London - 100 mile night ride - Fri.25.03.22 - 10pm start

[markldn]

Date and Location

Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2022
Distance: 160 km (100 miles)
Climb: 1,086m (flat)
Start Time: 22:00
Starting from: Victoria Station, London (meet opposite 1st Floor McDonalds, 115 Buckingham Palace Rd, Victoria Place, London SW1W 9SJ)

TLDR

Organising an informal night ride around London.  Starts at 10pm from the mezzanine McDonalds in Victoria Station (closes at 11).  Post-ride brekky at Victoria Station Wetherspoons where I can confirm the taps turn on at 8am (opens at 6).

You will find 24 hour McDonalds and service stations near to or on the route.

Genesis

In late March 2020 we went lockies.  Four weeks later the PM would announce “we are past the peak” of the pandemic.  This ride seeks to replicate what it was like for the exercise-inclined during these unprecedented times.  A bit weird, quiet streets, circuitous.  Staying local was the (legal) order of the day.  Non-essential travel was shamed.  Hair grew long.

Accepting the guilt that if I rode outside the M25 I could be “hit by a car and take an ambulance from someone who needed it”, I set about creating and sourcing local London routes.  If I were hit by a car locally, at least I could walk myself to a nearby hospital, the thinking went, or maybe the driver would take me if I were nice.  The London Fixed Beers missions were a particular highlight for me—giving riders a curated tour of London’s boroughs while taking advantage of the empty streets (but for the ominous queues starting to form outside supermarkets). 

I rode the first version of this “strava art” in April 2020, and one year later extended the route with the needle in commemoration of the vaccine.  Ironically, as I rode down the Mall while tracing “the needle”, I rode right through an anti-vaccine march.

Touring London’s boroughs on empty streets turned out to be actually quite nice.  But daylight scenes reminiscent of Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later are unlikely—though not impossible—to return this year, and I don’t want to lose half a lung riding 100 miles through London traffic, so this year I’m doing the ride at night.

Fee

There is no fee but I ask that you make a minimum £6 donation to the Lewisham Bank of Things.  An admirable project some of you may have seen on the news in recent weeks.

“The Bank of Things is a new Young Mayors Project working in partnership with Lewisham Local aimed at Young People aged 11 to 25 living in Lewisham. Former Young Mayors have used their budgets to develop the Bank of Things to address the issue of poverty and lack of resources for young people in the borough. We now supply everyday necessities to any young person facing hardship living in Lewisham.” - Lewisham Bank of Things

Upon donation, please message me at “ kowalskimark [at] gmail [dot] com ” to inform me of your intention to ride (in doing so I then have your email to send you the GPS file).

GPS File

A GPS file will be emailed to riders in the week before the ride.  A link to the same on ridewithgps.com will be provided at the same time.

DRAFT Route

https://ridewithgps.com/trips/64125520

Finish

If you’d like to be recorded as having finished, please email me GPX proof (Strava or Komoot screenshot would be simplest), or show me in person at spoons.  I won’t be publishing a list of finishers anywhere but I will record you as having completed it for my own records.  If the ride is popular enough, I will consider turning it into an annual Audax’ish event.

The Legal Stuff

Please note this is not an insured event.  By donating, emailing me and/or showing up you are not being provided with any form of insurance.  You ride the route at your own risk.  Please also be mindful of thieves operating at Victoria Station, and anywhere you stop in London for that matter, when leaving your bike unattended.

What is this ride called?

You can call it whatever you wish.

Some inspiration...

The London Lockdown 100
Hands Face Race
Turning the Tide Ride
Ominous Omicron Omnium
Non-Essential Travel

Ride it solo, in a team, in a relay, backwards, start early, start late, start from your borough—however you wish!


Image formatted for sharing on facebook/instagram/tiktok(?)

[alfapete]

That sounds grand, seriously interested. Train to Paddington, ride to Victoria. Sleep on the way home Saturday.
Is it reasonable to enter it as a DIY mandatory route? - just a convenient way to get the insurance.

[markldn]

That sounds grand, seriously interested. Train to Paddington, ride to Victoria. Sleep on the way home Saturday.
Is it reasonable to enter it as a DIY mandatory route? - just a convenient way to get the insurance.

Presto! Easy right?

I hadn’t thought of the DIY approach. If that provides insurance then sure why not!

[markldn]

I will shortly be reposting this in Audax.  After originally creating this post on the Audax board it was moved to Rides and Touring.  I've reached out to the moderator for an explanation but have received nothing back.  Looking at the posting rules on Rides and Touring, and historic posts on the Audax board, it is advised, with precedents, that audax-style rides, including Group DIYs, should be posted on the Audax board. 

