Down to Longtown nocturne

[eck]

Good training for the Easter Arrow 2009

Never again. Ever.
And I even took enough spare jerseys this year. 

13 September? Looks like a possible, guys?

[Noodley]

Never again. Ever.
And I even took enough spare jerseys this year. 

You didn't ride the Easter Arrow this year did you?  ...you never mentioned it.   

[eck]

You didn't ride the Easter Arrow this year did you?  ...you never mentioned it.   

  I don't like to talk about it.

But did anyone ever mention the time I rode in, oh about 2002? Without taking a spare jersey? 

[y lee g]

Spare jersey?  Do enlighten us - I haven't heard anything about this and it sounds a fascinating tale. 

I would consider November 1st but not as a night ride FFS! 

[MercuryKev]

I'd like the opportunity of doing this one before autumn kicks in.  Applebag,  what do you thing is a good minimum number of riders that can make this viable? Then see how many you can get for 1 Aug and 13 Sept and go with the date that most can do.

[eck]

I'd like the opportunity of doing this one before autumn kicks in.  Applebag,  what do you thing is a good minimum number of riders that can make this viable? Then see how many you can get for 1 Aug and 13 Sept and go with the date that most can do.

+1 for that. I'd prefer 13 Sept, but I have a pass also for 1 August. However, I've had to promise not to fall asleep when my in-laws arrive on 2nd.     

[innesh]

I'd like the opportunity of doing this one before autumn kicks in.  Applebag,  what do you thing is a good minimum number of riders that can make this viable? Then see how many you can get for 1 Aug and 13 Sept and go with the date that most can do.

It's not a case of finding riders to make it viable - quite the opposite.  I won't bore you with the full story, but a limit of 10 or 12 would be good.  It sort of comes back to running an 'organised permanent' in competition to calendar events etc., etc.  This will be an 'organised permanent' type of event.  I can bore you with the in and outs  on the way to Longtown if you seem too wide awake. 

I'm veering towards 13th Sept.  Hope it's lucky!  A few of you seem OK-ish with the 13th, so let's go with that?  This would fit in better with what I originally intended (and what I'll be using you as guinea-pigs for) - a calendar event night ride for next year, held in early September.

Fuller details still to come. (when I get some time)

[Captain Zep]

I'd like to join in if you've not reached the limit, Applebag. 

RJMcB

[innesh]

I'd like to join in if you've not reached the limit, Applebag. 

RJMcB

Room for a small one 

[Captain Zep]

Room for a small one 

Cheeky bandit!    I hope you mean "aerodynamic" rather than "shortarse" 

[fin]

room for a lightweight ?

If it rains, I'll show you how to get wet !   

[David Martin]

This may be a silly question, but where does it start from?

And is there room for a short fat one who is slow on uphills (but much faster down them)?

..d

[innesh]

room for a lightweight ?

If it rains, I'll show you how to get wet !   

OK then, but they sell these awful looking hotdog things in the services, and I think you you need to eat one - or two!   

[innesh]

David, it will start from Biggar, (only just) in Lanarkshire.

Full details coming soon.

[David Martin]

David, it will start from Biggar, (only just) in Lanarkshire.

Full details coming soon.

The route looks pretty easy.. The last time I was on those roads was during my honeymoon - driving up through Scotland.

..d

[eck]

And is there room for a short fat one who is slow on uphills (but much faster down them)?
..d

I thought I'd already staked my claim to a place. 

[Cyclops]

Room for one more?

I'm pretty confident of getting at least as far as Symington before my bike spontaneously combusts or I get maimed by a rabid sheep 

[David Martin]

Maybe it should be renamed after Auden(?)'s poem.

Part quote:

Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb:
The gradient's against her, but she's on time.
Thro' sparse counties she rampages,
Her driver's eye upon the gauges.
Panting up past lonely farms
Fed by the fireman's restless arms.
Striding forward along the rails
Thro' southern uplands with northern mails.

Winding up the valley to the watershed,
Thro' the heather and the weather and the dawn overhead.
Past cotton-grass and moorland boulder
Shovelling white steam over her shoulder,
Snorting noisily as she passes
Silent miles of wind-bent grasses.

