As usual, John H wasn’t on an ordinary bike. However, instead of his recumbent he’d turned up on a 6-speed Brompton in anticipation of there being some climbing to be done (his recumbent is very hard work on the climbs). Pete and Marian were astride their nice red Thorn tandem, John C was using one of his old bikes – I think it’s the old, old bike. Frank was giving his lightweight steel Orbit another outing.
We used the familiar easterly exit from Crawley – Worth Drive, Turners Hill Road and Old Hollow – and soon found Anton was leading the ride from the back in an effort to try and keep the pace down. At our recent AGM an observation had been made that the average speed of our club rides was getting higher and higher and moving well away from our stated “10 mph” pace. Anton was trying to act as a drag anchor – it sort of worked, though would have been more effective if not for the fact that a lot of the group knew exactly what todays route would be!
Copthorne Bank, Cross Lane/Dowlands Lane, Smallfield Road were soon behind us and then we wiggled south then east again onto Hare Lane. A half mile of the A22 took us north and then we were back onto the quieter roads across to Haxted Mill. Here there was a short but steep little climb before it eased off and we continued to Edenbridge. The road North is dead straight and slightly up but we soon turned right for Four Elms.
At Four Elms we took the charmingly named Pootings Road which began an uphill gradient which continued onto Mapleton Road and got steeper and steeper the further we progressed. Eventually John H couldn’t keep the pedals turning on his Brommie and had to dismount for the last 50 yards to the top. Everyone else made it and we were all grateful that our destination, Chartwell, was here at the top of the hill.
In spite of Antons efforts at slowing us down, we’d covered the 20 miles in less than the intended 2 hours and although the café was open their hot food was not yet available. No matter, tea and cakes would do and we sat and ate them whilst observing the large number of people visiting Winston Churchills old gaff.
The ride home started with an exhilarating descent back the way we came. Although, as back marker I’d miscounted how many of our group had gone past me and was more than slightly relieved to find nobody missing when we regrouped at the next junction. We travelled west then south into Edenbridge and got hooted at by a couple of cars objecting to Frank riding two abreast, but once we were back on the smaller roads things quietened down again. We retraced our morning route as far as Haxted Mill and then turned left onto Water lane. I’d never used this road until the other week, nor the next road, St. Piers Lane. As we passed through the National Centre for Epileptic Children, John H seemed to express a desire to live in such a sheltered community – I think it was just the neatness of the houses and the pleasant location.
We now reached Lingfield and unlike last time we headed out on the B2028. As the road twisted and turned away from the village several cars were held up behind us but they all seemed fairly relaxed about it. Crossing the A22 at the roundabout near the Mormon “temple”, we then forked right onto Bones Lane which took us on to Croydon Barn Lane and thence Smallfield Road. Arriving in Smallfield we did a left then a right onto Wheelers Lane. The surface of this road is no bumpier than any other road but all of a sudden I found my saddle trying to escape from under me – the seatpost had snapped! I haven’t had a mechanical problem for some time so I suppose I was due one. I managed to stop without injury and dismounted to see that the post had snapped at the clamp point and there was just a small amount of post sticking out of the frame. I couldn’t get a grip on it to get it out so as there was still a fair bit of post attached to the saddle I pushed that down into the seat tube and tightened it up. The rest of the ride home felt a bit weird with a low seat height and my knees feeling more strain than usual. As we all headed into Crawley along the Balcombe Road, riders started peeling off until I too said goodbye as the Maidenbower riders continued south and I headed past Three Bridges station and home with 43 miles on the clock..
Three hours and a visit to Evans Cycles at Gatwick later, I’d fitted a nice new seatpost – this time a 27.2 mm one as I suspect the 27.0 mm one I’d just broken wasn’t quite the right size. Mind you, it had lasted several years.
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