2010-01-09 Sat - The Frozen Bridges - Winter Edition - VIII - West to East

well im tired...

SORRY for the puncture everyone... x

doing the ride, eating 3 bagels and then cycling back to fulham, is not easy in these conditions lol
thanks to all who came !

special special thanks to the other dude on a lo pro who had a spare 650 inner tube- did not get to give you dosh... please pm me or something

thanks to those who gave me food (tracker bar- crisp crumbs) you rock my world.

thanks also to james for having us prior to the ride.

awesome

Awesome ride, nice and relxed which is great since I had to cane it to get to the start on time.

No comedy falling over moments though, although I did stack it on the way there.

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great ride to start the new year.
so much fun. really relaxed and chilled (no pun intended), nice pace, lots of chances to chat and talk to people along the way.
Felt good to be back amongst the people and just riding through london. even though 28's make it feel like your riding like a slow coach, and you've got to put so much effort to just maintaining everyone else's pace. Feel hella different to 23's

my last forum ride for a while and was a good one to go out on. Old faces, new faces and never before seen faces.

extremely memorable was the sprint over the flyover at the hogarth roundabout, and the view from the top.

big thanks to Ma3k for organising yet another great ride. They are always a pleasure to be a part of.
And as always happens with these sort of rides in "difficult" conditions, best to just leave it to the last minute and make a decision. Sitting in south london, watching the little snow flurries stop and start, it never felt like it would get to a point where the main roads would be dangerous. And so it proved.

Thanks to nurse holliday for the cheeba cheeba, edmundro for the rum, photoben for the single malt and geezer whose name I didn't get with the bottle of red wine as we waited for morgan and max to swap out that inner tube on morgan's lush lo pro, big thanks to the rest of y'all for making this ride so enjoyable and see you on some more in 2011.

Thanks everyone for a great ride. Good people, nice pace, ska and beigels in the snow.

Achhhh! So peeved that I had to stay at home and "guard the house" against my 18yr old's party guests. Been looking forward to this ride since it went up - actually since the summer one - and then Jacob (the 18yr old) bless him jumps in with a last minute party!

Hope you all had a great ride - sounds like I missed a memorable night!

gutted :( Definitely coming on the next one, shame about missing riding in the cold though...

That was my first ever forum ride and I enjoyed it so much! Definitely looking forward to the next one. Cheers |³|MA3K!

Was a great ride up until I dropped out at Kingsway with Ed. Thanks for organising a great ride, yet again!

Double bacon cheeseburger was much needed and I was starting to be the last man a couple of times in a row so it made sense to drop out so close to home.

well im tired...

SORRY for the puncture everyone... x

doing the ride, eating 3 bagels and then cycling back to fulham, is not easy in these conditions lol
thanks to all who came !

special special thanks to the other dude on a lo pro who had a spare 650 inner tube- did not get to give you dosh... please pm me or something

thanks to those who gave me food (tracker bar- crisp crumbs) you rock my world.

thanks also to james for having us prior to the ride.

awesome

I'm glad I had a spare tube, that way the ride wasn't held up too long. Along with Max's supreme tube changing.

Also, I know this comes up after every big forum ride but I was really appalled with everybody's riding. Some of you just don't know the first thing abut riding, I saw so many people leaning! Don't you know? No leaning in ice! Putting everybody in danger...

Thanks for a good ride guys. The cold gave it that added dimension. Definitely one to remember... Glad I blew almost £200 on some decent cycle gear - it came into good use!

Some of you just don't know the first thing abut riding, I saw so many people leaning! Don't you know? No leaning in ice! Putting everybody in danger...

repped for top comedy.

Brilliant night, my first forum ride of many. Cheers to everyone involved, see you all again soon.

Classic beigels, too.

Well done all who rode. Especially good to hear that everyone stayed upright. I ummed and arghed up to 8 o'clock and then settled on the sofa. Now I'm even more gutted I just didn't saddle up. Roll on The circle line next month eh!

morgasm in 3 beigels on a bridges ride shocker.....

I took a HTFU pill at about 7:30 and headed over to the Souths C&H to join the feeder (in the burger sense as well). I am very glad I did.

This was a brilliant Bridges ride and probably the most incident free one that I know of.

