A Group - 21 February - Redhill

Unfortunately Brian is not available on Wednesday. I will be following the route Brian was planning, to the Sussex Oak at Warnham. About 21 miles to lunch. Tea probably at Carolina’s in Bookham, unknown to me, but reports are good.

Note that I have not been able to recce the route fully in the time available, but I have checked the unfamiliar bits, so hopefully no going off piste. Nothing unsurfaced, but plenty of potholes.

David Aylett

David Aylett passing more pictures

David Aylett Service of Celebration of Life

Well done Shirley & Collin for arranging the ride for David. Some 24 riders left North Cheam and entered the Crematorium through a back route avoiding much traffic. I think that David would have been pleased with the turnout including many from far and wide of his very old friends who came by car. The family provided refreshments afterwards at the Morden Brook (formerly the Beverly) which was also well attended by family and many of his cycling friends.
The following is a series of pictures(in 2 parts) of the riders, arriving, together with the cortege. The final picture is of Richard & Karen giving a tribute to Dad.

More pics to follow

Another interesting ride

Received a very interesting video from Ray Wren this evening. He has a rear 

facing camera on his bike and recorded this while cycling through Claygateon Wednesday

What we cyclists have to put up with!

How to change an inner tube in 45secs....

Hello Wayfarers,
A couple of weeks ago there was a bit of lunchtime banter about whether it was possible to change an inner tube in under one minute, well here is the proof! Should 45 seconds be the target for future roadside puncture repairs? 😜 MikeR
https://youtu.be/2IC5mviTegkj

A Group 14th February

It was a good turn out considering the weather forecast. 15 of us rode out via Bookham, Bagdon Hill towards Leigh and Horley towards our destination, The Castle in Outwood. The southern wind slowed progress a bit and David J punctured about 3 miles from lunch, otherwise the ride went well, thanks to Geoff for back marking and others for corner marking. Thanks also to Geoff for the photograph below.

B Group - 14th February

Sixteen riders left  the Vineries heading for Woodies Public House, New Malden. Our route took us through Ashtead Park, Horton hospital estate and Stoneleigh.
 
The food and service at Woodies was good, but the pub conservatory where we ate could have been warmer.
 
After lunch most riders went their separate ways. After a vote on the tea stop 6 of us continued to Hampton Court Palace for tea.
 
Not a very challenging ride but suited to the weather conditions and for everybody's home journey.
 
Thanks to the many corner markers and Steph for back marking.
 
Regards, Tony

 
A good ride from Tony Hooker today which, happily for me, ended up in New Malden:

An interesting meander near the old hospitals

~ Tim

Dieppe Raid 23&24 June 2018

Sat with Mark at elevenses today and he tells me that bookings for the Dieppe Raid is out. It's a few years since I last attended but I did say at Eric Ratcliffe's  funeral that I may well go in 2018. In the past I have taken my car with roof rack and up to 4 bikes via Dover/Calais. Any one interested in sharing? I would plan to go on Friday 22nd June and return on Monday 25 June either by ferry or Euro Tunnel depending on which is cheaper? If any one wants to make it a longer trip with extra B&B we can consider. I normally stay at the La plage anyone want to share? Don't be shy!

A Group 14th February

Grey and blowy at the start of Keith's ride today; wet and blowier by the end.  But a good gallop over the hills to Outwood, and back over the hills to Woodmansterne.  A pleasant chat over lunch, but no appetite for tea - time to go home.

A sporting ride, and perhaps the end of Winter...

Mark

B Group ride tomorrow

On our B ride from The Vineries we will have lunch at Woodies in New Malden and then onto tea at Garsons Farm Esher, no hills!!

Regards,

Tony

Last Orders: Annual Lunch & Prizegiving

Our own equivalent of the Oscars, the Annual Lunch and Prizegiving is on Wednesday 7 March, at a new venue (see previous post here) which has been highly commended by various of our members.

If you have already booked and paid, please note that we can only accept cancellations up to 28 Feb. 
And if you haven't yet booked - please contact me as soon as possible.   To speed up the service, we are taking pre-payment of £15 for a fixed-price, three course food menu (drinks not included).

Tim will be in touch soon to ask your food choices (the menu is in the link above, and we've confirmed that this is the menu that will be used on the day).

