2011-09-17 Sat - Clacton-on-Sea - Last Ride of the Summer

Ha - your aerodynamic experiment looked awesome. Did it work?

Great day out, thanks a lot for leading John. Thought fixed/ss only worked great as we all seemed to keep a comfortable pace and stay nicely together.

Had a very satisfying 103 miles on the clock when I got home but legs a bit tired, mainly from trying to hold onto shambolic's wheel in the 2up TT into clacton on a gear far too low

And for abybody unfamiliar with that part of the world this video is very illuminating

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-H0dhpcuyI

A lovely day of dodging rain-clouds through still-lush countryside. The first whiff of fresh grassy scent as we left london, and and later the first tang of the sea on the breeze. Not too hot, but still a good dose of vitamin D to lift our spirits into the autumn. The pace was just about perfect for me, i think we stuck together quite well as a group, and everyone was good company. Thanks again John for organising.

http://www.atoptics.co.uk/ is a wonderful website of atmospheric optical effects.

Flapjack recipes:

For normal (fatty) flapjacks, i think this recipe deserves its high place on google, and was the starting point for my experiments. I can't claim to have been as scientific - the following is approximately the first thing i tried. It seemed to work so i've stuck with it.

M25 orbital flapjacks. Low fat (potentially vegan even).

75g light brown sugar
75g golden syrup
300g banana (3 medium size ones)
optional: 4 tablespoons Horlicks original malted milk drink.
(This is the only dairy, non-vegan ingredient.)
50g / about 3 table spoons tahini
(sesame paste - i found mine on the 'world foods' shelves of a medium-large tesco)
250g Dorset Cereals Fruits, Nuts and Seeds muesli
(a lazy way of getting lots of interesting ingredients in - a mix of cereals, nuts, seeds and dried fruit that you'd probably spend more attempting to replicate.)
150g porridge oats
(the cheap chopped floury sort - to help glue everything together)
100g or so of whole rolled oats
(stretch out the expensive muesli a bit).

Line a baking tray with baking paper. (I've got a 9" x 12" tray that's about right, but it's fine to use part of a larger tray as this mix easily holds its shape.)

Mix syrup and sugar in a large saucepan with a tablespoon of water and heat gently. Meanwhile liquidise the banana and Horlicks with a blender. When the sugar has dissolved and begun to boil, remove from the heat and stir in first the tahini and then the banana.

Next stir in the musli, the chopped oats and the rolled oats. You want all the liquid used up coating stuff, but the mixture still pretty wet and squidgy.

Spread out about half an inch thick in a baking tray and bake at 175C (fan oven) for about 45 minutes. Keep an eye on it towards the end as when the surface finally dries out it will brown quite rapidly. When it starts to get signifcantly golden, take out and leave to cool a bit before cutting into bars and leaving on a rack to cool and dry.

I expect the higher moisture content makes this recipe a bit less temperature sensitive than proper flapjacks (which are basically toffee with oats). While it's cooking any raisins near the surface will swell up like blueberries and caramelise, and nuts near the surface can toast a bit - temperature might sensitively affect that.

The above is the recipe for the bars that were in the opaque bag. The ones in the transparent bag replaced the posh muesli with rolled oats, mixed nuts, pumpkin and sesame seeds and more chopped mixed nuts pressed into the surface. The ones i made for the M25 ride had some chopped cheap dates that i'd found a bit dry and un-interesting to eat whole. Chopped dry apricot would probably work well. If i try putting nuts on the surface again i'll probably coat them in the gloop first to make them stick better.

The Horlicks makes a small but i think noticeable difference. I think it's the barley malt component that really matters, so it should be possible to find that in pure non-dairy, vegan form (even vegans can have no sympathy for the poor cereal grains tricked into germinating so they start converting their starch into a slew of interesting sugars, then ruthlessly dried, toasted and ground up).

First they excluded the mountain bikers,
 and I said nothing because I didn't have a mountain bike.
Then they excluded the hybrid riders, 
and I said nothing because I didn't have a hybrid.
Then they excluded the road bikers, 
and I said nothing because I didn't have a road bike.
Then they excluded the brakless™ fixed-wheel bicycles with awesome lacquer jobs and miss-matched florescent deep-section wheel-sets and I was all like, 'fuck' and decided to sit at home bitching on peoples threads and looking at funny pictures on FGSS.

Great ride, probably be default mode from now on.

Wrong attitude, man. No-one bitched about anything. The reaction was wayy bigger than the provocation.

^ no riding: no talking. Go away.

much too aggressive, bye.

Ha - your aerodynamic experiment looked awesome. Did it work?

It actually worked surprising well but bloody unstable!

