Weds Chaingang - 28 Nov

It was getting cold, as predicted, and on the way back we were splatted by two gritting lorries but it was not that cold as all 22 riders will testify.  Glorious full moon plus a day or so.

Nick G's First Chaingang

It was only a few months ago that Alan H came out on a bacon butty run, soon followed by a nifty Broad Oak TT time and now a debut on the chain gang.  Nathan F (not R!) hesitantly came out on a bacon butty run some two years go, not sure why since he was a second cat roadman not that long ago with Newark Castle CC.  See their web site which advertises a winter 12-14 mph chain gang on their home page, clearly not a ride Nathan would have been on, or is it megga hilly unlike our pancake flat 20-25 mph ride in the fast group ……….  Nathan brought along Nick G for a first outing with the club, not the best of first rides when recently off colour so hopefully he was not put off, it was good that Nathan rode with him since the Wednesday chain gang generally does not hang around for anyone, that is for all other club rides.Good also to see Dave HH out with us despite having had treatment last week for his heart ablation (heart rhythm) , Dave will have to take it easy for a couple of weeks but is feeling good.

Alan Masters The Weds Chaingang On His First Attempt

At the turn (please can riders move on to the concrete and please keep off the public highway ……) we thought one of the Trinity House lighthouses had come adrift and was being towed back westwards along the road.  As it happens it was not.  It was someone with a top end front light of 100 Giga lumens set to illuminate the stars.  Apparently it was bolted in place tightly and could not be adjusted en route.  We had to delay our return ride for 5 minutes as everyone waited to get back a bit of night vision.  Waiting by the Bexhill lights, almost breaking in to carols under the Christmas lights, we were almost blinded again as someone came in with a 100 Mega lumens front light set a bit high.
A few weeks back just after coming down off Spooky Hill towards Pevensey a car failed to dip its lights.  I was riding solo between groups and was blinded.  Despite holding my hand outstretched in front to block out the worst of the light there was nothing on the side of the road, fence or hedge, to pick out where it was.  I was drifting to the centre of the road set for a head on collision before the driver slowed down, still not dipping lights, before I could work out where to ride and find my side of the road.  I am wondering if the driver had been dazzled by the lights of the front groups so was getting their own back by blinding the tail end riders? But some cars even on dip have far too bright lights, possibly being set wrongly but possibly being unnecessarily powerful.  This can apply to certain bike lights too.

Dave HH taking It Easy Tonight

It was not that bad, our front lights, really but please set your front lights to illuminate the road not too far in front of you (we were not off road in dark woods on a moonless night) otherwise you will fail any proposed bike MoT, as cars do their MoT.

Chris Parker

Club Ride 25/11- The Night Rider

The Prince Of Darkness!!!

A bit blustery this morning for the Horam satchel (bonk bag) ride but much better weather than the day before which consisted of 24 hours of rain. Good to see Simon G out on a Sunday club ride, he doesn't do them very often. Surprisingly Steve Denny was there . Surprising because at midnight on Friday he joined the 'Friday Night Ride To The Coast Club
http://fnrttc.blogspot.co.uk/
This meant riding 50 miles from London to Brighton, arriving at Brighton for an early morning breakfast before getting the train back home. So Steve was a bit sleep deprived.

Duncan Chris And Simon Nr Brightling

Due to the wind Chris P modified the route as far as Brightling with a more inland route which avoided the worst of the wind. The ride to Horam was hilly and against the wind. After about 25 miles the effects of Steve's night ride  started to catch up with him but he was able to hang on until we arrived at the lakeside Cafe at Horam, this establishment has rapidly  become one of our favourite feeding stops. As usual the food did not disappoint, everything they make is top notch. The rock cakes went down very well with a nice cup of tea and the bacon sarnies almost melted in the mouth. We arrived just in time to avoid some very heavy showers outside but these were all over by the time we had had our fill. Suitably refuelled Steve got his second wind and the last 25 miles were a lot easier as we had the strong wind at our backs. Cycling on the prom Malcolm was admiring the choppy state of the sea, perfect windsurfing weather! Thanks to Chris for leading the ride and making this version of the Horam satchel (bonk bag) even better.
Ascent 897m (original version was only 768m)
distance 50 miles

Av speed 15.5 mph

ESCA Reliabilty Trial Results

See below the overall results for the different clubs that took part in the ESCA reliabilty trial. Note that several riders unreliably finished early, unlike many who hung around outside the Kings Head killing time before they could finish reliably. Between back, spokes and punctures we were only 50% reliable. May be we can improve next year when the RT is liable to start and finish in Groombridge. But six of us were 100% reliable in the longer Kent CA RT a few weeks ago.

