FNRttC in any weather?

[sam]

When seeking enlightenment, it pays to cast one’s net further than one’s pond.

Though the OP and first responders are far across the road, if this yields replies here as well, that can only be for the good of humankind. At least those humans going on or contemplating a Friday Night Ride to the Coast.

Once you’ve got it in your head to do a ride, do you feel as if you must go even if the weather is, shall we say, heavily discouraging? If so, why?

[rogerzilla]

Some people believe that breaking Rule 5 is likely to result in the opprobrium of fellow cyclists and bad karma.

Others, more practically, reason that spaffing* £20 on an advance train fare home is not something that can easily be written off.

*every time I use that word, I get a mental image of Boris Johnson in the role of Onan.

[sam]

That jumped the queue to become #3 in my new testament. It is a topic worth further exploration, if there are any explorers about.

The ticket thing is something I forgot, not because I’ve got money falling out of my saddlebag, but because it’s traditionally been a last minute decision for me.

[Kim]

There's a time to HTFU, there's a time for type 2 fun, and there's a time for fucking it off as a bad idea.  It can only ever be a personal decision, but I've pulled out of rides at the last minute due to illness/injuy and not wanting to hold up a group; due to being utterly depleted in mojo from a real life Bad Day; and because a warm bed beats six hours of heavy rain and headwind.  I've also ridden in dangerously icy conditions; through pain and with distinctly non-functioning lungs; because there wasn't an obvious alternative; and because I was simply too stubborn to quit.

I've also been defeated in getting to the ride in the first place by Bloody Trains, which isn't quite the same thing, but deserves honourable mention for being so galling.

In summary: It depends.

[grams]

I only did this one because it’s been two years since I did one and it was the last chance. Under other circumstances there’s a good chance I’d have skipped it.

(Also, rain doesn’t bother me - being wet afterwards is the real problem. Good job there wasn’t lots of standing around...)

[lmm]

I've never regretted getting out and doing the ride, whereas I've regretted not going. So I like to make commitments and keep to them - I find that that ultimately leads to better decisions than deciding on the day.

If I was genuinely concerned about safety then I'd have no qualms about dropping out. But if it's just a question of whether the ride's going to be fun, I know I'll look back on it fondly.

[hatler]

If I've signed up for a ride, I'll do it unless, as happened last week, I'm too ill to come under starter's orders.

If it's wet, well, what the heck. My skin's waterproof and I'm not going to dissolve.

As I regularly take up TEC duties now I have an extra layer of motivation, that of not wanting to let the Ride down.

I'm definitely in the position of having taken more from the rides than I've given, and I intend to keep giving as long as I am able.

As ever, the hardest part of joining one of these rides is simply that of getting out of the front door. Once I'm outside I can't quite understand how getting to that point was so difficult. Roughly then, the equation is ten minutes of self-doubt, followed by many hours of gloriously sociable / lonesome / peaceful / beautiful cycling.

Every time I do it, and the equation outcome is reinforced, I can't quite work out why I still have those ten minutes of self-doubt the next time, but I do.

Back to the wet ride thing, I know I am happy doing the ride in permanently damp conditions, and I think that my presence will help others, who are possibly less certain, get through the night. I also know that for a ride leader, having as many experienced hands as possible along for the ride, especially on wet ones, counts for a lot, and most of all I want to make life as easy as possible for the ride leaders (so they keep on doing it).

[Tim Hall]

I only did this one because it’s been two years since I did one and it was the last chance. Under other circumstances there’s a good chance I’d have skipped it.

(Also, rain doesn’t bother me - being wet afterwards is the real problem. Good job there wasn’t lots of standing around...)

I've just realised that's you in your avatar. You arrived at Waterloo, Brompton in one hand, coffee in the other. Am I right?

[grams]

No, I was on the vintage mixte bike with the Waitrose basket on the back. This one.

[Tim Hall]

A fairly distinctive bike. Was it you who produced the electric pump? Please tell me more if so.

[hatler]

Further thoughts.

I've twice not completed a ride.

1  Brighton, about 2010. This was the only time I've set off on a ride without having a couple of hours of lying down first - I was working the bar at the local school for an event. It was a wet one and as a result there were a number of hold ups. By the time we got to Haywards Heath I was very wet, cold and I hadn't managed to strike up a conversation with anyone for the whole ride (entirely my fault). I was due back at home in time to take mini to footy, and there was no way we were going to be in Brighton on time to do that, so I bailed. (And was glad to do so.) The chap at the ticket office, once I asked for a single to London, suggested, that as I had a bike, I should ride there. His face was a picture when I told him how I came to be there.

2  Felpham, perhaps October 2014. This was planned to be the first completion of an FNRttC for mini (albeit over two legs), having done the first half in April of that year. (He made it as far as Faygate and then crashed out).  As we left the Cabin Cafe, it started spitting, and within not very long it was pouring. After about six miles mini turned to me and said "Dad, do we have to do this ?" We beat a retreat. I left mini at Horsham station and by the time I got to the Cabin to retrieve the car I was completely soaked through. Probably the right decision. (We completed the following April with a half-way start at Gatwick.)

[Kim]

The only one I've ever not completed was a Whitstable ride many years ago where my knee gave up somewhere on the first half.  I don't think there was any weather, or if there was, I was in too much pain to really notice.

[LMT]

Horses for courses I guess. Do it or don't, it don't matter.

But tell the ride leader if you are not turning up and be extra vigilant before you set off in checking your tyres. Both are things which are well within the riders control.

[Kim]

But tell the ride leader if you are not turning up

Absolutely this.  Hanging around getting cold and behind schedule while the leader phones around to work out if people are in bed, delayed by BloodyTrains or fixing a puncture half a mile away gets tedious very quickly.