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  • Round & round the M25: 05 June, 2010

Author Topic: Round & round the M25 - 5th June 2010  (Read 23812 times)

Adam

  • It'll soon be summer
    • Charity ride Durness to Dover 18-25th June 2011
Round & round the M25 - 5th June 2010
« on: 09 April, 2010, 01:31:34 pm »
Seeing as we've now had 2 consecutive days of sunshine, now's the time to start thinking about some longer rides.

Several times over the last few years, the idea of doing a ride mirroring the M25 has arisen, most notably by Woollypigs, who managed to drag the concept out over 2 years!.  ;)

However, I'm intending to do this in 1 day, starting from Dartford, by the bridge at 8.30 am, with the intention of getting all the way round (hopefully without any traffic jams) in around 12-13 hours total.  It gets dark just before 10 pm by then, so lights may be needed at the very end, and/or the final journey home.   From the start point, it's only ½ mile from Dartford railway station where the trains go to London Bridge, Charing Cross  & Victoria.  It's also about 4 miles from Ebbsfleet International for the HS1 to St Pancras.

It'll be just under 150 miles, so it'll be a fairly sporty ride, rather than a FNRttC pace,  so I'm only expecting true hard core lunatics to want to come along.  I guess I should also add that I haven't done a recce of the complete route, and in a shameless piece of pilfering, it'll probably follow very closely the route that Woolly had worked out, shown here, although there are a couple of tweaks, so in due course I will post a new route.

So, anyone else interested?
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” -Albert Einstein

Wascally Weasel

  • Slayer of Dragons and killer of threads.
Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #1 on: 09 April, 2010, 01:41:43 pm »
I might be - hoping to be back on the road long before then and will be looking for long rides to build back fitness.

Andrij

  • Андрій
  • Ερασιτεχνικός μισάνθρωπος
Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #2 on: 09 April, 2010, 01:42:15 pm »
Did someone call for lunatics?  ;D

Been wanting to do this ride for ages.  I'll confirm availability as soon as I can.
 
;D  Andrij.  I pronounce you Complete and Utter GIT   :thumbsup:

Pippa

  • Busy being fabulous
Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #3 on: 09 April, 2010, 01:46:05 pm »
Oh yes me please :D

Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #4 on: 09 April, 2010, 02:45:49 pm »
Interested  :)

Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #5 on: 09 April, 2010, 02:54:10 pm »
An' anuvver  :)

Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #6 on: 09 April, 2010, 07:18:20 pm »
Have not done any long riding for such a long time. Put me on the list, I will just have to get on a train for once to get to the start in time.

Tim Hall

  • Victoria is my queen
Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #7 on: 09 April, 2010, 07:45:38 pm »
Yes please.
There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can
"overhaul" it, or you can ride it.  (Jerome K Jerome)

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #8 on: 09 April, 2010, 08:03:36 pm »
What about starting near the M4/M25 interchange instead?  :)
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Andrij

  • Андрій
  • Ερασιτεχνικός μισάνθρωπος
Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #9 on: 09 April, 2010, 08:13:37 pm »
What about starting near the M4/M25 interchange instead?  :)

Why start near the middle of the M25 when one can start at one of the ends?  ;)
 
;D  Andrij.  I pronounce you Complete and Utter GIT   :thumbsup:

Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #10 on: 09 April, 2010, 09:30:23 pm »
I'm in. Probably.

Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #11 on: 09 April, 2010, 10:21:55 pm »
I would have liked to do this but will be away.  If this one goes well hopefully there will be a rerun at some stage.
The sound of one pannier flapping

Adam

  • It'll soon be summer
    • Charity ride Durness to Dover 18-25th June 2011
Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #12 on: 09 April, 2010, 10:26:06 pm »
If we survive, then yes.  Another option, for another time, would be to do it as a night ride.  8)
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” -Albert Einstein

Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #13 on: 09 April, 2010, 10:35:08 pm »
If we survive, then yes.  Another option, for another time, would be to do it as a night ride.  8)

Well, I see you're doing the daytime version very close to the summer solstice for maximum daylight.
How about 5th December ish for maximum darkness? :)