A Glorious Day

A glorious day for a ride and sounds as though the injured Rover is on the mend, a salutary lesson in making sure you do not go too fast down hill when a sharp left hand bend is coming up and a reminder that those that know the lanes or roads need to shout clear warnings loudly for the safety of others. I overlooked that same corner a month or so ago and had I been unlucky to have a vehicle coming the other way I would have been in trouble since I have very, very seldom ridden the lane going north and had forgotten how tight the corner is at speed. I always remember the dangerous corner further up the lane coming south from Cade Street and now have two other corners firmly fixed in my mind as being potentially hazardous, yes there is another one near by that I also overlooked on my ride a month or so ago.


Chris P

Friday Night Ride 23/11- Derek Turns 60

Nathan F's First Friday Night Ride

Happy Birthday Derek

Joining us for the first time on a Friday night rides was Nathan Fletcher . Nathan lives at Fairlight so for him this was a very local ride. Also present was Derek who has missed the Fridays for one reason or another over the last six weeks. This was Derek's last ride where he could say that he was in his fifties as he turned sixty at midnight (happy birthday Derek). Myself, Ivan, Simon G and Malcolm made up the rest of the field. There had been warnings about fog but fortunately Battery hill was clear. I rode down the hill even slower than normal as I had put a more upright stem on my SCR but discovered it made the handling too unstable (so the more horizontal one will have to go on). Malcolm had a puncture on entering Rye, so myself and Derek went ahead while the others waited. I was hoping to get to the top before them and get a few action shots of them arriving at Broad Oak but was hopelessly optimistic as the four of them came past us like a train about half way up the long drag. I did beat Derek up to the top and just about had time to take a snap of him arriving. The approach to Stonestile was interesting with some quite thick fog and with all the light reflecting off the mist it was hard to see where the edges and pot holes were. Despite living locally Nathan had never done Stonestile before, I hope he enjoyed that little treat.

Weds Chaingang 21/11- John Vidler Joins Us

John Vidler's First Chaingang

After standing on the pedals riding in to very strong gusty winds at walking pace along the sea front (what's new about you being so slow I hear ....) returning home from lunch I was not looking forward to this week's chain gang outward leg. Miraculously the wind died down and the sky cleared for a high and bright first quarter moon for the ride. Dan H (big Dan H, not Dan H of Comic - Cycling Weekly - coaching articles fame, who has been on one gang so far this winter) was off the mark first but soon Ivan was towing everyone out to Pevensey. Later on Ivan was complaining that his elbow is getting sore from repeatedly flicking it to encourage others to come through and do a turn on the front. Perhaps we ought to have whip round and get one of those bands of flashing LEDs for him to put round his elbow since everyone seems to be having trouble seeing his signal in the dark? Although several of the fast guys who do turns and can stretch and break the leading sub-gang were missing this week.

Meanwhile the tail end gang were working well with John V on his Wednesday debut sharing most the work with Duncan. John has been out with Dan H 3 and his Battle based riding mates, making his TT debut a few weeks back on Battery Hill having come from a running background.

All 15 riders kept together on the way back until the stronger riders broke clear on Spooky Hill. With a bit of a tail wind Malcolm,  Dan H, Barny and Paul F did some turns on the front without Ivan having to strain his elbow too much. Any claim Ivan may make against the club for causing elbow RSI will be strongly contested, even if he starts wearing elbow LEDs and others are still reluctant to do their fair share of the pace setting. Has anyone come across any sports science studies on cyclist's elbow RSI and can get a copy for Ivan?

Chris Parker

18 Nov- Nasty Accident At ESCA Reliability Trial

Ready For Our 9:00 Start

The weather was superb (cold, no wind and full sunshine) for this mornings ESCA reliability trial. The route started from the sport pavilion and was a 50 mile route in a figure of eight. A large number of cyclists were there including Sean Yates riding for InGear. Hastings were represented with six riders: myself, Derek, Ivan, Malcolm, Chris P, Joe, Steve D and Tom.When we arrived we saw the familiar figure of Dave HH who said he would be riding in our group along with a few others from other clubs. We were allowed to ride off at 9:00 and had to be back between 12:20 and 12;30 in order to be classified as reliable. The group worked very well together with different riders taking turns at the front. Steve Denny seemed to be going particularly well. Chris had earlier complained of a pain in his back but was also riding well. Myself and Steve were the only ones in the group with a GPS but many people in the group seemed to know where to go although there was one place where I had to shout out  and get everyone back because they had missed a left turn towards Piltdown. Steve was the first one of the group to get a puncture, I stayed with him to make sure it was fixed while the rest of the group rode on. having fixed the puncture we set off at a brisk pace determined to catch up with the others but after a mile there was a loud ping from my bike. I have heard this sound several times before and knew that yet again I had broken a rear spoke and with the ridiculously small tyre clearance on the frame, my ride was over. Fortunately we were only 2 miles from headquarters so the bike managed to limp there. Derek was there at headquarters waiting from us to catch up. Chris was also there but had decided to abandon with a trapped nerve in his back.

