. What with setting up the website, emails, social meeja, shirts, programme of rides, The Tour, two mini-tours, recces, subs/Paypal, CTC, etc etc, it's been a busy time but now it should all go reasonably well.

• For you, @srw, X is an infinite number. Obvs.
• Unless you fail to make the halfway stop on @swarm_catcher's magical Brussels-Ostend ride for which you have signed up, with the wonderful family of her relatives making sandwiches and a range of lovely food especially for us and getting out of bed and opening up for us at 3am.
• In which case X is an infinitesimally small number and you will find yourself volunteered for waymarking on cold nights on an infinitesimally large number of occasions. When it's raining.
• To convince you how lovely it is, here's a photograph of something we might see, and no, we weren't hallucinating: @StuAff saw it as well.

And @rb58 thanks for the tip about the hood: a black one from Wiggle is on the way, to be added to my (dark blue) windproof jacket for the trans Norway trip in the summer.

^What he said. Brussels-Ostend is the gold standard of night rides, IMHO.

 

[AKA Bob]

As @StuAff says it was a great ride with those lovely Friday's Peeps along with a south facing breakfast view to rival the Waterfront in Whitstable. It was a pleasure and honour to lead the ride and made me appreciate all the efforts @dellzeqq has put into making all our overnight adventures so enjoyable for many a year. Thank you @dellzeqq

 

[Nigel182]

TMN never steers you wrong. I bought a packable Montane jacket a few years ago on her recommendation - very good.
Hope to see you en route to Whitstable. You and I can swap arthritis stories! Or not.

Sounds like a plan

 

[StuAff]

Stu, you hovered over the last bits of that cake like Dracula over some poor unsuspecting young lady's pillow .

Guilty as charged.

 

[Flying Dodo]

It was very nice cake, as was Jane's.

 

[mmmmartin]

June 3. IOW. You know you want to. If you don't, you should want to.

Note - this is an aficionado's ride, highly regarded by those who have done it. It's not an "official" Friday's ride (lack of midway stop, really really hard etc) but is classed, uniquely, as "one you might want to do" and will be mentioned in the Fridays' email update. It's a sort of "ride-in-law" as in it's part of the family but not quite, if you see what I mean. It's entirely Stu's ride and in its own class. But a good one.

 

[User10571]

That was a great night out. And another great night out. The first part of this week, as so many when I'm off work, is looking rather grotty and unsuitable for big mileage. But, next weekend is looking rather better, and it was a cracking start to the time off.

Network Rail had helpfully scheduled engineering work on the Southampton-London line on Monday-Thursday evenings from January right through to the end of March, so journeys include the dread rail replacement bus service. They should take folders on replacement buses- at least according to National Rail guidelines. SWT, on the other hand, state 'bulky luggage, prams and cycles' are not carried- so that sounds like self and Chutney would get told to naff off, on account of being too bulky, or being a bike, or both. And as I'd already got a ticket for Underworld, and combining gig & ride to somewhere not on the south coast without an overnight stay was a bit daft even by my standards of daft adventure, there would be luggage. Bailing on the ride…not bleedin' likely. The work is between Winchester and Basingstoke, so riding to an actual train after work not an option. Going to Basingstoke first, leaving a bike there all day, then hoping I'd have enough time between bus arriving and train leaving to get on it with that bike (if it was still there)…no thanks.

Fortunately, the managers at work are decent and reasonable guys who had no problem with me cutting breaks short earlier in the week and leaving at nine on Thursday (though it's job & finish, the most the late shift have made since I transferred has been ten minutes, not a given and not enough to help much). Best possible option under the circumstances- nothing to lug into work, back home on the 125, time enough to change & do final prep in not much of a rush- time enough for a tea- before catching an actual train service (Portsmouth line running as normal), with the optimal bike for the job, the now be-racked Litespeed. Having fettled the rack fittings (bits of inner tube serving to allow the Ortliebs to hook on properly to the rack tubing without the fiddly shims, plus protecting that tubing and dampening rattles) the five-minute hop to Hilsea proved the setup worked very well indeed- the extra weight barely noticeable once rolling in terms of speed, handling or noise, zero heel strike. The train itself was about ten minutes late (having arrived late on the service south), not good. But it arrived into Waterloo precisely one minute late, which was good.

