Horsham to Brighton

This good Friday Sophie and Rachel had agreed to join David and myself for a ride to Brighton. Unlike the usual and slightly epic route over the south downs, culminating in another failed attempt to tackle the ditchling beacon, we opted for a route we hadn’t tried before.

After much to-ing and fro-ing we opted for Horsham to Shoreham. A simple 26 mile route with  a few extra miles tagged on for the last leg to Brighton.

Many of the reviews of the route suggested it was unmanageable on anything other than a mountain bike. I opted for the brompton as it would be easy to take on the train and has Marathon tyres on which are much better suited to this kind of journey. Most of the other bikes we saw were indeed full suspension mountain bikes, but you don’t need to go that far unless you want to do the journey really fast, in which case I reckon an old fashioned touring or audax bike, or one of the new cyclocross hybrid would be quicker.

As you can see from the pictures we had a motley assortment (or Crue if you like) of  bikes covering multiple “disciplines.” In truth it is manageable on any bike you want to go on, although I’d avoid anything too roady.

Inevitably we got to Horsham later than planned and decided to forgoe the first tea shop to get a few miles in before lunch. Had this been Holland we would have been passing cafes all day but refreshments were not all together easy to come by. Indeed with a group of 6, including 3 vegetarians, found it a little tricky to get lunch at all. I had cauliflower cheese and cheesy chips which meant I didn’t need to eat again for the rest of the day.

The route itself is lovely  if a little uneven and potholey in places and the ride into Hove from Shoreham is bleak and industrial but I loved it and will be doing the whole thing again shortly.

Upon arrival in brighton Sophie and I stopped for ice-cream and a suitable amount of bum rest before retiring to a local hostelry. Unfortunately the first bar was riddled with wankers downstairs and needed the upstairs for a function in the evening, so we moved on to a much nicer bar a little closer to the lanes.

We really should have checked the trains a little more thoroughly because the journey time was an half an hour longer than usual so Sophie and I popped our folders into a black cab at St Pancras. Unfortunately that meant we followed Robert all the way through Islington. He did indicate his pleasure at this with a salute using just a couple of fingers.

All in all a lovely day out.

London to Brighton with Vera

Variety is the spice of life, and so instead of cycling to Richmond at the crack of dawn before riding circuits with Dan and Warren, I cycled to Brighton with Vera.

We agreed on a slightly later start of 10:00 a.m. thinking that we could easily cover the 95km from our meeting point in 5 hours riding, with an hour or so off the bike, we’d be in Brighton by 16:00. OK so we may take until a little later but not much. An ice cream and a quick dip than back home for tea.

Vera was on  her new Surly Long Haul Trucker (in a 46cm frame) with mountain bike wheels and gearing. Last time I'd ridden with Vera she was on  a junior Fuji track bike so the Surly might manage the hills with a little more ease.

We set off using the route we both knew down from Tower Bridge down Tooley Street, following the river down through south London before heading towards Catford and on to Bromley. From  there we wiggled about a bit (yes this is the actual technical term for it). 

The aim was to head for Turners Hill and follow the largely downhill and straight route from there… Up the Ditchling Beacon and descend into Brighton.

I’ve checked the route we used on the magic that is google maps and it is between 101-106km in total and not 95 like we thought. So what’s 10km? Well we went a little off message and added a bit more onto the total journey. Even now though google maps reckons 6 hours or so so we should have been there by 17:00.

The route went well (apart from us not being able to locate the biggest hill on the whole route and accidentally joining the A23 for a 5 mile stretch) and with minimal checking of maps and GPS we made it to Brighton in  one piece.

It was however incredibly hot with a sun baking down onto Vera’s cumulative sunburn and my head-to-toe covering of cycling gear to ward off the rays. Mmmmm Toasty! The photo below shows the effect of the sun through the holes in  my gloves!)