I did this about 18 years ago. Probably still got the map with the route pencilled on it somewhere, but it'll be out of date now and the route I took was over 200 miles. I wouldn't want to do it again. Grotty roads and tricky navigation is almost all I remember of it but there were a few OK bits. There are much nicer 150 mile rides to do IMO.
But I suppose you could argue that you shouldn't knock it till you've tried it. At least you'll have sat-nav. Maybe you'll come up with a better route than I did.
Not for me though, thanks. :hand:

Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #14 on: 09 April, 2010, 10:50:11 pm »
*gulp* Teethgrinder gives it a  :hand:

Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #15 on: 09 April, 2010, 10:56:29 pm »
*gulp* Teethgrinder gives it a  :hand:


Pull yourself together man!

(Eep!)

Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #16 on: 09 April, 2010, 10:57:56 pm »
*gulp* Teethgrinder gives it a  :hand:


It's only because if I was going to cycle 150 miles for fun, I don't think it's the best choice. I'd rather go to the seaside through Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk along quiet country lanes with pretty things to look at than urban sprawl with lots of traffic dodging.

I remember that my ride took me 17 hours. I only snacked and never stopped for a proper meal. I spent a lot of time looking at my map, stopping to think which was the right way and navigating busy junctions.

Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #17 on: 09 April, 2010, 10:58:27 pm »
*gulp* Teethgrinder gives it a  :hand:


Pull yourself together man!

(Eep!)

But it's been 18 years and he still remembers the bad bits  ;)

fun

There has been no suggestion of any "fun" on this ride  :)

Pippa

  • Busy being fabulous
Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #18 on: 09 April, 2010, 11:23:46 pm »
There has been no suggestion of any "fun" on this ride  :)

There will be fun on this ride.

When we finish.

Adam

  • It'll soon be summer
    • Charity ride Durness to Dover 18-25th June 2011
Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #19 on: 10 April, 2010, 05:40:57 am »
There has been no suggestion of any "fun" on this ride  :)

There will be fun on this ride.

When we finish.

Yup - the night life in Dartford awaits us.   ::-) :P
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” -Albert Einstein

Manotea

  • Where there is doubt...
Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #20 on: 10 April, 2010, 08:47:56 am »
Sounds like a ride to do once, though as a West Londoner I would feel obliged to start at silly Oclock in the morning from the M4/M25 and stopping at Dartford for breakfast.

Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #21 on: 10 April, 2010, 09:55:04 am »
I'm tempted - I was intending doing this last year but found more interesting rides to do didn't get around to it.

I'm also from the west, which suggest either starting in the early hours and meeting at Dartford (are you going clockwise or anticlockwise?), or, alternatively, the Western contingent starts at the same time as the Eastern, and we race around London in a pursuit style  :)

Adam

  • It'll soon be summer
    • Charity ride Durness to Dover 18-25th June 2011
Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #22 on: 10 April, 2010, 10:53:25 am »
Whilst I'd agree there's definitely more interesting and quiet rides to do - I think it's like Everest though - it just has to be done.

I'd picked Dartford as the starting point, partly because technically that's just about the start of the M25, and also because it's fairly easy to get to, with a wide variety of train links.  And purely from a selfish point of view, I can get to it in just over a hour from my house (using the empty HS1 which I like a lot), whilst the M4 junction would take longer.

The southern section is the hilliest, so I reckon it would be best to get them out of the way first, which is why we'll be going clockwise.  The steepest ascent is 12%, but it seems there's a 19% descent!!
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” -Albert Einstein

Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #23 on: 10 April, 2010, 01:06:29 pm »
There has been no suggestion of any "fun" on this ride  :)

There will be fun on this ride.

When we finish.

I trust you'll be doing this on fixed?

Re: Round & round the M25 - 5th June
« Reply #24 on: 10 April, 2010, 08:07:13 pm »
Whilst I'd agree there's definitely more interesting and quiet rides to do - I think it's like Everest though - it just has to be done.

Fair enough. I agree with that sentiment.

That's partly why I did it. But I'll still be thinking  :facepalm: about your ride. :)