And then out into the drizzle to catch the peloton. I reckoned somewhere in the City would be about right- I would be moving somewhat faster than the ride, who would be coming closer to me for the first couple of miles anyway. I reckoned without those two words (welcome under the circumstances)....Brompton puncture. Caught up with the TECs at London Bridge (I didn't spot them, but they saw me) at about a quarter to one. Job done for me. Yes it was wet, but anyone who bailed on account of the rain…that didn't register on the FNRttC Weather Nastiness Index. Steady drizzle in a tailwind, 'twas all. A bit of moisture got through my ageing jacket, eventually, tops of the gloves a bit moist but my hands stayed dry, that was it. Feet dry, Garmin unaffected. As for the Ortliebs- water shall not pass. I did find three drips inside the ride gear one at J31....then I realised it had dripped off me And it all cleared off in the last part anyway. No Wetstable or Brighton Nov '09 was this, not by a long chalk.

The pace didn't pick up much during the first part of the ride- roadworks proved unavoidable, along with further fairy visits. Junction 31 might have been a welcome stop, but as I posted on the night it's become even less welcoming. The hand dryers, and the exit road, remain the most attractive features. Actual retail provision, OTOH, has somehow got even worse…if you like queuing at length to buy preposterously overpriced products from a sparse selection, even before a Fridays peloton descends on it like a plague of damp locusts, from staff who'd really rather be somewhere else and aren't able to pretend otherwise, this is the place for you. I contemplated buying a cup of tea to supplement the food I'd brought. Then I saw the price. £2.35. £2.35!! OK, cheap compared to the room service & mini-bar prices at my digs for Friday night, but I'll come to that later. Settled for a Cup of Something Not Entirely Unlike Tea (as Douglas Adams put it) from the nearby machine, at a mere pound. Ross baulked at it, but it wasn't bad, even if the instruction to put sugar in didn't work. Also not £2.35. The Sainsbury's sandwich & cake slice proved a much better option that what was left in the chiller by the time I looked. And there was further cake. @arallsopp had brought sugar-free carrot cake (no, I didn't get that one either). Doubts on the potential tastiness of this were somewhat assuaged by the sure and certain knowledge his lovely missus Evey makes an exceedingly good cake. I liked it so much I just about managed to leave some for others who wanted it Also, forgotten what it was but tasted nice cake, @saoirse50 (making a very welcome return) made a rain hat from the foil...

Right after leaving J31- weather still moist, though not for long- there was another mechanical. Oh, the irony. Titus had not long asked everyone to check their tyres over, better to find a problem whilst we were warm, dry and well lit. So whose bike was it that had the visitation? Yup, our ride leader. After first light, I was on a hill with one of the newcomers (ex-submariner, Trek Domane, forgotten his name) on Titus' instruction to signal drivers to slow down when word came that @Trickedem had punctured. On his Brompton…cue long wait, and an Origamist rescue team made its way back down the road.

There were more delays, but the meandering route option had much more attractive scenery than the direct one, and the dawn had brought a lovely morning, all the better to see it by. And the ever-welcome Wowbagger. That Roundabout brought a smashing bit of action (for some motorists rather than us, thankfully), but the hoped-for arrival time had well and truly gone to pot. I got to Beaches not long after nine. Excellent choice there. Very good breakfast, served quickly, in a great location.

