Easy Riders - 9th September

I led my group down Churchill Road, North Cheam to the mini roundabout, took the third exit to Chatsworth Rd. We crossed Malden Rd to Netley Close - to go in the gate to Cheam Park. Pass café, sand pit and playground to the Lodge. Out at Ewell Road and right to pass under the Cheam Station bridge - straight to The Avenue. Left turn to Northey Avenue and crossed the A217 traffic lights to Belmont bus station. Right turn up to Sutton Lane, left at Highdown Prison Road, (gates were open), but we took a path at the railings and followed it through the Woodland. Continued to next field and came out near the first roundabout to Banstead.  Straight over to the second roundabout, then up to High St.  Right to Waitrose, then left to Pistachios in the Park for coffee/tea. The other group went a different way and were just locking their bikes up. 

After coffee, we came out of the park, turned right to the roundabout and the third exit to Woodmansterne - followed through to the village and passed The Woodman pub and continued heading left, down a newly resurfaced road by Oaks Park, down to Carshalton Beeches. Right at Wales Ave and left down to the alley for the High Street. Crossed for Ponds. Went round some ducks to a mini weir on the left - over a small bridge to exit and came out to our pub for lunch at The Sun.

Eight were booked at tables; as the garden was small they said they couldn t take lots of bikes. Others went to another pub nearby. After lunch, we departed for Sutton, then Cheam. Four had croisants and tea sitting outside La Petite Pattiserie in Cheam Village.

A nice ride with all downhill from Elevenses to lunch.

Lynda.

 

B Group - 16th Sept. from Walton Bridge Café

The route follows fairly busy roads for a few miles through Walton to Hersham, and then uses the new cycle path (an active cycling initiative) to West End. Our route then goes off-road and climbs sharply (a short walk for some) on to The Ledges which are on the high bank of the River Mole giving a good viewpoint. We follow a mixture of quiet roads and tracks across Bookham Common to Effingham, and up High Barn Road to Ranmore. Down Whitedown and up Abinger Lane to Lunch at the Abinger Hatch.

From Lunch the route goes through Friday Street, Wotton and picks up cycle route 22 at Balchins Lane into Dorking (retracing part of last week’s ride).  We turn into Chapel Lane at West Humble and take Crabtree Lane and well surfaced tracks through Norbury Park to Fetcham. Our route to Cobham uses Bookham Common again.

About 30 miles from Walton to Cobham – the off-road sections are generally in good condition – care needed on some gravel sections.

If you wish to know the route details in advance, to follow with RideWithGPS on your phone, or to import into your phone, Garmin or other GPS device click this link.

Please let me know if you can join us by 7pm on Monday 14 Sep – my email is kenday06@yahoo.co.uk
 

The current Covid restrictions mean that we need to book tables of six at the Abinger Hatch for Lunch. I have made a provisional booking but please confirm that you require lunch as I need to confirm numbers on Tuesday.

For Tea I suggest that each group chooses a café in Cobham as appropriate to avoid more than six – sub-leaders can decide this on Wednesday.

Thanks

Ken

Report on A group ride from Fairoaks, 9 Sep 2020

First of all thanks to NeilC for the route! We had a not-so-auspicious 13 riders in 3 groups but no major mishaps thank goodness (so much for superstition). It was a flat, fairly fast ride (15.2mph av) with a slight headwind on the way out to lunch at the Cricketers at Littlewick Green, and a tailwind on the way back. 25 miles from Fairoaks to lunch, 18 miles to tea at the Potting Shed by the Savill building in Virginia Water. Thanks to NeilC for helping to keep our pace up by jumping into the lead every time I flagged! After lunch Neil’s gear cable broke but he was up and running again in a few minutes by cleverly clamping the gear cable using his bottle cage bolts in order to maintain a mid-range gear. This didn’t seem to slow him down at all as he again overtook me several times on the way back with legs spinning like Billy Whizz! 😂

Many thanks to Brian and DaveV for leading their respective groups, and to Hans for backmarking. Here is Dave Vine’s ride report and a few pictures:

“Thanks Mike for a really nice day out to a really nice welcoming pub.

I confess it didn't seem that flat to me, but perhaps I'm out of condition. The day started well; I met Pete Betts and he kindly dragged me from Addlestone to Fairoaks behind his new e-bike at a respectable pace. Thanks Pete. Unfortunately he was destined to ride with another group. I think in future each sub-group should have their own e-bike member to assist with the pace.

We were pleased to welcome Geoffrey Shields on his first Wayfarer outing since lockdown. Clearly he has not been wasting his time watching TV or whatever as he set a mean pace up every hill, seemingly with ease.

We were overtaken by Brian's group approaching Kiln Green; clearly they put something in the coffee at Fairoaks, which I had missed. To keep our groups separate I elected to take a more scenic cross country approach to Littlewick. Even so we arrived in a respectable 2 hours dead.