A Group ride 14th February

We will be riding from the Vineries in Effingham to The Castle at Outwood, about 21 miles.
There is a short section of rough track, but short enough to walk if necessary.
Tea at Oaks Park about 15 miles from lunch.

https://www.castleoutwood.co.uk/

Details about riding to David's funeral

Dear friends,

David's funeral will take place next Thursday, 15 February, at 4.40 pm at the North East Surrey Crematorium, Lower Morden Lane.    We suggest meeting by the Tesco/petrol station on the London Road (A24) opposite Langley Avenue where there is space for a dozen or more cyclists.   From here we will ride via the Hamptons to cross Green Lane and follow Pig Lane to the back entrance to the Crematorium.   There are no Sheffield stands so bring good locks! 

We will see you outside Tesco/petrol station ready to leave at 4 pm.

If you cannot contact Colin or me, Lynda is the alternative.

We do not know if there is a wake or gathering planned for afterwards.

Shirley.

B Group - 7th February

After enjoying our tea and pastries which Ged had provided for us to celebrate his significant birthday eleven of us took off from the RBL into the sunshine, straight down to East Horsley where we crossed the A246 and turned up into Chalk Lane, respite at last from the traffic and bumpy roads. We turned right into Green Dene and proceeded to the top where we plummeted down Combe Bottom and crossed into Shere for a toilet stop which nobody seemed to need.

Up Sandy Lane and left after the bridge we meandered through the various Hoe Lanes, encountering a surprising amount of traffic. Instead of carrying on down the hill to the Horsham Road we turned right at the top of Hoe Lane into the small lanes which skirt around Sutton Place, a brief but most enjoyable excursion. At the bottom we headed south through Holmbury St Mary and on to the Parrot Inn at Forest Green, arriving at just before one o'clock.

There was a little bit of confusion about a couple of orders but we ate well, soup and assorted sandwiches, and quite a lot of chips. I tried to warn everyone about the perils of eating too many chips before a big climb and managed to give away many of mine. However the advice fell mostly on deaf ears and, to prove me wrong, Christina, who probably ate more chips than most of us, romped up Leith Hill Lane after lunch, beating the rest of us to the top. That is a pretty tough climb for B Group; one or two walked up part of it but I was very pleased that nobody actually conked out completely. After losing Brian and Steph briefly we regrouped at Coldharbour, opposite The Plough, before our descent to Dorking.

Before we reached the one-way system in Dorking we turned right into Hampstead Road, through to the Horsham Road, left then right into St Pauls Road and through Cotmandene to emerge  onto the High Street. This was the second entirely unnecessary excursion of the day, a tour through some scenic parts of Dorking most of us didn’t know existed.

We reached Leatherhead by 4 o’clock, observed the lack of activity in Annies and went around the back for tea and coffee at Costa Coffee. By this stage we were down to four, Brian, Sue, Terry and myself.

For this time of year this was a very ambitious and very enjoyable ride but the downside was that for a group of us riding from Leatherhead to home would have been a lot of miles and not a great experience in the dark. However several of those who didn’t come with us joined a small gang of Uxbridge Loiterers for a happy day pedalling in and around Windsor Great Park with lunch in Wetherspoons.

Thanks to everyone who came out for this hard but fabulous day in the hills, and especially to John Austin for riding as back marker. We owe something to the fine weather too which greatly contributed to the esprit de corps and enjoyment of our splendid countryside.

~ Tim

28.7 miles
Over 2000 feet of climbing

A group ride Wed 7 Feb

The forecast is lovely (apart from the temperature).We will start at Cobham and do part of the classic “May Flyer” route via Staple Lane, Albury, Wonersh, Busbridge, Loxhill to the Three Compasses at Dunsfold for lunch (25 miles from Cobham). Then on to Peaslake via the dreaded Bar Hatch Lane and a few miles on the A25 to Denbies for tea (or via White Down & Ranmore if people want more climbing and to avoid the A25). Total 43 miles from Cobham and approx 2800ft of climbing.

B Group ride tomorrow

We will be heading for the Surrey Hills through to Shere and on to lunch at the Parrot Inn in Forest Green. After lunch, a challenging climb up to Keith Hill, followed by the roller coaster route through some of our favourite undulations and down to Dorking. Tea will probably be in Leatherhead.

Please ensure that your brakes are in good condition.

See you in Cobham

~ Tim

A Group 31 January - Map of Dave's Less Travelled Roads

Map of Dave's eye opening excursion into our less travelled roads last Wednesday. Worth preserving for future reference.

Frame Stiffness - GCN Video

A few weeks ago I wrote a short note on frame design, based on my satisfactory experience of what  French framebuilders did in the 1940s.  Here's a video done by GCN that covers the same ground, but in a modern context.

https://youtu.be/BH_AL4rxrp8

All I'll say is that there's obviously something in it, and that I think we'll be hearing more about it over the next few years.

