2009-09-05 Sat 10am - Leaving East London Ride

she's still out for drinks after her first week at new job so it may be touch and go for her. i'll be up bright and early mind you.

Is she the type of girl to go out and stick to coke rather than vodka?!

white wine.
not a spirits girl at least. i'm sure she'll be just peachy. enough of this banter.
see you in the morn

bed time indeed! See you all bright and early tomorrow.

Shit. I should've looked at this earlier!

I'm definitely up for this. I've not done any group/forum rides yet so it would be great... this is exactly how I was looking to spend my Saturday!

out due to non-arrival of vital parts and not feeling a long geared ride today.
lame i know.
have an amazing time, hope someone sees this so you dont wait around for ages

Sorry you can't make it, Ed. Have a great day in the sunshine! I'm off now, so see you down there in a minute.

may consider this... i definitely need to get out of west london and explore the east-side at some point!

Yo - just got back to Hackney now. Didn't find the one we lost (my mate Dylan) but spoke to him and he is safe and well and home via the train at Harlow.

I toured around Essex's famous countryside for a while looking for him but then cut my losses and rode back in to town via Epping, Leytonstone and Stratford.

Anyway had a wicked day, thanks to all for the company and to Oliver for organising. Cheers!

Thanks for organising that ride, Oliver. Hope the chap heals up well and isn't too seriously injured. I have photos of the road etc.

Pleasure to meet some new people and see a very well kept secret location.

He 's ok. I ve just left Ileas in Whipps with Katrina, his wife.

We fought our way through triage and he got bumped out of minor injury to major and so got sent through the green doors to the proper casualty department.

Please can we have a post of a picture of the he man in the horse costume asap

Leaving East London Ride changed my life, at least for a day, hopefully all my weekends. Would love to do it again only with 2-3 stops only. Brilliant route. Thank you Oliver and sorry that we didn't say goodbye when you went into a pub, we all were desperate to get home. It was good to put faces and bikes to names too.
All the best to a Ilias. Hope the bone isn't broken and head injury isn't serious. Heal up!
Thanks to everyone for being a part of a fantastic day.

OK, a ride with highs and lows. Best wishes to Ilias and his recovery!

I enjoyed myself hugely and had two celebratory pints with BlueQuinn at the Princess. A lot of my favourite lanes covered. In retrospect, only the loop up to Matching Green was a bit superfluous. I should have cut that out.

A ride of attrition. First we picked up riders--Edward in Whipps Cross and Marco at the start of Coopersale Lane. In Willingale, we lost JAH_Tim, as he carried on riding to Suffolk. Great to meet you, Tim! At Moreton, Gus made a beeline for London as he wasn't feeling very well. At Matching Green, we lost James Logos and Dylan (see James' post above). And then we lost Edward and Ilias after Ilias' crash. Thanks a million for going to the hospital with Ilias, Edward--I take it you got the very helpful lady's details so we can send her a bouquet? PM them to me if you do. I remember her address, of course, but didn't get her name.

Good day out riding, hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did up until the crash.

Hope you're feeling better now, Arron!

Do we know any details of Ilias' injuries?
Best of luck for a speedy recovery.

For me the negatives of that ride sadly outweigh the positives

I never want to do a ride like that again.

And this is not flat.

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That is flat Quinn, you're mind was obviously warped by the beer you decided to consume on the way round!

I really enjoyed this ride and would love to do it again sometime, but without so many stops so as to keep it moving. I think it was great that Marco decided to join onto a bunch of people he didn't know and didn't know where they were going! I think he really enjoyed himself and we all had some great chats.

Thanks to Oliver for setting up and keeping the ride going the whole way -- thanks to Wools for being backstop the whole way round (I reckon we'd have lost a few more if he hadn't been there!) -- unfortunate about Ileas and I hope he recovers quickly without too much discomfort -- thanks to Edward/Peter(!) for looking after Ileas and for having a map! -- Dale, great to have a proper chat with you after our brief hello last time we met. Thanks to everyone else for making it such a good ride and for being there for a chat and for me sit behind and shelter from the wind!

May many more rides like this (apart from the fall) be organised and enjoyed by all.

Hm, I'd noticed before that Bikely elevation profiles totally distort a ride--I think they may be set up for longer rides? Oddly enough, when I did a longer (160km) hilly ride recently, the elevation profile made it look a lot less hilly than it was. And there were also a number of mistakes in it.

But I do take the point that you found it too hilly, Niall--sorry about that. However, it really was quite flat for an extended ride out in the countryside. The middle section--roughly Kelvedon Hatch to Matching Green--which really didn't go up and down much, as I hope people will agree--looks like the back of a stegosaurus.

Glad everyone (just about) enjoyed it - very sorry to hear about Illias's crash - hope its not too serious.

Sitting at home after a nice canelloni dinner and watching a movie I feel all the rough spots have gone from my memory. I enjoyed it. While it took longer then it probably could have, it was enjoyable, bar the accident. I'd do it again with some minor tweaks to the stopping schedule.

And this is not flat.

HTFU

(i always wanted to do that)

Phil, I was discussing this with Oliver in the pub. I've thought about this some more, and I think the reason there were so many stops is simply that the average pace was about 5-7mph too fast, so you kept a) having to stop for the slower ones to catch up, and b)having to stop because you kept losing people, and then had to go back and find them.

This was supposed to be a social ride, rather than a club run. The right pace for a social ride is about 12mph, with an average of about 10mph. For those of us who don't escape London that much, that average is about the most you can do across town with all the traffic, so that's where everyone's fitness level is at.

Now I did every mile you did, more or less as fast, but you young freaks with your energy and no arthritis might be able to zoom about at 20mph all day but that pace all but ruined the ride for me.

There should have been a proper stop at the first pub that we passed for a quick refresher, and probably 2 more after the pub we did stop at. If we had stopped for a drink in Chigwell I very much doubt that Ilias would have crashed. I was right behind him and the guy was running on empty and zoning out before he crashed.

Sitting at home after a nice canelloni dinner and watching a movie I feel all the rough spots have gone from my memory. I enjoyed it. While it took longer then it probably could have, it was enjoyable, bar the accident. I'd do it again with some minor tweaks to the stopping schedule.

Got home, Spag Bolognese awaiting, but M&S have put mushrooms in it. What kind of cunt puts mushrooms in Spag Bol? Had to pick the fuckers out before eating

HTFU

(i always wanted to do that)

I rode every mile of it. I HTFU'd

I moaned while doing it, sure, but I rode it.

i've been on this type of ride before bluequin and i think you make some very sound points on a lower average versus sprinting off from the lights. like some rides, an average speed should be indicated (e.g. the 17mph geared rides) then people can reasonable say you're heading off to fast or 'please don't come on one of these rides again'....:)

Lovely ride, all the best to Ilias for a speedy recovery. I second quinns point on the running on empty state. Had i not downed that coke and crisps at chigwell i probably would have gone down as well. Don't think we needed more stops or less pace but every time should have been enough to get something in.
I found the pace ok except i can't climb hills for shit so after zooming past on the downhills i then got in everyones way as they past me on the way back up. Less fags and more htfu required.

thanks everybody for a really good day yesterday.
great to meet some faces and with the exception of the crash was a perfect day.
really enjoyed sticking in the miles. totaled 82 all in getting to hackney and back to brixton!
see some of you soon enough i'm sure.

a big get well soon to llias.
massive thanks to oliver for getting out round and back, great effort.