Short days and cold weather prompted me to plan a short ride with lots of off road paths and parks. We have not ventured to the Sir Michael Balcon (Wetherspoons) before, so this was the planned lunch stop.
25 signed up for the ride, but A.M Wednesday morning and the dropout messages started arriving. An we lost 6 riders, but a few left home late and made their own way to lunch, craftily by using my Strava route 10 out of 10 Steph, although I didn't use that route in the end.
3 groups were needed with these numbers and I planned early starts. 10.20. 10,30 and 10.40, Ray leading group 2 and Tim C leading group 3. Going North of the river to Twickers, then towpath to Isleworth, Syon Park and the towpath to the Great West Road, my group, the first away, got through okay, but groups 2 & 3 found the section of towpath closed and had to re-route, oops. Back roads to Gunnersbury park and a short, cycle path, section of the North Circular, led us to Ealing Common and lunch.
Wetherspoons is always a great lunch stop for no booking and large groups, groups 2 & 3 soon joined us and we were all seated in one section. Much banter as usual and the imbibing of beer, for some anyway, my groups was soon raring to get back on the bike. Back around Ealing common and then back alleys down to Brentford, through Brentford North Quarter, (or West Chiswick as I liked to call it when I lived there) and we were soon going back through Twickers, Bushey Park and to tea at Dish, Hampton Court, some of each group stopped, but by now the temperature had dropped again and we didn't linger too long. We were lucky with the weather in that it was very cold but bright and sunny and no snowball fight.
Thank you all for your company and a special thanks to Ray Y and Tim C for sub-leading and the back markers, it was really a good day out.
Tony..
Ride Report 29/11/23, sub leader, second group, Ray Youlden
We were greeted with a wonderful sunny but cold day for our ride to Ealing. Due to leave at 10.30but the warm atmosphere of the Hawker Centre proved difficult to persuade people to come out plus two places to possibly meet meant we left later than scheduled. My group was made up of Tony Hooker, Stephen, Christina, Pete, and Grant. We started with a relaxing ride down the river Thames, across the bridge at Teddington where painters were busy painting the bridge, and then along to Twickenham.
Here we started to discover the complexity of Tony’s well thought out and devious route. Here we took a left at the traffic lights and followed the cycle path along Wharf Lane, down to the Thames and along to York House gardens where Stephen spoke about his son’s wedding reception that used the gardens. This led to a general discussion about the flood height of the Thames and various other points about the area. Following the tow path along to Richmond Bridge where we crossed into Willoughby Road and onto Syon Park.
We then entered the Grand Union Canal tow path but after approximately ¼ of a mile were met by a group of workmen who advised us that the canal tow path was closed due to someone leaving a lock gate open and that the floating pontoon was unsafe to use. So, it was back to the main road to find a route through the back roads of Brentford. On our way we encountered Tim Court’s group at the canal entrance and gave them the bad news.
The route I chose proved to be a pain due to a railway foot bridge that we had to walk
up and down a very steep set of steps. If only I knew, we could have gone along Somerset Road Boston Manor Road and used a road bridge that proved to be the way Tim had taken his group. This meant that we were now the third group on the road. At Gunnersbury Park, Tim let our group overtake, we then cycled around the park, past the Round Pond and along the cycle track, next to the North Circular along to Ealing.
The Sir Michael Balcon pub was up to the normal Weatherspoon’s efficiency, good service, and lots of room to enable us to find some seats. There had been some concerns regarding where to lock the bikes up, but this proved not to be a problem, with bikes being chained to lamp posts, the chain link fencing of the pub, as well as cycle parking just outside of the pub.
Our afternoon ride started with Brenda joining our group so she could get home earlier. We started the afternoon ride with a short walk to Florence Road, where we started the ride. We soon entered a section of cycleways, starting with Bayless Walk through to Clayponds Avenue, we crossed the M4/A4.
Then onto Brentford, Syon Park, across the A316 and onto St Margaret’s. Here we found a
deserter from the first group, Mick who joined us to ride through Twickenham. At the junction with Cross Deep Road and Heath Road, Mick, Brenda and Christina left us to go to Kingston Bridge while the remaining five cycled to Bushy Park where Stephen left us before cycling to the Dish Café at Hampton Court for tea.
Ray Youlden
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