It looked pretty comfortable actually. Did you get into the drops doing it or just ride the hoods?

And you proved that panniers are aerodynamic doing it, too.

First hood, then drop, felt like those salt flat motorbike, panniers very comfy to rest my legs on, hand not so much as there's too much weight on it.

Actually more like a bastardised gravity bike!

Some crappy pics

At Mountnessing, conker looking a bit peeved we weren't allowed to shoot on the village green

A few in Maldon

Didn't take any pictures in Clacton itself for some reason. Can't think why

Thanks for a great ride John. Shame I had to shoot off early, would have loved to stay for fish and chips. Good to meet you all.

Ed, I'm pretty sure the pub with the massive chips was after the Hanningfield Reservoir.

That's the one I'm talking about, their home made ketchup was delicious.

thanks for the flapjack's Moth. both in the flesh and in recipe form. that optical weather site is also the business (for a certain kind of weather spotter).

additonally, i hasz route:
[ame]http://connect.garmin.com/activity/115417102[/ame]

and more crap pics to add to the collection (save for the one of Badger Lady, which i'll be sending to the Maldon Tourist board)...

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Picture of the day :)))
Will post some more tomorrow

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Hahaha! it look even more ridiculous in the photo!

I was just behind you, thought we were off to Mecca.

That's the one I'm talking about, their home made ketchup was delicious.

'The Windmill' in East Hanningfield. Nice pub.

It wasn't their homemade ketchup, but sourced from a small company in Tiptree:

http://www.tiptree.com/new_site/product_zoom.php?id=107&ret=product_list.php?cat=4&menu=products&image=1

Much better than anything from a supermarket. A small revelation, but a good one.

Sorry I couldn't make it, John. I would have loved to but had no time to sort out the bike and had to do work most of the day yesterday, anyway. Soon! Glad you had a great time.

I've kept out of this geary Vs ss/fixed debate, but after yesterday's ride I can see John's point, it really did seem quite different to the recent forum rides I've been on, more like those of a couple of years ago - and a very good thing too. People kept together better and there wasn't all this tearing along the down gradients! Okay, rant over.

John, cheers for leading another fun day in the saddle. I was humming and harring over whether to make it this year what with all the wet weather forecast, I'm so pleased I did.

My bullet points:—

• Cheers to Tom and Moth (sorry can't remember names) for the delicious flapjacks.
• Ed - your "aerodynamic experiment" was quite scary from behind - love the Mecca jibe (Alkali)
• Upstart - not peeved at shooting ban, peeved because I'd forgot my bazooka
• Alkali and Anna - nice to meet someone from my neck of the woods, next year we could ride to Hackney together
• Am going to check whether it's a Clacton or global ban from 'Spoons (any excuse for a pint)
• corrr, really enjoyed that warm shower last night!
• cheers to all for making it a good'un

^ sorry for the dog's cock

^^ Ha ha, for your convenience, both bearded providers of flapjacks are named Tom...

Ed, i expect next years pro road bikes to come with racks and panniers so they can make the most of the alpine descents.

I didn't spot badger lady at the time. She has a stripy-faced omnivore curled over her head yet seems to remain unreconciled to the world?!

Few more pics...

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Cheers folks, and Ma3k especially, for a good day out this Saturday.

I enjoyed riding in a tight group on those long pleasant stretches after Maldon, particularly. I'm sure that this is down to most folks riding fixed and the group as a whole having some understanding of group riding.

It seemed we spent much of the ride just under the edge of a dark and forboding cloud bank parallel to our course. Yet when I got home I had tan-lines. The rain when it fell, of course fell in Clacton.

And what about that kestrel, which some of us saw snatch a critter from a field, only for the prey to fight back as it ascended then escape on tiny urgent wings.

Red in tooth and claw. And Badger woman too.

Then they excluded the brakless™ fixed-wheel bicycles with awesome lacquer jobs and miss-matched florescent deep-section wheel-sets and I was all like, 'fuck' and decided to sit at home bitching on peoples threads and looking at funny pictures on FGSS.

What you've written makes absolutely no sense unfortunately.... As I don't have a fixed wheeled anything, let alone mismatched shit looking deep v florescent jobbies. It's not "bitching" either - it's called having a pretty valid opinion about bizarrely banning geared riders from a forum ride.... an opinion that a lot of people I know also have issue with. As a pretty new-to-riding geared rider I'm pretty sure there are 100's of fixeh skidders out there that could obliterate me on the open road regardless of bike type.
Maybe for your next ride try banning people of certain ability (or lack there of) and see how that works out.

Wrong attitude, man. No-one bitched about anything. The reaction was wayy bigger than the provocation.

This