Thoughts turned to the prospects for the (F)MRbtH, which as it does from time to time, was an option for me on a non-south coast ride. Best way to kill time before hotel check-in. In the absence of some of the Kentish usual suspects, and Ross visiting his mum, the group for the westward run was myself, Andy and Brian. I was nominally leading, on account of having a route set up on the Garmin, tried and tested route from when I've ridden back in before, should (operative word) have worked just fine. Fun and games ensued. To start with, it failed to give the prompts- fortunately it decided to after a while, and we all knew the first stretch anyway. All OK (with the ride and the nav) from there until the A13, when the Garmin decided not to tell us about the need to take a road across the carriageway when the all too short bike path finished in a dead end- a quick U-turn ensued. Not long after that, the turn indicated brought us onto a grindy climb with fast moving heavy traffic, from which we quickly decided to turn off. Once we turned off, we realised the road we were on headed south again, the second option was going the right way. From there on, the navigation committee and its equipment (Brian & phone, Andy's eTrex and my Edge) went for the play-it-by-ear with a bit of map checking option, and that worked out well, through Bulphan, Upminster and Hornchurch. Andy had the Woolwich Ferry in mind for their journey south of the river, and worked out where the parting of the ways would occur. After parting company, I carried on west (didn't bother with trying to follow the somewhat discredited route, west is all I really needed), on to Barking, past that stupid sculpture, East Ham and onwards. Once I got towards the West End, my routing got a bit more fudged- roadworks/congestion/tiredness/lack of knowledge, but got to Tottenham Court Road and the modest digs (Radisson Grafton Hotel…it was a lot cheaper than the Ibis!!) soon enough, if a bit later than planned- not long after four. Checked in, bike stowed in basement luggage room, crashed out for a couple of hours, woke up, then up to Chalk Farm Road (Boris bike from Warren St then on foot) for some lager, lager, lager. Terrific show as always from Underworld. Back at about half-eleven.

Despite the long day/night/day, woke at six or so. After a comprehensive tasting of the breakfast buffet, most excellent, I left at about half-eight, only to discover the front tyre was flatter than the proverbial. It must have picked up a flint on the ride back in & deflated overnight. Got the pump out, no joy. No inflation whatsoever, and that's a decent pump. I had neither the skill nor the inclination to sort it myself properly and quickly. I look on Google Maps, there's a Cycle Republic (the recently rebooted Halfords standalone) across Euston Road, it opens at nine. They have a track pump outside for anyone to use. Worth a try, no dice again. Nine, straight in the store. How much to fix it? £2.50 for a new tube (but they were happy to use mine). Nine quid or so to replace it…or sign up for their loyalty card and get it done for free. I went for that option. Had a browse (all the stuff from a Halfords, plus much more, and quality too) whilst it got sorted. Back to Waterloo for the ten o' clock.
And relax (some more)…

Well done @AKA Bob for an excellent job as ride leader, and great to see friends old and new as always. And after all this time (well, it feels like a long time), it's good to be back night riding. Only four weeks till Whitstable

PS: June 3. IOW. You know you want to. If you don't, you should want to.

TL;DR

 

[StuAff]

Note - this is an aficionado's ride, highly regarded by those who have done it. It's not an "official" Friday's ride (lack of midway stop, really really hard etc) but is classed, uniquely, as "one you might want to do" and will be mentioned in the Fridays' email update. It's a sort of "ride-in-law" as in it's part of the family but not quite, if you see what I mean. It's entirely Stu's ride and in its own class. But a good one.

As per the ride thread, the midway stop is sorted, ride numbers permitting (this is of course a chicken/egg situation). I'm certainly not going to argue with the really, really hard bit, I'd rather put people off than risk them being overconfident about this one. There is much more climbing than any regular FNRttC. Many, many people do round-the-Island on the Randonnee, Cycle the Wight and their own initiative every year. During the daytime & at their own pace. Overnight is certainly a different kettle of fish. There's nothing individually that nasty- no Ditching Beacon-level climbs, let alone harder than that- just that there's rather a lot of them......

 

[StuAff]

TL;DR

NP;YW