Nothing new under the sun ...

Mark

Bike Beans Cycle Café lease

Sue Bellamy found this piece of unwelcome news on Bike Beans' Facebook pages and has forwarded it to us:

"Over the Christmas period I have taken the very difficult decision not to personally renew the lease on Bike Beans Cycle Café which expires at the end of March 2018. Having thoroughly enjoyed & dedicated 6 fantastic years to 'fuelling the revolution' and building a fantastic community, I feel it's now time to move on and make way for "new blood".
My overwhelming desire is that Bike Beans Cycle Cafe continues under new ownership. I am already underway looking for a suitable successor, with this aim being supported by both the Landlord and the Club committee.

What does this mean for our customers & members?

Business as usual from the team & I until the end of March.
 
From April and beyond the aim is to find a successor to take our vibrant little business forward.

So if you or you know anyone that maybe seriously interested in ‘living the dream’ and taking on a well established, award winning Cycle Cafe with a strong reputation and following, as well as 200 Club members, then please contact me. Feel free to share .
 
jamie@bikebeans.co.uk
07941 535837

I look forward to this ‘great thing’ carrying on .... I better go and open up .... See you soon !

Jamie

2nd Feb.

Details for David Aylett's funeral

Dear Friends,

David's daughter, Karen, just over from Australia, has phoned us today to advise that the funeral will be  on Thursday, 15 February, at 4.40 pm at the  North East Surrey Crematorium in Lower Morden Lane.    I have been asked if there will be "a two-wheeled group cycling there".   Please ask Colin or me if you would like to join this.

Tributes sent to me in response to my email are being forwarded to Dawn and her family.

Shirley

Photo competitions - last orders

Please note that the competition is now closed to new entries.

However if you have been saving your masterpieces until this weekend to share with us please post them to me asap.

The instructions are contained in the original invitation:

https://midweekwayfarers.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/invitation-to-enter-photographic.html

Thank you

Tim

Easy Riders - 31st January

David Ward and his wife are still recovering from a winter lurgy so John Bellamy took some of the Easy Riders out for a ride:

"A few of the Easy Riders decided that they would go to The Angel at Thames Ditton with the "B"s who didn't want to go to Headley Heath so I only had Gillian, Bernard, Frank and Diane (a recent joiner who goes to the Beginners on Saturdays) to lead. We started out on Irene's route which avoids the few hills and ended up at The Bell in Molesey which offers two good meals for £11.99 - only Frank and I took advantage of this offer and thoroughly enjoyed the food. We didn't stop for tea as the weather wasn't very clement and in Surbiton went our various ways.

Best wishes

John

A Group 31 January - The Roads Less Travelled

This week’s A group ride mainly followed roads not very often used by the group….certainly not in the 3 years or so that I have been riding with them !!

14 riders left Weybridge in a damp state following a downpour that didn’t appear in any of the forecasts, we headed east and the rule of the day was to avoid main roads wherever possible…accordingly we rode through the Burwood estate, then Whiteley village and Convent Lane, skirted around the edge of Cobham and then a short cut through the Fairmile estate took us on the way through to Oxshott. Then we rode along Stokesheath Road through the Crown estate, and then along to and through the junction at Malden Rushett and onwards to Epsom. Avoiding the town centre by some back roads eventually brought us out on to Chalk Lane and the climb up to the racecourse. The skies had cleared and although the temperature was dropping quickly, we rode across the middle of the racecourse and a half-circuit around rewarded us with a view back across the downs and the main stands of the course. A swift ride south took us down through Tadworth and one final cut through The Warren in Kingswood brought us out right by our lunch venue the Kingswood Arms.

Photos from Mark

Orders were taken and food was served very quickly….at least to start with !! First meals appeared whilst the bulk of the group were still placing their orders, general consensus was food was excellent, and with our own reserved room, not much to take issue with.

We were on our way shortly after 2pm, the weather by now bright but very cold, and the route back took us through Tadworth, Nork village (great name, never heard of it before !!), past Banstead station and then along Queensmead Road and the cycle route to Nonsuch Park. From there, Cheam was swiftly passed through and then Gander Green Lane, Hamilton Road and the intriguingly named Pig Farm Lane (no pigs in sight unfortunately) in Worcester Park, on to Raynes Park and up onto Wimbledon Common. Riders dropped out at convenient points along the way for their homeward journeys, and 8 riders made it for tea at the Windmill cafe.

20 miles from Weybridge to lunch, 15 miles from lunch to tea. The usual thanks to Mike for back-marking and to all those who marked corners to help keep things moving along.

~ Dave B.