It was hard to drag myself away from the pub, but the red kites were circling ever closer, so it was prudent to move. The routre back took in some nice lanes, and the gravelly bits were nicely gravelly. Geoffrey left us at the entrance to Windsor Great Park to go directly home, so it was in the congenial company of Simon and Geoff that we took tea at the Savill Garden. Once again I struggled to get going, but Simon said there was a cold front coming, which I think means cold rain, which sounded like a good reason for getting home and out of it's way. Thanks to Simon for back marking, and everyone for their company.

Dave”

B Group - 9th September

We had four groups for 23 riders with one vacancy for Eric Flint who joined us at lunch. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people who volunteered to lead with the benefit to me that Christina led our fourth group while I took a back seat as BM. With slightly rearranged teams we took off around the back of the hangar and into Youngstroat Lane for the woodland path heading South towards Woking. The path crosses the Mill Bourne and Addlestone Bourne and passes through Horsell Common. In Woking we picked up the Saturn Trail which runs alongside the Basingstoke Canal, then turned South at Arthurs Bridge. Don Elms rode with us as far as the canal and left us to follow it in the opposite direction.

A peaceful stretch along the Hoe, followed by another meander through the trees took us down towards Sutton Green with Robin Hood Lane and the Foxes Path bringing us up to the Church of St Edward the Confessor where we stopped to regard the landscape and remove a layer or two as the morning was starting to warm up. This is close to the closed gates of the Grade I listed Tudor Manor House, Sutton Place, once owned by John Paul Getty and now by the Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov.

We took the cycle/foot path along Clay Lane to enter the Nature Reserve and were soon under the A3 and across the A25 into Stoke Park for the obligatory five-minute comfort stop.

Team Ken in the Riverside Nature Reserve (PB)

I had unwittingly chosen a very gentle gradient up to the top of the downs to join Guildford Lane which might have afforded some good views of St Martha’s Hill were it not for all the trees. An easy descent to Albury brought us across the Tilling Bourne and to the Drummond Arms for lunch where I was pleased to discover the other three groups, with Tony Hopkins’ first group on the point of departure. Unfortunately Arwyn, who had a picnic lunch nearby, had returned to the pub but didn’t see any bikes because they were all out of site around the back and assumed that they had already gone. So he found his own scenic route home via Shere and Route 22. We learned later that he had arrived home safely.

Our tables were at the back of the garden next to the stream. Although the pub offered quite a limited menu all their dishes are presented with quite a cheffy flourish, probably qualifying it as a gastropub though their website makes no such claim. We were very well attended, enjoyed the food and in the still warmth of the day were quite blissed out by the time we had to depart.

Team Tony (PB)

 

Grant, who had been riding in John’s group discovered a puncture after lunch so to allow John to get away in good time we adopted him and promoted Eric into John’s group. With the major project to rebuild the bridge over the Tilling Bourne still in progress the only sensible way open to us apart from a route back through Guildford (Halfpenny Lane?) was the climb up New Road. We rode the quiet route through to Hoe and at the top of the steep rise in Hoe Lane turned right to ride through Sutton Place and drop down to the Horsham Road. At The Volunteer we climbed up Raikes Lane, and down at the junction with the A25 we found Gill Holder who had suffered a mechanical failure with her derailleur. Fortunately Graham was able to drive down with the van to rescue her and her bike.

The Holder family broom wagon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Instead of muddy puddles the first part of NCN Route 22, that strangest of cycling superhighways now has a thick layer of coarse sand to negotiate. No doubt this is ideal for walkers. Further on the protruding stones and tree roots are still as they always were.

Terry had given advance warning that we might see some Alpacas as we approached Westcott. Our team caught a glimpse of them in their timber-clad bungalow at the back of a field but they never emerged to show themselves off as we had hoped they would.

Looking for the Alpacas

At this point Terry took over the lead in order to show us a couple of blue plaques. First was one in Westcott for Leslie Howard, best remembered for acting with Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind, and for the manner of his death with the plane in which he was travelling being shot down by the Luftwaffe in 1943. In Dorking Terry showed us the blue plaque for Laurence Olivier, on the house in Wathen Road where he was born in 1907.

We had decided to have Tea at L’Ultimo Cucina in Leatherhead High St, ideal in every way but I had overlooked the fact that they don’t do cake which for some was a slightly sad way to end what had otherwise been a terrific day out.

Thank you to Tony Hopkins, Ken, John Austin and Christina for volunteering to be leaders and delivering their teams safely to each of the refreshment stops. I had expected to lead one of the groups before Christina expressed enthusiasm for the task. She did a marvelous job and we look forward to her being so willing in the future. Thank you to everyone who joined us to make a great day of it.

