2009-06-27 Sat Midnight - Overnight to Brighton

Fantastic ride! Loved it. Spinning out down those hills and grinding back up them. One day ditchling, one day...

Wicked to meet everyone but I am still struggling to put forum names to real names and faces in some cases... Why can't you be like me? Forum name: Joe Smith. Real name: Joe Smith. Simples.

I was one of the Charge Pluggers - third from the left in the panoramic with the yellow socks.

Maximum boost to the Schick for organising this. Nice one mate.
Big up to the backstops - damo and kx.001
Respect due to (Farmer) Crispin Glover for the glow in the dark spoke cards.

Have just woken up after a few hours kip and am feeling pretty good now.

What a great ride and great bunch of guys. Enjoyed meeting everyone, the bemused security at Gatwick, reaching the top of Everest, sorry Ditchling and the round of applause for the teenagers that followed!
Thanks to Oliver and the backstops for putting together a thoroughly enjoyable ride.

@Jack - Thanks for the Nuun electrolyte tablets for my water. Will be getting some of them for my London to Paris in July.

Nuun ftw!

No probs dude, and hope that ride goes well!

Wicked ride guys. Thanks to Oliver for leading and making sure no one got too lost, the backstops and Damo for the conversation up Ditchling, it stopped me thinking too much bout the pain my back was in. Always nice to meet a few new faces as well as catching up with folk I've not seen for a bit.

As Ru said, sorry to have to bail early and rush off, it would've been a lovely day to spend in Brighton and chill a bit before heading back to the big smoke.

See you all on the next one, if not before.

Right, just got home about half an hour ago. Dropout and I did a couple of extra miles. I'm clocking out at 107 very hilly miles, hopefully not too much to rest fully before the DD there and back next week-end.

Going up to Ditchling Beacon from Brighton was sooo much easier than from Ditchling. Much steadier climb, much less steep. Ice cream at the top. Brilliant. Down to Lindfield for a nice pub stop with a late lunch. Then a tear down to Gatwick at quite a clip, hill, downhill, hill ...

Train at Gatwick at 5:17 to London Bridge.

Thanks to all who came! I could hardly believe it when forty-odd people turned up. Some had to bail early: James (Ed's brother) and his mate Oli got in a cab at Reigate owing to bike problems; Daniel, Esther, and the chap on the blue Gios (as opposed to Marco's white Gios)--sorry, I think I've met you before but I've forgotten your name--stayed at Gatwick. Thanks for coming along, guys, and I hope you enjoyed the portion of the ride you were on! A scare at the beginning that Will might not be able to continue, but fortunately he could.

Huge thanks to Andrew for the excellent spoke cards, Damo and Guy for backstopping, and everybody for being in such good spirits!

My only regret is not starting the ride at 10pm--midnight was an interesting experiment, but the next time I'll revert to a time that doesn't get us into pub closing time traffic and that gets us to Gatwick in the dead of night rather than when a horde of people stampede to their planes.

Ah, Gatwick: It's a shame that the goods lift trick doesn't seem to work so well any more, and that the ramp to upstairs was closed for works. At any rate, we'd probably have been in the way given how busy the terminal concourse was.

And only two punctures all night--that's fantastic and shows how well-prepared everybody was. Brilliant. It avoided a lot of delay.

Highlights--roasting in the sun up the Beacon, of course--one of the most brilliant and memorable mornings ever. I now have an extremely silly cyclist's tan on my arms. Vegetating on the beach in Brighton. Back up to Ditchling Beacon with John and ice cream on top. Looking back at the long line of lights following throughout the night. The beautiful lanes--Coulsdon Lane, Lonesome Lane, Slugwash Lane. Fantastic passage along those. Descending Reigate Hill at 38.5mph, like Marco. The only funny drunks all night were those in Reigate on the hill out of town, having their backs turned to us and turning around just as we were coming up and freaking out. Patient, friendly, and efficient cafe staff at the Izzy Cafe in Brighton when we descended on them.

Extra special thanks to moth for tightening my crank bolts without the aid of a torque wrench and tentative diagnosis of pitted bearing races. I'll be following that up.

And all the beautiful bikes we had along on the ride. And Toby flying up Ditchling in 48x16--watch those knees, mate! Fantastic effort.

Small lowlights--loads of road kill, including a deer. Gatwick confusion--but no major problem.

Loved it!

