BHF #L2B London to Brighton bike ride fly-by of route (until the GPS conked out at Ditchling)

I'm waiting for JK to load up some video from the weekend's bike ride. He reckoned there was a technical problem with the camera, so we'll have to wait and see.

Until then, I took the remnants from my own Garmin route track and animated them in Google to produce a flyby from Clapham Common to where my GPS packed up at Ditching Beacon. I'm flying at around 75metres and at around 300 mph in the video.

I also managed to fly a bit close to the ground about 2/3 of the way through, but it'll have to do.

If JK sends me his Garmin log I'll make a full version.

I'll also try to extract some footage from my handlebar camera, but we all suffered from various schoolboy-style errors during the ride.

I also compiled a few lessons learned here:

1) Pack some wet wipes (Nope)
2) Eat the spare banana before it goes slimy (oops)
3) Don’t put the banana skin back in the backpack (oops)
4) Don’t take large bottles of Coke, however attractively priced at Poundland (That one is for Ian)
5) Put devices into low power mode - definitely don't leave the backlighting on (hmm, several of us)
6) After the chain falls off, check that the cadence and speed sensor thingy still working (me again)
7) Don’t put small bike attachments into the place where you put the banana skin.
8) Ask the parents’ permission before holding the baby in one's oily hands (I remembered to do this)
9) Try to have the same number of bikes at the end as at the start (the pickup to get back to London was in the next town yet one of us had sent their bike back by car.)
10) Remember to take lights in case it is dark by the time we get back to Clapham (someone in the Rapha gear, perhaps?)
11) Apply for next year already.

I am certain there are more.

BHF #l2b London to Brighton Bike Ride - getting to the start - the video

No time to edit any sort of video from yesterday's actual bike ride, although I found a few snippets of the way to the start in the VIRB, so I've just spliced them together as a taster.

It's me setting off sedately along the Queenstown Road towards Clapham Common. The area at the start of my route is all being redeveloped, hence the large builders' signs and then, after been passed by a few cars carrying cycle racks, there's the big Norbert Dentressangle trucks unloading yet more bicycles on the way towards the start.

London to Brighton BHF Bike Ride

Well, Team Nemo had a great day doing the London to Brighton bike ride. We were not alone. I think something like 27,000 other folks were also riding, creating a few interesting bicycle jams along the route.

Some of us had met the previous evening to ahem, load with carbohydrates at the Mason's Arms, at which time we also set up the Team Nemo Whatsapp.

Good plan, although connectivity on the day was rather lacking - except at the pubs. Fortunately our wonderful supporters team on the beach at Brighton kept us informed by acting as a sort of messaging hub.

Sunday morning I was awake at 05:30 so that I would have enough time for some porridge before re-assembling the bike and riding over to Clapham, through what should have been deserted streets. Not to be, they were filled with cars carrying roof racks of bikes and then, in Clapham itself, the sight of full sized articulated lorries unloading hundreds of bikes individually separated with cardboard and bubble wrap.

Onward to the start, which was set up in zones. 06:30 was still displayed when I arrived, but most showed 07:00, which was my start. A couple of Team Nemo had managed earlier starts and I marvelled at the friendly slickness of dispatching hundreds of riders at a time into the streets of South London.

Aside from a few sets of well-observed traffic lights and crossings, the elapsed time to leave London was comparatively short, faster than most car journeys, and we suddenly appeared in the Surrey countryside. One of those moments where you felt as if you'd driven over a planner's felt tip marker showing 'Where London stops'.

We approached a few smaller villages, decked out for the race, with tables offering cakes and cups of tea. In addition there were the larger official refuel points that seemed to be every few miles.

The early Surrey hills were pretty straightforward and I managed to keep going without much trouble. Some people were walking them, but I thought I'd save that idea for later.

Further along I had a minor mechanical problem when my chain slipped off during one of the climbs. I was probably doing something silly but it meant stopping to fix it which took several oily minutes. Black hands. Memo to self: Remember the wet-wipes.

The first 23 miles passed quite quickly, until we reached a place called the Dog and Duck. A bit of a roadblock here, because of an incident further along, which did create a sizeable delay.