~ Tim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cycling UK Membership fees hike - act now!

It appears that the recent CUK AGM approved big increases in membership fees for most over-65s.  If you act quickly, life membership may save you money, but this changes on 1 November.

The previous concessionary rate of £30.50 for over-65s will increase to £48 per year, the same as those under 65.   The concessionary rate will still be available for those on means-tested benefits or solely on state pension.  Details here.

For many older members (which is most of us), especially if you have been a CUK member for some time, life membership looks like a good option - and for some, can cost less than a year's membership.  But on 1st October the existing discount for life membership based on your age will be halved - so it may be worth acting now.

Current life membership arrangements:

• Discount of 1% for every year of age up to age 71
• Discount of 0.5% for every year of CUK membership.
• Starting price: 40 x annual membership = £1,200

For example, if you are over 70 and have 30 years membership, you save 86%.  Life membership will cost £168, less than 4 years of annual fees.  (Annual fees will most likely rise every year in future.)

After 1 November, the discount for age is only 0.5% for every year of age, so in the above example, you would only save 55.5%.  Life membership will cost you £534.

Oh, and the previous 'deal' of 5 years for the price of 4 has been voted out too.  It will no longer be available.

The (current) life membership details are here, and the proposed new details are here.   Don't delay if this looks attractive to you.  The CUK membership lines are likely to be buzzing.

I'll be off my bike for a while because.....

 I'm recovering from surgery for prostate cancer. For those needing to know - including the Scottish trip duo, thanks for your support. For all Wayfarers, I'm able to say that so far the prognosis is promising. The op was timely.

I'm recuperating at home. It's an ideal time - two weeks of daytime telly watching the TdF!

All being well I hope to be on my turbo-bike within a month, and maybe on the road by November. 

What with the cycling stop-start of Covid, I've stopped again, but can't wait to start again. And for guys, there's benefit in knowing your PSA, because intervention sooner rather than later may give you more years on the saddle. Take care.

A group ride from Fairoaks, Chobham on 9 September

CALLING FOR SUB-LEADERS - PLEASE CONTACT MIKE REYNELL ON michaelreynell@gmail.com if you can help. I plan to do the recce on Monday 7th Sept (or Tue 8th if wet), I am planning a fairly simple route so please let me know if you can help sub-lead from a GPX file even if you cannot join in the recce.

Also please send me an email by 7pm on Monday 7 Sept if you are planning to join the ride. Thanks, Mike

B Group - 2nd September

Sixteen made it for the ride on Wednesday.

From Cobham we made our way to East Clandon via Ockham. East Clandon was the start of the first climb up towards the top of Combe Bottom followed soon after by the second climb up Crocknorth onto Ranmore. 

At the far end of Ranmore we dropped down through Denbies wine estate. Then it was up the Zigzag to Box Hill and along to Headley Tea Rooms where upon we tucked into a most delicious lunch, which I think we all enjoyed. A big thank you to Julie and Glen for doing such a great job.

Finally it was down to Ashtead via Walton, Tadworth and Epsom race course down Chalk Lane and through Ashtead park.

A lovely sunny day too.

Hope you all enjoyed the ride.

~Pete

Cow with special cleats for going up hills

__________________________________

After last week's Guildford ride Jacqui offered her services as a leader. Lest she might decide to change her mind I had her added to the register of volunteer leaders at CTC HQ. On Monday I rode with her on her recce for Pete's ride and yesterday, having worked hard to digest all the details of the route, she led her first group of B Group veterans. Well done Jacqui. And thanks too to Dave on his fixed wheel for leading his group.

Pete's 23.5 mile morning route with its three big hills, Staple Lane, Crocknorth Road and Box Hill was sheer mischief. But he relented in the afternoon with a much shorter ride. With the late breaking news that Coffee Active wasn't open and the drizzle intensifying, the remnants of our team, Jacqui, Terry and self pulled into the Ashtead Garden Centre for afternoon tea which gave the rain time to ease off before we departed for home.

Our new leader

~ Tim

Route details for B Group - 9th September

Fairoaks Aerodrome - Albury - Leatherhead

First, for the benefit of riders meeting in North Cheam for the ride to Elevenses I have made a route in RideWithGPS. It is a full 18 miles of flat riding from North Cheam so you will will want to consider an early start, perhaps 08:45. For those new to this ride we meet for Elevenses at the Hangar Café in the airport. We have been asked to not park our bikes on the terrace where all the tables and chairs are.

So, here's a suggested route for the ride from North Cheam:

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/33999744

For the ride itself departure times will be advised next Tuesday. Clearly we may need to be a bit flexible if the group riding from North Cheam takes longer than we expect; you will need a rest and some refreshment after that.

