Sat 5th April - London to Brighton 2 (Curse-free)

HTFU and ride back.. if you're still alive ;)

how far is it?

85k (60mi?) each way.

Last year I did Ealing Brighton Ealing and it was ~206k.

It is in the summer leave early. Round trip.

A mate of mine (Ok, a neighbour) rode it last year. His wife drove down to pick him up leaving at 11am, it took her something like 4 hours to get there (from Kent). It could have even been 5 now, I can't remember. But it was certainly a long time.

I'm not trying to poo-poo the idea, I just think people need to look at the big picture.

the big picture

170km round trip is far enough that i would need to do some actual training.

alternatively, i'm happy to ride to brighton, eat some fish and chips and have a pint, then jump on a train at my leisure.

You can't take your bike on the train on the day of BHF L2B.
The roads are chock full of people driving down there and driving their trashed husbands/wives/kids back.
Coaches are available but take a long time to return.
Riding back was the only option that would work for me and keep me out of jail for mass homicide.

Cool.

So how many people are up for riding down, and riding back?

1. hippy
   
2. velocity boy
   

I would do, but I'll be on the west coast of Florida :op

velocity boy Cool.

So how many people are up for riding down, and riding back?

1. hippy
   
2. velocity boy
   
   

Yep but I would want a really early start. So as to avoid traffic as much as possible.

I'm up for this. Been looking to do a longer ride for a while, and definitely going to try Dunwich this year, so should be a good training run.

My vote would be for NOT doing it on the BHF day. If people want to do it that day, then they can do it with the 30,000 other people (along with all the hassles listed above).
But for our own LtB ride, as a lfgss group, we should do it another day and take advantage of the trains, no other riders, the full implications of the curse etc.

The BHF day is perfect... leave with the 6am lot, in front of them... and we'll have open roads the whole way and can be in Brighton for shortly after 9am. That gives us time to get breakfast and make our way back before the traffic out of Brighton even starts to build up.

three hours is mighty quick no? took me 6 hrs when i did it last year solo (starting in N18). I must be really slow.

im with andyf, don't do it on the same day as the BHF, the roads aren't busy anyway so it makes very little difference and i would encourage doing it fixed with puncture proof tires. If we try to stay together and stick together you can keep up a good pace with ease, and especially if you reduce the wind factor by keeping close enough. Anyone who did the Australia day night ride will remember that we actually had a good peleton style for the longer roads and it occured by chance and worked really well. After doing it last year i would say its hard to predict if it's possible to get there and back it depends on the pace. I would also say that a reason to not do it on the same day is it was easy to get back on the train, and there were no problems.

thats my opinion, and i'm up for it - just need to set a warm day

3 hr would be a bit quick for me too. I think 3.5 I could do. The N2R one took about 7 hr though. Even with out the accident it would have been a long time due to the stop starting regrouping nature of lots of people. Once we get over 10 the time will increase massively. I would vote for a pre 6:00 am departure.

velocity boy The BHF day is perfect... leave with the 6am lot, in front of them... and we'll have open roads the whole way and can be in Brighton for shortly after 9am. That gives us time to get breakfast and make our way back before the traffic out of Brighton even starts to build up.

This isn't a road bunch remember VB? Forum rides involve 14 p_nct_re stops, some cake stops, some crashes, direction checks and backwards circle comps.. be lucky to make it to Brighton on the same day! :) I'm also not liking the idea of riding on the same day as BHF ride. 15 Jun hmm.. after Wessex and Chiltern100.. two weeks before L2P.. I wonder if that's sensible.. I'm gonna be fscked.

Only if I get a nice sub 8kg geared bike before the day.

Why not leave at 6/7am on a non-BHF day? I'll be staying North of the river otherwise, thanks.

I'd be up for doing this this on a non-bhf day. don't have a geared bike at the mo so will have to do it fixed and thus don't really fancy the round trip. would def go for a pre-6am start . haven't been on any of the group rides yet and it would be nice to meet some forum dudes.

Having never done a continuous ride of more than 28 miles on my fixed gear I am a bit reluctant to commit to a ride back from Brighton on the same day. For that reason too would prefer to do it on a different day. Chill there for a while, few beers and get the train back. But if everyone wants to do it on the official day I will bike it there and see how I feel after a few hours rest.

different day +1
i like to have the option of catching the train back, even if i do decide to ride back.
also, i don't like the idea of riding in a crowd of thousands of muppets.

I did it unofficially a few years ago on not only a BMX but also a massive hangover.
We decided to catch some z's in the park before hand. Found a nice tree to lie under.. but was so frigging cold we ended up getting the whiskey in.

If you can keep your cadance up then its all good.. that is until someone stops infront of you.

Once we had finished and found out there was no chance of getting a train back, we ended up cyclign another 15miles back to a main line train station.
That wasnt fun.

Sun cream is a given.

if we're not doing it on the same day as the BHF, any particular reason for the 6am start, I'm not that great at waking early at the best of times, waking up at 5am to get into some meeting point for 6am isn't high on my list of things to do ever!
I vote for non BHF weekend, meet 7.30 for an 8am start, get to brighton for late lunch, couple of beers, then train back. simple.

cornelius blackfoot if we're not doing it on the same day as the BHF, any particular reason for the 6am start, I'm not that great at waking early at the best of times, waking up at 5am to get into some meeting point for 6am isn't high on my list of things to do ever!
I vote for non BHF weekend, meet 7.30 for an 8am start, get to brighton for late lunch, couple of beers, then train back. simple.

+1. corny speaks sense. and let's not wait til bhf day and why do it when getting back will be a pain in the arse. even those riding back will be fucked cos of all those going the other way, unless you are taking the main drag which aint my cup of tea. i may or may not ride back. seaside G's would say not.

I did that fucking hill on 48x16 and it was unpleasant.
I would love to join you guys if you went down on a Sunday sometime, sod the BHF, too much like playing dodge the commuter on your way into work.