The Railway Touring Club - Downs Link Ride

I'd be down for this

Excellent news!

Not sure I've ridden with anyone here but I might come along if that's ok

Of course

At some point all of us had never ridden with the rest of us and most of us still havent.

Nice, just booked the day off

I consulted the calendar.
It's too early to say yet because school holidays. But, I've noted it.

If anyone's up for it, I might try a ride that follows part of the route this weekend.
I'm thinking of taking the train to East Grinstead, following the cuckoo trail and Avenue Vert trail (NCN21) south, then cross country diversion to the west, skirting to the north of Lewes and avoiding dipping into the South Downs before picking up the Downs Link at Steyning and then reversing my route of two weeks ago back to the smoke. About 120 miles all in.
This: https://cycle.travel/map/journey/110358

There's a bail out at Lewes at 35 miles, Shoreham at about 60 miles, then another one at Christ's Hospital at around 70 miles. Dorking would be about 90 miles in.

I've not floated this at home yet, so it might not go ahead...

Drop it in the Railway Touring Club thread as a few more might see it matey

I as well...

Is this doable fixed or should I hook up the back break and flip over to the Freewheel

There's a quite a bit of rolling climbing and descending, some of it on quite short steep pitches in places. This is all confined to the link routes to get to the Downs Link. On the railway route is fast flat/rolling until you get to Stan's Cycle Shack and then there are some more loose rolling hills. Again, after that, flat and fast all the way into Shoreham.
Singlespeed would be better. I met a rider doing it on a Specialised Langster...

Dang. Need more notice (and to actually read this thread more often).
Weirdly, I was wondering about doing the reverse... wind-assist becomes a thing after a few miles : )

I’m riding SS & @jaeyukdapbap will be fixed

It’s run wot u brung

Excellent! Can I just check, is this a there and back job or just cycle there and train back?

It can be whatever you want! I’d be tempted to ride back if others fancy it...(?)

Same

Just see what time we get to Shoreham I suppose

If we stop at a few pubs on the way, it might make the decision for us

huh. Too much bravado on my part by far! I ended up not doing it in the end. It's GCSE mocks and I was on duty all weekend helping out with revision...

It would definitely work in reverse, it's just that Shoreham is quite nice once you arrive there, so it would be quite a nice place to stop for a beer or something to eat.

Someone said there will be stickers, so I’m in.

Any chance of some of that old fashioned camping/touring thing? I'm off work and haven't done a forum ride for ages......I'm going to have to work hard to get to Peckham by the start ti e though....

What and where, in terms of a meet time, would suit you?

Don't change any details for me fella, as I'd be coming from Near Stansted airport.....I'll have to do some digging as to times etc, but I'm sure it's do-able... When I get a minute I'll do some research!

I wasnt going to, I was just being polite.....

Let us know where you could potentially meet us and at what time. Maybe share a train with @mashton ?

Duck it. In. Train at 4:30 in the morning will be fine right?

Good effort

We’ll wait for you if there is a trainmare, we are the RTC after all

Tried that ride yesterday and it nearly killed me!
I ended up bailing out at Dorking and taking the train back.

Technically I guess I did succeed in riding both trails, as Dorking is the turn-off point for the Downs Link, but it was just too hot.

However, having now ridden the Downs Link from South to North, I think it's much better ridden towards the south. The downhill portions are steeper in the southern direction, so harder to ride in the northern direction.

It's still a lovely ride.