@mashton made me do it. Ashford International to Dungeness 16/06/18 disconnect, tune out, roll in back to analogue

What an ace day. Sorry for those who were plagued with mechanical gremlins, glad you made it back OK.

Highlights were: the sprint to Sports Direct to buy trainers; going to a light house that no one wanted to climb; lobster; alcoholic history lessons; spherical geometry; echelons forming on the road to Lydd; the hammer being applied on the road out of Lydd.

Great day, great company, brilliant leader. Thanks Ian.

BTW, forum names to bikes:

Mashton - lo pro.
853superfly - surly
Backstop - chrome langster
Cagimaha - muddy fox mega courier
Backstop - ?
Jaitch - pinnacle gravel
Jaitch+1 - broken mtb
Soapbear30 - ?

Soapbear =bandy bearded looking for a beer on a green ish bianchi ( quiet one)

Cheers again good day out

Aha, which makes backstop the dandy chap on the immaculate and wonderfully impractical cougar. Sweet steed sir. How is that lumpyy gel treating your guts?

soapbear30, did your pedal bearings hold up ok? Nice to ride with you!

Backstop was the one at the back, but not the cougar...

Now I'm confused. I'm sure all will become clear. In time.

Ah. I think backstop used to be called something else. I hate name changes.

cougar was Adam ? Margate massive represent :)

You got home in time then Mashton :)

I now have a stiff neck a sore arse and wobbly knees, some mild sunburn not sure about this long distance riding :)

looks ready to piss down now, black clouds and very breezy now.

Needed to amend my searchability.

Also:

The trick is that the focal length is half the curvature, the rest follows from there...

@skydancer
No worries.
We did check forum and hung around until 10.40 so shoeboy could finish his coffee :)

Route map on paper was subject to many jokes and pisstaking. But everyone in the group was able to read a map and it did come in handy when @jaitch dropped the group and missed a turn (i went back for him) and again when his +1 snapped an 11spd chain. was able to direct them back to bike shop in New Romney and they cut back in to Ivychurch.

Anyone have questions, read through the thread, lots of info's and i can help (try) if you want to expand the route or look for resupply options on route.
Jaitch is already planning a second attempt !

:)

Am I shoeboy or lobster boy?

Both.

@853Superfly it was a great ride, great maps, great route, great fun and awesome host.

I will be definitely going for a rerun of this route. Maybe once my arms are a bit better... And that's with suncream on!

Really good day and good to meet you all and put names to faces. Sorry for keeping the speed of the group a little lower than you guys were generally rolling.

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Good to know your back home safely.

My arms are stinging a bit now too.
Now wheres the aftersun stuff.......

:)

Yes @lobstershoeboy :) be glad Hippy is away or we might have tried to change your forum name too.
luv and hugs
papermapboy xx

Great to meet everyone, had a great day and doing my best to rehydrate now as train beers didn't meet our exacting standards.

Cougar is @bass_n_chips who's having forum technical difficulties...

We will upload some photos in at least 2 weeks when film has been developed and scanned. Delayed gratification kids...

I was the Cougar! Great outing today guys. Proper decent bunch, and great fish to boot.

10/10 would spin again.

Oh yes, of course, shandy base!

@jonny, the lanes and black top were sublime. The lo pro was perfect. If only the HS train wasn't so pricey and the ride out and back so far, it would be a great base for a TNRC route!

Genuinely quite gutted to have missed this. But I did see a wicked play instead. Anything planned for later in the summer @853Superfly ?

Just run this exact ride again, it was damn near perfect.

I am wondering how quickly I could drive down there for 5am, do a lap and get back into town. It would be incredible with sunrise.

Proper smashing the route, you could do it in sub 2.5 hours. Easy.

Home for 9am.

I managed a moving time of 2.32 for 39 miles, the route depending on how accurate speedo is..... from Ashford international to the lighthouse and back to International is 44 miles.

Now you could do a @jaitch variation, and chop out the coast section and Lydd (killer if really windy) and chop from New Romney high street over towards Ivychurch, that would knock several miles out.

That’s a Base top to you sir.

As it turned out we mostly had all been up the light house before.

Here's some I prepared earlier when checking the route out.
Hatch from outside......
:)

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Looking over the Desert of Ness.

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Don't look down.

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