Central London CTC blog

We met at St Pancras on 24 July ready for our Sunday ride, but unfortunately the day did not begin well.

As normal we had left our bikes in a stack while we gossiped nearby and shopped for tickets and breakfast. When we came to move on we found we were one cycle short, the top bike having disappeared, a rather rusty substitute left close by. It seemed a passer-by had decided to trade in his bike for a better model without paying the difference.

The moral is that we need to immobilise our bikes whenever stopped in London, even if in the group and only waiting a few metres away. Most of leave our bikes unlocked at the station at the start of rides, so it could have been anyone of us left without our wheels. more »

The July Little Green Ride did not have a promising start. We had to leave from Stevenage, as morning trains to Knebworth weren’t running. This cost Edward £20, as he’d only bought a ticket as far as Knebworth. Then we got lost in the cyclepaths of Stevenage, less than 50 metres from the station, thanks to the spectacular incompetence of the leader (me). Mikal came to the rescue with the map application on his iPhone so with the combination of his 21st century technology and Tom’s 20th century OS map, we managed to escape to the country. In my own defence, I will say that the Stevenage cycle network has defeated better navigators than me.  more »

Nick and I decided to bunk off for the midweek West London Audax, second of four in the Willesden CC’s traditional summer programme.

The départ, as ever, is at Manor Farm, Ruislip, though event HQ has moved from the ramshackle hut in the car park to the pleasant tea-room in the adjacent park.

The route out of Ruislip threads through the outer suburbs to cross the Grand Union Canal just beyond Harefield and on towards the Chalfonts. As the Willesdens disappeared off up the road, Nick and I tooled along chatting about selling vintage bikes, refurbishing sash windows, and the likely fate of the euro.

Reading from the route sheet, Nick called a right turn (the wrong one as it happened) and my shout-out of ‘Gravel!’ was just too late. more »

Geoff, Angela and I claim the record for the furthest away from London day ride for Central London CTC. OK, it wasn’t an official one, but I did invite all likely contenders and Geoff proudly wore our jersey (see left).

Seriously, the aim was to show that with current high speeds it is possible to go well outside our normal stamping grounds and have a ride in scenery which is quite different from the Home Counties. After all, I reckoned, we used to get trains taking about an hour and a half and the trains to Lancaster are only just about two and a quarter hours. And for many of us Euston is just on our doorsteps (Geoff takes 12 minutes to ride there). Booking in advance means that cost is only just over £30 (including bike) although I left it late and ended up with a cost of some £70.

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A forum topic on the excellent Roadcyclinguk.com recently asked: What is the optimum number of bikes?

One waggish poster proposed a formula. It is n+1, where n is the number of bikes one presently owns. As an alternative, he suggested, one might use x-1, where x is the number of bikes that will provoke your partner to leave.

Mindful of this, I spent rather too long this past weekend prepping my oldest road bike for sale. more »