Hastings and St Leonards Cycling Club

The Handsling: Stuff Cyclists Say

2012-02-02T11:01:00.000Z

The Handsling: Sh*t Cyclists Say: This has been doing the rounds on Twitter and various websites. How many of these things have you said or heard others say everyday? Americans maybe more talkative than our typical Brit roadie but still plenty commonground here . . .

Ten below zero. Chaingang 1st Feb

2012-02-01T23:47:00.001Z

The water in my dogs dish was a solid block of ice outside the back door at seven o' clock tonight, but the roads looked nice and dry so on with the winter gear and down the hill to see if the gang were out. Cursed and prayed safely across a slushy bit of water run off from a leaky drain coming down the steep bit of Castle Hill Road. Other than that roads were dry, if a little crunchy - with salt. I find starting off from a warm house and pedalling briskly keeps one warm enough - of course wearing suitable gear, winter socks, hats, overshoes, gloves and three layers on top.

Ten riders out tonight - Charlie Bell's caused a stir turning up in his usual shorts, no gloves or overshoes - but that's a rugby player for you, all weather tough. Good to see Paul Baxter out once more also. Anthony discovered he'd broken a cleat from a crash last week but rode anyway. Eastbourne John was first man to the roundabout, with a strong ride, soloing from the railway crossing. I could bluff you that my fixed iron was undergeared for a tailwind and after spinning at 120rpm for a couple of miles it was a sweet & merciful relief to let him go when he got out of the saddle and attacked over the railway crossing, but John explained it was in fact his wife's pasta that made him so swift. So please can we all have some of your pasta next week Mrs John, molto grazie!

Next home was Charlie, then Simon N, then Simon G, and soon everyone was there except Paul B, lagging somewhat but he'll soon be on pace if we know him of old. Turning for home we felt the savage bite of the North Easterly wind, howling across the North Sea from deep in the Russian Steppes or something. Temp at nine o clock was minus one ! Will we get out on our bikes next week? Will it be turbos - or jogging thru' the slush?

27 January - The 'ghost' of riders past!

2012-01-28T08:23:00.004Z

A record equalling turnout for the Friday chaingang with eight riders. Also there was Paul Baxter who hadn't turned up for a ride but had tuned up for a chat and to see what was going on. When asked why he hasn't ridden since the summer he admitted it was pure laziness. he claims he will be at the Wednesday chaingang, but we will see? Jon was there as well on his first Friday chaingang. On the way down battery hill there was a large hissing sound as Jon suffered a large blowout having hit a pothole. As myself, Jon and Anthony were at the back the others were unaware of this. Having fixed the puncture we caught back up with them at Rye harbour. Despite living at Westfield Jon was determined to do the ascent of stonestile but unfortunately his new light started flashing a low power warning so he had to save his first ascent for another day. Another impressive effort from Derek who pulled out all the stops to get past myself and Anthony on stonestile

S.C

And then we sever. Chaingang 25th jan

2012-01-27T13:53:00.001Z

"When I heard the sound of sixteen pairs of SPDs clipping in, that's when I knew. It was going to be fast"
Welcome new rider Gavin - sorry I should have mentioned clip-in shoes and racing kit is the norm, well done for going so well wearing jeans & trainers, not to mention bulky anorak and rucksack. Gavin enjoyed the ride nevertheless and promised to be back next week with some sportier kit. With the running training he's doing I'm sure he'll be on the pace, no probs. Jay Miles is down to his racing weight already - himself and Gavin are training for Hastings half marathon, any more runners in the pack?

Incidentally this might be a good time to point out to riders new to riding in a bunch that our Wednesday Chaingang is very different to a traditional Club run. A Club run - which we do at weekends - everyone generally keeps together in a tight bunch and don't try to break away or attack, except perhaps at agreed points like an important climb or a "30" sign approaching home and regrouping soon afterwards.

Some good tips on group riding here:

http://www.westlothianclarion.co.uk/westlothianclara.html

http://www.westlothianclarion.co.uk/westlothianclarb.html

http://www.westlothianclarion.co.uk/technique.html

Our chaingang is Devil tak' the hindmost, more or less, but two or more riders working well together can beat a soloist, unless it's Pete . . .

A Southerly wind against us on way out. Pete T. and Ivan led the way out at 21mph, until Pete attacked and broke away at South Cliff. Ivan and I chased - at times we appeared to be closing on Pete's blinking red taillight, then suddenly it danced round a bend and out of sight like some deceptive Will o' the Wisp - mocking our efforts fly thru' air like treacle. Swavek, then Simon N then Malc rolled up having bravely battled the fierce wind alone to stay clear of the bunch.

Pete led us back, winding the pace up higher and higher along Cooden Drive until the elastic was well and truly severed. Not a lot we can do about that - unless Charlie Bell can be persuaded to motorpace us on his custom Derny one week - only joking.

Early bird 21 Jan- Jon returns, Dan takes a tumble

2012-01-22T12:07:00.003Z

Good to see Jon back out again, he hasn't be able to ride with us since before Xmas so I was expecting Jon to be struggling at the back but in fact it was Jon together with Doug who were leading at the front with myself and Derek further back (with Duncan somewhere in the middle). We repeated the route that Pete mapped out for Xmas, although I modified the final 10 miles to cut out the main road back to Bexhill, although stupidly I forgot to put into the route the loop around Brightling so we ended up sticking on the mainroad to Woods' Corner. During the ride I was really looking forward to the long steady descent from Wood's corner to Ashburnam and was not disappointed with fast riding on a minor road with a good quality surface (much more fun than it was before in the dark)

Distance 40.3 miles Av Speed 15.3 mph

PS- Dan harwood sent me a text to ask what route we were going as he didn't know the meeting point and intended to meet us on route, near Winchelsea. Unfortunately, just like Colin a few years back, the curse of Chick Hill struck again and Dan ended up crashing into the fence at the bottom. Pete took him to A and E for a check up. Luckily Dan escaped with just bruising but his road bike is a right off with broken forks, cranks and chainset. Dan intends to use this as excuse to buy a brand new one on the ride to work scheme.

Great Chieftains of the Pudding Race - Chaingang wed 18 january

2012-01-18T22:46:00.011Z

15 riders - good turnout for an otherwise unpromisingly dreich and misty night. Local ace Pete Tadros and Shaun Reed, the only rider from west of Pevensey set the pace, with Simon N. Paul and myself hanging on grimly like the witches chasing Tam O' Shanter's mare. The tail tore off painfully at South Cliff as two riders were shed. I clung on a bit longer, came to the front at the level crossing , but was spent by the Star Inn. Just after crossing the bridge Pete attacked like a pro, Shaun shouted "inside" meaning Shaun was chasing thru' on my inside in lee of the wind. Addle headed I thought he meant me to move to the inside accidentally boxing him in so Pete escaped over Spooky Hill into a westerly headwind like Auld Clootie hisself. Curses, thats what happens when we give him a rest!

Going home with the wind at our backs, fixed Pete undergeared now, & everyone spinning briskly and keeping more together. Had a wee dig at Cooden hotel, Stuart Crabbe was out supporting at the hotspot. Charlie Bell's Bikes had a dig up the South Cliff, whereupon Tadros countered, really trying and quickly opened up a gap, as he kindly pointed out later I only caught him up as he was undergeared and yes it took quite a long time to reach him and yes I was giving it everything. Needless to say on bridging I tucked in behind until he tired then showed him the old Malcolm Elliott at the last yard.

We stopped at Bexhill to regroup, Pete says he trains 10 hours a week, something like 200 miles - from his daily commute, our chaingang and a weekend ride - thats what it takes to win races! All I know is my sore legs would be glad of a rest after this "burns" night - (groan!) After our rest stop Malc and Pete zipped off over Galley Hill and we never caught them.

Steve Curtis says " I intend to do an early bird ride on sat 21 jan. This will be a modified version of the xmas ride that pete took us on. Distance is 40 miles with quite a lot of climbing
Meet opposite Hillcrest school, Rye road at 8:00am sharp, if forecast is dry"

Early Bird Ride- Beachy head Sun 15 June

2012-01-15T16:04:00.003Z

Great turn out today for a Sunday early bird ride. The weather forecasters had warned of frost so we had decided a few days before that we would play it safe and do 'Beachy'. As it turned out temperatures were well above freezing and there was no sign of an frost so we could have done an inland route after all. Good to see Mike, Matt, Simon G and Alex out with us again, I guess they were tempted as the Beachy run is one of their standard routes. Also good to see Josef making an appearance (we havent seen much of him this season) as well as Simon N on his first ever early bird ride. Just as we were about to leave I had a phone call from Malcolm, he had just woken up and told us he would try to meet us on route somewhere, I was sceptical that we would be able to meet up with him. We were also pleased to meet Edwin who had decided to give an early bird ride a go, he was a bit worried as he had only ridden with Chris P before on a bacon butty ride. We set off at quite a brisk pace with a tail wind behind us, Edwin and Josef were struggling a bit and we waited for them near Norman's bay. They again got dropped somewhere after Pevensey. I waited for them and josef soon caught me up but there was no sign of Edwin, I guess he must have abandoned (lets hope this doesn't put him off!) The climb up Beachy was great with a nice tail wind and wall to wall sunshine, while the decent down to Eastdean was even better with riders moving at 40 mph at some points. Simon G had to pedal like mad on his fixed wheeel to keep in contact with us. With the wind behind us the nasty little climb up from Eastdean was much easier than normal but we had a bus hovering behind our posteriors for most of the ascent which is a bit intimidating. Matt, Alex, Mike and Simon G split off from us at Polegate while the rest of us took the scenic route back. Now the wind was at our faces and it was a long grovel back to Hastings. Much to my surprise Malcolm managed to find us (his wrist is much better now) on the way back but at some point we lost Anthony (not used to longish rides?). A great ride in the sunshine with a good turn of speed.

Distance 45.2 miles Av speed 16 mph

Derek gets new legs - Fri 13 jan

2012-01-13T22:02:00.003Z

Bit of a shock to the system on tonight's Friday chain-gang with temperatures hovering just above zero. Anthony had arrived too early and had to wait 15 minutes for the rest of us to arrive so he was pretty 'chilled out' by the time we arrived. Good to see Anthony and Joe out again following their inaugural ride last week. Apart from cold feet it wasn't too bad once we got moving as there was no wind chill to speak of. Derek had his best friday chain gang ever and left myself and Steve Denny well behind on the long drag up to Broadoak. We decided to give Stonestile a miss just in case there was any ice forming, so we took the main-road through Westfield, we all found it much easier than stonestile. Derek again managed to thoroughly drop myself and Steve on the long climb up westfield lane, is Derek on EPO?

S.C

Escape from the Chaingang Weds Jan 11th

2012-01-11T22:48:00.012Z

Do you ever worry about the big questions in life? Things like why are we here, is the world going to end soon, and closer to home - is the sort of cycling I do good or bad for my heart, that kind of thing?
To get some answers I had a go at taking my resting pulse in bed this morning - without proper instruments I can't claim any accuracy - 40 or 47 bpm, give or take 10 or 20. Anyway the interesting thing was it seemed possible to slow it down quite a bit by breathing more deeply and slowly which was quite reassuring in a way. Either that or I carelessly missed some beats. I'm sure now about one thing at least - relaxing in bed doesn't strain the heart overly much.

Great turn out of 21 riders and the return of lots of our regulars. Lashings of Christmas pud doesn't seem to have put a dent in most of you, why!? I've gained 5 pounds! Stored carbs - like a camel.
Speed out was more than 21mph, Pete Tadros, Ivan and Matt doing most of the work with John and Shaun escaping up South Cliff, but somehow we dragged them back. John escaped again at Cooden Beach, the second time I nearly buried myself trying to catch him, and actually eased up half way across, lucky for us he'd slowed up a bit too. Of course by then our chasing group was up to speed and rolled on and past and over, like a humungous juggernaut being carried by a relentless juggernaut transporter.

Just before the halfway stop I thought Ivan had opened a good gap so I tried to help but ran out of gas quickly, everyone was itching to go, in the end John then Swavek prevailed lapping the roundabout in honour, 3rd time lucky, good game! And a 21.5 mph average, not bad at all against a westerly wind.

On the way back we averaged 24 and something mph, I think in three groups that all finished pretty close together, good effort. Spotted two traffic cops on motorbikes and a panda car, so it's a good thing that we never ever jump red lights. Everyone rode home sensibly and we'll see you next week friends, take care of yourselves, cheers!