I stayed in the country lane for the first hour, always expecting we'd be moving again. Eventually realising that the other side of the low and temporary fence was a loo-stop plus barbecue and pub it became more sensible to take a proper break. That's when I met some Americans and we had a chat whilst looking at the people in this ever increasing line. Whole teams in matching tee-shorts; Wheres Wally? ensembles; superheroes; people on vintage bicycles; some bikes that looked very, very, very expensive; some rather rusty looking clankers; some with fixed wheels, tandems, a few BMX, the list went on.

As did the wait, which became two hours.

My initial progress had been pretty good and I'd estimated to be finished by around 2 p.m. But now it was midday, and I still had more than half the route to complete. Ah well.

As we eventually started again, we were now amongst a huge volume of riders, caused by the compression from the prolonged stop. We likened it to a second start, only this time it was everyone at once.

As we reached the halfway point, the Turners Hill village was operating a holding tank to split us up into reasonable sized blocks for the next stretch, which was a fast downhill section. Yes, I used my brakes quite a lot. Others didn't seem to feel the same need.

Then a long mainly flat section until we reached the well-known Ditchling Beacon. For me, it's an impressive bump in the landscape, which you suddenly realise you'll need to climb over. I'd stopped for a nice cup of tea at the previous zone but with 40 or so miles and a few hills clocked I kinda knew I wouldn't get all the way up without feet touching the ground.

I did about the first third. Sounds wimpish? I'll still declare victory. Others walked from the base and only an handful were still pedalling by the halfway mark. I really need to improve my ability to start again on hills after I've conked-out. Quite difficult when there is such a mass of other riders around.

Around 15 minutes later, we approached the top. I could hear the tannoy voice as a clue that there's not so far to the summit, and then a cheekily abusive boy-scout shouting out 'come-on! smile! put some effort into it!'

At the top was about half a mile of sprawled bodies, eating ice creams and taking in the impressive view.

From there it's pretty much fast downhill all the way into Brighton. There's even bike lanes on the last stretch and then a taped off section along the road, where it did get slow again.

But after 30 minutes of stop-start traffic, the seafront appeared and then nice long flat route to the impressively crowd-lined finish.

Yay.

fake

An occupational hazard of central London used to be the number of fake £1 coins in circulation. They are still around, but the number seems to be in decline. I wonder if it's just that they are making their way around the rest of the UK or whether everyone is really handing them in to the police like they are supposed to?

Most of us simply don't do cash in the same way nowadays, with so many more things from cups of coffee to transportation using electronic payments.

The royal mint helpfully gives guidance about how to spot forged coins, but it's totally impractical to shuffle through a handful of change doing the relevant tests.

I just picked three quid at random and took a quick look. They are all well travelled, yet one of them is a fake. Most people wouldn't notice, but the eagle-eyed could work out that the one on the right is a dud. Slightly thinner, a poor edge stamping and the pictures on each side don't line up. Hardly anyone would notice - just the parking machines.

Still, the new one looks like a threepenny-bit.

wheels down

Another busy week has flown by.

I've been working a project that has had some rather late nights. One day I didn't finish until the early signs of the dawn sky.

So it's good to have finished earlier on Friday. Tomorrow I'll check that the wheels are pointing downwards on the bike before meeting up with Team Nemo ahead of Sunday's bicycle ride.

quick result calculation to save the need to watch it all

I've been working with spreadsheets a fair bit this week. I couldn't resist predicting the football results based upon percentage likelihood to win. I'm sure it's been in the news as well, but I tend to edit out the football.

squash down rain cape and shades?

We've been batting backwards and forwards a list of things to take for next weekend's bike thing. I didn't start it, but a longish list has been developed, aside from the paperwork involved to get the bike back to Clapham afterwards.

The banter made me check what's in the bike emergency kit and apart from too much pumpage (both manual and CO2), I think that part is about right. The little black bag has all the fiddly things like patches and spare chain links. The cash shown is representational. Owl and Pussycat like, I'll take some money wrapped up in an £5 note (other denominations are also available).

I'll put some SPF30 and Assos on before I start. I know, too much information.

Then it's about what to have for breakfast before several hours in the saddle. I'll be starting out rather early, so I've recreated a breakfast suggestion here: basically porridge or some sort of energy thing. A banana may come into the picture here somewhere as well.

