The Big Ride, London, 28/4/2012

[Wowbagger]

I reckon you could make some money selling photos of NSTN on her bike wearing a long, flowing dress.

She'd look awesome, I agree.  I should do a YACF calendar shoot sometime 

I suggested this a while ago.

[Wonky]

Many thanks to all for turning what could have been a very cold wet lonely crawl, into a pleasurable day out. It was great to meet and put faces to some more names from the forum.

I started after a nights CM'ing the previous evening by getting up far earlier than was civil, so that I could wash the bike* for the ride. I then joined the Harrow feeder, where we were seen off by our councillor. We took an 'interesting' NCN route approved by the Harrow branch of the LCC. At first I didn't understand why the feeder had been allocated 2 hrs to cover the 10-12 miles from Harrow to Hyde Park, but once we got underway on the approved route, it all clicked. lots of back streets, alleys etc, including several "Cyclists Dismount" sections. In future, I thinks I'll give feeder rides a miss, cane it down the Harrow road or the A40, and give myself an extra hour in bed.

Once I reached the staging area, there were far more cyclists than I had anticipated, especially considering the weather, and having missed the meeting at the Animals at War memorial  (which I only realised when I bared my YACF logo in a Superman stylee at two strangers at the memorial to be greeted with blank, slightly confused, slightly wary stares), It was extreme fortune that a little closer to the front I spotted the unmistakeable Charlotte).

We waited for an age whilst the obligatory speeches were made at the very front. We could only hear every 4th word or so, and we were in the front tenth of the ride. Those at the back would have no idea what was going on.

BTW. Sorry if I was a little cold with you Jurek, I didn't realise you were you until we were just about to set off, I just thought you were a random stranger until Charlotte spoke to you.

Aaanyway, we had a very slow pootle around the streets of london, making lots of noise, until near the end when Nutkin, Rob, NSTN, Wowbagger and I headed off in search of food and warmth. It was a shame that we lost Charlotte along the ride.
A very pleasant time was spent in the pub, where many calories were consumed, and fun was had.
It was good to finally meet Clarion and Butterfly, who looked remarkably good considering that they had just returned from the FNRttC, allthough the way they went for dessert first showed how drained they were! It was good to see Andrij again too.

I was bloody knackered at the end and dissapeared off around 4ish, and have to admit that I bottled out of the ride home and took the tube. I think an early night is in order.

A top day out, we really must do it again, but with better weather please.


* ETA what a waste of time that was, after riding the brakes all day in the wet, it's blacker that when I started.

[hellymedic]

My partner, David Arditti, led the Brent feeder from Kingsbury. Aside from those who had volunteered to help marshal there were no other riders at Kingsbury.
They went on to Gladstone Park to meet the feeder from south Brent where, yet again, there were only established Brent Cyclists. Proceeding to The Crown in Cricklewood, they joined a dozen Barnet Cyclists and cycled to Park Lane.
Any speeches were inaudible to David, who was totally unaware of their existence!
David did not return home until after 7pm, having socialised on the way. He and The Vole were cold, wet and demoralised.
Still, a turnout of 10,000 is fantastic.
Shame our corner of Outer London sent so few.

[Wobbly John]

Sorry to anybody who was expecting to see me and the Wobblebike on this ride. I awoke with a stressy-headache (shit happening at work), saw how wet & windy the weather was, and went back to bed. 

[nutkin]

Great to see people again, and actually quite enjoyable (if you discount the cold, the rain, the hanging about for an hour of inaudible speeches and the constant stop-start!) but lunch was great and seeing that little kid on the wooden scootalong was fantastic!

By the time I got home though, I had come to the conclusion that I would have been drier if I'd spent the day sitting in the bath...

[David Martin]

Out of sympathy for the southerners, Edinburgh riders also got soaked during the speeches..

(click to show/hide)

IMAG0411 by davidmamartin, on Flickr

[Domestique]

[jane]

Dear lord, that was a lot of cyclists.

Could've done without having to listen to lengthy speeches while temperatures edged towards Bejam. But I guess there is a cause etc

So that's why us at the back were hanging around, freezing and soaking.  The cause doesn't justify a few people, some of whom, IMO, may be a smidgin too fond of the sound of their own voices,  not thinking about how all those thousands who came out in support of that cause, many of whom were small children, might be feeling and just getting things started with the minimum of pointless pontificating.
      Sorry to moan. It was great to see all those riders.  To be honest, I didn't hear or see who was speaking, so I don't know for sure if my criticism is totally justified. 

[Notsototalnewbie]

Dear lord, that was a lot of cyclists.

Could've done without having to listen to lengthy speeches while temperatures edged towards Bejam. But I guess there is a cause etc

So that's why us at the back were hanging around, freezing and soaking.  The cause doesn't justify a few people, some of whom, IMO, may be a smidgin too fond of the sound of their own voices,  not thinking about how all those thousands who came out in support of that cause, many of whom were small children, might be feeling and just getting things started with the minimum of pointless pontificating.
      Sorry to moan. It was great to see all those riders.  To be honest, I didn't hear or see who was speaking, so I don't know for sure if my criticism is totally justified.

Oh, you weren't the only person to make that criticism...a few of us at the front were shouting at them to just let us get going. There really is only so much you can say on the matter and the talking went on for some time. It's not like you warm up on the ride, either.

[jane]

Do you know who it was prattling on?  (Just to see if I can confirm my prejudices about a few individuals!)