Early Bird report 7 Jan- Broadoak in reverse

2012-01-07T16:55:00.004Z

Fantastic weather for this morning's early bird ride. Solid turnout with 7 riders including the welcome return of Doug who we haven't seen for quite a while. Steve Denny turned up last with tyres that were almost flat, this wasn't due to punctures but simply that he hadn't pumped them up for so long having been doing mainly off road recently. Once Steve had pumped up the tyres we proceeded up Harley Chute on our 30 mile route. Steve kept getting dropped but when he finally caught up with us at Catsfield we found out why, his tyres were still soft. Once we had put a decent pressure of air into them we proceeded up to battle, watlington and broadoak. Riding down the long road from Broadoak towards Rye instead of grovelling up it was great, it felt like we were getting our revenge back on the hill. From Winchelsea we had quite a long stretch on the road before turning off for Three oaks at Guesting. Derek was suffering a bit by now having down both chaingangs this week, and peeled off on his own hoping to find an easier way home. I am not sure that this was a good idea as I reckon Rocks lane is the easiest way back , LOL. We finished the ride off with a large 'Witherspoons' breakfast (bargain at £4)

Distance 30.5 miles Av speed 14.9mph

Joe and Anthony Join the Friday Chaingang- 6 Jan

2012-01-07T16:45:00.003Z

Good turnout for a Friday chaingang, including for the first time Joe and Anthony. Weather was very different to that suffered by Wednesday's chaingang with light winds. Good to see that Anthony has taken our advice and ditched the cross tyres, he said it made riding a lot easier. We were a little worried about how Anthony would see his way way round the route as he only had a small commuter light and the batteries were going flat but somehow he made it. Joe was going really well and on the long drag up to Broadoak he was up front with simon G, Paul and Ivan. Anthony also did well on the long drag where despite my best efforts I couldn't shake him off and we arrived at the top together. Anthony and Joe both enjoyed the ride so hopefully they will become Friday regulars?

S.C

Happy New Chaingang January 4th

2012-01-04T22:53:00.011Z

"27 and we're not even pedalling!" Anthony (not Adrian as we were calling him earlier) on his new slicks shouted as we strung out in a line approaching Stuart's house. I think we might even have touched 30 later on judging by the traffic going backwards. So a good night out indeed for nearly a dozen of us surfing the 37mph West South Westerly wind to Hastings. Great to see old friends / new faces Jon Moulton, Charlie from Bell's bikes testing his new old Ambrosio, as well as our hardy regulars - Happy New Year everyone, see you next week : )

Oh, the ride-out? Wasn't such fun - bunch was soon divided by 37 mph headwind which nearly blocked me to a dead halt several times on my overgeared fixed. But I wasn't the only one suffering - Anthony also mulled over leaning his bike against a tree and quitting cycling forever! Popular fantasy that. Nice of the front group - Shaun R, Simon Newell, John and Swavek, to wait for everyone at Cooden. Feeling my post Christmas legs of chocolate I got dropped twice. Wobbled last miles to Pevensey on my own, until I was caught by the Jon Moulton, Simon Grogan and Joe Jenner train. Riding solo into that wind was pretty grim, might have been the toughest chaingang ever, yet probably worth the ride back home with a free moped engine. But hey, we were lucky, no hailstones. And the proper miserable rain obeyed the BBC for once and waited till after 9pm to plop.

Heard some interesting rumours about our local bike shops and maybe a new pub, fingers crossed that all goes well. Does anyone read Cycling Active magazine? I do drawings for it every month and sometimes Cycling Weekly as well, been waiting for right time to use this winter club run image so here it is.

Hack Bike Ride- December 29

2011-12-30T10:14:00.000Z

Yesterday was our second hack bike ride of the season. Pete had planned a hilly ride going us far as the 'Three Cups Inn' before looping back via the hard riders route.The weather forecast was a bit dodgy with showers forecast and heavy rain later. Despite this there was a good turnout (see photo) including Dave HH on his first ever hack bike ride. We were disappointed not to see Malcolm but need not have worried as he caught up with us at Winchelsea. At Winchelsea we headed up 'Dumb woman's lane' which took us onto the road up to Broadoak (well known from the friday chaingang) .From here we headed up towards Watlington. At this point it was raining quite hard and there was another 15 minutes before our first pub stop at battle.We decided to have an extra pub stop at the 'White heart' pub at Cribb's Corner'. This was a good call as by the time we came out the skies had cleared and we proceeded to our pre arranged pub at battle with no rain. At this point Colin announced that he had had enough of the cold and didn't like having a wet bum.Despite our protests he refused to budge from the pub and said he would meet us later. We proceeded up the long climb of Netherfield hill. At the crest of the hill it started raining quite heavily and the sky was completely grey with rain clouds. I was all for cutting the ride short but was (thankfully) outvoted by the others who wanted to press on to the the 'Three Cups'. Fortunately the rain did reduce soewhat. It was starting to get dark by the time we reached 'The Swan' pub at Woods corner.Pete had forgotten that this pub existed and had never been in there before, so we decided to abandon the last bit of the ride to the 'Three Cups' and make this our furthest point. This was a great pub and we all get rather too settled there. By the time we left it was pitch black and with no moonlight I was finding it difficult to see in the dark and with the wet roads the long (mainly downhill) road to 'The North Trade Road' was pretty scary.To make matters worse my chain came off and got tangled around the chainring, much to my suprise I managed to untangle it before proceeding gingerly down the route with Derek beside me who was also struggling to see in the dark due to his light. Eventually we met up with the others. All that was left was the big climb up 'standard hill' , this proved to be extremely easy as we had a strong tail wind behind us. After one last pub stop at a friendly pub in Ninfield we headed straight down to the 'bay spice' where we met up with the freshly showered Colin for a well deserved curry.thanks to Pete for organising the day and all those who came along S.C

Early Bird - Reverse Beachy 27/Dec

2011-12-27T19:24:00.003Z

Great to have Matt, Mike and Alex joining us on this morning's early bird ride,this pushed our number up to 11 which I think is a record for an early bird. The weather was incredibly mild for the time of year, long may it continue.The ride proceeded without incident and we got back to Hastings in plenty of time for a witherspoon breakfast.
S.C

Xmas Day Ride 2011

2011-12-25T12:39:00.003Z

Myself, Ivan, Paul and Duncan just had to get out on Xmas day morning to avoid a dose of cabin fever.Riding at this time is great because the roads are almost deserted, it reminds me of that film 'I am legend'. After a short 25 mile route over rye, Winchelsea Icklesham area we were well up for a Xmas drink or at least a coffee. Unfortunately none of the pubs were open and we could find a cafe serving either. We expected the rail station to be open (it has a vending machine) but even that was closed, sob!
Distance 25.4 miles Av speed 14.7 mph

Chaingang Weds 21- Welcome to Anthony

2011-12-22T08:45:00.004Z

A warm welcome to Athony who joined us for the first time on the chaingang having got in contact with us through the blog. Adrian was riding a brand new Pinnacle cross bike with disc brakes. It also had some cross tyres,we old timers 'tut tutted' at this as we knew it would slow the bike down.Apart from John none of the Eastbourne contingent were present so it was a bit like the old days, despite this there were still twelve of us including a guest appearance from Pete Tadros. On the way out the group split into a fast group (Simon N, Simon G, Ivan, Pete, john) and a slow group (me, Adrian, Tim, Jay) with Joe and Duncan in no man's land.As the other day on the Friday chaingang I felt stronger than normal and did much of the work leading out the slow group (it turned out to be my best average time of the year at 19.0 mph), so by the time we had reached Pevensey we had managed to reign back in Joe and Duncan. Also going strongly was Ivan, Pete was paying the price for all the junk food he has eaten lately and had to bury himself twice in order to beat Ivan on the way out. Adrian did brilliantly despite the cross bike tyres and was only a little slower than myself, with proper road tyres he will be one of the front riders before too long, he really enjoyed it so I think we have another regular there.
S.C

Fri Chaingang 16 Dec

2011-12-20T22:34:00.002Z

Just three of us on the Friday chaingang- myself, Simon G and Derek. Excellent conditions with a low temperature but almost no wind. I felt stronger than usual having had a nice easy sit down day at work. Stonestile lane never felt so easy!
S.C

Riders on the Storm - Chaingang Dec 14

2011-12-14T23:38:00.011Z

At what point is it wise to abandon a ride - drizzle, heavy rain, hail, snow? Well, so long as we're out here, might as well continue a bit further and see if gets better, or worse . . .

On leaving home tonight rain began spotting the pavement, by the end of the street it was getting heavy, but I was determined to ride - so I turned back and grabbed a rain jacket, extra layer and a woolly hat to cover my ears. I reached the meeting place late, and no one was there. What the heck, I'll roll on a bit further and maybe see if anyone else is out or if I'm the only one taking a gamble on it clearing up. With the extra layer I soon began feeling a bit too warm, better than too cold as sheet lightning flashed in the storm clouds, and a 20mph gale blasted icy drizzle into my face. No tail-lamps could be seen on horizon, come this far, might as well continue. After seven miles or so the misty drizzle suddenly turned to handfuls of nails flung in the face - a hailstorm, eighth of an inch ball bearings of ice drifting on the ground like snow! I jumped off the bike turning my back on the flying hailstones to try and find shelter, it lasted about a minute then I set off again, reasoning if I turned back now then I'd be riding inside the storm all the way home, might as well go a bit further and see what happens next. Leaving Bexhill my spirits lifted and I hummed what else but "break on thru' to the other side" of course, as patches of clear sky appeared and the wind dropped.

Along Herbrand Walk the road was all but covered in pebbles washed off the beach, bar two narrow tyre tracks. The Star Inn looked deserted. A night train passed, showers of yellow sparks flew from its wheels and more sheet lightning flashed out over the Downs in the west . If I get struck by lightning out here on the flat marshes - will my thin rubber tyres save me? Halfway between Spooky Hill and Pevensey I saw some likely bike lamps approaching. Was pleased to turn round and catch up with Simon Grogan, Joe Jenner and Simon Newell. They told me John & Swavek had rode out with them as well then continued on home towards Eastbourne. The five of them had kept going right into the teeth of the hailstorm without stopping , proper hard riders!

A good run back to Hastings assisted by a tailwind, waved hello to Stuart Crabbe as we passed and finally Simon N and Joe had some jump left at Bexhill. Felt great to steal a ride on a stormy night, feet were cold by the end despite warm socks and winter overshoes

Lots of Police cars out patrolling and doing spot checks what with works do's and whatnot, even saw a silver unmarked Audi A4 patrol car pull a foolish red light jumper by the Carlisle, was a big 3 litre with flash boy racer alloys. Ride safe.

Club Ride 11 Dec- Gone With The Wind

2011-12-11T17:04:00.004Z

Just five of us braved the damp start to the club ride (me, Chris P, Ivan, Joe and Malc). It was quite windy so we were not sure whether to do our planned 60 mile marsh road or to do a more inland route. in the end we decided to do the marsh as we were a bit worried about the slippery conditions on the road. After descending gingerly down chick hill ( Ivan on his fixed) we had a nice tail wind blowing us along the road to Appledore (over 20 mph without really trying). Conditions were not great with a cold wind and damp legs from the road spray so we decided to keep things simple and just ride to Tenterden and back rather than the do the planned loop over the marsh. Chris is still recovering from his torn calf muscle but managed to keep with us until Tenterden , at this point his leg started playing up so he decided to twiddle back on his own. The rest of us headed for home via the 'Heidi' route. We were now heading into a headwind but as we were away from the coast it didn't seem too bad. It was when we got to Rye that the headwind really hit us and its speed had picked up by then. For the next 8 miles it was head down as myself, Joe and Malc struggled into the wind at about 11 mph. Ivan didn't seem to be so badly effected and despite slowing down for us a few times he soon disappeared into the distance. Actually climbing up battery hill was a relief as we were out of the cold wind.

Distance- 48 miles Av speed-15.9 mph

S.C

Fri Chaingang Dec 9- True Grit

2011-12-10T11:19:00.002Z

Our first sighting of a gritter lorry which spread grit all down battery hill just before we set off for the descent. Malcolm was worried about his tyres as last time this happened the grit cut both his front and rear tyres, so we descended very gingerly down the hill. Fortunately the temperature stayed just above freezing and without much wind it didn't feel as cold as it really was. Just five of us braved the cold (me, Ivan, Malc, Derek and Simon). This week we were all well aware where the large pothole was on the road up to Broadoak (disappointing to see the council have not fixed it despite me reporting it last week), all of us successfully navigated around it. Derek fell off (no harm done) on the climb up stonestile lane when his back wheel skidded, guess those duraskins are no good in the damp!

