Freewheel

I was mightily surprised yesterday to find
http://www.londonfreewheel.com/ledrides/
advertising a Hounslow start location for a feeder ride.
(I had been in touch with Hounslow CC who said they weren't doing one
and I had agreed to join in with Ealing's feeder.) However, I duly
went along to the start and found two others waiting - neither of whom
claimed to be leading it. We waited until 10 mins after the stated off
time, debated which route to take and then set off - sending the one
who was worried about holding up the two in front (after threatening
not to ride in and take the tube instead). Ride to Ravenscourt Park
was uneventful with others joining us for bits of the way and leaving
us when they thought they had a better route !

Ravenscourt Park was massively oversubscribed with bike parking - most
of which was not used. The funnel start worked well and the route to
Hyde Park/Constitution Hill was impressively signposted and well-
populated with marshalls. A couple of junctions could be improved (one
had a straight on route for bikes only with a feeder lane on the
right hand side leading up to it - but the local marshals were urging
the cyclists up the left hand gutter thereby preventing other vehicles
from turning left into them - the other right hand turn onto Notting
Hill was reliant on the bike lane traffic lights - which may be
adequate for normal bike usage but gave insufficient bike priority
time for the mass of riders today.)

Kids (and the rest of us) managed the Notting Hill climb better than I
anticipated.
A "marathon-style" stripe on the road to follow the road line at the
Lancaster Gate gyratory might have helped - but no real problems were
encountered.

Traffic free route was very enjoyable (I'm waiting to see what my free
photo looks like). They hadn't run out of Hovis. Weather great.
Congestion was manageable - though I think they could get slicker with
the Bird Cage walk crossings which bordered on the irritating when
marshals held the riders up when no-one wanted to cross as they had
been told that it was too busy further in front ! I'm glad Tom's crew
liked the ensuing race starts.

Return journey (essentially by self - I missed any congregating point)
was OK - but the yellow direction arrows I had been relying on gave up
(or I missed one) about half a mile from Ravenscourt Park. So I ended
up on some strange unfamiliar unexpected roads until I eventually
recognised somewhere and arrived at the back, wrong entrance to the
park. The few people left at the info desk there had no info on what
the return route should have been (all maps had been given out....)
and met my concerns (that if I'd lost the yellow arrow route, others
might have a bigger problem) with "Well you're back at the park aren't
you ?"......

I tagged along with the well-run Ealing Cycling Campaign group back
west until our paths diverged.

A good day.

I agree with the above - it was great fun. Arrived very early, about
1050, only a few cyclists around at first, so not too busy. Rode
around the route, everyone very friendly, then onto the Mall for the
"festival". Had some problems with an over zealous marshal who refused
to let me in to the stands without my bib, but got in eventually. VIP
tent was very cool (courtesy of a mate I was with), other stands also
interesting. Liked the ida of bike indicators, but they were a tad
large. Marshals proved difficult on way out also. Couldn't find way
out, so lifted bike over barrier into the lane marked with a big sign
"exit only". Marshal ran over, and lifted my bike back over telling me
it wasn't the official exit. 30 minutes walking backwards through the
busy crowds, I found another way out. So, other than the problems at
the bike park a great day out. Its a pity they were being so over
zealous, as when I left (about 1400) there were still literally
thousands of free bike spaces (all at the far end, away from the
entrances), yet because it was so hard to get into the "official"
parking many bikes were locked up outside :-)

With the trains round us replaced by buses we had to drive over to
Stevenage to catch the train into London. The train itself was packed
with people and bikes - I counted 9 bikes including my Brompton crammed
into the vestibule I was in (standing room only) while SWMBO and our
daughters crammed into the next vestibule along. Exited at Finsbury
Park to join the ride in and was able to stock up on free apples from I
don't know who who had a stand with boxes of them to hand out. Bibs
were also available from another tent and LCC had TfL maps and flags for
your bikes.

Initial ride out from Finsbury park was appalling road surfaces and
appalling driving standards to go with it from frustrated motorists.
The roads were crowded all the way in with bikes which made route
finding easy (follow the crowd) but cycling in crowds in not my
favourite. To go with the bad driving we had bad bus driving from our
sponsors, TfL. One bus tried to overtake a large crowd of cyclists and
then while still alongside them, try to pull into the bus stop. It was
left stranded in the middle of the road. Further on on Fleet Street
three buses were well over in the cycle lane blocking it off to
cyclists.

