2013-10-19 - London Borough Spiral Ride

update: 7:15pm and they're in Peckham

don't think I'll have taimefor any more updates - i have to get on with life

Bailed out early as our little breakaway group got to staples corner. I heard they caught up with the rest at finchley? Would be interesting to see how many of the original 23 finish. Some must end up doing 200 km+

I will design a medal for next year.. The prospect of a medal always keeps you going.

Got a puncture on the rideout to sidcup.. arrived 40 minutes late
(since when do forum riders start on time?)

The friendly german Nebil had waited for me and we attempted to catchup with the group.. after many wrong turns finally connected with some tail enders on the A312

They seemed to possess no better sense of direction and soon realised our earlier efforts had blown Nebils legs, decided to let the group go and make our own way around. Unfortunately realised we had been led 'off-route' & decided the cycling gods werent with us and went to the pub instead.

Highlight of the ride was discussing RLJing with a man london who had "killed four men" with "just his two fingers"

Can't wait for next year.

Left the group at the woolwich ferry (South Side) as I wanted to get home to see the kids before bed.

Great day out, thanks to all those that help put it together.

Looking forward to next year and It was a pleasure to meet some friendly faces...

nice ride guys, look forward to seeing the photos....

James

Wahey all finished, we arrived at Trafalgar Sq at 10.30pm!

I'm back home stuffing my face now, this may take some time......

Great ride and great route, with my ride out to Sidcup and back think it worked out about 130 miles but those that got lost did more. Mega thanks to Earthloop for the route, amazing how few traffic lights there were and only 2 punctures, amazeballs.

It was long, lots of waiting around and regrouping but a brilliant atmosphere. Must have been about 20 of us finished and spirits really high right up to the end, with everyone looking out for each other. Strong riding all round. Chapeau everyone.

Weather much better than expected though we did get drenched up in north london. I got accused by security at Tesco of stealing a bottle of rum to add to my coffee, which I'd paid for, cheeky feckers. Frog marched by security back to checkout where woman confirmed I'd paid for it, then mumbled apologies from security.

Lovely sunset, full moon, ferry like it was a holiday, great stuff.

Looking forward to seeing the photos at the end with the random drunken girls, I'll have a look at my photos later but I think they are all in Tesco carparks so not that intersting.

Hope everyone got home safe. Would do again.

hey well done blue fleet and the rest of you who completed the whole ride.
It was good to join you guys for the rainy bit - Holders Hill to Tesco, then a dry, sunny bit till your crossed the A10 - when i went home

Would be good to see a few pics.
Chappeau to Earthloop for organising/devising/leading
... also was hilarious when blue feet came out saying "hey, who wants some of this (holding a botle of brandy) in their coffee", only to be escorted away by the store detective!

^^ +1

Awesome ride guys. Thanks to Nick for organising.

Cleaned and fed, ready for bed. My lower back is aching so a couple of nurofen already downed.

Not going to even look at any of my bikes ever, well at least until next week!

Well done, all. I wish I could have done this but I was otherwise engaged all day. I'm aiming to do another run like this, by the way, but as an overnighter, probably early in the new year. Hopefully see some of you then!

I'd be well up for that Oliver, I was considering trying it alone one night to try and do -12 hours, might do that as well anyway.

Sterling work, troops! I'm very pleased to hear you all made it and I'm looking forward to pictures. What a fabulous, insane, awesome idea. Chapeau to Earthloop for realising this crazy concept.

I'm very glad I could join you, even if it was quite brief. It was only a 45 mile round trip to say hello and hand out HobNobs, which in the normal scale of things is a bit mad. But not compared to cycling around all London's boroughs...

Sleep well!!

I really enjoyed that, thanks to everyone who helped to make it happen and worked hard to get the group around together. Highlights that on-one has mentioned yet:

A guy riding past us while we were stopped for a puncture and shouting "Arrgh spiral ride" before kamikazing an intersection.

Scherrit (I think, I'm not completely sure) standing by the roadside on a railway bridge and taking pictures of us.

Icecreams at the San Remo Cafe.

Bombing through the Upper Thames Street underpass and shouting for the echos.

A guy riding past us while we were stopped for a puncture and shouting "Arrgh spiral ride" before kamikazing an intersection.

That was Tibbs (I am Hingis on here).

Thanks everyone for an awesome ride. And kudos to those doing it fixed. I think it would have killed me!

Had a glass of red wine and a very large bowl of cereal when I got in. Then fell into a coma.

And thanks Earthloop for the battery pack for the garmin. Gonna make me one of those!