Stars and Cars and Trains - Chaingang 8th Dec

2011-12-08T15:37:00.007Z

About 14 riders, nice to see Tim Miles and his immaculately tuned road bike. Simon's ribs are still hurting a bit from last week. Bunch broke into 2 groups over Galley Hill, Ivan did the most work on the way out into the wind with Simon N, John, Shaun, Malc and I taking a spell too.
Bit of a sticky moment meeting a car on the narrow bridge at the Star Inn. Please try and remember to shout "Car up!" if your at the front and try not to brake hard until following riders have been warned to avoid a pile up, not always easy to do when gut reaction is to instantly brake but this time it was OK. Malc locked up his back wheel and did well to control a skid.
In the chute up to the roundabout I followed Shaun's wheel, had a dig, then John & Swavek came round with explosive efforts, strong lads!

The western contingent all headed back towards Eastbourne, so it was just like old times with a smaller bunch heading back to Hastings. Sky was clear as a bell with stars out and we could feel the promise of future ice lurking as we roll on into the depths of winter. Dave picked up the pace over Spooky Hill and led the bunch going strong in his bones top & nifty Ti bike. We stopped at the level crossing to let a fast rattler pass and later on Ivan, Malc, Simon N and I got our own little fixed gear train rolling sweetly.

As winter rollers around again

2011-12-08T15:24:00.002Z

I'm hoping the Rollapaluza indoor racing series stops near us again next year, last January the Tri-Store hosted one in Eastbourne - lots of familiar names and faces in the photos here:
http://www.rollapaluza.com/eastbourne-national-series-qualifier/

Big Westerly Chaingang Nov 30th

2011-12-05T23:19:00.006Z

Round 1:

About 20 riders battled into a big Westerly* wind,

Simon of Phoenix Cycles went down hard on the corner of Cafe on the Beach, striking a pedal on the footer of a temporary fence support - watch out for these lying in the path by the tunnel. Simon picked himself up and continued, hope it was nothing worse than some bruised ribs!

About six of us took turns plugging into the wind, dragging the bunch thru' Bexhill, by the next climb the front group was down to eight, where Shaun & John opened a gap.

From back of bunch where I'd had a short rest I could see gap was up to 50 yards or so, with hindsight I should have wound it up a bit more gently and tried to take all six of us across but as it happened I dug in afraid of losing touch and bridged quicker than expected, but unfortunately nobody came with me. Sat in until the level crossing and then did share of spells to the end. John slid back climbing Spooky hill, but manned up and got back on . Shaun declared he was taking it easy for the home stretch so John & I punched for the roundabout.

Round 2.

Shaun packed and turned back for home at top of Spooky hill, saving himself a longer ride home into that fierce wind.
Ivan the TT engine rode from the front to take Chairman Stuart's Checkerboard, I did a spell, then John made a move on the next hill and opened a gap, which Ivan then took us across for a little wind-up before the rest stop, where we all had a good natter for some minutes.

Malc stealthily broke away over Galley Hill and kept us in the distance all the way to Bridge café. We chased hard as we could but didn't quite catch him in time. Malc confessed to some blue-rinse drafting, but he was so far ahead at the good spot for joining the flow that we never saw him "taking pace" at all.

*A westerly wind means that the atmosphere is moving faster than the Earth spins. wiki-answers

Friday Chaingang Dec2- Derek Conquers Stonestile

2011-12-03T06:36:00.002Z

An eventful night for the Friday chaingang. Conditions were quite cold but dry as we set off from the fairlight lodge. On the long drag from Rye myself and Derek had been dropped by the others. About half way up I suddenly saw Paul pulled over at the side of the road. As I looked up to see what was going on I rode straight into a large pothole . Somehow i managed to stay on but the tube in my front wheel suffered a major blow out. It turned out that I was the second victim of this pothole as Malcolm had hit it the previous week. Having fixed the punctures we carried on and eventually caught up with the others at the front. By this time it had started raining so we considered mainroading up to the ridge instead of ascending Stonestile. Fortunately the rain eased off and we were able to do Stonestile. Derek was on his brand new Corratec ultegra equipped bike and found the ascent of Stonestile easier than the previous week when he conquered it for the very first time. By this time it was raining again but as we were going to the pub we didn't mind. Paul had yet another puncture on the way to the pub and so we had to use up our last inner tube . After 3 pints in the pub we emerged to find that the rain had got worse and get soaked through as we had to cycle back to Hastings into a strong headwind. Moral of this story is always carry 2 spare inner tubes rather than one and report potholes to

http://194.238.70.74/faultreport/faultlocation.aspx?TypeId=0014002

S.C

Eastbourne GP Cat 3 road race May 22nd 2011

2011-11-29T15:20:00.007Z

Just found this fun youtube clip from Handsling's Cam of the Eastbourne road race I did back in May with Pete Hooper (Fuga) and Dan Henchy (PB Science) I'm number 26 in the red Hastings jersey. You can see us all smiling on the start line, and several times later on - not so smiley! We raced 10 laps of the seafront with a sharp little climb each lap and then 2 laps of Beachy Head. I stayed near the front till the top of the big climb out of town where I watched the lead group open a gap into a really nasty headwind then hung onto the chasing group till I dropped my chain downshifting for Beachy. Did the others stop and wait for me to get the chain back on - sporting fashion? No, they're off like Contador! Mighty Mike Coyle of the Mitre won - here's a proper race report from the sharp end . . . since fitted a chain catcher.

Club Ride To Newhaven

2011-11-27T17:51:00.003Z

Today was an unusual club ride as our mission was to get to Newhaven to buy tickets for the French trip next year. Chris P was there at the start to see us off, his calf is not yet up to a hard ride, although he did manage to do a 'bacon butty ride' the day before. With us on his first club ride was Jon Stainsby. Dave HH was due to meet us on route somewhere. We main roaded all the way to Newhaven via battle, Hailsham , Hi and Over and Seaford. At first the weather was grim with grey skies, light rain and a head wind. Fortunately the rain cleared and the sun slowly came out. We didn't mind the head wind as we knew we would have a fast return along the coast. I kept wondering where we would see Dave HH on route. On arrival at the ferry check in, as if by magic there was both Chris P and Dave HH (Dave had a cold and had decided to drive there). After buying our tickets for an incredibly cheap price of just £35 we headed back along the coast. This was fantastic as we had a strong tail wind all the way back home, Beachy Head had never been so easy. We stopped for fuel at a cafe in Pevensey bay. This used to be called 'The Sandwich Inn' but is now called the 'Bay Diner'. they have tarted the old cafe up a bit , it seems to be under new management but the food and prices were just a good as ever.

Total distance 60 miles

Average speed 15.3 mph

New Blood - Chaingang 23rd Nov

2011-11-24T12:43:00.012Z

19 riders & good to see Chris Parker back out on the bike recovering from his running injury. This week we were proud to be honoured with some new blood in the shape of Todd and Josh, one rides for a team in Flanders and the other is a top triathlete. Welcome and hope to see you again next week lads. In fact Matt warned me we were going to get **** ****d and as we rolled out to Galley Hill the excuses began to drop thick and fast - "Actually -I've got a really bad cold", "I missed last week", "I've got a broken leg", "me too" and the rest.

We got a little chain going at the front, then Matt broke away at Bexhill with Todd in his wheel. I was unwilling to drag a strong bunch up to another Hastings jersey, so I marked Josh ready to follow a move. Malc had a go at closing the gap, then I tried to bridge alone but couldn't shake the others, sorry Matt! By the Star Inn we'd regrouped. Todd made a big dig up Spooky Hill, others countered but no-one was strong enough to stay clear for long. Matt kindly offered to lead me out to the roundabout where out of the pack came Eastbourne John with a strong late finish.

Wayback was swift again with Ivan and Malc doing lots of work on the front, Simon Grogan and Simon Newell going well too, I had a stealthy wee dig for the checkerboard outside chairman Stuart's house. Matt came through to open a good gap for a while, but I was too tired to help him so it came down to a bunch finish at the 30 sign. Matt opened a large gap again on way home, big thanks to Malc and Ivan for sharing work to bring him and his immaculately clean bike back.

Any more ideas or votes for the club social/ prizegiving in February? Stephen from Eat@the Stade has offered us same sort of deal as last year in his new venue, also Nick at St. Clements next to Horse & Groom, St. Leonard's has offered us the whole room and a 2 or 3 course menu.

Friday chaingang as usual, Fairlight Lodge 7.30
Text Chris Parker for the Saturday morning bacon butty ride.
Sunday run Harrow, 9.30

Early Bird ride 19 Nov- Puncture Pandemonium

2011-11-19T14:58:00.003Z

Fantastic weather for our early bird ride this morning. We were following an extended version of the 'Hard Riders TT course'. At Rushlake Green Paul suddenly lost control of his steering, his stem had come loose . Fortunately we were going up hill at the time (a few minutes before we had been moving at speed down hill). After sending for the Calvary (Malcolm) were were on our way again. Mike had our first puncture on the long narrow road across the marshes towards Chile farm. After fixing it we set out again only for Paul to have a puncture one minute later. We duly fixed Paul's puncture as well but just four minutes later Paul lost control going round a bend and came off. luckily he landed on a muddy verge and no harm was done to man or machine. It turned out the reason he came off was that he had had another puncture due to a piece of embedded flint. On closer inspection we could see his tyres were knackered and new rubber was called for (I would recommend Continetal four seasons). After fixing this last puncture we proceeded without incident to the excellent Chile Farm. It was nice and sunny by then and felt more like late September rather than November. The rest of the ride proceeded without incident. We had a chat to three cyclists on the cycle path back to Hastings and told them about the blog; new recruits?

Distance 39 miles

Av speed 15.2 mph

S.C

Friday Chaingang 18 Nov

2011-11-18T23:33:00.003Z

A great night for the Friday chaingang. All the old regulars were there apart from Simon G. Paul lost part of his rear light down battery hill when he hit a bump, which is a shame as it was an expensive one. Derek continues to get stronger following his knee op and intends to climb 'stonestile lane ' next week. Steve D was on his new raleigh, I had a go and it seems really comfortable (bargain for £550 ).Unbelievably dry for this time of year- apparently we are on target for the driest Autumn ever recorded! So different to last year !!

Distance 22.5 miles

Av speed 16.7 mph

S.C

Chaingang 16 November

2011-11-18T05:25:00.003Z

It felt like a proper November evening for once with temperatures around normal for the time of year . A lot of the regulars (Chris W, Ivan, Max, Matt, Chris P, jay etc) were absent but with most of the Eastbourne crew there, numbers were still qite high at 19 . Someone warned us that there would be a lot of congestion around the Glyn gap area due to the arrival at Ravenside of the famous coca-cola truck from the adverts, so we took it easy and stayed together as one group to galley hill before everyone went at their own pace . Steve Denny was on his new Raleigh Airlite 105 which he bought brand new for just £550 pounds. He definately seemed to be going faster than normal as this was the first time ever that he beat me on the way out to Pevensey. On the way back some of the riders decided to check out the free cokes that were being given out from the coca-cola truck. They came back very unimpressed, complaining of queues and half size coke tins. Good to see Dan (the legend) Harwood was there, he has become one of the regulars again!

Brighton Hack Bike Ride Nov 2011

2011-11-13T06:51:00.001Z

Our best ever turnout for a Hack bike ride (see photo).This included four hack bike newbies: Ben Corbishley, Steve Standen, Mike Crane and Steve Denny (finally riding clipless). Also joining us was Dan (the legend) Harwood who last came on a Hack bike ride about 5 years ago. We set off at 1:10 for our first stop at Loughton. The riding seemed easy as we had the wind behind us. After this was some fast very flat riding to Lewes where we decided to go down to pub in the centre of town by the river. It was exceptionally mild for the time of year (very different to conditions last year) so we were happy to drink outside. On the way to our next destination of the half-moon pub at Ditchling we were very lucky not to have a major pile up. Colin called out to turn left but some people (the two pints might have had something to do with it) didn’t hear, so there were some cyclists crossing left in front of others and to make it worse there was a van on the right. Miraculously we all made the turn (time seemed to slow down for a while). Ivan and Malcolm decided at this point that they wanted to ride back home rather than continue on to Brighton . The rest of us pressed on to the highlight of the route, the climb up Ditchling beacon. After Pete led us to the bottom it was every man for himself. Unfortunately on the way up it proved too much for Duncan’s chain and one of the links snapped. Ben was worried about the climb but needed have been as he rode it comfortably only a little behind me. Steve S also did very well and actually beat me up the climb despite his lack of training. Once Pete had managed to reconnect Duncan’s chain with a ‘missing link’ provided by Paul we proceeded to make the rapid decent down into Brighton. Myself and Colin were really looking forward to this decent but as so often happens on this hill, our glasses were completely misted up with the fog and all we could make out on the road were the central markings, so we had to take it easy. At Brighton we met up with Chris parker who had to come by train as he is still hobbling with his injured calf. This was followed by a very large curry and more beer before catching the train home. For some reason Pete decided it would be a good idea to buy a bottle of vodka for the train journey home. As most of us didn’t want any, this meant he got more and more drunk the closer we got to home. Thanks to all who came on the ride. We hope to organise a local one sometime between Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. See pictures on the slideshow.