Then a couple of those pocketable energy bars and gels and some dried fruit for en route. I'm tempted to get some Pineapple and Ginger Torq bars, but I don't have time. I'm not planning to carry a pasty like one of the Nemo Team, I'm thinking thin flat shapes as a preference.

I'm assuming that there will be obvious food stops, but I'll have some self sufficient stuff too, plus water and those electrolyte tabs. Pink Grapefruit is my preference. They take no room at all, although the squash down rain cape isn't quite as small as I'd like.

Oh, and phone, Garmin and sunglasses (obv.)

spin those cogs or sprockets or gears?

Friday was the first time on a bike for a couple of weeks. I managed to sneak a ride directly after work. A kind of 'take it easy' spin, although by today I can feel it in my legs. More in a good way, they are signalling that they are ready for some more miles.

Actually it's like a kind of curious vector which also runs from my legs, up through my body, all the way to my face. If it wasn't so difficult to pin down the feeling, I'd google it.

Instead, I'll sort out a couple of the charity bike tee-shirts ready for next weekend's 'Team Nemo' expedition from London to Brighton- we'll be somewhere in amongst the other 25,000+ riders.

The official start is in Clapham Common; I'll be cycling to the start from Chelsea and then onward through the various counties, across Ditching Beacon and onward to the coast.

Maybe I'd better get out for a couple more spins over this weekend as some sort of preparation.

Unusually, I'll humbly ask for any donations: simply text (UK) 70070 EDXX99 £2 or click through (any amount gratefully received, all for British Heart Foundation).

Chocolate Mermaid

Yep. Kim Boekbinder sings Tom Waits, live from her kitchen. Chocolate Jesus becomes Chocolate Mermaid.

faster than a stream of bits

I've spent today locked away in work, as indeed I was until around 10pm yesterday evening. Although the doors are not as complicated as the NASA JPL instructions above, it sometimes feels like it when I sometimes work in secure environments.

The above JPL warning featured today on brain pickings and it also inadvertently reminded me of another 'The Obald' flashback moment.

I used to work in a place not too far removed from the novel's imagined environment. It was so Civil Servanty that when we ordered any new furniture (filing cabinets or chairs), they would come in a randomly selected colour. We had mainly bright orange, green, shiny grey and beige, I seem to recollect.

We were doing things with special big room computers in times when today's high bandwidth communications were still considered as 'impossible' by various technicians.

I had a secret squirrel task that involved getting a load of data from Pasadena JPL and it had to be sent across by plane on a tape, because it was 'far too much' to be transmitted by any other means. We did have direct communication links with the USA, but only with low-speed lines really only useful for sending short messages around.

So the tape duly arrived, but was corrupted because of something that happened in transit. I sent for another one, creating what was probably a two week response time to my original data request.

The Obald features a computer doing mysterious stuff, ably backed up by similarly manual processes.

Little did we all know just how quickly the pace would pick up.

flying under the radar

I took my Kindle on vacation instead of a pile of books. I still prefer the inexpensive Kindle for beaches and suchlike, rather than fussing around with a somewhat heavier and less legible in sunshine iPad.

Amongst the reading material was blogger R.F. McMinn's novel, 'The Obald'.

I enjoyed it. I don't want to give too much away, but there was one of those jolly good plot twists part way through.

The early scenes build up a 1980's London, with a kind of authenticity that suggests it was being written at that time. A few times between reading, I found my mind wandering off to past times and the kind of differences, for example, in the workplace.

I've also recently re-watched 'Life on Mars', which is set in the late 70's, and there's a similar attention to the detail of the time in The Obald. Kind of pubs in the workplace, flexi-time which was like 12 free extra days holiday per year and colourful points about working in the Civil Service of the time. 'No point in using up a sick day when ill' springs to mind.

Add in a few tunnels, some physics mysteries and a bit of love interest, and there's a good basis for the story. As a regular reader of the aforementioned blog, there were also a few references to things that get written about in FAQ too. Baking bread, Pro-tools plug-ins and living in France, illustrate some of the entertaining diversity.

So, yes, I enjoyed it, and only afterwards did I read the addendum that explained some of its background.

delayed

After last week travelling around on mainly boats, it's back to my more regular form of London travel this week. Like many others, I'm suited and back on trains and tubes.

I'll admit the four hour time zone jump affected me the first day, but I'm back into the groove now.

This was before the train came up with a 'delayed' message.