Seaside Ride

Sitting on the edge of the beach in bright warm sunshine eating lunch from the award winning smoked fish place, it was hard for the five of us to believe that it was the end of September. But having summit-ed the Beacon we were all in a fine mood and enjoying the late autumn sunshine.

It all began thirty miles previously in Three Bridges, where the five of us – Barbara, Marian, Bob, John C and Peter S - assembled at nine o’clock for the climb up to Turners Hill to meet Ros.

The traffic seemed lighter than usual which may have been because we were setting off earlier than of late, and it was already pleasantly warm; in fact quite warm, by the time that we had climbed the hill to Turners Hill.

Ros was waiting for us and so we turned south for the mile after mile of freewheeling to Lindfield – it is hard to believe how much downhill there is, until you try the route back from Brighton and, in fact, there are a couple of ‘ups’ on the way. We were saddened to learn from Anton that the coffee shop in Lindfield had closed but we weren’t planning to stop until Ditchling anyway, on this occasion, and so we headed for the exquisitely named Slugwash lane where we met Anton for a brief chat and a catch-up on his Audax (and other) adventures.

Leaving Anton we proceeded further south and eventually arrived at the café in Ditchling. As usual there were plenty of cyclists in there, but we did think that the prices were a bit higher this time – maybe this was because most of us had cake and not our usual toasted tea-cake. John left us to return home for other commitments leaving just the five of us to do the Beacon.

There was the usual amount of traffic which was largely well behaved and at the top a fairly stiff breeze from the south west.

After Bob had his traditional ice cream and we took a few pictures, we headed off south again to find the junction over the A27 log-jammed with cars trying to go in both easterly and westerly directions, making it very hard to go straight over, as very few drivers were prepared to let us through. They were probably jealous of us as they sat in the heat of their vehicles! Once we had all got across we made short work of the slope up by the golf course prior to the long descent in to Brighton.

There was a fair bit of traffic in town, no doubt due to the excellent weather, but we still made good time on the long swoop down to the pier. I’m not sure how Bob got on with his annual effort to set off the speed camera on the way through…….

After lunch there was only Bob wishing to ride back so all five of us piled on the train after a considerable amount of negotiation reduced the ticked price by twenty quid (you’ve gotta love privatisation of the railway – what were the benefits exactly?!). Due to the bridge maintenance at Three Bridges we went to Gatwick and rode back (this also required negotiation to get a ticket for Three Bridges – well done Barbara and Marian) along the NCR 21, so that Barbara could search for where she had parked her car and Ros could whizz along the Worth Way back to East Grinstead.

Thank you all for coming. I think that we all had a really good day out, with nice company and good weather – maybe you should join us next time.

Happy Cycling,
Peter S

Our next ride is on Sunday 2nd October. It will be a family friendly, suitable for ALL abilities, two hour ride along the Worth Way and back. The start point/time is Three Bridges Station at 10:00hrs.

West and South of Horsham

After a pleasant evening in a Western themed restaurant dressed as a cowboy, it seemed fitting that todays ride should head west. As the start was from Horsham I was "on message" straight from my front door, as with the sun beating down on my back (poetic licence - it was overcast), I headed due west along the Forest Road and actually arrived ten minutes early! Unfortunately no-one was there to witness this rare event :-(

Shortly after, Barbara arrived but, in spite of waiting until 09:45, that was it. We set off out of Horsham heading west over the golf course and up Rowhook Hill, noticing that lots of fungi are starting to make an appearance - including a straight line of them in the middle of a field! We headed through Cox Green and up into Rudgwick where we turned right and headed down past the brickworks (have I spelt brickworks correctly? Their sign suggests otherwise):


Loads of bricks there, it would be nice to have a house built of local bricks, although I don't think much of that front door!


Although the sky was overcast, it was really very pleasant riding with just a slight wind and a temperature warm enough for a t-shirt to suffice. Barbara thought it was bit cool for that and kept her jacket on.


After crossing the A 281 we carried on west and then I made a navigational error and took us down Drungewick Lane. I didn't realise until we'd gone about a mile further on, so rather than turn around I rejigged the next part of the route. As we approached Loxwood from the south, we encountered a road race in progress and were overtaken by at least three clumps of fast-moving roadies complete with motorcycle marshalls and accompanying cars. On reaching Ifold we turned off the race route and headed south again, only to rejoin it at the next junction - we missed one clump, but the second and third clumps went past us again. They all went left at the next junction, into Kirdford. we turned right and were going westward again. We used Scratchings Lane towards Ebernoe and then Pipers Lane before arriving at the lunch halt - The Deepwell Inn at Northchapel.

I'd decided on this lunch stop as I had noticed that the Arun & Adur section were lunching there and thought it would be good to meet up. They numbered 4 and we joined them to enjoy a pleasant lunch with good food and good beer. The pub seemed to be having quite a bit of work done to it, so we'll have to return sometime to see what the finished thing looks like.