Hope this doesn't break the internet:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m35/blackdice23/LFGSS-DITCHLING360.jpg

Ha! Great picture(s)! Guy looks really emaciated. ;)

Wicked to meet everyone but I am still struggling to put forum names to real names and faces in some cases... Why can't you be like me? Forum name: Joe Smith. Real name: Joe Smith. Simples.

Amen to that. ;)

I even struggled to remember names on the rides, but that forum name/'real' name dichotomy just requires repeated socialising FTW!

This is how life should be.

Ate a lot of food before the ride.

Ate a lot of food during the ride.

Am eating a lot of food after the ride.

Foodfoodifood.

be careful don't put weight for the Dunwich

Oh - and apols to all for the dreadful rattle from my bike destroying the peace and quiet of the night lanes. I must find out what that is.

Now - glass of wine and bed calling.

BTW - does anyone have a spare spokecard, as I missed them at the start with my Balham lurkings. Cheers.

Epic night (and day). Thanks to everyone. esp Sasmon, Brun, Matt and Edmundro.

Magic zoom through the night before Gatwick. Ditchling is a bitch.

Respect to Marlon(?) for keeping going!
Joe - thanks for the company as we crawled up Ditchling and on the train back. Drop me a PM about sponsoring.

Still trying to put faces to names even now.

See you all next week for DD.

Oh and Oliver cheers for organising a memorable ride - you deserved your rosette.

Massive thanks to Oliver and the backstops - excellent organisation...

Glad to finally make it to a ride. Will bring more food and liquid next time to avoid the unnerving, light-headed descent into Brighton. Watching Damo blitzing the hills and smoking everyone while I was sweating and gurning like a chimp was upsetting :)

Nice to see Hugh and then Guy on the way back to Richmond.

good job boyos.
I hope to be on the next one.

Ha! braker. :)

thanks oliver, great riding with you. You motivated everyone imo. + you have the patience of a saint.

not going to make a habit of riding up ditchling beacon fixed.

Sounds great. I was a few hours behind you on a charity ride from Esher to Hove via Devil's Dyke. Out of hundreds of riders - I saw one other fixed and heard of a third. It was great getting the respect for riding it from the other participants.

Rode the whole way apart from about 50 metres at the steepest part of the Devil's Dyke climb. I just couldn't turn those pedals but overall I was really pleased with myself. A hell of a lot more challenging to spin the legs the whole way rather than freewheeling.

Now, time to turn in - I need to be up at 5.30 to get to Bristol for a meeting first thing.

Thankfully I'm not cycling there.

How proud does oliver look with his rosette, in Marlons photo.

grate pics ^ and all of the previous said. i loved bombing down the hills, loved the spirit, the night ride part as well as the foggy country roads, when the sun came out. what a blast down into Brighton! the Ditchling Beacon is from now on the Bitching_Bacon. funny to realize that the small groupe left at the beach, all passed out and where even snoring between bags and bikes on the beach, most random question ever from a guy, since from london, if we know a certain guy and it turned out some one actually did know him AND had his phone number, best was to close the conversation with "Hey are your eyebrows green?" best ever!

thanx to olliver and the tail guards, thanx for the superb glow in the dark spoke cards and this goes to all of you who where on it, thanx for the ride. sorry to neverclever for not getting to know you guys before Gatwick, you are hardcore even without finishing it!

@villa-ru i'd bet on hub axle bearing tension on that, guts feeling
@olliver i'm still stuffing my face with fooooood, just made pancakes :P

THANKS EVERYONE! Esther and I got home nice and safe and slept through most of Sunday. Twast nice. Thank you everyone for being so nice and forthcoming with us. We really appreciated it a lot being all foreign and all. Sorry my legs gave out on me! Esther and I had a very fine time and we hope to see you again. If ANY of you ever come to Los Angeles hit us up with a note and we'll give you a warm welcome. Thanks again!

I am riding from London to Paris on July 22nd for Action Medical Research, who do lots of great work helping children and babies (see http://www.action.org.uk/our_research for details).

I have raised £875 so far and need a total of 1200, so have £325 to go. I am gonna do a carboot sale in the next couple of weeks, but might still need a bit of help.

If anyone can afford to sponsor me and would like to, you can do so at http://www.action.org.uk/~smithj

Every little helps...

Thanks in advance!

Cheers

Joe

P.s. Apologies for the thread hijack

Sorry my legs gave out on me!

that pic of you lying in road is coming soon :)

man, that looks like fun.

Oh yeah, stunning show from neverclever and esther_rabbit, shame they missed the pretty bit after Gatwick.

I am so burned. Don't fall asleep on beaches, people.