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.

Northeast of Crawley

Hail the conquering hero!

Yes, he did it! Anton successfully rode the PBP (Paris-Brest-Paris).

Well done mate, incredibly tough ride but you managed it.

Here are the stats (Anton was rider number 5716):

Yes, that's 1230 kilometres (about 880 miles) in about three and three-quarter days!

Anton is Iron Man (cue Black Sabbath track of same name) - "Durnn, Durnn, Durn,durn,durn duddle-duddle,durn,dad,durn,dad,durn etc. " (in a big, gruff voice).

I'm hoping to get more detail out of him about the ride, but I do know that he had to contend with a lot of rain and two days with a severe stomach upset that prevented him from keeping any food down!!

So today's ride was a sort of "warm down" for Anton - a mere 30 mile easy pootle during daylight hours. Joining Anton and myself at Three Bridges Station were Barbara, Ros, Laksh and John C. We headed off through Pound Hill, over the M23 on the Turners Hill Road and then down Old Hollow before using Copthorne Bank and Cross Lane/Dowlands Lane. The wind was generally behind us and we were soon through Horne:




Emerging onto the A22 just north of Blindley Heath, we turned left and then just as quickly, forked left back off the A22 onto Tilburstow Hill Road. As usual, we took the right turn just before the hill really kicked in but also we stopped for a breather, Ballet practice for Anton and a bite to eat for Ros....

Then Barbara grabbed my camera and took a snap of me - note the John Peel T-Shirt - I was wearing that to commemorate Johns birthday on 29th August.

Carrying on, we came to cross the A22 at a crossroads. As I got there, there was no traffic so I went straight across. When the others arrived a few seconds after me, a sudden glut of traffic meant we had to wait about 4 minutes before we'd all made it safely over.

We carried on due east for about a mile before turning south and down to the junction by The Brickmakers Arms - it was good to note that this pub appears to have reopened after a period of closure. The picture shows everyone sheepishly making their way back having missed the turn (and not noticed I was standing in the road waiting for them!!):

This road runs alongside that impressively long straight stretch of railway that runs from Redhill in the West to Tonbridge in the east - here's the view from an overbridge looking towards Redhill:

Next we passed through Crowhurst and saw the village sign:

It looks like a local benefactor was from Estonia - an inscription on a bench said that he was a "Great English Patriot" - leaving aside the obvious flaw in that statement, it's funny how the word "Patriot" has become quite an uncomfortable one, what with its shades of jingoism, racism, discrimination, association with the right wing and various other "isms". But then, that's a feature of our country, language and culture - we constantly change, adapt, absorb and become stronger for it. I'm SO glad we are such a mongrel nation - it makes it that much harder for extremism to get any kind of hold.

After Crowhurst, we headed through Lingfield and out along the western side of the racecourse along Blackberry Lane past some swanky houses. Then we passed through Felcourt and a downhill swoop before the final (stiffish - well stiffer than I remember) climb up into East Grinstead where we stopped at The Bluebell Cafe for lunch (all except John that is, for he headed on home in order to catch the Grand Prix).

The food was very good and we spent an enjoyable hour or so there before heading out and having said goodbye to Ros, acquired The Worth Way for a pleasant and easy ride back to Crawley.

Next weeks ride is the final DA Event of the year, The Arun Crossings. As a Member Group we're doing quite well in the DA Trophy competition - I reckon if we could have a good turn out for this last event, we may well win it. I believe the weather forecast is good for the weekend, so I don't think we've got any excuses :-)

This ride starts at Pulborough Station at 09:30hrs and involves several crossings of the River Arun using a variety of roads and bridleways, with a lunch stop at The Ship pub in The Haven (and usually a tea stop at Wisborough Green). I would recommend using a mountain bike or a strong touring bike for this ride as it involves quite a bit of fairly gentle off-road riding. It's great fun and I always enjoy it. Please note that car parking used to be free at the station on Sundays but now costs the princely sum of £1.