It was still overcast when we left the pub but then a patch of blue sky sat over us as we rode back via Kirdford and Wisborough Green. We were tiring at this point and decided to head for Billingshurst to catch a train back to Horsham. Speeding along the A272 , our patch of blue disappeared and we started to feel the odd drop of rain. As we arrived at the station it started raining properly and we looking foward to sitting in the dry of a railway carriage. However, we'd just missed a train and the next was a full hour away - we could ride back in that time! So, on with the waterproofs and back out into the rain.

We headed through Billingshurst and back to Horsham via New Road, Barns Green, Two Mile Ash Road and Tower Hill. Arriving at the town centre Barbara headed off to meet a friend and I headed across to Ifield using the new cycle route along Wimlands Lane and the bridleway into Ifield North.

I arrived at my nephews house just in time to see the mighty Reds give a footballing lesson to the Chelski blues and washed the result down with cider and birthday cake.

Next weeks ride is our annual ride to the seaside.

Leaving Three Bridges station at 09:00hrs, the ride will be a relatively easy 30 miles (with the notable exception of Ditchling Beacon - but there's no shame in walking that) and will doubtless feature a tea-stop at Ditchling village and then lunch on Brighton seafront. As it goes via Turners Hill and Lindfield, there's the possibility of joining in along the way - contact Pete S or Bob to let us know if that's your plan.

The return can be by train (n.b. Three Bridges Station will be closed, but direct trains from Brighton will go to Gatwick and it's an easy ride back to Crawley from there) or the slightly harder ride along NCN20 with possibly a pub stop at Bolney or Staplefield.

This ride is usually very enjoyable and gives a good sense of achievement, so what's holding you back? See you on Sunday!

East Grinstead

The forecast had been pretty grim for most of the week predicting heavy rain and the tail-end of a hurricane, but as it turned out we had nice weather, pleasantly warm and only a light breeze.


A view of Gullege

We were pleased to welcome Ann-Marie on her first group ride with us after previously joining us on the Family Bike ride in June. So we had five riders as we left Three Bridges, fashionably late at 10.15.

Ann-Marie and Pete

The route was a little muddy following earlier rain but nothing that caused us any problems as we headed uphill to East Grinstead. The Worth Way was well used again today and there seem to be more cyclists than ever.

Barbara

Anton

We had a nice coffee in East Grinstead at the Bluebells café that Bob recommended. Some people also had cake, although they did share it. No toasted tea cake though – a bit of a disappointment for regular cyclists. Retracing our steps for the mainly downhill return we had some light sprinkling of rain drops on two occasions but it wasn’t even worth putting our waterproofs on. We arrived back in Crawley just in time for the start of the Grand Prix.

The statistics from my nice new free Android application (My Tracks – see previous blog for details):
Total Distance: 15.98 miles Total time: 2:36 Moving time: 1:57 Average speed: 8.18 mph Maximum speed: 18.49 (I bet Bob went faster!).
I can upload the stats and route to Google but haven’t worked out how to share it yet – not particularly interesting for the Worth Way but more so for our other rides. Watch this space.

So a nice little ride with the only down being that Button beat Hamilton! (Bob says "Hurrah for Button!").

Please remember to check the website for details of upcoming rides – this Sunday is a 9:30 start from Horsham Park Pavilions and will be an easy 40 miler west and south of Horsham.

The next Beginners Ride is on Sunday October 2nd and will probably use the Worth Way once more. The following Beginners Ride is on November 6th for the Veteran Car Run and will be short on mileage but big on spectating.

Hope to see you soon.

Arun Crossings 2011

I've spent my entire career working with computers and I would like to go on record as saying "Computers are cr*p!!". All of their benefits and usefulness are completely blown away by their ability to just lose the last hours worth of work you've put in!

Yes, I know it's traditional to blame the operator or blame the programmer but actually experience has taught me that the machines themselves are capable of extreme malevolence. It's understandable really - they are generally unattractive agglomerations of plastics and metals with no life of their own, so it's obvious that their jealousy will cause them to try and annoy us sometimes - thank god for the off button, if all else fails I love to use that as the ultimate sanction! Kill switch - I'm going to call it that in future. Oh, and in case my current pile of rubbish (Evesham I think he calls himself - computers are male by the way) is thinking of doing the dirty on me again, I'll just type in these two words "Club Hammer". Yeah, that made it think - I love the sound of hammer on high technology early in the morning!

2 - 3 - 4 ..... and relax........ right let's try writing the blog .... again!

Warm enough for short-sleeves but with a leaden sky hinting at unpleasantness, the last DA Event of the year got under way from Pulborough Station at about 09:50hrs. Colin, the ride leader, had been joined by Bob, Richard, Dave and Vicki. We'd waited for a train to come in from each direction but no-one else had joined us, so Colin lead us away. From Church Place onto Coombelands Lane and then up a sunken road to the top of a sandy ridge before descending down to the A283 next to Stopham Bridge.

As we burst out from the trees we were met by John C. By mistake he'd got off the train at Billingshurst and then, realising his error he had done a quick sprint down to Pulborough. From experience he knew that we usually use Stopham Bridge for the first crossing of the river and he'd gambled on intercepting us there - good call!