I told you not to buy cheap tyres....

Myself and Chris had resigned ourselves to a long wait before everyone would be back at HQ  when a phone call came through saying that one of the Eastbourne rovers had come off and was being taken away in an ambulance, could someone go over to the scene of the accident and pick up his bike which was being looked after by a friend in the club. We got over there as soon as we could, the ambulance was still there and the police officer said that it looked like a broken pelvis which was not good news (this happened to our own Chris W a few years back while descending Castle Hill). Having handed the bike over to another Eastborne rovers cyclist  at HQ, we saw Derek and Steve D arriving, unfortunately unlike the rest of the team finishers they were outside the allotted time and so must be declared 'not reliable'.

Chaingang 14th Nov - man up

Last week we had 21 riders but this week . . . 24! But better than that,  the return of big Dan Harwood, the very man who told me about the chain gang back in 2006 after a pure chance meeting at ante-natal class. I was a clueless dad-to be who hadn't been near any kind of sport or bike club for 20 years -  him one of the old guard of off roading lads and an early adopter of fixed gear.  So I owe Dan a tip of the hat, for introducing me to cycling again,  a place to find some new fun and adventures to replace some of the old kinds that are put away when one becomes a parent.

I've left the fixed at home tonight, finding the pace has increased from previous years, no doubt when we get deep into the proper salty rainy muck season I'll trot it out once more to save the good bike. Way out was pretty fast, with about an 8 mph tail wind, speeds were around 25 at front, a handful of the fast lads changing at the front, some more hangers on, two of whom didn't come near the front till thirty yards from the Pevensey roundabout, but  they couldn't catch Shaun, and I'd already sat up, so there -  Malcolm Elliot & Cav, eat your heart out. Way back I was feeling like three out of ten after the previous efforts and missing a week and was caught chatting plus the  headwind meant I didn't even join  the bunch till the gates went down on the level crossing,  Matt dragged four of us into the wind all the way to Bexhill where a crowd who'd beat the train waited. Shameless plug - if your in a newsagent tomorrow check out 2 drawings I did for Cycling Weekly on "Pain, when to man up, & when to man down" ;-)

Early Bird 10 Nov- Even More Rain!

Andy

John Vidler

Stubb's lane Is such Fun In The Wet!

The weather forecast said light rain initially followed by heavy rain all morning. In previous seasons this would have been enough for me to cancel the ride but this year having had so much rain exposure there has been plenty of time to evolve flippers and gills so even heavy rain was not going to put me off. Arriving at the cemetery at 8:00  I wasn't surprised to see Doug arrive a few minutes later. With only a few minutes to go before setting off we thought it quite likely no one else would be crazy enough to come out in the rain. Much to our surprise a whole clutch of riders suddenly appeared (the Westfield/Broad Oak/ battle contingent) including two early bird newbies John Vidler and Andy. We set off on the Appledore 34 miler which is a good route for wet conditions. It does however involve the steep descent of chick hill which john felt particularly  nervous descending  having come off there last year which cost him several months off riding. This time we all made it down safely and for the next 15 miles it was flat riding all the way towards Appledore. The ride got a lot hillier once we turned west for Wittersham Iden and Brede. At some point Steve B who was at the front got separated from us, I think he was too busy following the route on his GPS  and we didn't see him again until we got to Westfield. From here we all split up and it was left to myself and Doug to complete the route with a nice wet ascent of Stonestile. As this was the second time I had ridden it in less than 12 hours, my stiff legs were relieved to reach the top. Maybe we will be lucky and have a dry early bird sometime?
Distance 33 miles
Av speed 15.1 mph
Ascent 752m