Travel by train takes about 30 minutes and would cost about £9.30 from Three Bridges (return), leaving at 08:46 (platform 3) and returning at 19 minutes past the hour sometime late afternoon (16:19 most likely). These trains would all stop at Horsham in both directions as well.

Shoreham Airshow

Todays ride was a quick sprint from Horsham to The Downs above Shoreham for a leisurely picnic watching the aerial displays at Shoreham Airshow. Led by Bob, the other riders were Pete S, Pat, Frank, Barbara (part of the way), Clare and Dave. The ride down was fairly uneventful save from the fact that Bobs middle ring revealed itself to be unusable following installation of a new chain and that Clare is King of the Mountains - more on that later.

Sitting on the Downs was very pleasant and we had a good view of the airfield and the aircraft. I took a few pictures but they rendered the day as looking much more grey than it actually was - there was strong sunshine pushing through a fairly thin layer of high cloud.

First we were entertained by a trio of Gnats - these were the fast jet trainers formerly used by the RAF (and by their display team the Red Arrows):




I messed about with this one in Photoshop:

Here's Pete with Lancing College in the background:

Another display was by the Breitling Wingwalkers. Each of these planes (I think the plane type is a Steerman) had someone on the top wing, though it was hard to see what the wingwalkers were actually doing - hanging on for dear life I guess!

I suppose that in a way the following picture is iconic "Shoreham Airshow":

The Falcons Parachute display team were good - very accurate - although my picture doesn't really do them justice:

and there was a dogfight enactment featuring several WWI type aircraft - these two are SE5a's - the type of plane that Biggles' friend "Wilko" Wilkinson flew:

There's the possibility I may have doctored this picture:

After about threee hours of sitting on the turf and having met up with several riders from the Bognor and Chichester section, we decided it was time to get cycling again.

I decided to take us north, further up into The Downs and then to head down the steep rocky path to Bramber. All the time we were travelling this route we could hear more planes flying around but didn't see much of them apart from a couple of Spitfires (I was too slow getting my camera out for them) and a Hawker Hunter:

As we traversed the rocky path we were caught up by the Bognor Chichester riders:

Once at the bottom we said goodbye and we headed east and north whilst they headed west.

We headed up the A2037 as far as Small Dole and then, at Woods Mill, turned right onto Horn Lane to Woodmancote. Crossing the A281 we went through the quiet backwater that is Blackstone before a short traverse along the B2116 and then Wineham Lane - every time we came to a hill, Clare shot up it and I shot out of the back of our 'peleton' (even though I was ride leader!!). The two hills on Spronketts Lane saw me run completely out of energy and that tough little climb into Warninglid was almost a bridge too far.... At this point Clare mentioned that she was a Black Belt Judo instructor - no wonder she was so fit she could just eat up the hills and spit them out! Continuing north, even the (relatively) easy slope from Slaugham Pond to Handcross meant the others had to wait for me to catch up again but the level road all the way to Pease Pottage allowed me to get back into the spin of things.

We crossed the bridge in order to avoid the big roundabout and, at the Horsham link-road crossing we parted - Clare and Dave were debating which route to use to get back home (the long or the short route), Pete and I to go down the hill, past K2 and through Tilgate and Furnace Green. Oh, I forgot to mention that Frank and Pat had left our viewpoint early and headed over to Cuckfield to "get on down" at a Rock concert (or something)..........

Pulling up at home, I had about 56 miles on the speedo and also some shopping to do - for a middle chainring - Shimano, 36 teeth, 9-speed, 4-bolt, 108mm centres.

Next weeks ride is a Three Bridges start at 10:00 and will go north and east from Crawley. It should be an easy 30 miler, see you there!

