Easy Riders 2 January

from right; Dave, young Bernard, John B, Gillian

John Bellamy lead 10 of us out from coffee at Cobham to Bookham Common, where there was rich birdsong(and many robins all along our route). Everywhere much less muddy than before Christmas, thanks to the lovely mild dry weather we've enjoyed over the holiday season.  From there we swooped down through Fetcham and Leatherhead  (pausing by the ponds for our pictures) and up the path to Leatherhead rail station, where we stopped briefly again. Then we continued on to Lower Ashtead for lunch at the Woodman, a favourite pub.  

The temperature seemed to have dropped several degrees when we emerged after lunch, so when we were stopped by the level crossing gates at Ashtead station , Gillian and I whizzed round under the railway bridge to keep warm...we then had to speed up to try and catch up with the others all across Ashtead and Epsom Commons. We gave up at the Stew Ponds, heading for the road where we met young Bernard on his way home.  No tea stop today and I was glad to get home in the warm for the afternoon, by about 2.30.

Many thanks John for pleasant ride and everyone for good company.  Looking forward to seeing you all again next week!

Gillian, Frank, Sandie and Ken

 

Tall Bernard and Liz

Mike and Helen



Outside Leatherhead rail station.  Mike was ahead of us on his own route, so we caught up with him at the pub...

Author: Helen Tovey

1 Comment:

Tim C 04 January 2019 at 19:53 GMT

I didn't know there were so many couples in the Easy Riders :-)

B Group Jan 2nd

Nineteen of us set of from Cobham. I'll admit that it was a relief that the numbers were not higher given the B group tendency to exceed 20. We made steady progress south over Bookham Common and up Dorking Road to Chapel Lane followed by a swift descent to Westhumble. After taking the Coach Road to Brockham we stopped on the green for Pete Beyer to take a group photo. There was some surprise here that we were turning left over the river and not going direct to Dawes Green but as I had hoped there was time for a loop through Betchworth to approach the pub from Flanchford Bridge. Ordering food and drink took a while but it was served promptly and we were away soon after 2. We returned more directly to Pixham and then up Lodgebottom Lane to Headley and on to Epsom. By this time we were shedding those who wished to go home rather than to tea and just five of us stopped at the Old Moat Garden Centre. About 30 miles from Cobham to tea. Thanks to Tim for the route map and back marking, and to those who corner marked - particularly Dave Ferrett and Steph.

Author: Brian

A Group Ride to Englefield Green 2nd January

Fourteen souls ventured out under a grey blanket of cloud, which kept the temperature to a balmy six degrees and no rain! It was obvious that my planned ride was going to be a success when after the Woking section of the Basingstoke Canal, 14 out of 13 wayfarers voted it the best ride of 2019! I suppose the lack of big hills and the urgent need for everyone to get some miles in, after languishing about over Christmas, contibuted to us arriving at 'The Rose and Olive Branch' at 12.30am. Look how happy Simon is!

After lunch, having gone through Staines in sales fever, we finished at 'Dish' cafe. Simon says I have a natural ability to choose routes no other leader would even consider taking, despite familiar ways being open to me.. or something like that. So that's nice.

Thanks go as usual to all the professionals for corner marking and David Jackson for back marking. Santa would be very impressed with the teamwork.

Author: Steve D

1 Comment:

Simon L 03 January 2019 at 21:27 GMT

I like Peter Betts' Christmas tree helmet!

New Years Day 2019

A good turnout for the first day of 2019. People arrived in dribs and drabs over a 2 hour period. Around 25 plus all told.

Great chat and banter. Nice to see Jeff T, Ray Wren and Daniel. Ed led a few from the Spring Tavern and Helen T arrived with some of the easy riders.

Eventually it was time to leave and a small group headed to the Bell at Molesey for lunch. I accompanied them as far as Teddington and headed home after delivering a newsletter to Alan Anderson. A very Happy New Year to you all.

Tony..

Author: Tony

1 Comment:

Helen Tovey 01 January 2019 at 20:51 GMT

We were so lucky with the weather this New Year's Day - mild, bright and even sunny from time to time!
My little band included Yasmin and Diane, both regular Saturday afternoon riders; and Sabrina and her husband Bernard, on their first outing with our
group. They plan to join our Saturday rides this year, and enjoyed the friendly welcome this morning.
A great start to the New Year!

New Years Day Social

10.30 at the cafe in Richmond park for a Southwest London CTC social new years day coffee and chat.

 

Click for location

Author: Tony

1 Comment:

Dave Vine 31 December 2018 at 20:59 GMT

Guaranteed to be as sunny and warm as the photo too!

Emirates Cable Car

Many of you I know have already done this but it was a first for me and I think our Chairman too! Photo below of Dave V next to a R-R Trent jet engine which powers the A380 Airbus. There are four of these each producing 110,000 lbs of thrust at max power. The four engines combined produce approx 200MW of power at takeoff enough to supply a large town.
Other photo's are KPRC MTB riders in the Gondola, they allowed 3 of us per car with bikes. A good days ride just 40 miles including train assist from London Bridge to Tadworth on way back.

Author: mike morley

Where did B Group go in 2018?

Publishing the heat maps for A and B Group rides now seems to be an annual event so here it is for B Group:

This represents 40 rides, Elevenses to Lunch to Tea, the ones which I attended. Of the other 12 Wednesdays, there were no rides on 2 of them and I didn't ride with B Group on the days of the annual lunch or the AGM. So that leaves 8 full rides missing.

One thing that is clear from this map is that it is quite difficult to plan routes for our group which don't cover quite a lot of familiar territory, although it is a challenge we all enjoy and we do seem to find the odd pub which we have never visited before.

Happy and Safe Cycling in 2019

~ Tim

Author: Tim C