Here's the route for the ride itself:

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/33947903

It will be just 14.5 miles to Lunch at the Drummond Arms. The ride begins with an easy stretch on an unpaved woodland path, meanders through Woking, passes through the Nature Reserve and Stoke Park on the outskirts of Guildford then climbs up into the Merrow Downs before descending to Albury. After lunch we'll head up and cross Albury Heath, over to Sutton Abinger then North to cross the A25 and up to join NCN route 22 for the off-road, rough-in-places, trail into Dorking. Anyone wishing to avoid the rougher bits can ride about a mile along the A25 and turn left into Balchins Lane for a more mellow experience. Thence to Leatherhead making it 15.5 miles in the afternoon.

Please let me know if you intend to come. I may be away for a few days so would prefer to have an indication of numbers before I go. If we get more than 15 passengers I will need another sub-leader. Thanks to Ken and John A. who have volunteered to lead.

I'll look forward to seeing you.

~ Tim

 

Easy RIders - 2nd September

We started the ride from Cobham by taking the Stoke Road, turning off right along Tilt Road and taking a further right after the cemetery into River Lane and on through Downside. We turned left into Horsley Road, past Effingham Junction train station and turned right into Drift Road. At Ockham Road we turned left, riding through Horsley and left again into Forest Road. Just before the railway bridge we turned right into Forest Lane and joined the track parallel to the railway line and crossed Effingham Common Road to take the track across the common to Little Bookham Street. It was then just a short ride to lunch at Ye Olde Windsor Castle.

After lunch we travelled along a series of small roads into Fetcham, turning left to go under the railway bridge and right into River Lane. This took us out onto Randalls Road where we turned right and then left along Cleeve Road. We joined Barnett Wood Lane and turned off left to the pedestrian crossing at the end of Green Lane and into the quietness of Links Road. We could now look forward to tea and cake at the Old Moat on the other side of Ashtead Common but were disappointed to find that they had closed early because they had a function to thank all their helpers after the plague. There seemed no suitable place for us to go for refreshments so we made our various ways home. As it started to rain after we had got to our homes, missing tea and cake didn't seem so bad.

John

Report on the A Ride 2 September to Warnham.

The weather was good for cycling and we had three groups raring to go. Here is the official route.

First off was Team Dave, and Dave Vine writes -

We left @ 10.40 and arrived at the Sussex Oak exactly on time at 12.30, after a stop to view the distant chimney at Shoreham. Eagle-eyed Brian spotted Lancing College chapel and Chanctonbury Ring. After these distant splendours Potholes 1 and 2 went almost unnoticed.

The pub had tables reserved with our arrival time, a remarkable feat of organisation. Lunch was speedily served, and after a brief photostop we were off by 1.25. With only the olfactory delights of Warnham landfill to distract us we were at Hillier's Garden Centre by 2.30 leaving plenty of time for a leisurely tea while encouraging Patrick to attempt a direct ride up to the Box Hill viewpoint.

Next off was Team Three Daves. Geoff Gregory writes - 

Eleven o'clock and all ready to go. A quick chat about the one serious drag up Green Dene and we were off. For me there were no unpleasant surprises as I had been on the route last Sunday.

Sandy Lane came and went and so on the straight (almost) line to lunch. On our way we took in the sights recommended - Neil's big imposing property pretending to be a school and then the view down to the sea. So much to see, the guy being rescued by the RNIB, the flocks of wading birds, thanks for pointing out. If I go this way again I shall take a telescope.

The rest of the route was near perfect, herds of deer, birds of prey swooping down, one nearly lifted Dave F off his bike but a quick sideways grab by Dave W saved the horrors of what could have been.

Those little adventures behind us we arrived at lunch, three minutes before one. Easy to order food and drink and very quickly served. Dave Vine's group were soon to leave as Neil's group arrived shortly after us, very quick pace was made by hanging on to Pete Bett's new electric bike.

Lunch over and Dave W having to leave before us brought our numbers down (obviously ) for us and on the road again shame about the small undulations after Warnham station, we all managed ok. A fast ride to tea for us, Dave F chose to stay for tea, Jennie and Dave plus myself decided to head off home.

If I was a card player I think our group would have been a good hand, three Jacks, three Daves, one Queen, Jennie and myself as King. The rest of the groups I see did not have such a good hand, mishmash of names.

Finally I was leading Team No Daves. We were all concerned that Patrick had a forty minute start to get to the food but we had a secret weapon -

Every time we got to a hill Pete would glide up, Keith would chase after him (despite handicapping himself by carrying a spare square-taper bottom bracket!) and Frances and Steve would follow. I would eventually reach them at the top and lead the whizz down the other side.

The Sussex Oak garden had plenty of space and the food arrived promptly so we were all happy. Keith took the traditional photo as we left.

Now the wind was behind us and we made good time to tea at the Hillier's Garden Centre in Dorking.

Thanks to everyone for joining me.