S.C

Dave learns some roadcraft, Chaingang Nov 9th

2011-11-10T22:16:00.010Z

Simon and I were having a nice chat spinning along Bexhill seafront when some hooligan in a Fiat top and killer whale leggings jumps out and attacks, with big Mike, I mean big Shaun hot on his wheel.

I've done my turn on front - so I sit up and let them go. Three or four more flash by to give chase. Wait to see if anymore? No - OK - now its time to dig in hard as the gap is getting too big. Here we go again, busting a gut to get back on, survival of the suffering-est.

After Cooden Beach I was hanging onto just Matt and Shaun, in fact Matt lost ground at Herbrand Walk and had to chase hard to get back on. They were strong, I felt like I was going to blow up but somehow hung on. Finally Shaun went clear, just rode away from us, then stopped to wait at the Star pub. Mercy? No, a dim headlight and " I get bored riding on my own, I like to be sociable" Maybe mercy then, or a cat toying with an injured mouse before the inevitable kill.

Matt did the rest of the hard work till the end, where Shaun feigned a jump to get 2nd wheel, then actually went, I jumped after and hung on some more until he tired, then came round in the last yard, feeling cheap. "Poachers!" shouted Matt as he rolled up in third place. "Dave isn't it?" Shaun says to me. "No, Chris" I say. "You really should do some road" says Shaun.

Return leg - bunch left early while I was still chatting to Ivan and Malc who had a mechanical with his cleat, I excused myself swiftly and had to chase like a dog for 2 or 3 miles to get back on, just as the bunch reached Spooky Hill where a move often goes. No blood left in my brain by this point so rest is a blank until closing on Matt and Shaun again as we approach Bexhill.

Matt is doing the work again, Shaun sitting on 2nd wheel, and I'm hiding behind Barry, I mean Shaun. This time Barry slows a smidgeon, just gently eases me out the back, then stands up and crunches the pedals to sprint, later he'll generously explain that this is a bit of tactical roadcraft to use against an opponent, but at the moment I'm in such a zombie state I don't really notice, just follow the wheel, the wheel!

Shaun's gears slip on the second stroke and he bangs his knee hard on the frame, I'm thinking S***! last two times I did that I went right over the bars and my elbows and knees were well bloodied up. And I'm right on his wheel! But its OK this time - he keeps it going, then gets tired and then thats when I make my move and come round, after the efforts done, in the last yard, feeling . . . well, you get the picture,

don't you, Dave?

23 riders. Average speed out : 21.7mph with a bit of a tailwind.

Back: 21.5mph and for sure a headwind.

Through and off - youtube clip

2011-11-08T12:26:00.004Z

good little vid of a chaingang

Derek Joins The Friday Chaingang (Nov 4)

2011-11-06T16:30:00.002Z

Following on from completing his first early bird ride last week Derek decided to give the Friday chaingang a go. Despite having to take it easy following his knee op, Derek was only a little way behind me on the long drag up to Broadoak. He did decide that it would be prudent to avoid 'Stonestile lane' which he described as being 'evil' so we parted company soon after Broadoak. Hopefully Derek will now become another regular (he seemed to enjoy the ride). Also present were myself, Ivan, Simon G, Malcolm and Josef (first one of the season)

S.C

The Pevensey Pothole and Joe Goes. Chaingang November 2nd

2011-11-03T10:43:00.002Z

About a dozen riders on a wet and windy night, half of whom had already faced a strong headwind battling over from points west. A strong tailwind lifted us along with various digs going up the road but no breaks sticking. Lead group of 6 or so stayed together till last bend where we had a short "interval" session to the stop, I got a gap early and managed to hold it.

On return trip into that tough headwind, a combination of sheltering close to roadside from sidewind, with all eyes on lights from an oncoming car, caused three of us to ride into a nasty pothole, half a mile before the level crossing on the inside. Swavek came off and punctured both tyres (!) luckily no serious harm appeared to be done, just a sore wrist. Malc and Dan punctured their fronts as well. Once everyone was fixed up, it was getting late so the westerners turned back and seven of us continued to Bexhill. Joe Jenner launched a nicely judged uphill move going clear. Dan, Simon and I then bridged over to Joe, keeping it rolling and Joe delivered a textbook Cav finish, nice!

Chris Parker has torn a muscle playing hockey so any volunteers to lead the club run from Harrow, this Sunday at 9am?

Reverse Beachy- Early bird 29 Oct

2011-10-29T12:35:00.002+01:00

More excellent mild weather for today's early bird. Joining us for the first time on an 'early bird' was Derek who was worried about keeping up because he is recovering from key hole surgery on his knee. Also present was myself, Paul K, Duncan, Tony, Ade and Joe. After reaching Polegate via the sustans route its uphill past Jevington followed by Beachy Head (Tony left us at this point to view some used cars on Lottbridge Drive). Beachy head felt easier than normal as we had a little tail wind behind us. From this point it was fast flat riding all the way to 'Cafe on the beach' for bacon sandwiches. When we got there there were police officers and 'scenes of crime' officers cordoning off the beach. Apparently someone was viciously attacked there last night and it is possible they may die from their injuries, so this could turn into a murder enquiry.

Derek said he felt done in but did well to complete the ride so soon after his knee op. Hopefully we will see him out again on an early bird or club ride.

Distance 42 miles Average speed 16.7 mph

Western Moves. Chaingang 26th October

2011-10-27T09:03:00.004+01:00

23 riders, with 6 or 7 over from Eastbourne & Pevensey. Max and I had a nice chat on front - club run style until Bexhill, where Shaun launched the first attack of many. Small groups and lone riders broke away and reformed several times in a wild west scramble for Pevensey, John Eastbourne showing strong form. After Spooky Hill I was losing touch, and was grateful to Alex and Matt coming thru to close the gap. Finally a half dozen or so regrouped for a lineout to the roundabout.

Matt's first ride on fixed, grumbling about too low a gear, 46x17 or something - I recently changed mine up to 48x15 from 46x15 with a 17 on flip. Nevertheless we were all impressed by Matt's new flashing seatpost.

Swift ride back to Cooden where Matt went clear on the rise with Shaun & Shaun's mate chasing, I thought I was in for a free bus ride back up to Matt who'd now solved his gear problem - spinning off over the horizon, when my bus suddenly stopped and turned back West. Swavek came along in a minute and we had all but closed on Matt by the lights, Stuart from Eastbourne nipping thru to arrive first.

Battery Hill Time Trial Oct 23 2011

2011-10-25T08:11:00.008+01:00

Hello Folks

There was a great turn out sunday on Battery Hill. Thanks to all riders plus many supporters who turned up to encourage riders up the hill and have a good chat before and after the event.

I aim to write it up a bit and dig out the table of times from previous years ………

The table below may collapse on e-mailing but the attached document has the times.

Hill climbs are rounded up to the nearest tenth of a second (some provisional results have been rounded up) and for the paper I generally round up again to the nearest second which works for all placings except Joe's coming in just 0.1 seconds ahead of Malcolm Daly.

Thanks to all the Rye riders and Rye supporters, more people out makes it more fun.

I have not looked up the start sheet for next week's CTT National Hill climb in Derbyshire near Buxton but Pete Tadros is on it and will be all out to se if he can better the 7th place he took last year. We wish Pete another great ride and may be even the team gold for In Gear with Hutchinson riding????

Any photos to me and Steve Curtis please.

Seven of us had a lovely ride straight after - what a glorious weekend it was.

How about a good turn out for an autumn club run at 9.00am Sunday 30 October at the Harrow after an extra lie in with the clocks change ? Hope to see lots of you there.

At the bottom of the post is a video that Steve made of the event (the lyrics of the track fit rather well!)

Photos of the day can be obtained from the slide show on the right (thanks to Simon T, and Karin for additional photos)

C.P and S.C

Placing			Time	Club
01	Pete	Tadros	3.46	In Gear
02	Alan	Thynne	4.24	Rye 1
03	Chris	Watson	4.40	H&StL CC 1
04	Steve	Gooch	4.45	R2
05	Nick	Wilson	4.47	R3
06	Bronwen	Ewing	5.02	R4
07	Barry	Goodsell	5.05	R5
08	Simon	Grogan	5.10	H2
09	Monty	Wilson	5.10	R6 1st junior
10	Ivan	Johnson	5.10	H3
11	Joe	Jenner	5.15	H4 2nd junior
12	Malcolm	Daly	5.15	H5
13	Mark	Brittle	5.39	H6
14	Nigel	Fox	5.46	R7
15	Rebecca	Wilson	7.01	R8
16	John	Kelly	7.19	R9
17	Richard	Holtby	7.21	H7

Starry Starry Night

2011-10-22T09:11:00.003+01:00

A nice clear evening for the Friday chaingang. While we were waiting for the others, Simon pointed out some objects that could be seen in the night sky. As we were looking up we could see a satellite passing over head. Present were: myself, Simon, Malcolm, Ivan, Duncan and Steve Denny. On the way out Steve's light switched to emergency reserve, he had forgotten to charge it! I thought the reserve might last for an hour but I was wrong as it packed up about a mile from Broadoak. As Steve was at the back of the group at this point no one was aware of his plight, so Steve had to do the last mile up to the meet point in the pitch black! Fortunately I have two of the same lights as Steve and lent him one of them for the final third of the route. Just as well as there were some louts in a car coming down Stonestile lane who left little room for us and shouted some abuse just for good measure.

Distance 22.5 miles Av speed 17.1 mph

Through and off, Chaingang 19th Oct

2011-10-20T09:30:00.008+01:00

Great to see another big turnout of 27 riders, on the coldest night of the season so far, tho' hardy Joe Jenner still wore shorts. Experienced 1st Cat road racer Shaun Reed coached us in some through and off riding, also known as a chaingang, two lines, or in USA , a paceline s'il vous plait. It's standard on chaingang training rides like ours, a great way to ride fast in a group sharing the work and saving energy, teams in Tour De France do it to catch breakaways and so on.

Man on front rides smoothly for 20 seconds, then moves steadily over and eases up by 1 mph to allow next man through, like a big chain. Line coming forward rides 1mph quicker than the line going back so you get a rest after your 20 second spell. Line going back can be on the left or right depending on wind direction, but for us on narrow roads at night I think its safer and makes sense for us to have slower lane on the right (outside) of bunch. It was working well along Bexhill until someone sprinted off the front instead of doing their spell and broke it up, tho' we got it back together later.

here's some more info on the subject:

http://www.cyclingtipsblog.com/2009/02/rolling-turns-pacelining-echeloning/
http://pdxcyclingonline.com/paceline-riding-tips-00194/
http://bianchista.blogspot.com/2011/01/chaingang-noob.html

Averages - out 21.5 mph, back 22.5mph. From a front group of about 8 riders, Shaun reached roundabout first and also Bexhill lights, the rest of us hanging onto his wheel. Stuart had the chequered board outside his house for an intermediate prime after Cooden which I sneaked off to get, Shaun said Malcolm boxed him in and praised his skilful team tactics , ta Malc!
C.W.

Quick reminder that we meet 9.00am sharp in the public car park near Fairlight church to sign on for the climb of Battery Hill, Rye Wheelers and Pete Tadros will be competing.We usually have a good crowd of people come along to chat at the sign on, watch in the lay bay half way up the hill, then come back to the car park for another chat then some of us will go for a short club run looping back to Hastings no doubt.
C.P.

Hill Hunter (early bird report 16 Oct)

2011-10-16T16:35:00.003+01:00

What fantastic weather we had today! As the weather was so good and the weather so dry we decided to do one our hilliest routes'The Ticehurst circular', this twisty route is normally only done in the summer. Present were myself, Paul, Ivan, Ade, Duncan and Tony. There are very few straight sections on this route which prompted Tony to call give me a new name of 'Hill Hunter' which I quite enjoyed. Having not ridden hard since Wednesday I must say it was nice not riding with stiff legs for once and none of the hills bothered me, not even the long drag (4 miles) up Witherenden Hill (Stonegate to Burwash). Tony coped much better with the hills today, these sort of rides are just what he needs to improve his climbing, although he was completely done in at the end. We had a few mechanicals on our journey: the cables on Paul's dérailleur kept seizing up, Duncan had a puncture, I toppled over on some gravel and broke the little cap on top of one of my shifters.

