Eroica Britannia 2017

New campsite location surrounding Friden Grange for 2017! Exciting. Who's going to be there?

haven't started working on the missus yet but hopefully we'll be there

There's uproar about this over on Retrobike.

The handbags are out:

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=357552

Anyone else slightly perplexed that the foreground bike featured on the static image of the Eroica Britannia's official video
is actually not following protocol - it's got the banned aero brakes on drop bars, ie the brake cables are not coming out of the top of the hoods and over the bars.

Someone in marketing wasn't checking it out, and subliminally the vintage ethos is being undermined. Sad.

I'm gonna be there at Eroica. Fixing bikes for two days and acting as mechanic sweeper on the big ride on Sunday. My mobile toolkit will have a 11/32 socket for rod brake adjustment and something to remove cotterpins. Along with lots of other shit as well. Looking forward muchly.

Take plenty of tubes/patches in your mobile toolkit.

Buzzing

I'm there for the first time this year after my brother got us tickets for my birthday.

I'm figuring out what I'm gonna ride over on here.

Hope to see a few of you there, say hello if you see a Harry Quinn with questionable component choices.

Well, that was a bloody marvellous weekend. Great music, loads of different types of food, fantastic vibe and much appreciation for the mechanics at the festival grounds and during the ride.

My location was about two miles from the finish for the Short and Medium courses, right after a nasty rock strewn descent. I lost count of the number of punctures I fixed - probably around 15, with lots of others that the riders fixed themselves. Some poor bastard got 6 punctures during the 56 mile ride. Loose headsets and bottom brackets, with a few non-functioning brakes were welcome change from tyre wrangling.

Insanely hot, with no shade where I was working. Still, I had a great time, much of it with a spanner/tyre lever in my hand. The first guy to pass my spot was none other than Chris Boardman who stopped for a chat. He absolutely bossed the descent, and I didn't see anyone do it faster. He said "nice bit of cyclocross".

And holy shit some of the bikes there... stunning machinery. My favorite was a pink/rose pre-73 Cinelli Supercorsa. Not flash, but the build quality was stunning.

Will deffo apply to be volunteer mechanic next year. Highly recommended weekend.

Good work. So what was Boardman riding?

I was there this weekend (2nd time doing it) and it was perfect. Bike jumble/ food/ music and the Sunday ride were all great. Some of the descents aforementioned on skinny 23c tyres were sketchy but super fun to fly down.

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Boardman was riding a red Mercian with cantis. He had long socks and neo retro shorts that looked like a frickin nappy.

Ned Boulting was wandering around with identical ones the day before - reminded me of my kids when they'd dumped a load in their nappies. Ned and Chris didn't appear to give a damn. Ned was yacking with the old boys selling old shit - also seemed like a lovely bloke.

The motormouth from the Gadget Show sailed through on some crabon monstrosity looking totally incongruous - bad form I say.

Gotta go on a selfie taking course - ended up with two silhouettes and a gorgeous blue sky. Kinda atmospheric, but meaningless without a bit of Gimping.

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Does anyone know what happened with Eroica Britannia? I belive it was moving south whilst being cannibalised by commercialisation, but then fell through. Anyone know if it will resurface?

Goodwood had it for last year but cancelled at short notice when it looked like it would bomb. I spoke to the Canyon guys who were offered a stand at Festival of Speed which was schedule for a few weeks before the Eroica rather than a refund (they said they’d done very well).
My understanding was that Goodwood was going to run it this year but it never appeared on the schedule.

Thanks Alan, Good to hear the story. I enjoyed it in 2015, and had a great time at eroica Hispania in 2019. Hope it makes a return to the UK post-covid, but perhaps it won't be at goodwood. Might plan to get ourselves to Limburg or Germany in 2024