We got to Brighton in a weird bank of fog (which was obviously hiding the beacon from us) and sat drinking coffee on the beach. Not the refreshing dip we had packed our swimwear for. In fact the sea was too rough for even a paddle. We were exhausted. It had taken nearly 7.5 hours including breaks in the baking sun. We had only eaten a couple of sandwiches and some heat remodeled chocolate bars (Tip: “breakaways” don’t travel well in direct sunlight… Who knew) and flapricots… the result of flapjacks melting into apricots.

The chat was mostly cycling related with time enough to discuss starting a religion of sorts (Motto: You die that’s it deal with it… Have a stick on beard) and Class war in relation to Mumford and sons. All in all a lovely day out.

I got back home at 21:00 to find Sophie had run me a bath and prepared dinner. I was so grateful for that.

WNBR Brighton 2012

Brighton WNBR and such the like...

Well I did it again. Even though it was pouring down with rain and blowing a gale.

Made me think of this terrifying bumper sticker I saw the other day.

I set off fully expecting the whole event to be cancelled. Wet and rainy ride to London Bridge. American girl having a complete fit about the standards of customer service at the station (Tip: Don't call the counter Clerk a bitch when enquiring how long service may take).

Brighton station out of pasties too...

Got to the level to find nearly 300 semi-clothed cyclists, who as I approached, gathered to set off. I did the first half of the ride clothed and the second half undressed with a waterproof jacket over the top.

Gloryously bloody minded and incredibly British. A naked ride in the rain!!

Last year we had glorious weather http://wheelsstringsandpictures.blogspot.com/2010/06/pedals-not-petrol-world-naked-bike-ride.html

London to Brighton

Had a crack at London to Brighton yesterday. Whilst it wasn't easy, it certainly wasn't the problem I thought it was going to be. I had to walk up two hills, but they're massive and I would be riding slower than walking.
There is a full ride report on my other blog here. A great day out if the truth be told, and the first inkling I've had so far that physically we could do it as a team. I thought we could probably all do it, but we got there in good spirits.



The rest of the guys by the sea


I didn't ride today. I know I should, but it's my first day back at work after a week off, and I wanted to arrive looking smart. Train was delayed by half an hour so I got there cross. Typical.

Pedals not Petrol : The World Naked Bike Ride

This last weekend just gone I attended the World Naked Bike Ride in both London and Brighton. I don't think I've ever spent that much time naked outdoors in my life before. (Photo below was of some people I met in the bodypainting area)



The London ride started with a call from Will Golden about the location of the secret body painting area over the opposite side of Hyde Park to where the ride would be starting. En-route I was stopped by the archetypal (and those of you have been will know what I mean) middle-aged-non-participant-photography-enthusiast asking me where the start was. I was a little rude and later apologised. The London ride really went off without a hitch and I met some lovely people. We ended bizarrely in a side street by Tower Bridge with much dancing and cheering.



This is the first time the roads weren't blocked off for us by the police so there were a lot of very suprised bus passengers that day.



Brighton was a worry for me. I'd not tried to get a bike down there on the train before, but in the end all was well. Everyone was lovely. Brighton people a little less suprised by this sort of thing than Londoners.



On an odd note there were three breaks built in to the route. One by the beach on some grass (makes sense), another on a roundabout in the town centre (not so normal... if you've never seen a queue of naked painted girls waiting patiently for ice-cream then you haven't lived) and finally a party on the beach.



The bands were all from the Pleasant Revolution on a pedal powered sound system. Lots of dancing, lots of sun, and a lot of wobbly bits. Anyway the rest of my photos are here (some are a little NSFW)

All told a great time... but not the training weekend I had in mind for the London to Brighton ride next weekend...

Happy days...

Well Stupidly I got the date wrong. It looks like I will be cycling on the London to Brighton ride a week or so earlier than i thought. 53 miles and I'm a little unprepared. To top it off I am off to visit friends of friends on the saturday, meaning train back from party... bed, then up at 04:00 to cycle to Clapham for the start... oh good lord... that's another 8 miles on top!