Total distance 49.4 miles, average speed 13.6 mph

S.C

Simon Tyler at the Marmotte

2011-10-15T08:36:00.003+01:00

just got this email from chain-ganger Simon Tyler, get the full story and photos at saltedmackerel.cc

"Hi Chris,

Work and small child have conspired to make chaingangs and similar tricky to fit around other commitments, but will hopefully get out a bit more regularly next year.

Catching up on the recent blog posts - I reckon I did a noteworthy number of Alpine hills this summer!

Glandon / Telegraph / Galibier / Alpe d'Huez in a day

The Glandon was psychologically tough being the first of four. When I got to the base of the Telegraph I felt much happier about it all, and span my way past a good few hundred riders, and the same on the Galibier.

On the descent of the Galibier one of my contact lenses fell out just as I was entering the first big and very dark tunnel. I stuck my sunglasses back on to stop the other one falling out too (quite dry eyes by that point) - the sensation of hurtling through a pitch black road tunnel with the blur of headlights coming towards you and a distant light at the other end being the only things giving you any idea where to steer was not very pleasant.

The Alpe was a b****** too, for obviously reasons. I actually think it's a pretty ugly and uninspiring climb - the only reason it's featured so much in racing is the infrastructure at the top which means it works well as a race finish.

Ventoux - Classic route from Bedoin, then again from Sault the following day.

Ventoux was tough too, but the experience made up for that many times over.

Aravis from Flumet, then

Colombiere / Croix Fry / Aravis / Saisies the next day.

Not bad at all.

Next year I want to try the Ventoux triple (or Cingles) - Ventoux from all three routes (Bedoin / Malaucene / Sault) in a day.

Also working on a Zurich - Venice tour, via Fluela Pass / Stelvio / Gavia / Monte Grappa, etc. Quite a tough week that might turn out to be.

Simon"

C.W.

Chaingang report weds 12 oct

2011-10-12T22:41:00.003+01:00

A fantastic turnout for the weds chaingang tonight with 27 riders which equals our previous best. Present on his first chaingang of the season was our best rider 'Pete Tadros'. Pete was on his new carbon fixed wheeled bike so was expected to be even faster than normal. Max was worried that with so many riders we could come a cropper racing up Galley hill, so the word was passed round that we should stick together until we got to the De la Warr Pavillion. Predictably, although some people did try to follow Max's advice, others started fanning out as soon as we got to galley hill which caused others to do their own thing etc. Pete led out the fast riders on the way to Pevenesey with Sean following his wheel. At one point a landrover decided to pull out in front of the leading group, only Pete and Sean managed to get in front of it, the others had to wait behind it. Despite a valiant chase led by Ivan and others, no one could close the gap between Pete and Sean. On the return leg Pete went off at the front and no one was able to keep with him (not even Sean) leaving the others to follow some way back. Weather wise it was a perfect evening with a mild temperature and light winds. For me it was the fastest chaingang of the season so the weather must have been good

S.C

Rollapaluza Dave

2011-10-12T16:10:00.001+01:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhct3Wb3jFQ

This link is the Rollapaluza in Eastbourne in January this year--I worked out I was doing over 200rpm. and ended up 5th in the competition--not bad for 54

David H-H

Early Bird Report Oct 8

2011-10-09T09:32:00.002+01:00

We decided to repeat the Doleham 30 miler from two weeks ago. Present were early bird regulars: myself, Paul K, Doug, Adrian and Duncan. We were also pleasantly surprised when Matt, Alex and Mike turned up. Sadly, Matt's group only stayed with us for the first 5 miles to Battle while the rest of us continued the route. This route has got some great climbs including the climb up Doleham hill, The climb from Sedlescombe to Westfield and ends with the climb up Battery Hill.Having ridden the Friday chaingang I found that my legs were completely done in by the time I reached the start of the climb up battery hill, so had to grovel my way up there. Looking forward to a complete day off the bike on Sunday.

S.C

New Record for The Friday Chaingang Oct 7

2011-10-09T09:20:00.003+01:00

A new record for the Friday chaingang with 9 riders. This included newbie Charlie Carder. Charlie was on an old flat barred bike that he picked up for £40, despite this he managed to keep up with the group. Hopefully, he will become another regular.
S.C

lantern jawed heroes / brain on shuffle chaingang 5th October 2011

2011-10-07T15:04:00.010+01:00

Sometimes when I'm plugging along on my own, a bit of music I've heard recently will drift into my head l and I'll replay it on a loop for a few minutes, to sustain a rhythm in a difficult spot, like last night grovelling overgeared into the dark against a strong headwind on my own, having missed the start and wondering if I'd ever catch up with the others, it was only the " I like it I'm not gonna crack" chorus from this that stopped me from turning round and quitting.
Its not all good tho', after a gluttonous xmas hols, out of shape from a months layup because of icy roads I couldnt get the bump and grind, ridiculous "La di da di da" chorus from this out of my head.
Then again one evening when I was feeling stronger and tearing it up I got some of this hypnotic stuff, ideal for a turbo.

One advantage of random imaginary music vs an ipod is I still get to hear all the fast cars and slow tractors approaching round the next bend, not to mention spokes snapping, tyres deflating and other more pleasant things.
so thats my first half, a couple of lads punctured, if anyone wants to email me more info I'll post it here.

At half way I was releived to see a bunch of riders sheltering from the rain under a tree.

Simon Newell and Max I think got an excellent 6th in the 2 up TT at weekend.

Number of riders- not sure less than 20 more than 12.

Speed out for front group - 16mph, Swavek and Joe punctured. I was overgeared for headwind of 14mph gusting 29mph, felt like grinding along at 10 mph. Rain threatened a bit and wet the road but never got heavy

Back avg 26mph, maxing at 29s and 32s for our lantern jawed heroes who'd braved the fierce gusts in the face to ride the wind back again like happy surfers.

Matt and Swavek shot clear at top of spooky hill like flaming rockets, Malc and Alex chasing, then me on me own, undergeared now . Adrian caught me before Bexhill with tribars & gears, friends. Duncan, Tony and others in hot pursuit.

By the way some handy info for fixed gearheads and insomniacs here, like "32 mph on 84inches is nearly 130 revs per minute" what larks.
Now thats fast for an old lag like me but check this guy, 247 rpm!

Plumpton Sportive

2011-10-03T21:05:00.002+01:00

This was our second year of doing the Evans Plumpton Sportive. There were fewer of us this year with just myself, Paul K and Duncan doing it. The weather was fantastic with 27 degree heat, no wind and wall to wall sunlight.The start of this sportive (at Plumpton college) couldn't be more spectacular with the massive green hillside of Ditchling Beacon staring straight at you. Luckily we had about 5 miles of straight roads before the route took us up the beacon.The beacon is tough but never becomes over steep,to me if feels like you are going round and round a merry go round. After the climb comes the fantastic drop down towards Sussex university. The beacon turned out to be the only major hill of the whole route, with the rest of it, rolling hills (next time we ascend the beacon will be in November when we do the Brighton hack ride). For much of the 60 mile route we got to ride with the same group of riders, it was a shame that none of them were from our local area. This was Paul's third attempt to complete a sportive (first time his wheel broke up, second time we followed the wrong set of arrows) and he really enjoyed it, as did myself and Duncan. We all decided that we will try to increase the number of sportives we do, and will definitely be back for the Plumpton sportive next year.
S.C

old iron

2011-10-03T09:26:00.002+01:00

old lightweight steel racing bikes make great training bikes/ winter / chaingang hacks -

here's a couple reasonably priced ones quite nearby - this first one actually has regular 700c wheels and maybe a 22 or 23 inch frame.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110752469000

14 speed nigel dean lightweight racing bike 20 inch frame & 25 inch wheels in Sporting Goods , Cycling , Bikes |eBay

http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/1982-claud-butler-reynolds-531-touring-bicycle/88602347

C.W.

Car spotting - Chaingang 28th September

2011-09-29T22:54:00.005+01:00

A perfect Indian summer evening brought the motorists out like flies and a big group of 25 this week, seemed like we were flagging a car up every 2 minutes, and welcome more new riders as several regulars didn't show! Average speed to roundabout 22.5 miles per hour. Some rotten poacher on a steel fixed nipped past big Shaun 30 yards from line, with Stuart M finishing hot on his wheel.

On way back Jay commended junior Joe Jenner's gutsy strong riding bridging a big gap. Club Chairman Stuart C had the checkered board outside his house, I think Simon Grogan took that prime, couldn't see as was having a breather at back after going for the 30 at Cooden. Had another dig at Bexhill, got a gap and sat up, then Max came past to take it. ESCA hill climb is 16th Oct at Firle Beacon, 9am start, £6 and entries on CTT form to Mark Winton asap! Swavek revealed John climbed the Aubisque and Tourmalet this summer, while the Miles's did Alpe d'Huez, anyone beat that?
CW (drawing by Prampolini)

Another Classic Early Bird Route

2011-09-24T13:01:00.002+01:00

A really enjoyable 'Early Bird' route this morning, with Ade, Paul K, Doug, Tony and myself. We were trying out a new hilly 30 miler route that I had mapped out with my 'trackslogs' software in the morning. It took us through Crowhurst, Watlington,Sedlescombe,Westfield, Doleham, Winchelsea and finshed with our old friend, Battery Hill.Doug had had a few weeks off the bike and was climbing really well as was Ade who goes from strength to strength. Tony was struggling a bit on the hills but did more or less complete the route although he found a devious way of avoiding the direct climb up battery hill. We all agreed that of the three hilly 30 milers I have so far mapped out, this is the best!
Distance 31.8 miles
Average speed 13.9 mph
S.C

Cod& Chips and cycling don't mix

2011-09-24T12:55:00.003+01:00

Another good turn out for the Friday Chaingang (23 sept). Good to see Steve Denny there again, this time he made it up the long drag to Broad Oak without any punctures. Poor Ivan was not feeling so good, he put it down to the fact that he had eaten a big portion of cod and chips at lunchtime.By the time we got to Stonestile lane his legs had 'gone' and he could no longer ride, so he had to get off and walk. He did feel better later after a few beers at the pub!

Your back light's out mate, Chaingang Weds 21st Sept

2011-09-23T20:35:00.020+01:00

Even more riders this week, around two dozen. With such a big group we took it easy till Galley Hill, but still got split up at lights and junction. Matt champing at the bit- leapt off the front and attacked on Galley hill, Max, fixed, 52x16, said" let him go, he'll get lonely out there all on his own" I wasn't convinced, but anyway he was off and opened a big gap. There was a fierce headwind and right enough along Bexhill front he flagged a bit, we dug in and overhauled him. A big bang at Cooden; Malc's front tyre this time, bad luck. I stopped, the first dozen slowed then rolled on, I figured a dozen more were behind Malc so I decided to give chase to the front group and caught them by the railway crossing. Roadman Shaun Reed came thru near the end for a strong spell, somehow I ended up on the front, managed to jump not too early this week, got a gap and made it stick till the end, first time I've managed that this season.

Shaun told us about his new assymetric chain rings that Team Sky use - almost square and 5% or 10% faster say the scientists. See John Sharples, and bring an envelope full of cash. Back in the 80s oval biopace rings were all the rage for a while, with hindsight we know Biopace were as Shaun comfirms, " total sh*te" because they got the deadspot in the wrong place. Will we all be using the new squared off rings in 20 years time, or will they go the way of Biopace,and other shortlived innovations like L shaped cranks? Time will tell, and at £200 a set, I'll wait and see, meanwhile trying to turn my old rings round 5% faster.

On the way back Max used mind control to keep Matt boxed in until Spooky Hill, where he flew away, pants on fire. Jay and Simon, fixed, 49x15 gave chase . With a good tailwind I had to spin like fun on 48 x15 as M shifted into top like a dirty cheat and shot off down the other side like a rocket. More mad effort to bridge, and we actually had a good gap, until I took a spell and Shaun and his big mate got across to us. Now approaching Cooden, its customary for the Bayeux Sunday run to wind it up after a long ride on the flats and contest the 30 sign, Shaun used a clever bluff to distract Matt and motored off the front to take the sign, we saved our legs for the chase down to Bexhill, where some traffic got in the way at the end so we didn't get to duke it out after all. Good to see more new faces, John and Wotjec ( I think? excuse spelling) over from Eastbourne, had a lift of my bike and both agreed it was "very heavy" !

C.W.

Doctor Ivan Prescribes, 14 Sept Wednesday Night Chaingang

2011-09-17T22:50:00.009+01:00

This week we had 21 or more riders hard to say exactly as three joined along the route, anyway that's a new record. Great to see more new faces and the return of Tim and Jay Miles, with the impressive claim that they haven't ridden since visiting the the Tour de France back in July! Also Conrad who tho' he hasn't been riding much at all was still mixing it up in the sprint.

