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@blue_fleet
All my nice blue rides need an extensive list of replacement parts that I can't afford right now so it was time to treat the beater to a day trip. My Genesis Flyer was my first road bike and its just had its 5th birthday. It is by far my most abused steed and in the 5 years I've owned it I've never even washed it. I should feel ashamed of this but instead of it being a disgrace, its filth has perversely become a bit of a badge of honour. It gets all the hard miles around London's moonscape roads and is the only bike I lock up outside anywhere and leave out in the rain. Its done many 1000's of miles but since owning it its only once escaped the confines of the M25. Nonetheless I have still developed a bond with it, it is affectionately known as White Lightening and is about as classy as the tipple with the same name. After suffering years of abuse and to give it a glimpse of the world beyond the M25, yesterday I took it on its first holiday, it was like a Frtizel daughter emerging from the basement for the first time.
White Lightening has DMR mtb/bmx flat pedals that are completely seized into the cranks and I can't bring myself to wear full lycra gimp wear when not riding clipped in, it just seems wrong somehow. So it was to be forumesque attair for the day of floppy Vans, baggy jeans, t-shirt and ruksak, and matched to the similarly inappropriate (for a beater/commuter) 50x16 singlespeed gearing.
So after rocking over to my not 'on here' mates house in Brentwood on Sunday, yesterday we planned to go to Southend. I've never been, he has and promised me it was shit but I still wanted to check it out. Undeterred by the forecast of thundery showers we headed off, him in full gimp gear, 18 gears and a retro steel ride, me with White Lightening looking like a middle aged man who'd stolen his clothes from a Herbert at the local youth centre. I think he must have looked like a mentor or probation officer and I just looked like I had an ASBO.
I would normally be able to look at gps track of my ride to see which way we went but my phone battery is now so shit it cant record any rides longer than about 4 hours without running out of juice, and true to form it did just that. But from memory we went Brentwood - Billericay - the Hanningfields -Danbury - Burnham on Crouch (alas no ferry) so back to SouthWoodham Ferrers (full loop of town looking for right road) Hullbridge - Canewdon - Rochford - Southend. Thankfully the BBC weather forecaset was utterly wrong, as it was all weekend, has Auntie got the work experience kids in this week?
So Southend, well my expectations were low and first impressions approaching town were'nt too bad but the closer we got to the seafront the greyer and grimmer it became. Got some overpriced chips and headed for the beach. Not even sand! First Brighton and now this, a seaside town without sun is tragic enough but no sand, proper lame-o, no wonder the locals flock to Benidorm. Not only that but there appeared to be a raw sewage pipe smack bang in the middle of the beach, hmm inviting. Gave the remainder of my manky chips to the hoards of gulls, cycled along the front being repeatedly underwhelmed before deciding to get the feck out of dodge. Couple of wrong turns on route back, stopped for quality beers at The Hoop in Stock before heading back to Brentwood. 105 miles all in, not as flat as I thought it would be, 7 hours including stops, my first centuary of the year and my first on that bike. Today I feel like Forstemann looks. Southend is shit and so is my bike, they seemed destined to meet, I don't think they'll see each other again, but I love that bike just a little bit more, I'm still not going to wash it though.