Spoons To 'Spoons (A ThNRC Affair)

Nice ride, would have loved to do it but my hours are not really favourable right now. Anyway, good work!

Wouldn't have been nearly as nice without your hard work all those years ago routing around the M25. Potters Bar to QEII section was ace.

Wicked ride. So tired though, my goodness. Try and do a full write up later

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Incredible pictures. I can only imagine how great the ride was. What a way to make memories.

Chapeau to you all.

BTW did anyone tweet 'spoons HQ to tell them about this? Gotta be worth some freebie beer tokens no?

I said at the station that we were looking fresher than after the Isle Of Wight tour two (?) years ago and that nobody was asleep. Well...

What a great ride :)

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More pictures!

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And many thanks to all for coming, and @pastry_bot & @youramericanlover for the pre-bridge route, and @cagimaha for the post-bridge route.

Thanks everyone for such a great ride, had an ace time and look forward to the next one. The sight of the sun coming up over the vineyards and apple orchards as we came into Kemsley is something I'll remember for a while.

I said at the station that we were looking fresher than after the Isle Of Wight tour two (?) years ago and that nobody was asleep. Well...

What a great ride :)

Those in glass houses...

Album here...

Brilliant ride, route, riding, weather, everything. Did feel like I was on the edge a few times but the company and/or surroundings always quickly put an end to any flagging. The final Spoons was the cherry on the top. Thanks all for the planning and company.

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it was always going to have to be a special proposition to bring me out of TNRC retirement. and this delivered on all counts. it put a massive tick against every TNRC criteria:

• riding in the dark. riding through the dark.
  
• great route. as with all the TNRC routes this one was perfectly honed by local expertise and experience of the lanes. massive thanks to those that pulled it together, both those on the night and those who had pulled it together in earlier rides
  
• a group of determined colourful riders. all with a lack of respect to the benefits of sleep
  
• great leading and pace making on the road - thanks @cgg for the first part and @cagimaha for the second part. there were moments when I would have been happier rolling slower. but was just right
  
• epic visuals as night turned to day
  
• good beards
  
• shit beers
  
  

was a pleasure to ride with the few of you I had ridden with before @middleofnowhere , @Rodmunch, @cgg (gsiad) and @youramericanlover (we rode together in 1948) and meet the new generation of strong TNRC riders.

the main revelation to me and the thing that occupied my mind in those early hours was something that i know has impacted me in ways i cannot yet foresee. but it is the fact that no two Wetherspoons carpets are the same. I need to revisit my life.

Pleasure to meet you too! If Sir is in need of a coffee table book I can suggest this: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1112849/spoon-s-carpets/

Impressive...

Wow, compared to our normal rides you guys have really upped your photo games! I particularly like the one of an extremely displeased looking Dan appearing to have just laid down a huge steaming dump in the background.

I had to go parental swimming within 5 mins of getting home (including a sprint back down the very Muswell Hill I had just ridden up) and nearly had to be rescued by the life-guards who were only there to look out for drowning toddlers - not Dads dozing off in the corner. Then I slept for 14 hours straight and proceeded to dozily walk straight out of the house for coffee without realising my little despot had kindly placed the spare door key in the lock from the inside - cue an eye-wateringly expensive locksmith visit!

Still, memories of the latter will fade - memories of @cgg prancing about in sun-kissed castle ruins looking like a Bond villain crossed with the Milk Tray man will last forever..

Oh, what happened to the pic taken with the timer?

Give me a couple of weeks, viewing such images involves some alchemy and then persuading some 90's technology to decide it wants to communicate with a modern laptop.

memories of @cgg prancing about in sun-kissed castle ruins looking like a Bond villain crossed with the Milk Tray man will last forever..

Just beautiful.

90's technology to decide it wants to communicate with a modern laptop.

If you are talking about a scanner, why not just take a picture of the print, with a phone cam?

😋😉😎

Cos I've not got facilities to make prints smart arse! I'll get the film developed and then I've got a film scanner. If I'd wanted to take a photo with my phone I'd have just done so during the ride...

Not sure I'm recovered from this yet, not sure I ever will, but most importantly I did have fun, most of the time.

Can't think of a time I was so unprepared for a ride. Almost every ride I feel unprepared, but this time I actually was unprepared. Both mentally and physically. To the point where I missed my intended train 'cos of my faffing about trying to decide what to take, what not to take, and where half the shit I needed to take was anyway. Adding a Friday night in Potter's Bar's Wetherspoons onto that made the whole venture sublimely surreal, but, as always, when the wheels start rolling everything seems to fall into place.

The first half (1/3 and a bit) started with some familiar roads, with a touch of Toblerone Dark, a brief encounter with Killing Me Soft-Lea and a very pleasing chunk of Chingford's E4 Ecstasy in reverse. On top of this were some excellent lanes I haven't ridden before, particularly Coopers Lane Rd. right at the start, a 2 mile gentle descent into the Lee Valley, and the lanes around Navestock, despite the disgusting level of fly tipping.

One of the results of not being involved in the planning of the route meant I had a proper “where the fuck am I?” moment (turns out I was in Brentwood, I'm in no particular hurry to go back there). Ceding all the navigation was in turns liberating and unnerving (excellent jobs on the leading @cgg and @cagimaha, even if I did have to plead for a reduction in pace or a stop for a breather a couple of times). It was great not having a milometer taunting me with it's reluctance to tick over quickly enough but I have to admit to sneaking the occasional peek at the nav on the phone to assure myself the end was at least edging closer.

I really appreciated the guiding later in the ride as my mental and physical faculties fell into a total tailspin and there were times when, left to my own devices, I would have been hard pressed to find my arse with both hands. It is odd how energy and alertness seems to ebb and flow. One minute you'd feel like you were swimming through porridge then a quick conversation, an impressive view or a sugary treat would pick you up again. Lowest point for me came just after Reculver on the coastal path, perhaps I'd ceased up a bit during the stop, perhaps it was the steady headwind or the bumpiness of the path but I just could not put out any power, I felt like I was calling down to the engine room but they had broken up the last stick of furniture and had nothing left to burn. Watching the distance to the group ahead steadily increasing it felt like that path would never end. Then some combination of the regrouping, the change to a variable terrain and a powerball washed down with my last gulp of Lucozade (cheers @jonny, I still have the other one in the fridge at home, might put it on ebay, highly recommended) lifted me back to life (or as near as I was ever going to get at that time).

Despite trying to avoid a turn by turn ride review this post has turned into a monster so it must be time to wind it up. Spoon's breakfast, whinged at by locals for riding up the pedestrianised shopping street, long wait for a fast train home, dozing in front of the telly all day, pizza for dinner and an early(ish) night...

Where are we riding this Thursday?

if you are serious, I quite like the idea of a PB spoons debrief.. (I wasn't really able to enjoy that last pint as it was laced with trepidation)

I'm in for a PB loop as I've not done it yet.

Well there is something nicely circular about riding Potters Bar as a regular ThNRC this Thursday.

Finally got the disposable camera processed and there's only one "picture" of the ride. As blurry as our minds at this point I guess. Loving the "WTF am I doing there" pose of YAL!

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