[Notsototalnewbie]

I wasn't close enough to tell really, but am fairly sure that the blogger from ibikelondon was one of them, and there was also a woman but I couldn't tell who she was...there was about three of them standing on the podium altogether.

The lengthy speeches were really ill-judged in my opinion, they would have known people were getting fed up but they kept yammering on even after people started shouting that they wanted to get going (including me...I had begun to channel the kind of Rage normally reserved for off-roading).

[hellymedic]

Dear lord, that was a lot of cyclists.

Could've done without having to listen to lengthy speeches while temperatures edged towards Bejam. But I guess there is a cause etc

So that's why us at the back were hanging around, freezing and soaking.  The cause doesn't justify a few people, some of whom, IMO, may be a smidgin too fond of the sound of their own voices,  not thinking about how all those thousands who came out in support of that cause, many of whom were small children, might be feeling and just getting things started with the minimum of pointless pontificating.
      Sorry to moan. It was great to see all those riders.  To be honest, I didn't hear or see who was speaking, so I don't know for sure if my criticism is totally justified.

The Vole didn't even know there were speeches till I told the poor drowned rat.

[Wowbagger]

I have signed up as a member of LCC just so that I could comment on the piece about the ride.

http://lcc.org.uk/articles/10-000-brave-the-rain-to-tell-politicians-london-is-ready-for-a-dutch-style-cycling-revolution refers.

[her_welshness]

I wasn't close enough to tell really, but am fairly sure that the blogger from ibikelondon was one of them, and there was also a woman but I couldn't tell who she was...there was about three of them standing on the podium altogether.

The lengthy speeches were really ill-judged in my opinion, they would have known people were getting fed up but they kept yammering on even after people started shouting that they wanted to get going (including me...I had begun to channel the kind of Rage normally reserved for off-roading).

Yes it was Mark I believe from ibikelondon. The woman was from Resonance FM and the other chap was Jamie Crick from Classic FM. I suppose with cycling being more in the public eye we are getting the rise of the kewl cycling blogger who are turning into right little media whores. A group of us yesterday were also discussing a certain bod from LCC, who at the Blackfriars Bridge protest whenever there was a photo-op with the politicians and celebrities just rushed to the front to get their picture taken with them.

[red marley]

I too had no idea there were speeches being made while most of us froze in the rain out of earshot and eyesight. That's pretty poor planning really given that it would have been of (dubious) benefit to less than 1% of the participants. That sort of thing also stops it being very family friendly as keeping kiddies on bikes entertained while corralled tightly in Park Lane for half an hour looked somewhat challenging.

I enjoyed the feeder ride down from Hackney, the two bikes with sound systems helped to add to a carnival atmosphere and it was a great feeling when we met up with one of the other feeders at Old St. The Hackney feeder didn't get to the main ride until after the front had gathered on Park Lane, so I missed the YACFers at the animal monument.

The ride itself was less enjoyable and felt more subdued than the feeder ride. Apart from the waiting in the cold and wet, the density towards the back was such that it really wasn't possible to ride and we were moving at less than walking pace. It felt more like a traditional London demo/march than a bike ride. Being on a fixed wheel meant this was very tiring on my left knee with constant stopping and starting. In the end we peeled of at Piccadilly Circus at about 1pm.

[Jurek]

I didn't do a feeder ride, but can imagine how that might have been immensely more enjoyable than being coralied on Park Lane listening to speeches for the converted in the cold drizzle.
Not Fun.
Is anyone from LCC reading this?

Dear me.
Am I erring into rant territory?

[her_welshness]

I didn't do a feeder ride, but can imagine how that might have been immensely more enjoyable than being coralied on Park Lane in the cold drizzle.
Not Fun.
Is anyone from LCC reading this?

Our feeder ride was fun, getting the time to speak to the newer cyclists was great. I know that Charlie from LCC is on yacf but I don't think he is on here much.

Coralled is a good choice of word to use.

[Domestique]

We, 2FE and myself, did the feeder ride from Barking. In terms of riding I am glad we did, I have always wanted to know a route from Barking Stn. into London and it was good to gain some local info for that.
The ride itself, on a warmer dry day that would have been a superb day out, imo. Just glad I packed my waterproofs  It was great to see so many people smiling and making an effort.

[hellymedic]

My cleaning lady did a shift at The Dorchester on Saturday and took some rather good pics of the ride with her phone.
I'll upload when I have the tuits.

[Gandalf]

My cleaning lady did a shift at The Dorchester on Saturday and took some rather good pics of the ride with her phone.
I'll upload when I have the tuits.

I can never find a round one 

[hellymedic]

My cleaning lady did a shift at The Dorchester on Saturday and took some rather good pics of the ride with her phone.
I'll upload when I have the tuits.

I can never find a round one 

I get short of them too but...

[style over speed]

I didn't do a feeder ride, but can imagine how that might have been immensely more enjoyable than being coralied on Park Lane listening to speeches for the converted in the cold drizzle.
Not Fun.
Is anyone from LCC reading this?

Dear me.
Am I erring into rant territory?

not at all… feeder ride was much more fun, apart from detour through LCN anti cycling barriers… anyway my hunch is that for LCC to get the closed roads, the "ride" was treated as a demo by the police, so it was bunched up as much as possible to get along the route in one block… I certainly did no riding, it was walking pace. I gave up at Piccadilly and went for some lunch… an hour later the roads were still closed but barricaded so to cycle on them had to wheel bike over pavement and avoid angry police on motorbikes  did ride along the closed embankment a for bit which was nice