Down on the embankment we stopped for a snack before touring east and
then back west. We seemed to be in antiphase in that there were always
crowds coming the other way but relatively light in our direction. At
one point I managed to thread my way between the shackle and foot of a
D-lock that fell of the bike in front and split in two and at another
point two riders touched in front of me with one ending up on the ground
clasping her wrist. There seemed to be plenty of family around her so
we didn't stop. Up at Buck Palace we joined the queues to get into the
park but pretty quickly gave up (no bikes allowed into the first Village
area and we weren't locking the Brommies up in the cycle park) so we
went and sat in the park outside for picnic sandwiches and cake.

Finished off the lap before heading for Kings Cross just before the
roads reopened. As a day out it was OKish but not quite my cup of tea.
I don't think I'd make the trip again if they repeat it next year.

--
Tony

" I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong."
Bertrand Russell

Tony Raven said:

Finished off the lap before heading for Kings Cross just before the
roads reopened. As a day out it was OKish but not quite my cup of tea.
I don't think I'd make the trip again if they repeat it next year.

I went along as a punter this time because I was trying to get some
less-cycle-mad friends to join me. If they repeat it, I might marshal
instead.

R

--
It never gets easier, you just go faster.
-- Greg LeMond

Tony Raven said:

As a day out it was OKish but not quite my cup of tea.
I don't think I'd make the trip again if they repeat it next year.

What did your daughters feel about the event?

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Tony Raven said:

As a day out it was OKish but not quite my cup of tea.
I don't think I'd make the trip again if they repeat it next year.

What did your daughters feel about the event?

You mean apart from would have preferred to spend the day with their
boyfriends who are about to go of to Uni? ;-)

I don't think it will have encouraged them to do any more cycling than
they already do.

--
Tony

" I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong."
Bertrand Russell

On 23 Sep, 18:37, Tom Crispin <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

An excellent family day out

Yes really good, glad this morning's weather didn't arrive yesterday
afternoon or it would have been very different.

Surprised at the lack of queues around the stalls on the mall, my kids
got their faces painted for free after a very short wait and coffees
and ice creams didn't require advance booking.

The trials riding demonstrations were just awesome. Just how do you
start from a track stand and jump 5 feet vertically to land with your
back wheel balanced on a railing? Not to mention 7 foot synchronized
drop offs to land on a coke can.

Oh, and the ride was fun too.

POHB said:

Surprised at the lack of queues around the stalls on the mall, my kids
got their faces painted for free after a very short wait and coffees
and ice creams didn't require advance booking.

The marshals at the entrance to St. James's Park were gleefully
telling people that they were too late for sandwiches as Hovis had run
out. Happily this turned out to be untrue. Lovely fresh sandwiches
were being handed out in great profusion and with great rapidity so
there was almost no waiting.

Free sandwiches, free apples, free Red Bull and a car-free route. What
more can a cyclist demand?

The only thing I found niggling really was the over-controlled funnel
start at the Clapham Common hub. It took a ridiculous time to get
through, and we were near the front. If we do it again I think we'll
ignore the hubs and make our own way to the route.

--
Dave...

Ben said:

Couldn't find way out, so lifted bike over barrier into the lane marked
with a big sign "exit only". Marshal ran over, and lifted my bike back
over telling me it wasn't the official exit.

I think you were unlucky. We saw loads of people lifting their bikes
over to get in, mainly for the free Hovis sandwiches, and to get out
again, and we didn't see anyone being challenged. I think your marshal
must have had a severe attack of the jobsworths. I'm sure he was
exceeding his authority to have manhandled your bike. What if you had
climbed over, would he have lifted you back too?

--
Dave...

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Surprised at the lack of queues around the stalls on the mall, my kids
got their faces painted for free after a very short wait and coffees
and ice creams didn't require advance booking.

That might have been the guys in yellow jackets' fault. We tried to go
into that area from adjacent to the bike park but they were turning
people away with bikes and had Pedestrians Only signs (I didn't think it
would be effective to start quoting Crank v Brooks at them ;-) ). It
was only when we had rejoined onto the Mall that we spotted those stalls
and people pushing bikes past them, although they were railed off all
the way along the Mall. Given the big queues and waits around the bike
park we decided not to make the effort to go back and try to find a way
in with bikes.

--
Tony

" I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong."
Bertrand Russell