So, we made our first crossing on the Old Stopham Bridge and headed west on the A283 before turning right onto a small lane which eventually turned into a bridleway and bore us up through woodland. It was pretty dark under the trees and hard work taking photographs, but I gave it a try:


We emerged from the woods and turned right onto a lane which proceeded to climb even further up - I recognised it as Bedham Lane and we were heading for the top! Once we'd crested, after a short downhill we turned left for another climb before taking a bridleway that forked down to our right. Out of the blue we were presented with the following sight:


The ruins of a church (someone called it Bedham Church) - I found it quite spooky and was very conscious that I was all alone there taking the photograph...... hurriedly I followed the others and recklessly passed them all on the way down the hill. I like to think I was giving a demonstration of good bike-handling skills and showing that just letting the bike go is often better than hanging on to the brakes. The others probably thought "What an oaf!". The bridleway continued as an interesting forest singletrack before emerging at a country pile called Hawkhurst Court. Here Colin pointed out a plaque that informed us that Canadian armed forces had been stationed here during WWII.

Leaving the excessively gravelled drive we gained the firmness of Crimbourne Lane before turning left onto Fittleworth Lane. A few hundred yards later a right turn took us onto a farm track where we all pulled up at the side in order to let a learner driver in a Land Rover go past. The bridleway went left then right and skirted four or five fields as well as scraping against a bend in the river before joining another bridleway in open farmland just south of Harsfold Manor. Time for another photo stop:

From here it was but a mile to the elevenses stop in the tearooms at Wisborough Green. As we pulled up we noticed Edwins bike outside. Also, it started raining.

We sat in the cafe supping our coffee and eating cake for a while and the rain stopped, so we decided it was time to get going again. Edwin was going to stay on the roads and meet us at the lunch stop, the rest of us would follow Colin on whatever route he had in mind.

We hadn't gone 10 yards before the heavens opened and we all hurriedly put on our waterproofs. After another 100 yards, Dave, Vicki and John decided to call it a day leaving just Colin, Richard and Bob to carry on.

The rain was fairly heavy and quite wetting but not too cold and we were often fairly sheltered amongst the trees:

Compare the following two pictures. Taken at about the same place, the first is from 2009:

and here's the one from today:

Once over the hill we passed the lake (no sign of its resident Heron)

and arrived at Malham Farm. After a false start, we got onto the correct bridleway and
worked our wet and muddy way over to Drungewick Lane. Now we had a couple of miles of tarmac before once again plunging onto a bridleway and what was only our second crossing of the river near Gibbons Mill. From here it was tarmac again for a mile and a bit until we arrived at the lunch halt, The Blue Ship at The Haven.

Chris from Littlehampton and Edwin were already there and so was a nice hot bowl of celery soup with a pint of Sussex for accompaniment. One of the good things about the Blue Ship is that the public bar has a stone tiled floor and wooden seats, so us dirty cyclists don't ruin the decor!

The rain had eased a little when we set off to continue the Arun Crossings - Chris joined us and Edwin was heading for home. After a half mile of road we took a level but slightly slippy bridleway through some woods before emerging on Okehurst Road. After a few hundred yards we turned right onto another bridleway that skirted a couple of fields before crossing the river on this bridge:

Shortly after, we crossed the canal by a lock:

After this the route crossed a field and then up a farm track past the place where Edwin had his fall a couple of years back and into Malham Farm once more. Heading south we retraced part of the morning route before heading east past Loves Farm, over the canal and river, across to Okehurst. A pleasant run down Rowner Road was enlivened by the sight of a Mark III Ford Cortina GXL (1973 reg) in orange with a black vinyl roof.

The excitement was too much - my bike had to have a rest!

At Rowners Farm, it was off-road once again with another crossing of river and canal by Rowners Lock. We used a bridleway through Wisborough Green and headed south past Harsfold Manor for our next crossing of river and canal. The climb up to Lee Place was slippy with the top layer of mud sticking to our tyres just to weigh us down. So when we made it to the road, we actively went through all the puddles we could in order to wash some of the mud off. It didn't make much difference though as we were soon on another bridleway and heading down to the river again. Once over, our route took us across some green pasture and that helped remove some of the crud from our knobblies. Turning left onto a road I realised we were heading back up Bedham Hill! But just before the gradient really kicked in we sped down another bridleway into some woodland:

By now the rain had more or less stopped and the temperature seemed to have gone up a degree or two.

and we made our final crossing at Pallingham

before climbing back up to the road to head up past Coombelands and then down into Pulborough to finish a mere six hours after we started.

I was wet and covered in mud, but had a big smile on my face after a really enjoyable days cycling. That's got me all set for a charity ride I'm doing with some workmates on Saturday - 55 miles from Brecon to Cardiff.
http://www.justgiving.com/bhscycleride is the donation page if you get the urge!!

Our next club ride is on Sunday starting from Three Bridges Station at 10:00 hrs. It will be an easy two hour ride aimed at relatively inexperienced cyclists and will most probably use the Worth Way. Come along and have a nice relaxing, traffic-free (and hill-less) ride.