Fri Night Ride- 9 November

Simon G, Malcolm And Paul B Ready To Set Off From The Lodge

Weather forecast said there was going to be heavy rain at 9:00 and as we gathered at the Fairlight lodge there were already a few spots of rain, so we decided not to hang about that night. Good to see Paul Baxter out again, so far he has managed to keep the winter training going. All the usual suspects except Ivan were there. Paul seems to be obsessed with lighting the way, as not only did he have his top of the range exposure light he also had his old style top of the range gas bulb type front light as well. His lights were so bright we could have managed with no front lights of our own at all. On the way up to Broad Oak I hit a pothole which very nearly took me out, it jolted my elbow which was still sore the next day but surprisingly my xero front wheel stayed in true despite only having 16 spokes. There is another much worse pot hole right at the top of the broad oak junction which Jon kindly pointed out to myself and Paul (both I and Jon will report it to the council)
Simon set off down the hill but as Jon pushed off he discovered his chain had jammed. It took some assistance from Malcolm before we were able to set off in pursuit of Simon. The promised heavy rain failed to materialise and we finished with a relatively dry ascent of Stonestile

Early Bird 3 Nov- Wet Yet Again!

Doug Loves The Rain!

The weather forecast said some light rain so I had prepared a new wet weather route that avoided too many twisty lanes. The weather forecast turned out to be a bit optimistic as the rain turned out to be heavy rather than light so Metin and his friend Scott pulled out due to the rain. This meant there were only three starters: myself, Doug and Derek. By now we are used to riding in the pouring rain and were well prepared with the appropriate clothes. The route took us literally through Collington station with us having to cycle over the footbridge to get to the other side of the platform (I need to re map that bit). We headed north towards powdermill . For a while the rain stopped and the sun came out so myself and Derek took off our sweaty waterproofs only to have to put them on again when the rain started up in earnest 15 minutes later. As we hit the main road from battle Derek started to lag behind and in the end had to abandon the ride as he didn't feel too good. Doug and I carried on enjoying the quiet roads through Three Oaks and Panel lane into Winchelsea. Eventually only Battery Hill stood between us and the end of the ride. Doug really hates this hill and reckons it is worse than Stonestile or even Ditchling Beacon. I always find it really tough but must admit to having soft spot for the hill having climbed it hundreds of times over the last 20 years. With aching thighs we made it to the top thankful that neither of us would be racing up it on Sunday for the annual HSCC hill climb.
Distance- 31 miles
Av speed- 13.5 mph
Ascent-717m

Nov 2- Friday Night ride- Josef returns

Josef- First Friday Night ride This Season

Jon S With Moon behind

Good turnout for a Friday Broad Oak with seven riders at the Fairlight lodge, this included Josef who we haven't see for quite a while. Just as we were heading off down the hill the familiar figure of Paul B appeared, this made it a record equalling eight riders. We took it easy down Battery hill as the road was still wet from all the rain during the day. Weather was cold but there was little wind and there was plenty of moonlight to help see the road. Paul had a puncture halfway across the nature reserve, giving me time to take a picture of Jon with the moon behind him. The rest of the ride proceeded as normal with myself and Josef last to arrive at Broad Oak, Josef has done little cycling lately and has lost some fitness, hopefully he will become a regular again? On finishing the ride, myself, Ivan and Josef retired to the White heart for a well deserved couple of drinks. By the time we left the temperature had dropped right down to just above freezing and our teeth were chattering for the ride back down into Ore.

Halloween Chaingang no. 10, Malc makes it stick

Sixteen riders - on a fresh windy All Hallow's Eve.  Echelons formed  to battle a strong southwesterly wind. At the front the stronger lads made the pace, rest of us struggled to find some shelter and hang on. A group of seven led to the roundabout. On return leg Malc flew up Spooky Hill like a jet engined broomstick, Eastbourne Rover Stuart Davis  hopped onto his wheel and hung on until President Crabb's place. Half a dozen led chase with Nathan spinning a rapid cadence on fixed. Malc was justifiably pleased that his break succeded and he'd stayed away till Bexhill. I was dropped by the chasing group on Herbrand Walk but rejoined at the roadworks traffic lights, average speed 18mph.  Good to see Martyn and Jack our two newest juniors out, if Steve had been out with his camera we would have a picture here of the next Wiggo and Froome.
Nice BLOG report of the ESCA hill climb Peter, best wishes to Joe. It's probably my favourite open event of the year. I sent my apologies to Club Sec Chris Parker and the ESCA hill climb organisers on Saturday as a surfeit of illustration work has landed on my shoulders and I've been working weekends and evenings to meet several short deadlines. Here's one  I did recently for Cycle Sport's review of the year, see you at the club hill climb this Sunday, please sign on promptly at 9:00am inthe public car park nearest Fairlight church.