Speed was about 22 out and 23 back, mph.

More pacemaking from Matt. At a kilo to go Horta kicked early, I got on his wheel, had a dig then sat up, blown. Matt zipped thru with Stuart D, Alex and Conrad all on his wheel, yet strong Matt held them all off. As I rolled up Matt was plugging his terminator legs into the national grid for a charge-up, claims he's stretching due to stiffness from something called "running"? says he needs to ride his bike more...

Hmmm well anyway, talk turned to Sunday 11th when our bold racing men got up in the dark to do battle on the A22; despite hurricane downpours at 6am and strong cross winds all day Joe Jenner won fastest juvenile at the ESCA 25 mile TT, Adrian, Malcolm, Chris Parker and myself all enjoyed a good race while Pete Tadros, (who we'll expect to see after end of the hillclimb season in October) won in 52 something, thats 25 miles at 29 miles per hour! - Also Max Norell broke the hour with a solid 59:40, so our convincing excuses about the wind adding 4 minutes were pretty much sunk then, sad to say.

Time to head back, Matt went off front early, I had to sprint hard to get across. By Spooky hill we had a bigger group which broke up over the hill leaving four in the front - Alex, Matt on pace, a new guy, sorry I only saw your back, and me hanging on grimly! One car passed us quite close from behind, as a chap was moving up the line, said chap might have swore at the car, hem hem. Matt broke clear at summit of last lump before the Bexhill lights but I managed to bridge and stay on his wheel until he sat up and decided to have a rest, just before the point where I would think of jumping - sort of takes all the fun out of stealing a sprint on the line from a stronger rider so I didn't bother.

At the Bexhill stop spirits were high as everyone seemed to be feeling good and going better than last week. Simon Newell joined the five riders out on fixed this week, chirping "its easier on fixed!" as those on gears were still gasping for breath.
No sign of Malc and Ivan. A quick call; Malc discovered a flat tyre upon setting off at the halfway, Ivan stayed to lend pump. Chaingang organiser Steve Curtis and I waited for them as it was time for everyone else to go. Some match spinning fun was had down the natural velodrome slope between Harley Shute and Filsham.

Rolling home I was bemoaning my plummeting times to Ivan who gave this sound advice for nailing a sub hour 25: "Well Max rides over from Eastbourne every week, but for the rest of us the chaingang is like doing two "Tens", what you need to do is ride 25 miles, flat out, three times a week." How long do I need to that for? I asked,
"Oh, every week"

CW

Three Early Birds Sat 17 Sept

2011-09-17T14:49:00.002+01:00

Just three of us braved the showers this morning: myself, Duncan and Paul K. We almost abandoned the ride after a heavy shower came down but fortunately we continued and the rest of the showers were light. We decided to do the same route as last week 'Darwell'. There was one tricky moment when a large van was coming up a blind bend near 'Darwell Hole' while we were coming down the hill. I only saw the van at the last minute, luckily I was going slow due to the wet road surface, also credit to the van driver for careful driving.This makes me think that soon it will be 'main road' types of ride for the early birds!
S.C

Steve Denny Turns Roadie!!

2011-09-17T14:48:00.001+01:00

Great turn out this Friday for the Friday chaingang. There were eight of us at the start including Tim and Jay Miles. Just before we set off we saw a cyclist ride past, a few minutes later the cyclist returned; it turned out to be Steve Denny (who used to do some off road with us). It turns out steve has bought an old Bianci and has got into road riding.Apparently he has been regularly been riding from london to Brighton in the dark!. I think he said he had done this four times now and was determined to do it within 4 hours.He had already ridden 18 miles at the point he saw us but decided to ride with us anyway. He was with us at Rye but when we all reassembled at Broad Oak he wasnt there. After waiting 10 minutes we had to move on we assume he must have either decided to give the climbs a miss or had a puncture ? (his phone was switched off when we tried to ring him), The rest of us continued as usual although the pace was gentler than average and for me ascending Stonestile lane was a lot easier than the week before.
S.C
PS- Turned out in the end that Steve had a puncture just a mile from Broad oak, he really enjoyed the ride though so hopefully we will see him again.

Tony returns 10 September

2011-09-10T18:14:00.003+01:00

Great to see Tony King out again on this mornings early bird ride.Myself and Paul K were a bit tired due to the Friday chaingang the night before so we wanted a gentle pace ride of short length. Tony was struggling with the hills at first after a six week lay off. At one point he was going to bail but we persuaded him to stay. As the ride progressed Tony seemed to get stronger and in the last 5 miles it was me that was getting dropped on the hills!. Paul is climbing really well on the road at the moment and rode particularly fast up the hill to 'Ashburnham'. I always enjoy these short early road rides, 30 miles is my ideal distance. We were back in the old town for bacon butties before 11:00. We tried out a different cafe- the one more or less opposite the anchor. A little pricey but excellent bacon. The guy working there was very keen to talk to us about his son. Apparently his son who is in the army is a fitness fanatic and does several iron man events each year and is mad keen on cycling. I passed him our club email so hopefully we will have another rider on the occasions that he is back home in Hastings
S.C

Friday Chaingang Gains A New regular

2011-09-10T18:04:00.002+01:00

A very pleasant Friday chaingang on 9 September with myself, Ivan, Paul K, Malc, Simon G all present . Also present was newbie club rider Adrian on his second Friday chain of the season. looks like Adrian will become a Friday regular. This was my first Friday chaingang of the season. Having felt relatively fit on Wednesday, I thought this would be a breeze.This was far from the truth as I had forgotten just how long the drag from rye to broad oak is (about 4 miles) and just how steep the climb up stonestil lane was. My objective there was just to survive the climb, this I did but only barely, all the others including Adrian leaving me in their wake. Hopefully it will be easier for me next week! Still no sign of Paul Baxter- has he gone into hibernation mode again now that summer is over?
S.C

The easy way to ride fast into a headwind. Chaingang Sept 7th

2011-09-08T17:34:00.009+01:00

Seventeen riders and welcome more new faces, Major, Derek, Adrian, Stuart, Nick, & other names I didn't catch. I was trying so hard to hang on that I cant remember much about the outward leg, I think it was mainly our Ivan and new face Stuart Davis from Eastbourne Rovers making the pace, might have been something like 19mph average, riding into a tough headwind. I had a dig at Spooky Hill just for badness and to see who was fresh in the final miles, Max came through very strong and drove it right up almost to the flamme rouge - actually a little tunnel of trees a kilo or so from the finish when a big rider in a US postal top came thru very strong, I'm thinking - crikey whats George Hincapie doing on our chaingang- but I hopped on his wheel, hoping for a lead out. After 100 yards Dave H-H, not G.H. looked back, saw me there, and sat up, so I had to go - too early with a block headwind like that, I blew before the end where all the fit lads who'd been sitting in fizzed past. Poachers! Chatterboxes! Take your turn on the front! Pah!

Simon Newell asked how could they ride so fast into the headwind, Stuart explained how easy it was - something about finding your core and holding onto it, too bad I've forgotten exactly what he said, it could come in pretty handy a thing like that, as could being smaller and fitter than a racing whippet, I imagine.

On way back Simon N attacked then Matt and Max escaped at Spooky Hill, lucky for them a car was coming the other way and all us on fixed were desperately under-geared for the super massive tailwind, or we'd have had them both for breakfast, without a doubt, easy.

Alex did a lungbusting effort to narrow the gap along Herbrand walk. I was feeling a bit sick by now hanging onto the tail of a train of six riders, hitting 27 mph and above like a hysteric washing machine on spin, Malc had an even smaller gear than me and never wavered. Aproaching Bexhill,found a good wheel, had a dig from 200 meters out at washing machine spin cubed, came past two then was all out of puff and watched the big train go by all over again. Next week I'm going up two teeth on the front, 48 x 15. So a fine training ride.a bunch of us went to pub after to drink beer and compare flashing lights. Tune in next week when we'll ask the fast men the secret of their success, and try not to forget what they said this time.
CW

Summer's last Gasp?

2011-09-04T06:55:00.003+01:00

As we do every year those of us who like to do a bit of off road completed our once a year 'off road' to Brighton.Present were the usual suspects, myself, Ivan, Paul K and Colin (on his once a year mtb ride).The ride started off with all road until we were able to pick up the SDW at Eastbourne. There is then a brutal very long climb up to the top of 'Butts brow' before a very rapid and bumpy decent down into Jevington.Here we met a friendly cyclist who was on an old Kona that was nearly as old as the retro bikes that we were riding,we gave him the club email so another possible recruit? At this point I began to think that maybe full suspension wasn't a waste of money? Having gone all the way down to the valley floor we then had to climb all the way back up towards 'the long man'. Myself and Paul found this to be the hardest climb of the day and shamefully we had to get off and walk up some of it. Ivan as usual took it all in his stride and Colin was going well to. Following another very bumpy decent down into Alfriston we headed for R&R at our usual cafe stop (Badgers), unfortunately this establishment was full but then we discovered one on the corner of the road, the ladies in there were really friendly and it was cheaper than Badgers so that was a nice discovery. After the R& R we decided we would take the easy route to firle along the old farm track which skirts around the base of the Downs rather than the downs itself. The only price we paid for this was that we had to do the steep climb up to firle beacon on the road, this wasn't so bad but did seem to go on for ever and with backbacks on our backs we were overheating. We now knew that most of the hard stages were behind us and flew down rodmell hill only to discover Dave HH about to climb up it. Dave was doing the SDW in a day and had been on the route since 5:00, we didn't envy him at all knowing full well what he had left to do.Colin's response was f##k that! The rest of the route proceeded quite nicely, when we finally reached a bit of tarmac, Colin was so glad he kissed the road before the best part of the whole trip which is the endless fast decent down into the heart of brighton. Colin suggested we try a different curry house this time and the one we discovered was much better than the usual with excellent staff and food, this is the one we will use when we ride to Brighton again on one of the hack back rides. A tough but enjoyable day, myself and Paul really did struggle on this ride and for us that is the last off road of the season, tarmac here we come!!
SC

"Where did you get them Flashing Lights?"*

2011-09-01T23:28:00.002+01:00

All the local crazies were out last night, and so were we with a promising
turnout of 15 riders for a fine summer evening of tall tales and bold moves.
Half a dozen of our regulars were absent but great to see some fresh new faces
and welcome back all the old lags as well.

Matt R set the pace out to Pevensey averaging 23.7 mph, and claims he spent
the summer "resting" oh aye? indeed.
Welcome back Dan Harwood who claims he hasn't ridden a bike since he
went to work in Yemen 3 years ago yet somehow finished top 5.

Young Joe Jenner on his first chain gang punctured, Chris Parker stayed back
to show him the route. Only Malc and Tony (with a swish new ride) were on
fixed, the rest of us chose to break in gently on gears.

On the way back some cars were held up from Spooky hill all the way to the
level crossing, despite us riding single file. Anyway as they passed us a
little red car squirted its windscreen washer and Matt set
off in hot pursuit, muttering curses - he actually caught them at
Herbrand walk and brought traffic to a halt while he offered some helpful
"road etiquette" thru the drivers window. If only we could get a number on his
back, as reluctant to race Matt said himself, "insult my mother and put me on
a 10 and I'd go OK"

Swift roll back to the pub for a quick pint, chatted with Charlie from Bell's
bikes and Chris Parker signed up some stragglers for the ESCA 25 on Sept.
11th.
CW
*random drunk fisherman who came up to us on a brakeless rat bike at the
Bexhill stop.

Wednesday Time Trial Series

2011-09-01T16:21:00.002+01:00

I aim to add a brief report here.

The top five riders plus other snippetes of info have been in the Hastings Observer every week which is why I have not added reports regularly.

When I add info I will change the title to include the series winner's name.

Chris Parker

Margate and back 20-21 August

2011-08-22T10:23:00.002+01:00

At the last minute myself, Duncan and Ivan had to abandon our plans to do some climbing in wales due to a bad weather forecast. On a whim we decided that we would cycle up to Margate in north Kent. We mapped out our own route of 87 miles based loosely on the sustrans route followed by a more direct 62 mile route back which skirted around Canterbury and ashford. this proved to be a surprisingly enjoyable trip, the Kent countryside is much more rural and attractive than you would expect. The lack of hills (apart from an incredibly hard one near Dover castle) made for relatively easy riding although we were all relieved when we finally got back over battery Hill to the end of the route.Margate is a dump but the hotel we stayed at was clean and excellent value plus we found a great/cheap curry house!In the future we may repeat this route again but come out at Whitstable this time which is a much nicer place.
Day 1: 87 miles average speed 15.8 mph
Day 2 62 miles average speed 13.8 mph
S.C

Bewl water August 12

2011-08-18T07:37:00.003+01:00

Rather chilly weather at Bewl water this night. present were myself, Ivan, Malcolm, Paul B and Josef. Having completed one lap were were not sure whether to do another lap as it was spitting by then. Myself, Ivan and Josef were all feeling a bit lazy but Malcolm persuaded us to risk it. It was a good call as the rain didn't come to anything but it was pretty dark under the trees by the time I came in last . We were all glad we did the second lap as we all got a good workout. Only two more Bewl water sessions left before the end of the season!

