Family Bike Ride

I’ve scheduled beginners’ rides once a month for the next few months. The first was attended by five regulars (old lags?!), but I think we need to do some more publicity if we seriously want to get some new riders. We have the funds so I am thinking of doing some ads in the Spring – which is when most people get their old bikes out of the shed. It was a coldish morning with some very light surface icing in places and so, although I had a 40km road route ready for the Crawsham CTC stalwarts, we decided to do the Worth Way on the basis that any ice risk would be greatly reduced by this route. And so it proved, as we had a very pleasant ride out to Forest Row – the Worth Way seems to get busier every time I go down it, as it was packed - where we took coffee in the (relatively) new café by the tip. This is run by a friendly Dutch/English family and is highly recommended. They have some kind of old cars rally there once a month and a few were about when Barbara, John, John, Anton and I arrived to some welcome coffee/tea. Someone also had cake – no names here.

Bob hasn’t had a good start to the New Year as he has been a bit under the weather and off work resulting in his missing this ride, but, much worse than that, Anton turned up on his new mountain bike and showed a propensity to ride it off the track in the verges etc, very much á la Bob, including going up the hump in Rowfant. This could get serious when Bob is back – watch this space (:-> And hope to see you back on the bike soon Bob.

The by-product of the easy rides is that we were back by 12.30 after two hours riding – this is popular in the winter, even with the regulars – and even though the mileage only just crept over twenty, the main point is not the distance but the pleasure of some moderate exercise in pleasant company. We hope to see you next time – you may well like it and there is nothing much to lose from giving it a go.

This week’s ride is scheduled to leave Horsham swimming centre at 09.30 for The Black Horse at Amberley. The forecast is wet (as of Saturday am) but they don’t always get it right. Hope to see you.

Happy Cycling.
Peter