England : London Sunday London ride

[rb58]

As always I have to be back early so cant make your ride Becs which is a shame. The weather for Sunday looks really nice so If its just me I am going to head for the hills of Kent.

If anyone wants to join me or is intending on staying close to London give me a shout. I am going to get out early again and get some miles in.

How early Clive?

 

[User10571]

Here's one!
http://www.bikely.co...heerness-on-sea

Ummmm..... you'll not enjoy and possibly come to grief using parts of this route.

The A289 is la merde whichever way you cut it. Motorway in every way but name.
It is used on the FNRttC, but only on a relatively benign section, at 04.00am.
Also, cycling is prohibited through the Medway tunnel.... attractive though the idea might seem. The bridge in Rochester is your friend.

I'd love to join you on this but suspect I'll be lacking of legs, following Adam's Leicester>London ride the previous day.

 

[Mista Preston]

How early Clive?

Plan to get out at 07.30am. I may do a 30 mile loop in Kent than up to London then back to get 60 miles (grab a cuppa in between) or ride down to Ashford which is 60 miles from memory a get a train back. I need to be home by 1pm

 

[redjedi]

I have decent routes to both Sheerness and Maldon, and I might well be up for this if the wedding doesn't reduce me to maudlin hangoveritude. The route to Sheerness may involve a diversion for dead kiddies, but don't let that put you off.......

I don't think you can paddle at Maldon. There is a strand, and there are lovely houseboats. There's also a first class tearoom. The roads beyond, through Tolleshunt Major are very nice. Six people on an adventure would whistle up a landing craft and go on to Walton or Harwich - now that is a really good ride, night or day.

Another option is Burnham on Crouch. The beach isn't exactly Hawaii, but it's not entirely mud either.

If I can make it I will - and then all you have to do is to tell me where you want to go.

Not doing Henry Moore, though. It's like looking at Davy naked covered in shiny brown paint. And they're all repro jobs. HM is a franchise operation.

Bear in mind that train fairs out that way are absolutely outrageous. You're going to need the network card/groupsave gambit.

Sheerness is severe - a former military town. There's Georgian cut and struck brickwork, a Martello tower, tall windows in narrow walls and some ironwork. It's dominated by the naval yard, the see wall and, far worse, the modern port. I'm not sure if the steel mill is still going. It's absolutely not pretty. Kind of savage on a wet February morning.

Maldon has a sweet town centre, with a lovely church, the Blue Boar Inn which is 600 years old (and not expensive) and some darling shop frontages. There's a hairdressers that will give you an Essex bouffant and make you feel good about it - that's you, Becs, not me. There's not much sign of the famous battle of Maldon. The quayside has a tradition of smuggling - which was still going on when I first went there in the early seventies. If you're lucky you'll get to see a red-sailed barge.

You have to use your imagination with both of them.

Maldon hasn't got a railway station, so you have to go on to Witham, or, as I say, head for Mersea (now that's something) and take a landing craft over the river. The ride to Maldon is much nicer than the ride to Sheerness, although you could enliven the Sheerness route with a trip down the Military Canal (the dead kiddies are probably too far out of the way) and, if you get an early start, the Dartford bypass is a wonder - it's next to a bird sanctuary and the birdsong is quite something.

It doesn't matter which one you go to - you'll go to the other one before too long

Ummmm..... you'll not enjoy and possibly come to grief using parts of this route.

The A289 is la merde whichever way you cut it. Motorway in every way but name.
It is used on the FNRttC, but only on a relatively benign section, at 04.00am.
Also, cycling is prohibited through the Medway tunnel.... attractive though the idea might seem. The bridge in Rochester is your friend.

I'd love to join you on this but suspect I'll be lacking of legs, following Adam's Leicester>London ride the previous day.

With all those in mind, I think Maldon or Burnham on Crouch are the best options. If Simon can make it we can decide on Sunday Morning, if he's too hungover to make it, we can go to Maldon as I have the GPS route from our January ride to follow.

Burnham on Crouch sounds like a good option, as it's yet another new place to visit.

 

[Becs]

Hopefully the 10.30 start will help with the hangover situation! :-)

 

[Davywalnuts]

Hopefully the 10.30 start will help with the hangover situation! :-)

Or we could try this "hair of the dog" malarky by the Sepentine first to see if that helps?

 

[Davywalnuts]

Hopefully the 10.30 start will help with the hangover situation! :-)

Talking of which, I cant see a start point?

 

[redjedi]

Usual Hyde Park Corner Davy

 

[Davywalnuts]

Usual Hyde Park Corner Davy

Cheers. I best not offer to cycle in with you as you know how punctual I am...

However, are we still going via North London'ish at all, just my work mate is keen on this...

 

[redjedi]

If I'm leading the way to Maldon then we'll be following Abs' route from Jan.

If Simon makes it and is up to it, he may lead us a different route. If your mate wants to come he better meet us at HPC at 10.30.

 

[Aperitif]

Cheers. I best not offer to cycle in with you as you know how punctual I am...

However, are we still going via North London'ish at all, just my work mate is keen on this...

"Kelvin Cobnuts"?

 

[Davywalnuts]

If I'm leading the way to Maldon then we'll be following Abs' route from Jan.

If Simon makes it and is up to it, he may lead us a different route. If your mate wants to come he better meet us at HPC at 10.30.

Thanks.

He's now being a fussy and boring old goat... seem's his wife might chop him up if he's out too long as I said were be having a nice relaxing beach pootle, cream scones, cakes, fish n chips etc and he just wants to get there and back... He rides a Lauren Fignon replica, a Raleigh Dyna Tech, which uses some sort of braising technic for the tubes, which personal, I reckon would fall apart... plus he RJL's, which I dont like... yeh, sod him! ha!

 

[gbs]

Burnham-on-Crouch (which I know from years ago as a yachttie) or Maldon are both appealing destinations but a 1030 KO will inevitably take a chunk out of the evening. Are you all committed to a late start?

 

[Becs]

Burnham-on-Crouch (which I know from years ago as a yachttie) or Maldon are both appealing destinations but a 1030 KO will inevitably take a chunk out of the evening. Are you all committed to a late start?

The late start is a key feature :-) we should definitely leave promptly at 10.30 though so we can get there for a late lunch! I don't mind going fairly swiftly as long as I get to sleep in!

 

[ttcycle]

Clive, if you decide to head into London I may join you dependent on times-been umming and ahhing about cycling these past few days.