Eastbourne circular Off road Aug 7

2011-08-18T07:32:00.002+01:00

This was a slight variation on an old ride (blackcap farm).Present were myself, paul K, Ivan, malcolm and Chris W.The ride started at the beginning of the South Downs at eastbourne heading over the golf course towards jevington and then Alfriston. As the tracks were very dry we took the old bridleway that goes all the way from Alfriston to firle (easy) rather than the lumpy way over the south downs itself. At firle there is a great road climb up to the top of the top of firle Beacon. Chris went off like a rocket (sprint), Ivan paced himself with his diesel power and just barely managed to reach the top ahead of Chris by about half a wheel. from here we took the blackcap farm route south and then looping back to the downs via Peacehaven. malcolm showed me how to get back up to the downs via a concrete path which was much easier than the grassy bridleways. On reaching Alfriston my GPS directed us up a bridleway leading to friston forest which I had never used before, this turned out to be a great path. The route through Friston forest proved to be very hard and shamefully myself and paul had to get off at one point and walk. Unfortunately we couldnt find the bridle way that cut out the road leading to beachy head but apart from that this was a great ride.Chris particularly enjoyed it (first mtb ride this season) so hopefuly he will come on another before the season finishes). Distance 28 miles.

Early bird report 30 July

2011-07-31T09:19:00.002+01:00

We did our favourite short early bird ride on saturday (Beckley 35 miler). This route may be short but it sure is hilly. Joining us for the first time was Doug Downs. Doug regularly commutes to Robertsbridge from Hastings so he definitely has the fitness and really enjoyed the ride. Hopefully he will become a club regular. Duncan had had a break from cycling for a few weeks and had dropped a little fitness but it wont take him long to get it back. Having ridden bewl the night before, both Paul K and I were feeling a bit stiff in the leg muscles so we didn't have our usual 'zing'. We are both looking forward to not riding for a couple of days now!
S.C

Bewl water 29 July

2011-07-31T09:13:00.002+01:00

Great conditions at Bewl Water on friday. Present were just myself, Paul K and Ivan. Also Dave E was there with his young son on a brand new perfect miniature little mountain bike. Ivan was feeling unusually tired due to to a busy week at work, paul and myself found it as hard as normal. My foot was playing up badly due to me moving the cleat forward. I may have to start riding off road with look road shoes and pedals!!
S.C

Lewes prison Ride 24 July

2011-07-28T09:25:00.002+01:00

At last some decent sunshine for an off road South Downs ride. We met up at 7;30 at Firle for the 30 mile 'Lewes prison ' circular. There were only four of us: myself, Ivan, Paul K and Dave HH. Starting off at firle village means you immediately hit the long road up to the firle beacon car park (this is used as hill climb TT in the Autumn). I love this hill but dave didnt like it and felt unwell with a chest infection so decided to abandon the ride. The rest of us continued riding the SDW until we got to sussex university and Stanmer park. Our usual tea stop at stanmer park had not opened yet so we pressed on up the long climb to the top of Ditchling beacon (hard!) before enjoying the fabulous decent down past lewes prison and into lewes. Here we decided to have some bacon butties. We stopped at a riverside cafe which was almost empty and propped up our bikes. A woman came out and told us to move our bikes and put them on the other side of the railings (even though we told her we had no locks), as she was rude we decided to move on and found a much nicer place about 300m away where the bacon butties were very expensive but also very tasty. After Lewes there is the horrendous 'white climb' back onto the Downs ridge, this is so steep very few people can mange to keep the bike moving but somehow Ivan made it. After this there was just one more hill to go which is the horrendous Rodmell hill. At this point paul was suffering and couldnt wait to get to the end, climbing hils on the downs can be horrendously hard and every Kg of extra weight makes a difference. paul and I were releived to get to the firle beacon, from there there was the fantastic decent back down to firle vilage where we were doing about 40mph. best ride on the downs so far this seaon!
S.C

Off road Chanctonbury ring ride Sunday 10 July

2011-07-11T18:45:00.002+01:00

My first South downs way ride of the season and Paul K's first ride on his brand new Specialized rockhopper (he won this on ebay and saved himself £200). After a few adjustments to paul's new steed we were off (Steve, Paul K, Ivan and Duncan)
It took paul a while to get used to the handling on an off road bike but he soon got it. The decent off the side of Chanctonbury bury ring is treacherous at the best of times but with the recent wet weather it was lethal. Myself, paul and Ivan decided to walk down it but Duncan managed to ride down it (slowly!). There was another muddy section at the base of Chanctonbury hill, but eventually we got through it all. We had a cake stop at a big garden centre just outside wiston. The climb back up to the top of the downs was as hard as expected, but duncan rode it very well, leaving myself and paul bringing up the rear.
S.C

Friday chaingang 8 July

2011-07-11T18:40:00.002+01:00

As it was too muddy for bewl we decided to switch to the Broadoak chaingang instead. There was a good turnout with me, Paul K, Paul B, Ivan, Duncan, Rohan and Chris W. Despite the forecast being dry it started raining at wesfield. This led to a wet ascent of stonestile lane. By then the rain was easing off so three of us decided to head for the pub. By the time we left the pub , the heavens had opened again and we were absolutely soaked through. Still strangely enjoyable though.
S.C

Early bird report sat 2 july

2011-07-03T10:12:00.004+01:00

Myself, Ivan, Paul K, Josef, Malcolm and Duncan were all present. This was a new route of only 35 miles but what it lacked in distance it made up for with lots of lovely hills. A great ride with fantastic weather. We had coffee and sandwiches at the little Beach hut Cafe on Bexhill sea front near the bottom of galley hill. Average speed was only 14mph which shows you how hilly it was.
S.C

bewl water July 1st

2011-07-03T10:12:00.001+01:00

Much better conditions at bewl water this week. Quite warm , nice and dry and dusty. Ivan's old smoke tyyre from the 90's finally gave up the ghost and left him stranded about a mile from the end. Paul B and Malcolm are feeling the benefits of their epic SDW randonee last sunday
S.C

Early Bird Report 19/6

2011-06-19T20:59:00.000+01:00

Following the cancellation of the planned off road ride due to the weather, myself and Ivan decided to organise an impromptu early bird road ride. Joining us were dave earle, paul k and Chris watson. We kept things simple by doing the reverse beachy route which is only 40 miles. Doing beachy in reverse meant that we had a nice tail wind blowing us all the way up and we achieved a good average of 16.9 mph.

If anyone else wants to be on the early bird list, you should email me at
cyclecurt3@hotmail.co.uk

S.C

Great start to off road season

2011-06-11T20:10:00.001+01:00

A very good turnout for the first Friday ride at Bewl water (2 laps of 13 miles)
Present were myself, Paul B, David earle, david HH, malcolm,Ivan, Duncan and Josef.
This was the first time out for Duncan on his nearly new specialized stumpjumper and he really enjoyed it. I was very surprised to see david earle there, he says he has now gone over to the 'dark side' and bought a KHS 29er.he thinks it rides great and Ivan is now very interested in getting one. Paul Baxter was sufferring badly with his back and struggled to get round,this doesnt bode well for the 100 mile south downs randonee which he is doing in a few weeks.

St Omer 2011 Trip

2011-06-06T05:31:00.000+01:00

Thanks to all those who went on the French trip to St omer such an enjoyable weekend.The weather was very kind to us with some fantastic weather in france. We did have a few mishaps. richard fell off on the way to the ferry at Hythe and ended up having to have an x ray which confirned that he had broken his wrist so unfortunately he had to abandon the trip (we wish him well and hope the break heals ASAP). Paul had three punctures before we even got to the ferry, this turned out to be due to a mixture of poor rim tape and worn out rear tyre. Chris broke a spoke on the way back to the ferry. We had some good rides although the idea of basing the route on D roads (D for dream- my guide book said) turned out not to be such a good idea as some of the D roads were more like our A roads. Next time I will go back to basing the route on more minor roads even if it does make navigation more difficult. next year the plan is to go to dieppe if we can sort out the problem with the ferry booking. See photos on the slide show or go directly to

http://s932.photobucket.com/albums/ad162/cyclecurt3/St%20Omer%202011/

Bacon Butty ride

2011-05-28T20:43:00.002+01:00

An excellent Bacon butty ride with a surprise guest appearance from Colin Henderson and welcolme to young Jo jenner.Also present was myself, Paul K, Paul B and Duncan. Colin was in top form and despite saving his energy was clearly stronger than any one else. Joe rode really well especially up the hills, very impressive for one so young. As usual I was bringing up the rear although I was quite pleased that my legs didnt ache despite only doing the Friday chaingang the night before, so I will have to do more of these saturday rides! Paul K finally had a ride where his rear wheel didnt let him down, Ivan's wheel did the job.
Distance 39 miles, av speed 15.7 mph

S.C

Rohan joins the chaingang

2011-05-28T20:37:00.003+01:00

Rohan did his first chaingang on friday joining myself, paul b, malcolm, paul K and Ivan. Paul K was again riding the same rear wheel that he had problems with on the Eastnourne sportive. Wild side was supposed to have fixed it but by the time we got half way it was out of true again and was rubbing on the rim. luckliy paul managed to make it back to hastings and Ivan has lent him a much stronger wheel for the french trip.Rohan rode really strongly especially up stonestile lane which didnt seem to phase him at all. We should see more of Rohan from now on as he has settled down to his work at the conquest hospital. Paul B continues to improve and is now 'gunning' for malcom up stonestile lane.
This was the last of the friday road chaingangs as we are switching to off road once we come back from France. having said that, we will switch back to the road ride if Bewl water is too wet. Keep checking the emails.
S.C

eastbourne sportive

2011-05-28T20:36:00.000+01:00

Today (22 May) was the first ever SIS Eastbourne sportive. Some of us had entered the 80 miler and some the 50 miler. For the first 20 miles the route was the same for both parties so we rode together. After about 13 miles there was a large bang from Paul K's back wheel. There was a hole in the sidewall of his tyre. We patched this up wuth a piece of inner tube but unfortunately the wheel was all buckled and paul had to be swept up in the sweep wagon.After this delay the two groups parted company. Myself, Paul B and Duncan did the 50 miles. it was an ecellent route and the weather stayed dry. There was a stiff wind all day and heading down beachy head with the wind blowing sideways was 'quite interesting' 50 miles was enough for me but Duncan was feeling strong and so decided to continue riding to bexhill. Paul B seemed fresh and could definately have done the 80 miles.
Josef was going like a train and despite doing the 80 miler passes us down the cuckmere valley, he was riding an ex pros bike worth £5000 and told us it made an incredible difference to his riding
S.C

Friday Chaingng Report 20 May

2011-05-21T05:55:00.003+01:00

A good turn out on friday with myself, Ivan, Dave, Josef, Paul B, Paul K, Malcolm and Duncan present. Good weather conditions if a little chilly. Paul Baxter is rapidly regaining his old form and beat Paul K up stonestile lane. Rohan was hoping to join us for his first friday chaingng but couldnt get away from work in time, maybe next week?
S.C

Dave returns to the chaingang

2011-05-15T16:19:00.003+01:00

Great to see Dave is now back to riding again again after his tumble on the Wednesday chaingang a few months ago.He is now 100% mended and his bike is repaired as well. Dave joined myself, Ivan, Malcolm, Paul Baxter, Paul K and Duncan on our usual Friday route. Dave was very strong on the flat and did well on the long haul up to broad Oak but I don't think he enjoyed his first taste of the great stonestile lane. Good to see paul baxter out with us again, he has definately got the cycling bug back again and rode much more strongly this week, beating both myself and duncan up stonestile lane.
S.C

Wednesday Evening TTs off to flying start

2011-05-12T12:52:00.000+01:00

The first two time trials on the Broad Oak circuit have been well supported with 16 riders on 4 May and 19 riders on 11 May. The first week was a float evening with everyone going slower last night apart from improvements by both junior 15 year olds Joe Jenner (25.27) and Wil Francis (28.04).

