Rough Stuff rides for LFGSS folk, join regular rides that avoid tarmac

I’m out too soz. New bike woes :( third time lucky

Am I mad to be doing this on a late 80's 26er?

No

I did King Alfred's Way on a '92 Kona Cinder Cone and that was a blast, you'll be grand.

@SteadyCam No. Sounds great. I’m on a 26r, more of a rough tourer… Zebra and Qebrus will also be on old MTBs I think. So basically only Alex will be riding anything remotely modern. I guess that will show when we keep asking him to wait for us.

@ElGonzo & @Thrasher ok cheers for letting us know.

And then there were five …

… and then four made it out. Glad we did it, lovely day. Alex_B, SteadyCam, Zebra_cyclist & me.

Grim-ish meeting at Dorking, not exactly raining but a light sprinkling was ominous. Very quickly we were riding great tracks, passed a blue plaque at Leslie Phillips’ former residence (a really gorgeous Jacobean pile), enjoyed our first 15? miles, almost completely off road, immensely. We stopped for coffee at Shamley’s answer to Harrods. Rode the Downs Link north for a bit, then a lovely stretch on a canal/navigation (slow for lots of peds & dogs), some more great bridles & tracks, the muddiest permissive byway in Albion, endless off road fun with perhaps 10% tarmac up to Frensham Great Pond.

The sun had properly come out just as we stopped for some beer at a brewery just before, managed to get in the lake before the sun got hidden again, ominous skies to the north but thankfully missing us at that point.

Beer and lunch after a pleasant plunge, during which a large party of Charedi arrive at the beach and proceeded to paddle and play, fully clothed. Picaresque.

Rode an improvised homebound route to Farnham, our comrade SteadyCam leaving us there heading for home. Remaining three discovered the Dreaded Rail Replacement in operation. Cue more improv, some busy B roads to Aldershot, up the roman road past the Garrison. As we reached the approches to Farnborough (where trains commenced), the heavens truly opened on us. 10 minutes under some modest canopies outside a closed pizzeria.

Train caught after the deluge, I had a flask of hot oolong tea as we sailed back to Clapham J before wending our ways home.

Reckon I did about 95km, 50+ of which off tarmac. Great day.

5 Attachments

Thanks for that most flattering of unflattering pictures!
It was a really great route though and I'd definitely be up for riding it again.
Good company too and next time I shall leave space for some artisinal cheese to go with my craft beer.

Cheers guys, thanks for a fun day out. Tough luck with the rail replacement service, that's always the last thing you want after a long day in the saddle.

I'll hopefully upload some pics tonight.

Tough luck with the rail replacement service

No biggie, you called it at the lake and I went ‘meh’, serves me right

Just put some pics up on instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CSFXOwML8Rk/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Looks like a proper success of a ride, gutted I missed it!

How about a long route to Shoreham for the next ride? There's a route that I've used before that's good fun.

I’ll be there if I can make it. Pick a date or dates, post a description, route? and we’ll chip in on a list what works for us like last time… seemed to work ok.

Think I’m going to partially respond to @Zebra_Cyclist ’s point about doing individual ride threads, by changing this thread title to include something about regular rides.

On Sunday we talked about doing a ride down to Shoreham via the Downslink.
This would be a straightforward Downs Link route taking in a lot of the off-road routes we've explored on the last two rides: https://cycle.travel/map/journey/247019

Much as I love the Downslink, it can get a bit boring at times, so you could go this way, via the South Downs: https://cycle.travel/map/journey/247052 for a more challenging route, using the rail link out of East Grinstead and following the Avenue Verte down to the coast. Again, lots of off-road.

@Alex_B
Hah you cut my feet off and your bike in half for a 360 geotag thingy. Immortalised!

1 Attachment

I’d convinced myself that you were going on the 8th. Looks like a great ride - very jealous.

The water (where you’re allowed to swim) was a bit shallow, not great swimming, but nonetheless very pleasant! Worth a visit.

Did you not get on with it? I found it's deep enough to swim in but as soon as you try to stand you realise that you only ever had a few inches clearance. I went outside the buoys and it's deeper there.

I mean, yeah it was fine. But a bit limited inside the buoys. We didn’t stray as there were some sailing dinghys doing their thing pretty close

Sorry mate!

No need for apology Sparky, you don’t make the rules

Well I recced another possible route so you folks don't have to, and I would not recommend it! I was hoping to find a way down onto the South Downs following the Forest Way from East Grinstead, but the route after the end of the Forest Way is pretty dull and not much fun.

I feel like we need some routes to the North East as I've never really explored up that way.

slayer have a few. They are good. https://www.stayercycles.com/thedistance

probably more 50/50 than 70/30 road off road ratio. although the roads are generally quiet lanes

I've got a good route from London to Cambridge. Nice mix of quite a lot of good off road/gravelly stuff and some nice, long, straight, flat Cambridgeshire roads towards the end when your legs are done in:

https://www.komoot.com/tour/447341407?share_token=an80F2Limnvc1cjP48ZszpRJTnBfrb3NFl9JCtOS5Y2sV2Dzns&ref=wtd

This is of interest! Thanks!

Please cajole us into doing a ride some time - wpuld be good if they’re not all south of London as we might attract some North ish forum people. Put a time, route, description up. Would be good to have a thing to aim for at Cambridge - a decent pub with lots of room for bikes would do, or a nice field to have a picnic in - Grantchester Meadows could be nice idea.

Next one after Shoreham maybe?