2010-08-07 10pm Hyde Park Corner - Overnight to Brighton "Triple Crown"

this will be my second longer ride and i will probably do it on my lo-pro
dont worry about being too slow anyone, nearer the end i will be kinda slow.
and i wont be doing the big three hills either.
i could definitely borrow a geared bike off a mate, good idea?

It would certainly be easier on a geared bike, Joe. Having said that, there are few hills before the Triple Crown, and if you're comfortable with descending Reigate Hill, a long and fast descent, on your lo-pro, you should be OK. You could of course get out the geared bike specifically to tackle the hills. :)

Oliver, I can confirm that I will be at Victoria for 8.45. Looking forward...

Superb! See you tomorrow.

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It would certainly be easier on a geared bike, Joe. Having said that, there are few hills before the Triple Crown, and if you're comfortable with descending Reigate Hill, a long and fast descent, on your lo-pro, you should be OK. You could of course get out the geared bike specifically to tackle the hills. :)

i can do descents easily, and small hills i can do.
i would have to borrow a geared bike and its a bit of a hassle.
i'l probably just do it fixed.
what can anyone recommend about sleep?
just get an early night the night before?

^ on night rides I usually try and get 2 or 3 hours kip in the afternoon. Oh and yes, don't over-do it the night before!

cheers.

I'll confirm what conker recommends I do that before I start Night Shifts...it works for me.....and this week I'm on Nites so a bit of a result there....!!!!

There was a lo-pro on the 60 miles to Cambrige. He suffered. As this is not a time trial even if you are a time trialist I would recommend a different bike. Enjoy the recce. http://www.lfgss.com/post1446108-162.html

this will be my second longer ride and i will probably do it on my lo-pro
dont worry about being too slow anyone, nearer the end i will be kinda slow.
and i wont be doing the big three hills either.
i could definitely borrow a geared bike off a mate, good idea?

Didn't you do the Southend ride on the lo-pro? Nice bike btw. Brighton, even without the king of the mountains section at the end, will be hillier. Probably about the same distance tho, choice is yours.

yeah i did southend on it.
i reckon i might try and borrow a bike then.

oh and thanks, i love it :)

any tips on what to wear for comfort and warmth? first night ride y'see dont want to be froz'en

LFGSS baby sealskin hoody.

any tips on what to wear for comfort and warmth? first night ride y'see dont want to be froz'en
Having made the mistake of trusting the weather forecast on my only night ride so far (forecast 9 degrees, reality freakin' freezing!) I'd say go with more rather than less. You can always take clothes off if you get too hot.
I found that the pace on the DD was fast enough to cause some wind chill but not high enough to make me work hard and generate a lot of heat. So I got pretty cold and stayed that way until I was lying in the sun on the beach. This time I'll definately have more layers on and some long finger gloves!

Layers is the best option easy to remove but little hard to add to if you ain't got with you...!!!

cool thanks, going for tights under shorts, big socks, tshirt, swrve invisible hoody and night vision long sleeve with long finger gloves and ear warmers :-)

Right, Fox, Dropout and I spent a rather pleasant day recceing this. Dropout has the photos.

100km option: Hillier than I remembered, but we have about 7 1/2 hours to do this bit. The sunrise is supposed to be around 5:30. If it happens before we get out onto Shoreham breakwater, that's not the end of the world.

@Joe: Definitely not recommended with the lo-pro!

The main problem is that we couldn't identify a viable halfway stop with toilets. Plenty of petrol stations, of course, but none with toilets. Perhaps balmain is able to remember one. Pease Pottage Services unfortunately didn't come up with the goods--a toilet inside the petrol station shop, but that will of course be inaccessible during the night. The 'Moto Services' block had good toilets, but very conventional opening hours.

There is the option of stopping at Gatwick, at one of the 24-hour petrol stations, after all. We did this last August and it was better than nothing.

Perhaps balmain will have more tips--I followed up what you said, Des, but we didn't find anything.

140km option: It's hard, but it's doable. Some small route changes coming, so make sure you look at the route again if you want to Garmin it--but don't worry, I know the way.

The climb to Devil's Dyke is very steep at first (Fox and Dropout rode up there on 46/18 and 48/17, while I struggled mightily). Devil's Dyke Road itself, while climbing continuously, is much more gentle. We should get to the top of Devil's Dyke at around 6:30am or so if all goes according to plan. The descent from there has some pretty steep bits, but nothing that's impossible fixed.

Then it's a fairly rolling road down to the footbridge crossing of the A23, up an extremely steep bit of Church Hill, one of only two bits that Fox walked. The good news is that Church Hill is modally filtered, i.e. no motors allowed in this case.

The continuation of Church Hill, School Lane, leads down to Clayton Hill. Traffic on there was fairly insane in the peak hour. We should get there at around 7-7:30am, i.e. when there should already be some morning commuting. The right turn into Underhill Lane, a very pretty lane, is quite hazardous, and we will have to mind our Ps and Qs there. I'll brief everybody before we turn into Clayton Hill.

Underhill Lane leads to the Beacon Road, and DB was a bit of an ask this time around after all that climbing. Dropout jumped up ahead, I ground my way up, and Fox had to get off the bike briefly, but at that gearing that's not exactly unexpected. He arrived at the top riding his bike.

There's a lot of descending to do, so make sure your brakes are in good working order. Mine weren't today and I need to do something about that. Apart from Reigate Hill, we'll do most descents in broad daylight.

We had pints in Henfield and at Devil's Dyke and a great time. Good temperature, slightly overcast. The weather forecast for Saturday/Sunday is looking great, too.

Thanks to Fox and Dropout for great company today!

This should be fun.

i have secured a geared bike!

i have secured a geared bike!

Which lock did you use? ;)

No, good news.

So looking forward to this.

No, good news.

indeed
so hyped for this :)

im doing it geared too but on my hybrid :-(

Yep great ride! Thanks again Oliver. Hilly, but what goes up must come down =)

I was on 48/17 just for the record, could have ridden up Church Hill I reckon with more of a runup, but had little left in my legs by DB and that is one hell of a hill. I will be rocking lower gearing for Saturday but still not confident I'll get up without stopping, although that is my goal!