Only a handful of riders have ever broken 20 minutes for the Broad Oak circuit and only one had broken 19 minutes but no one had broken 18 minutes - until last week that is. In Gear's Pete Tadros set a course record of 18.15 in 2007 and was not far off last year with 18.19. Despite a late start to the season Pete has already had some great wins and his top form was demonstrated with an astonishing course record of 17.59. Pete is riding the National 10 Championship next Saturday afternoon (21 May) near Hartlepool and is predicted to get another top twenty placing in support of team mate and top seed Michael Hutchinson and could even get a team medal if their third counting rider produces a top time.

Second fastest was Thames Turbo triathlete Josh Varney (21.41), fresh from winning the Bexhill Royal 5km run last Friday.

Bayeux's Rob Morris was next fastest with 21.51 and Chris Watson (22.01) scored top points for his club win. Making up the top five club riders were Chris Chapman (22.13), Mark Brittle (22.19), Simon Newell (23.00 PB) and Malcolm Daly (23.07 PB). Two 15 year old juniors produced good time on their first ride around the course, Joe Jenner with 25.56 and Wil Francis in 28.10.

Last night Pete (18.05) bettered his 2007 course record again but was six seconds off his new record. Rye Wheeler Steve Gooch (19.52) joined the elite sub 20 minute club last year and did it again with club mate Barry Goodsell (20.34) not too far off and a candidate for breaking 20 minutes this August. Ivan Johneson (21.43) failed to make the start line last week with a twitcy back but claimed top spot in the club points competition this week ahead of Chris Chapman (22.14), Chris Watson (22.16), Mark Brittle (22.43) and Simon Newell (23.09).

For the next four weeks we are on the Ninfield circuit meeting at 6.30pm in Downs View off Church Lane. For the full programme see the BLOG Racing in 2011 and H&StL CC Time Trial Series page.

Chris Parker 07902 630574

Club ride sunday May 8

2011-05-07T09:46:00.001+01:00

Neither myself or Chris P wil be at the harrow on sunday for the club ride but Paul K and Malcolm say they will be there as long as it is not raining. Why not join them for a ride? They will meet at 9:00

Baxter returns

2011-05-07T09:43:00.002+01:00

Out of the blue I had a phone call from paul baxter (remember him?) saying that after a 2 year break he wanted to start riding with us again. I am glad to say that paul did turn up to the friday chaingang and rode with myself,Malcolm, Paul K, Simon G.He was a little off the pace but it wont take long for him to get back to how he used to be.
Curt

Charity Ride New Forest

2011-05-01T08:40:00.001+01:00

Chris chapman has asked me to put a link to this charity ride in the new forest on the blog. A friend of his is organising it.

http://www.dystonia.org.uk/SupportUs/cycling+events

Wedding ride

2011-04-29T13:45:00.002+01:00

We had a fantastic ride today on the morning of the royal wedding. Six of us: myself, Chris P, Colin, Simon G, tony and Paul K set off for a repeat of chris' 'criss cross ride'. The ride was even more enjoyable than when we did it last sunday. As most people were indoors watching the royal wedding, the roads were exceptionally quiet and the weather was a lot sunnier than we expected. Tony found the hills a bit hard and peeled off about half way but the rest of us completed the route and finished it with lots of grup at the coastguard cafe. Good to ride with colin Enderson again as he rarely comes out on any of our rides. we must definately do this ride again beforethe end of the summer- its my favourite route!
Total distance 52 miles, average speed 14.7 mph.
S.C

last weds chaingang of 2010/11

2011-04-28T20:11:00.002+01:00

Last night was our last weds chaingang of the season. Thanks to the many riders who rode the weds chaingang this year. From memory they were : Curt, paul F, Paul K, sean, Dave , Chris P, Chris W, Paul H, Conrad, Alex, mike,duncan, jay, josef, pete T, peter H,Simon T,Matt, Max, Simon N, Simon G, Tim, Malcolm, karin and Ivan. It was a great season in that we attracted a lot of new riders, but proved to be a difficult season weather wise with terrible cold weather in december followed by a lot of wet wednesdays. Despite all our sufferring, I am sure we will all be up for it again next season which kicks off on weds 7th of september.Some of us celebrated the end of the season with a few drinks at taffers (see photos on right)
S.C

Club Runs: Sunday 24 April: Fri 29/4 Sun 1/5 etc

2011-04-27T15:32:00.004+01:00

No time (yet) to write up a fantastic ride 6 of us had Sunday (7 for first hour) 24 April. I still plan to do a brief write up of my Tour of Malaga's Hinterland with Chris Chapman and two friends. Watch this and other spaces on the BLOG.

Friday 29 April: Steve Curtis is organising an early bird run, regulars will have the details e-mailed, others ask for info please.

Saturday 30 April: No bacon butty run

Sunday 1 May: I am a a great believer in everyone turning up at the Harrow on the Ridge 9.00am and see who is there. This week no regular leader is available so just turn up and pal up with someone. Strong riders used to orderly club runs with roadmen (not for the inexperienced or faint hearted) can ride with the Bayeux if we are not quorate.

Saturday 7 May: A possible overdue bacon butty run, we have missed quite a few weeks.

Sunday 8 May: Probably no leader at the Harrow since quite a few of us will be racing / marshalling the Marshman Half Ironman and shorter event at Lydd, probably followed by a ride on the Marshes.

Chris Parker 07902 630574

Friday chaingang report

2011-04-23T13:30:00.002+01:00

Just four of us out on friday: me, Simon G, malcolm and duncan. Poor old Ivan was out of action again, this time with a pulled muscle in his back. Weather continues to be fantastic, this was the first friday chaingng that we were able to ride with shorts and short sleeved tops, brilliant!
S.C

Thanks from Chris Chapman

2011-04-17T18:42:00.001+01:00

Message from Chris Chapman thanking all who helped out today with the ESCA 25 mile TT

'Thanks to all the marshals, helpers and riders for getting up early and for helping to make this morning's event a success. The weather was very kind to us and resulted in some rapid times. A few people asked Jane for the recipe for the Chocolate and Almond cake at the HQ this morning and here it is:
* 5 eggs* 200g butter* 200g sugar* 200g plain chocolate* 200g ground almonds 1. Melt the chocolate and butter together, then mix in the almonds. Set aside to cool a little. 2. Seperate 4 of the eggs. Mix 1 whole egg and 4 yolks with the sugar. Blend this with the chocolatey mixture.3. Beat the 4 remaining egg whites until they are stiff. Using a metal spoon, carefully fold the egg whites into the chocolatey mixture.4. Pour into a non-stick spring-form baking tin and bake at 175-180 for 45 mins. Serves: 12'
Thanks, Chris

chaingang report 13th April

2011-04-16T22:28:00.000+01:00

Back to colder weather again at the chaingang last night with quite a strong head wind on the way out. Another good turn out with 14 riders despite Ivan being missing with vertigo and Chris P away on holiday. We had two new riders with us: Sean from the bayeux who did the Hastings to Pevensey section, and another rider who was way back behind the lantern rouge (sorry we didn't catch his name). We waited quite a while for the new rider to catch-up at Pevensey but he didnt turn up so we set off back only to see him still slogging into the wind! I think he's a friend of Max - perhaps he might try one of Chris Parker's easy paced Sunday Rides.

by Steve C

Early bird ride report 10 April

2011-04-10T18:51:00.002+01:00

Nine of us (me, Ivan, Mike K, Mike, Paul K, Malc, Rob, Simon G,Tony)set off this morning for the 'Tour de Romney marsh'. We rode to appledore along the royal military canal at a fair pace before heading off into the marsh on a big loop.Rob soon started to tire, this was due to him riding the day before and decided to turn back on his own.The 8 of us carried on but before too long Tony was finding his saddle uncomfortable, this was because the nose was tilting further and further upwards. he had a rather painful ride for the next 10 miles until we stumbled upon some friendly builders who had a spanner of the right size to tighten it.We then carried on to Appledore at which point we split into two groups of four. Myself, Ivan, Mike C and Paul K wanted to go back via the planned lumpy route through Wittersham and broad oak while the others opted for the flatter blast back along the canal. After saying goodbye the four of us headed out. The lumpy route back has some excellent quiet roads but also a fair few hills. I found myself really suffering after a while and was glad when we finally got back to ore via rocks lane. For me this was the hardest ride of the year so far, I felt as if I was on the limit of what I could do (must lose some weight!!), the other three were in much better shape than me when we finished the ride at the fairlight church tea shop where we stuffed ourselves with cake and bacon sandwiches. Total distance covered 65 miles, average speed 15.7 mph.

Friday chaingang heats up

2011-04-09T12:53:00.002+01:00

Six of us set out on the usual friday night chaingang on friday.We were fortunate to have the rare appearance of Alex riding with us,was this his first ascent of 'stonestile lane'? The weather got warmer as we rode and several of us were
over dressed. Duncan continues to get faster and faster climbing up stonestile lane and paul K only just overtook him before the end of the climb
S.C

Weds 6 April Chaingang

2011-04-06T22:52:00.002+01:00

Great weather tonight and now that we are entering Spring, we had light for most of the ride. A good turn out with 15 riders.The pace seemed very fast (to me at least!). Welcolm back to Jo who did do one chaingang back in the depth of winter and now hopes to get fit enough to become a regular (she is preparing for the london to brighton ride). Also good to see Josef out again on a Wednesday. Only 3 more weds chaingangs until the end of the season!!

Friday April 1st Chaingang

2011-04-03T22:00:00.002+01:00

A very mild and pleasant evening for the Friday chaingang. present were: Steve, Paul K, Ivan, Malcolm and Duncan.It was such a mild evening that we were all overheating on the 5 mile climb up to Broadoak, very different conditions to the one we did 2 weeks ago where we passed a gritter going down stonestile lane. Duncan continues to gain strength and beat meet up stonestile lane, so i am back in my customary 'lantern rouge' position (sob!)
S.C

Laughton TT photos added

2011-04-03T21:59:00.002+01:00

Thanks to karin for taking the photos from the laughton TT. Photos can be seen on the slide show. Click on a picture on the slide show to get the full picture.
S.C

Hard riders video 2011

2011-03-31T06:23:00.000+01:00

Fog, drizzle, wind, quite a pleasant evening. Chaingang march 30

2011-03-30T22:17:00.002+01:00

Just 100% all weather man Simon Grogan, Chris Parker with a smart new bike and Chris Watson this week. Beginning with drizzly fog and a 22mph headwind, we took turns at the front and stuck together for shelter. By halfway the fog had lifted and the wind dropped. "Its turned into quite a pleasant evening" said Chris P. But were we to be cheated of a blow back? No we did get some help along the coast and had a fast easy spin home, saving our legs for Sundays TT, see you there or next week.

Sunday run 27 March - Runs 2 & 3 April etc

2011-03-30T13:14:00.002+01:00

With a combination of hard rides out to and in Saturday afternoon's Tenterden 10 TT and the clocks changing there were only three of us at the Harrow. We did my favourite start: Cottage Lane, Seddlescombe, Goatham Lane then for a change past the Rainbow Trout and straight over the junction before first left and on to the lanes to Peasmarsh. We cut through Wittersham, Ebony and Stone to stop at the tea rooms in Appledore. We went direct home via Stone, Rye, Icklesham windmill and Rock Lane. It was Steve B's first club run for ages and he was looking very good on a rather nice bike picked up second hand through a VTTA contact, Camapg Record equipment and tri bars so expect a PB in the ESCA 10! Saturday 2 April: Bacon butty run. Please contact me to find out where we meet at 10.00am. We may tie this in with a brief visit to the Hastings to Bexhill cycle path opening Sunday 3 April: We have several teams in the ESCA 2 up TTT. Some of you may want to meet 9.00am at the Harrow. If you contact me in good time I can put people in touch with each other to be sure of who will be there for a ride but personally I believe people should always turn up there regardless and sort a run out between themselves if neither Steve C nor I are there. How about others volunteering to lead some rides and call the route? Saturday 9 and 16 April. No bacon butty runs for me. It is the ESCA 10 at East Hoathly on the 16th. Sunday 10 and 17 April: No club runs for me. Everyone Will be at the ESCA 25 on the 17th, Fairwarp HQ near Uckfield. Chris Parker 07902 630574

Southborough 10 Saturday 26 March

2011-03-27T20:52:00.002+01:00

Many thanks to Chris Parker for persuading so many of us to enter. We all had a good day. Thanks to Colin Enderson who took some photos of us. Sadly my camera stopped working so we only got some early photos (see slide show) SC

Jay's photo in Hastings Observer 25/3/11

2011-03-26T09:00:00.002Z

Great photo of Jay Miles racing at the ESCA Hardriders TT in the Hasting Observer this week by the way.