Audax rides

This is where the Estate is;

1 Attachment

Just finished tweaking my bike for the KW 400k on Saturday. Flat second half so have fitted my aerobars.

Say hello if you see a silver tripster.

That's doesn't sound like a very @inappropriate_bike !

Go back to the drawing board and come back with a fixed tandem trike with a sun canopy or something.

That's doesn't sound like a very @inappropriate_bike !

Usernames last longer than bikes!

Well, call yourself 'inappropriate_username', then. :)

I made it 55km into the Meridian Hills route before rear shifter cable snapped coming up the hill into Crowborough. Shifting on the Planet X hadn't been great for a few weeks which I guess in hindsight, was a frayed cable in shifter. I knew the right thing to do for TCR training would be to go in the opposite direction to Tonbridge to the only open bike shop on a Sunday but somehow, I didn't have it in me and am sitting on the train home Fuuuuu as I was feeling good. Going to take it to Seabass to fix, sit in the sun, have beer, profit.
So, I guess I need to ask, does anyone ever carry a spare cable!?! Assume not.

No, change them before a big ride.
I have carried spare cables in remote places like Tibet.
Sounds like you didn't think of the obvious solution, fix your rear mech in a rideable gear by fixing it to a bottle cage and riding with two gears...

Finished the Dauntsey Dawdle this morning, my first 400. Pretty pleased overall...

Broke a chainring bolt, which weirdly made my cranks unscrew. Ended up stopping every 30 miles or so to tighten them back on. Then snapped a spoke at the furthest point in the ride! Definitely owe my mechanic a beer for the wheelbuild, barely a wobble in the wheel after it snapped.

Time for a beer I think.

Seems like a day of mechanicals. Despite not going out today, I though that it was high time I cleaned the bike from Porkers. I don't know how many km I rode with the chain the way it was, but it was well past its use by date. Chain not sitting on either the chainring or sprocket properly at all. New sprocket and chain today, brake blocks in saddle bag. Impatient anticipation for Brimstone next week. Can't wait.
Newish patch sewn on DIY saddle bag now too. Hopefully by summers end I'll get a Wessex SR and 100 to sit beside it

@7ven - you missed out on a nice route. It would have been glorious from Forest Row through Brighton and onto Balcombe today. Warm, but glorious. Where did you start? Green St Green? The climb up to Brasted then down and up Chart to Emmetts lane is a nice steady start to give an idea of whays to come I think
#derailleurneindanke

1 Attachment

Started from home in Catford then picked up the route through Cudham Lane North. Will be back to finish it that's for sure.

I didn't finish it.

Rode the first 300km to Oxford by about 7pm then decided I was bored and caught the train home.

Slightly fucked off with myself today for a number of reasons.

Have cancelled my trip to Wales for the Mike Hall thing. Going to ride my bike to a pub instead.

Rode 'Straight outta Hackney' as a DIY on Saturday. Probably the worst Audax in terms of route I've ever ridden. The route in and out of London is particularly unpleasant. Not surprised it's no longer a calendar event.

I am 100% with you on that, the ride back was hell. I rode it as calendar event. Nothing but great things to say about ACH though, pints at the stag and barbecue made it worth.

It is still a calender event, and that's quite an exaggeration.

Rides out of London always suffer from that problem (my own DIY 200 is awful on the return since it's just the A1010 then A10, lovely going North at 6am, awful coming South at 4pm).

Lovely routes out of London exist but they often don't make good Audax routes, e.g.

• Unsuitable for sending hundreds of cyclists down at certain times (what's good for one may not be good for many)
  
• Impossible to write routesheets for ("47th unmarked R turn") and you can't rely on everyone having a GPS
  
• One person's ideal route is another person's hell (and vice versa)
  
  

Audax routes are very often a compromise.

Just going on the ones I've ridden (about 10 different ones)

I really enjoyed it but that's probably because my normal weekend was riding up and down A roads for 12hrs by myself and this one finished with beers.

This sums it up pretty well.

Personally I don't have an issue with the route and have ridden it numerous times, organisers have to consider loads of things when planning their event, and for a ride starting in Harringay with around 100 entrants this is the best compromise to get people out and back into a busy part of London.

For RRTY (from London) the best thing to do is leave early and return odd time or plan a route that ends at a convenient train station just outside M25 and take train back.

I feel like the only good route out of London is one that leaves after 9 at night.
And even then a lot of them are awful. After last Dunwich Dynamo I think I've no desire to ever head NE of London by bike again. Plus the return cycle through Epping at 5ish in the afternoon is absolutely the worst riding I've done in the last few years (and I've done a lot of horrible riding).

ACH events are great though...

@mustardbeak did you do your Shark/GMC double?

GMC, no shark drank beer instead. Want to give it a go though, but it's one to do with some company I think!

I checked your strava a few times in anticipation... but just doing GMC is quite painful enough. It's still the hardest 300 I've ever done.
I think seeing so much of the same scenery twice in two days would be pretty hard going.
How are you feeling about the big Scottish ride?

I'm seriously looking at a GMC/AWE double the weekend of the calendar assuming it runs.

What prevents me from doing the GMC/Shark double is lack of GPS, so I'd need the calendar and a perm- hopefully this will change between now and September though.

I reckon a couple of others could be coerced into this too. I would be well up for it, the weekend of the calendar.

On the subject of company on rides - if I linp round Brimstone this weekend, I've pencilled in Hardboiled perm for Sunday 15th July/ Monday 15th July.

I know it means running into Monday, so will cout out many, but I could really do with some company - especially with the last 100 being overnight.

Plan is leisure train down to start at 1200 and finish in time for breakfast and train back about the same time the next day.

I'll be motivated as this will be my Wessex SR ride, but will be slow and fixed.

On my todo list but not so close to TABR. Soz. Have fun though, nutter.