I have submitted the ride to my local DIY organiser in order to receive a Brevet code, so Audax UK members may ride this event as a 150 DIY (using the code saves the organiser creating a unique route for each person riding which greatly aids him in validating completed rides).

In the meantime, for those interested, here is the finalised route:

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/38655094

[Kim]

I will shortly be reposting this in Audax.  After originally creating this post on the Audax board it was moved to Rides and Touring.  I've reached out to the moderator for an explanation but have received nothing back.

I'm guessing because nothing in the original post implies that it's a group DIY.  The description makes it sound a lot like one of the many informal FNRttC-inspired social night rides that forumites have organised over the years, so the moderator probably assumed this was the more appropriate board. Especially as it would then be noticed by those who aren't interested in Audax.

[orejas]

!mark,
I will email you privately. Sounds like a good idea . I would likely start late as I have a concert to go to in Brixton that evening. Clockwise or anticlockwise?

[markldn]

I will shortly be reposting this in Audax.  After originally creating this post on the Audax board it was moved to Rides and Touring.  I've reached out to the moderator for an explanation but have received nothing back.

I'm guessing because nothing in the original post implies that it's a group DIY.  The description makes it sound a lot like one of the many informal FNRttC-inspired social night rides that forumites have organised over the years, so the moderator probably assumed this was the more appropriate board. Especially as it would then be noticed by those who aren't interested in Audax.

Thanks for your thoughts on this Kim.

If an FNRttC is a 100 mile+ ride then I’ll put my hands up. No idea what that is. But also it shouldn’t need to be a Group DIY to be posted in Audax. Happy to go into detail on why I think that but I will refrain. I agree this ride isn’t “normal” but that’s why I made it. I don’t disagree that it might appeal to this board (so far no one from this board has expressed interest), but I think it would appeal much more to audax riders (of whom some have expressed/advised it is better suited on the Audax board).

!mark,
I will email you privately. Sounds like a good idea . I would likely start late as I have a concert to go to in Brixton that evening. Clockwise or anticlockwise?

Joaquin! Great to hear you are interested. I fully support doing this after a gig at Brixton haha! Tuff.

[markldn]

Clockwise or anticlockwise?

Always anticlockwise, audax is!

[Kim]

I will shortly be reposting this in Audax.  After originally creating this post on the Audax board it was moved to Rides and Touring.  I've reached out to the moderator for an explanation but have received nothing back.

I'm guessing because nothing in the original post implies that it's a group DIY.  The description makes it sound a lot like one of the many informal FNRttC-inspired social night rides that forumites have organised over the years, so the moderator probably assumed this was the more appropriate board. Especially as it would then be noticed by those who aren't interested in Audax.

Thanks for your thoughts on this Kim.

If an FNRttC is a 100 mile+ ride then I’ll put my hands up. No idea what that is. But also it shouldn’t need to be a Group DIY to be posted in Audax. Happy to go into detail on why I think that but I will refrain. I agree this ride isn’t “normal” but that’s why I made it. I don’t disagree that it might appeal to this board (so far no one from this board has expressed interest), but I think it would appeal much more to audax riders (of whom some have expressed/advised it is better suited on the Audax board).

Friday Night Ride to the Coast:  https://www.fnrttc.org.uk/  Night rides, mostly from London, mostly to the coast, but they've branched out over the years.  Usually something in the 60-80 mile range, and a bit more suited to slower (or nervous about self-sufficiency) riders than a typical Populaire.  Many people who cut their distance-cycling teeth on the FNRttC have gone on to ride audax.


Inspired by the original FNRttC rides, and of course the Dunwich Dynamo, various forum night rides have been organised over the years to a similar formula, typically in more northern locations.  I'm sure a search for FNRttS ("to the smoke" ie. Oxford-London), FNRtSR (Somewhere Random) or even my own FNRtME ("through middle earth" - the midlands) will bring up some examples.  And there have been others without silly acronyms.

Sadly, we haven't organised many forum night rides in recent years, (we seem to be mostly doing tours and camping/hosteling weekends).  I suspect because most of the forumites who are into night riding are getting their fix via the Fridays or Audax.  And obviously the last couple of years have been a washout for much of anything.  So it was good to see someone organising a new flavour of night ride.  (I'd be interested if I wasn't avoiding public transport for covid reasons.)


Anyway, the simple solution is to start another thread in Audax pointing to this one (or vice-versa), and explicitly mentioning its suitability as a DIY.  We've done that sort of thing before when organising rides with a tandem/recumbent/fixed wheel theme, and when making social events out of shorter Audaxes (we've had a large YACF turnout to support people's kids having a crack at a 50k a couple of times).  I'm sure the mods will be fine.