Well done everyone! Fantastic effort.
Couldn't make yesterday but am going to attempt this sometime this week..
Were there any parts of the route that you'd change and does the GPX file work ok?

I've checked the route we actually took against the borough boundaries, and I think we did it. All boroughs visited, none twice.

https://maps.google.com/?q=https://maps.google.com/maps/ms%3Fauthuser%3D0%26vps%3D2%26ie%3DUTF8%26msa%3D0%26output%3Dkml%26msid%3D204895236060369963394.0004e9275e258bddefbfb+

(We didn't really go to Kazakistan, my GPS went a bit crazy once or twice. If you zoom in to London it looks ok though)

And thanks Earthloop for the battery pack for the garmin. Gonna make me one of those!

Yes, that was a problem, garmins don't really last 15 hours. One battery pack allowed us to keep 3 garmins alive, more would have been better.

I ordered one of these to carry as an emergency backup charger, but it didn't arrive in time :(

DC-DC Converter Step Up Boost Module 0.9V to 5V USB: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

Solder two wires to that, and it becomes a very lightweight thing that would let me recharge USB devices from the battery pack out of one of my lights.

I'll report back on how well it works.

In my usual post-exercise state where I can't sleep enough even though I need to.

Brilliant, brilliant day. Torturous, frustrating and extremely long, but definitely brilliant.
Does anyone else feel like they've got sunburn? Or have already been riding a bike for 15+ hours this weekend, for that matter?

Thank you to Earthloop for setting this up, probably the best non-food related ride I've ever done and thank you to everyone else for letting me win. Even though Earthloop tells my I touched the wrong statue.

Also, a special shout to Hugh for Bigfoot CC who was super kind all day and inspiration in his recent riding achievements, Tomas for being exceptionally French, the Polish (?) guys for having each other's phone numbers and Hats for bringing the Hobnobs!

Well done you lot. I actually figured there'd be a higher rate of attrition from the starters but it seems like you had a solid group. Seems almost too well executed for a forum ride! :P

Love the idea but reckon I'd go for a Sunday when it's a bit quieter.

Chapeaux!

Inspiring stuff. Well done all :-)

applause

Cap Doffed.

Now for the Leeds, Birmingham etc. version.

I've checked the route we actually took against the borough boundaries, and I think we did it. All boroughs visited, none twice.

https://maps.google.com/?q=https://maps.google.com/maps/ms%3Fauthuser%3D0%26vps%3D2%26ie%3DUTF8%26msa%3D0%26output%3Dkml%26msid%3D204895236060369963394.0004e9275e258bddefbfb+

(We didn't really go to Kazakistan, my GPS went a bit crazy once or twice. If you zoom in to London it looks ok though)

Earthloop, how do I do that? I need to check if our inadvertent breakaway group managed all 32 boroughs?

Awesome route, well ridden by all!

Here's a few of my pics

The first of many, where did they go?

An Oasis after West London's motorway esque A312, the San Remo cafe

....the cafe was in the shadow of the great pyramids of Northolt

The scene of great rum swindle and shortly after the only soaking we had all day.

I love this one, after the gasps of shock from the group at being told KFC was shut, WTF, we rolled next door to a heaving Maccy D's. Even though the camera shutter did'nt open properly, the guy with the Spok who had the 2nd puncture (sorry don't know forum name, who?) was doing some stretching but it just looks like his batteries have run out.

The ferry, with Distinctive Rob also having battery issues. There was no duty free, booo. Thomas had been craving lager since the Macdonalds and shortly after the ferry dragged his bike into a shop and was heard asking desperately, like a man who'd had a long ordeal in the wilderness 'do you sell beer?' He was in luck.

The scene of the last puncture and the Tibbs rideby and almost 'Oh shit moment'.

And my shit photo of the finish.

Other highlights I recall this morning are, the guy in the Bigfoot CC jersey with the SS carbon Felt who took the proper pic at the finish and the echelon photo at the start, was taking pictures of the fixed/ss bikes but declined to include the owners of the blue Fort with risers, (again whose forum name I did'nt get, who?) as it was too dirty, there were LOLS.

And it never ceases to amaze me how people literally stop in their tracks and gawp at a group of cyclists, the ped woman at Hammersmith was taking pictures of us at the lights. And we were greeted with cheers and waves from young and old along the route, along with of course honks and jeers from drunken revellers and some white van and BMW drivers. Oh and true to form witnessed some screeching tyres and burning rubber in Essex.

I did wonder what Mrs Earthloop made of us all, with 3 the cheers for Earthloop at the end, dragging him up on the statue (the wrong one it seems) and the chants of those drunken girls of 'Nick, Nick, Nick'. That was great ending.