Birds turn their heads as she approaches,
Stare from the bushes at her blank-faced coaches.
Sheepdogs cannot turn her course;
They slumber on with paws across.
In the farm she passes no one wakes,
But a jug in the bedroom gently shakes.

Dawn freshens, the climb is done.
Down towards Glasgow she descends
Towards the steam tugs yelping down the glade of cranes,
Towards the fields of apparatus, the furnaces
Set on the dark plain like gigantic chessmen.
All Scotland waits for her:
In the dark glens, beside the pale-green sea lochs
Men long for news.

[Creaky Knees]

Two more small one's requesting a place please AB

I'd like to join in if you've not reached the limit, Applebag. 

RJMcB

Room for a small one 

[David Martin]

If it is getting full  I'll duck out and go off to Hebden Bridge for the weekend..

..d

[the cormorant]

Me please as well if there are still places!

[MercuryKev]

me too - I'm available for the 13th.

[LindaG]

Mercury Kev!!   Nooooo!   You are so going to kill me on Bikejournal.  Again.   

Sounds like fun.   

[innesh]

Details as promised.

Longtown Nocturne, aka - Lamps to Longtown, Midnight Madness, Moonlight Manoeuvres, Red Eye Randonnee etc.  A 200km (actually about 210km) overnight ride.

Disclaimer:   This is an informal gathering of individuals each choosing to ride an Audax Permanent on a pre-determined date, not a regular Audax UK event.   Please read the Audax UK entry form. 

Start: Assemble outside the Corn Exchange in the centre of Biggar, S. Lanarkshire, for a 9pm start on Friday evening, 12th Sept. (not the 13th as I and others mentioned above).  Parking available close at hand.  Find your own toilets.

Route:  Leave town on Station Rd., taking the back road to Broughton via Hartree.  Join the A701 to Moffat going over the Devil's Beeftub.  Thru' Moffat on A701, L on B7076 (old A74) to Johnstonebridge (Annandale Water 24hr Services) 1st control.  Continue south on B7076 past Lockerbie, thru' Ecclefechan and Kirkpatrick Fleming to Gretna (Springfield).  L in Springfield (Main St.) to soon join A6071 and A7 at Longtown.  2nd control.  You will need a bank card as the only option for proof of passage is from an ATM in Longtown.   Retrace on return but stopping at Gretna Services for a longer stop and a meal.  3rd control is J'bridge again on the way back up.  The final leg to Biggar will ascend the Beeftub - 6 miles of steady uphill! - and return to Biggar by going left in Broughton on the B7016.  It's not a difficult route to navigate.  The Coffee Spot cafe in Biggar (very near our start point) opens from 7.30am where I hope we can enjoy breakfast.  If we travel too fast, we'll have to make do with a 'randonneur's breakfast' - Coke and crisps from a newsagent!

Entry:  I'm charging the usual £2 fee, which will include a free stamp and envelope for return of your brevet and validation.  I need an AUK entry form, mailed to me before you ride.  My details are on p52 of the 2008 AUK Calendar.  This ride is only available to Audax UK members for insurance purposes.  Cards will be issued at the start and you can pay me in cash at the finish, if that's OK with everyone.  Please use the event name 'Down to Longtown Permanent' on your entry.

Rules:  No flashing rear lights!

I like eck's suggestion of "riding in the French Style". ie we ride as a group.  Not a peltalong pelaton as such, but at least within sight of one another and reassemble for stops, faerie visits, after long descents etc.  We could all use the company, it offers a feeling of safety and will help if anyone (me!) gets too sleepy, and will help with navigation.  If anyone wants to speed off, we won't stop you, but no-one gets dropped on the road.  We can make it a free for all after Moffat or the top of Beeftub, or after daylight if we choose.  If someone needs to stop, they must raise a hand aloft and shout, "Haud the bus!".  But essential stops only, please.

I hope I haven't missed anything, and that this meets with everyone's approval.  I'll post a list of likely participants.

Innes


 

[eck]

I hope I haven't missed anything, and that this meets with everyone's approval.  I'll post a list of likely participants.

Innes

  Excellent work Mr applebag. What you propose certainly meets with my approval. Please can you count me in. Thank you.