We had a lovely feeder ride over to Kew, from one Coach and Horses to another. We even managed to catch a straggler on the way over. Some surprised looks from the Kew locals greeted us, along with some last minute refreshments and checks of clothing double layering and lean avoidance advice.

Ma3k arrived fashionably bang on time and a group of perhaps 55 set out into the night. Except for me and Jonny. The jolly chap had kindly locked my bike up to his, to ensure the safety of our steeds. unfortunately, the damn thing seemed to want to stay locked, no matter how much key wiggling was performed. Ten minutes later, having smacked it in to submission with my d-lock and frigged into operation with a small allen key, we set off. I was resigned a this point to not catching up for a fair few bridges, which was a worry with us not knowing the west part of the route.

No problem, the only punctures of the night happened within the first mile so we were soon all regrouped. Except for Joe who had left me and Jonny with the locks to go and tell the group that we were in trouble. He got lost and only managed to rejoin us just before Vauxhall bridge, having picked up Photoben en route. Sorry Joe!

After that somewhat troubled start the ride was a dream. A nice rolling pace that never felt to fast or too slow. Great leadership from Jon, knowing when to regroup but never lingering. A few flutters of snow to remind us that we were real men, and threaten to make us cold. Most people I spoke to were nice and toasty due to dressing for standing around in the freezing blizzards that never materialised. For me, it was one of the warmest night rides ever and that's even without wearing my balaclava.

As serendipity would have it, we rolled into Parliament square, just as Big Ben was getting ready to chime midnight. A wonderful forum moment.

Yes we lost a few riders along the way as legs got too tired or homes got too close, but that is always the way. Last night goes to show that the weather can't get in the way of a great ride.

As has been said above, a great bunch to ride in, new and old faces alike. Chapeau to you all.

One last thing - I know I wasn't alone in missing Paul on this and all future rides. You were certainly in my thoughts and I know you would have been there, with bells on.

thanks to MA3K for organising - turned out to be a really great ride ... we saw barely any ice on the roads and in the end it wasn't that cold at all (combination of loads of clothes and hip flasks being passed round)

pace was just right - and was great to see london at night - kind of felt like we had it all to ourselves ...

put a few (not great) photos up on facebook here

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3803708&l=6e0b131db8&id=700752726

awsome ride to all who braved it and much love to the yob in brick lane giving it "im gonna kick you off your bike you pricks".. and thanks to Ma3k for notch on my forum ride belt. finally got home at 2.30am after a cold ride home with John, Max and Morgan on his beautiful lo pro... cheers guys and girls

I had a smashing ride. Good pace, quiet roads and good company. I feel bad for being unsociable and tired after Corny's do, I didn't really meet any new people. I'm not normally that arrogant!

As John said, it's nice to ride with a bunch of people that were out to ride their bikes. What felt strange to me was not having a bag full of booze on my back.

A note to all you ney sayers, you missed a good night, shame on you! Perhaps all the people that bailed made the ride more enjoyable for us. Smaller groups mean fewer and shorter stops.

I'm looking forward to many more rides this year and meeting lot's more people. If this was your first forum ride, check out some of the overnight rides that will start in the warmer months.

for the record, the dickhead who beeped everyone and then got caught at the lights was BN03 WJJ

photographic memory Josh?

i was behind him for a while after he got stopped at the lights until he went right.

for the record, the dickhead who beeped everyone and then got caught at the lights was BN03 WJJ

That was karma in action right there. Karmaic justice right before our very eyes.

Hey peeps, I'm glad to see that you all got home safely. Josh, it's good to hear that the my directions were correct.. I was so tired by that point that I found hard to lift the bike up the stairs at home.

Guess what? my toes were purle!!!! not nice...

Noel and Ed, thanks for the booze! and Owen, thanks for the biscuit! I promise to bring a stash of Scotch for the next one.

And again, it was great to ride with such a good bunch; people that really enjoy riding their bikes.

Thanks for the company Mashton, and thanks to the guy (who I can't remember the name of) who sent me in the direction of Swiss Cottage afterthe Bagels.

Thanks :)

Good ride, nice to see no accidents and only one pun_t_re...

morgasm in 3 beigels on a bridges ride shocker.....

i dont fuck about. its tradition.
we even took john's long way home again.
can you guess how many hours sleep i got the night before?