London-Southend Ride Report
Sunday 10th July.
Well that was a load of fun! I woke up a tad too early at 04:45, and thus
easily made the planned 07.30 start at Victoria Park, an easy and slow 20km
cycle from my house. Going through the Greenwich foot tunnel was a bit of a
disappointment, the lifts weren't working. Carrying my 15kg recumbent, plus
about 10kg of rack bag down one side and back up the other was a bit overly
energetic I thought.
In the Tunnel I met another cyclist going on the ride, and we ambled across
to Victoria Park together. In the park we had a blasted greyhound run into
us. The poor dog took itself out on my left pedal, and unfortunately piled
into the other cyclist's rear wheel and buckled it. Nice start for him, he
only got his bike the day before. Dr. Bike trued it up reasonably well in a
few minutes, though I think some more serious fettling will be in order for
him.
We departed the park at about 07.40, and the photographer was on me like a
rash, me apparently being the first recumbent rider of the day. Oh and I
nearly forgot my suntan lotion, lucky there as by the end of the day I was
only a little toasted, and that would have been serious sunburn otherwise.
I'd been quite prepared to take it easy all along since I'd the plan of
riding back home from Southend, but it turned into a bit of a race thing.
Although I was pushing, I didn't push too hard as I didn't want to destroy
myself only to have to resort to phoning the missus to come and collect me.
One thing that got me was all the Bike Events signs telling cyclists to keep
left, and to ride single file. Sure, I can understand Bike Events perhaps
wanting to reduce car users' frustration about cyclists, but it seems to me
to be a little too submissive to car culture. There were a number of places
where a keep left instruction came just before some road feature that made
me want to stay well out in the middle of the lane for my own safety.
Nearly fell off too, I came into one corner a little too hot, and heeled the
bike over to make it round, only I forgot about the twitchy handling of the
Hurricane. There's a certain part of the envelope where at medium speeds
and higher lean angles the steering is very neutral, and the bike just wants
to carry on leaning more, much more than you might expect. Fortunately the
twitchy handling also means I could flick the bike back up more upright and
save myself from the fall. It was exciting enough to get a loud gasp from
the cyclists I'd just passed, and a comment on how I'd nearly lost it.
It was quite nice to be amongst the earliest cyclists to arrive in Southend,
got a good cheer from the crowd thanks to riding a dodgy bicycle, and then
had to refuse the medal since I hadn't registered for the ride. I figure
I'll give my donation and an extra £15 to cover the entry fee straight to
the charity rather than the ride organisers.
Relaxing in Priory park and chatting to everyone was good fun, spent a good
hour and a half there and then rode back with another gentleman at a
somewhat more leisurely pace. He knew the area well and took us back into
London via his house for a pit stop and cuppa tea.
on the tea, but a bit
stressed on the A127 all the way into London.
We were going mostly downwind, so maintained a good pace. I was feeling a
little bad since I couldn't give him a pull, but at least there wasn't much
need with cycling downwind. Equally I couldn't find much draft off the
upwrongs.
The funniest moment of the day was in London, a dude pulled up next to us at
some traffic lights and said he'd just been out for a 20 mile training ride
and would we like a little race? When he asked us how far we'd been, his
jaw just dropped, he'd obviously never realised that 100 miles isn't a
particularly long bike ride. And yes, we dropped him easily.
In the end my newly built rear wheel performed admirably, and the 12-26
cassette was more than adequate (it replaced an 11-32), and it seems to
still be true, though I haven't taken a more careful look yet. I do need to
step up to a 65 tooth chainring, I'm spinning at roughly 140rpm at 55km/hr,
and there were loads of times where I could have gone faster if I'd been
able to pile the power on.
181.5km at an average 25.0 km/hour is both the furthest and fastest ride
I've done yet so I'm well chuffed. Still feeling very humbled by many more
serious cyclists of course, but this is really about my own pleasure and
performance improvements.
The actual London-Southend bit was an elapsed 3 hours 10 minutes, or just
over 30 km/hour average. I didn't take any breaks, just a short 30 seconds
stop to reload with sports drinks (lots of this is mostly what kept my rack
back so heavy). I was meant to meet up with Elyob, but in the end he got
delayed at the start and we didn't manage it. Pity, but maybe next ride!
So next year I'll have to try and destroy that 3 hour barrier, I only wish
I'd realised how close it would be.
