A lovely ride by the river

We'd agreed the meet by Facebook messages earlier in  the week. We knew where to meet but not really where we were going. This however is ok because today we are following the Lee River navigation. The main choices are which side of the river to go on, and whether to follow any of the signposted diversions.

Everyone's agenda differs slightly and we had some people picnicking and others buying the food en-route. Some had a distance in mind and others were looking for a decent pub (we didn't find one). Claire decided to do the journey on a borrowed bike with 2 slow punctures, whilst Vera and David used full on touring machines. The rest of us used city bikes. This is my second longish ride on the brompton. Whilst it's definitely do-able, it leaves me very achy and sore the morning afterwards. On this occasion we also caught the sun a little and rehydrated with beer... both adding to the fatigue.

We stopped for lunch at the Lee Valley Adventure centre picnic area and immediately caused a panic by trying to order 3 sandwiches at once.

The journey out took 2 hours. The Journey back just 1.5. We debriefed in the pub before Vera went off to work and we went home to find out if my cousin and her friend had managed to find Lincolnshire.

Cambridge to London

“I’m still not sure which wheels to put on tomorrow.”

“I’m sorry, but your bike has no wheels?”

“Not yet, but should I go with touring or racing wheels?”

“Which ever you like but you’ll be at the station at 08:58? It’s nearly midnight.”

And so started a conversation that I had cause to recall as a sound like a single pistol shot went off in the train carriage at 09:10 the following morning.

“I think that’s your tyre David? Should the other one be bulging out off of the rim like that?”

“Probably not. I’ll let it down.”

The morning had started with a leisurely ride to Finsbury park station to meet Vera. We carried our bikes to the platform before I popped back for coffees. I didn’t hold out much hope that 2 coffees coming to £2.80 would be up to much… and I was right.

2 minutes before the train was due to leave David’s head popped in to view. With three of us and our bikes blocking the back of the train and Tanya at the other end we progressed to Cambridge.

At Cambridge station we found a quiet corner and whilst David and I dismantled his bike, Tanya went for coffee. I realised at this point that my budget bib tights were in fact a giant leotard, and that I was going to have to get naked to use the toilet.

Highlights of the day included:

A lovely ride through the countryside
Drizzle (Not rain)
Lunch in a cricket pavillion
French onion  soup in a garden centre
Heated toilet in said garden centre
Lee valley river path in the dark
Fallen trees on said river path
IKEA at Enfield
A mixed use path from Enfield to Tottenham
A bath
Sausage and mash

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.

The perfect bike

Everyone is looking for it and nobody finds it. The problem is that all bikes are designed to do a few things well. Wnat to cover 60 miles in three hours? Carbon road bike. Want to be able to walk when you get there? Steel Audax bike (But it'll take you 5 hours). Want to ride trails? A mountain bike. Want to commute as well? Cyclocross bike (But it has no suspension so you can't "Downhill")

With this in mind...

I bought my current bike in the run up to the supported LEJOG ride a couple of years back and for this it was spot on. A lightweight steel road bike with 28mm puncture proof tyres with braze ons for rack and mudguards.

I tried touring on it the following year and found it a little flexi at the back with panniers and a fair old amount of heel strike. This year I fitted smaller tyres and mudguards as I expect to do the Dun Run and I have masses of toe-overlap

For my current needs (in my head) I need this bike here. Although what would be useful on a daily basis is probably my old brompton.

Which brings me to Rule 12. The correct number of bikes to own is N+1 where N is the number of bikes currently owned.