West London Birthday meet up, 3/8

[tiermat]

As Monday 2nd will be my brithday, and I will reach the grand old age of 25*, I thought it might be nice to get together for a ride out.

My initial plan is thus:

Meet at the Black Horse, Iver Heath
Ride to The Royal Standard of England (The Royal Standard of England - PUB OF THE YEAR 2009 WINNER !)
Eat and drink then return....

How does that sound? too ambitious? It's ~10 miles from the black horse to the standard, and I can personally vouch for the quality of food and beer at both pubs (the first is my local, the flat is just around the corner from it, and incidentally used to be Sid James's local )

*one or more of the previous statements may be false

[orienteer]

Sounds good to me!

[Bledlow]

Will you drink Owd Roger at the Royal Standard? I remember when the pub was famous for it. I don't remember it being a Marstons brew back then, & it was stronger.

[tiermat]

Strangely enough, the last time I was there I was driving and navigating, so didn't get to try the beers.  They do seem to have a vast array of forrin brews tho, I could see a major hangover in the making there

[Charlotte]

3/8 might be good for me 

[tiermat]

Looks like 3rd is the preferred option, so I think we will go with that

[tiermat]

So I have recce'd the route, it's about 12 miles, nice and flat (as most S.Bucks routes are) and not too bad to navigate.

The pub (Royal Standard) has the following beers:
Knights of the Garter (YUM!)
Timmy Taylor's landlord
plus 4 others...

4 different kinds of cider

Multiple different belgian and french beers (including Abbeye)

AND 3/8 is a quiz night......

[tiermat]

Route now worked out, see here:
   Bike Route Toaster


6PM @ Black Horse, then onwards from there.  If not raining I will be sat outside, with a pint of badger, wearing one of a number of YACF tops and my PURPLE Dave Yates (AKA Superfast Jellyfish)

[woollypigs]

I'm utterly knackered after a hard weekend working, so I will not be making it.

Happy birthday anyway.

[TimO]

It sounds like a good idea, but a >60 mile round trip after work is probably a bit much!  Have a good time.

[tiermat]

Wooly and Tim, thanks for letting me know, much appreciated.

It appears the newly married couple will be making an apperence, YAY!!!!

So it will be a nice, relatively small group consisting of:

Me
Orienteer
Clarion
Butterfly.

Anyone else?

[TimO]

I was toying with the idea of tubing it out to Uxbridge, but of course I can't do that until after 1900, which probably scuppers it as an idea.

[orienteer]

Just to point out you could catch a Chiltern train back to Marylebone from Beaconsfield Station afterwards.

Thinking about the route again, I can show you a quieter route from Gerrards Cross to Beaconsfield avoiding the A40, which might be quite busy at that time. As long as you're patient - it will take me best part of an hour to ride the 12 miles!

[LittleWheelsandBig]

HK and myself are likely to be there, at one of the two pubs at least.

[tiermat]

Just to point out you could catch a Chiltern train back to Marylebone from Beaconsfield Station afterwards.

Thinking about the route again, I can show you a quieter route from Gerrards Cross to Beaconsfield avoiding the A40, which might be quite busy at that time. As long as you're patient - it will take me best part of an hour to ride the 12 miles!

No worries, I think that will be about the general pace for tonight, no racing

LWB, fantastic, I will PM you my mobile number, in case you can make it to the Black Horse, so we don't leave without you!

[tiermat]

Now that was what I call a good night, we all met at the Black Horse, then Orienteer led us around what seemed like all the hills within a five mile radius of Uxbridge to reach Beaconsfield.  Beer was drunk, bike talk was bandied about and good food was eaten.  Orienteer, LWaB and a.n.other (I am really sorry, I know I have met you before but I am useless with names) left to get the 9:12 from Beaconsfield, leaving me, Clarion and Butterfly to finish our drinks then a quick blast down the A40 led us back to Iver Heath.  The panniers safely restored to their rightful positions on the tandem Clarion and Butterfly disappeared off into the night, hopefully to be seen again

thanks guys for making it such a brilliant night.

[orienteer]

Great to meet up at last. A few modest slopes but probably better than the A40 in the evening rush hour!
Thanks to all for the company

[clarion]

That was great fun!

The A40 was good fun in the dark, but I certainly wouldn't have fancied it in rush hour.

Impressive seeing a pack of small wheeled bikes heading off at speed.

I enjoyed spending time with folk, eating good (but far from plentiful ) food, and a cup or two of tea. 

Just hope no one got too bored waiting for us.