Forest Row and back

We were pleased to welcome a new rider from Horsham to our beginners ride start at Three Bridges Station – welcome Sandra! We had slightly overcast but pleasantly warm weather as we headed off down the Worth Way. Normally we can’t ride the tandem on to the Worth Way at the Three Bridges end, but due to some moderate reworking of the wooden chicane (someone has broken them down!) we are now able to ride up the slope to gain access to the shaded path of the NCR21 going east. We took a gentle ride up to East Grinstead where we were delighted to see Ros back on her bike and looking well and fitter than ever. She had been out on her bike for a short ride during the previous week and was now keen to get back in to regular cycling, without overdoing it. So we decided to head through the lovely old town centre of East Grinstead and then south east (descending) along the Forest Way to Forest Row. In Forest Row we observed the extravagance of two sets of lights to cross the A22 – one set for pedestrians/cyclists and another set immediately adjacent for horses. Turning right we headed up to Future Cycles and turned left in to the quiet back road through the village – a road that some of our regular riders had not visited before. We then looped left up to the tip and past our usual café, run by our Dutch friends, as we had a rare treat in store. Climbing quickly on the Forest Way back to East Grinstead we turned off to visit Ros at her new house for coffee and home-made cake! Thank you Ros for your hospitality. Ros then lead us through diverse ways (!) back to the centre of East Grinstead and then along a sequence of minor roads and bridleways to arrive back on the Worth Way by Gulledge. We noticed as we passed that this house, although having a fine stone front when viewed from the Worth Way, is in fact a much older timber framed building at the back – a building practice that I believe was quite common among rich landowners at one time (?Georgian period). Here we said au revoir to Ros as we freewheeled through Crawley Down and back in to Crawley. Slightly longer than our usual two hours, but very pleasant and relaxed in nice weather and company. And a total of 25 easy miles on this occasion (again a little more than usual for a beginners ride).

Next week we are all looking forward to visiting an airshow to be viewed from the South Downs. So bring a picnic for a 09.30 start at Horsham Park Pavilion (swimming centre) – go on, you know you want to!

DA Event - Picnic

This weeks ride was the penultimate DA Event of the season and involved members from each of the West Sussex Member Groups rendezvousing at Wisborough Green for a picnic. I was down to lead from Horsham but the usual struggle for me to get to the start on time was compounded by having been out late on saturday night - in fact I was so tardy, I had to scrounge a lift from my wife and arrived a mere 10 minutes late.

I spotted two bikes I recognised and sure enough, when I went into the cafe I found Barbara and Norman waiting. We sat and chatted for a few minutes and then set off. I'd decided to use the most direct route and so we headed through Horsham town centre and out on the Worthing Road. Turning right at The Boars Head on Tower Hill we used Two Mile Ash Road and headed towards The Bax Castle. As we crossed over the Downs Link a heavy shower started so we sheltered under the bridge and waited for it to pass.

Back out on the road there were now a few patches of standing water but the sky was mainly blue (apart from a big bank of dark grey cloud to our left). We took the usual shortcut along the Hordens in Barns Green and then turned right immediately before the level crossing onto Valewood Lane. Turning right at the end of the lane onto West Chiltington Lane we stopped as this is where we were parting ways - Barbara and Norman were heading on back to Horsham and I was carrying on to Wisborough Green.

I next used New Road and then, on reaching the A29 decided that as I was by myself I'd use the main roads to Wisborough Green. Ten minutes later I was sat down on a bench at the crossroads in the middle of the village.

After half an hour no-one else had turned up so I decided to eat my picnic lunch by myself - bang on cue, just as I finished, the others arrived! In all there were about eight of us and we sat around chatting about various rides, refreshment stops and the like.

An hour quickly passed and then we all headed off home in our different directions - mine was a lonely ride (sob, sob) and I more or less retraced my steps to Horsham and then took the Forest Road back to Crawley via Pease Pottage. All in all I only rode about 32 miles today.

Next weeks ride starts from Three Bridges at 10:00hrs and, led by Pete, will be an easy ride using the Worth Way. It will be suitable for all cyclists including beginners. I hope to see loads of you there.