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Have ridden from Vatersay up to Lewis several times. Wild camped and also used the Gatliff Trust hostels https://gatliff.org.uk/ which are amazing. It’s worth the detour to Rhenigidale if you’ve the time. Best wild camp spot I had was on Luskentyre beach, again worth detouring up the road along it to find a good spot. My first trip there was maybe forty years ago. No other tourists really then. My last trip was maybe five years back and a very different story! But still beautiful, even if the wind can be wild. If you do hit a very windy patch of time, probably best to avoid riding over the causeways till the wind drops. If you fancy reading about one tiny bit of one trip done with my daughter quite some years back now, it’s here https://saoirsedavis.com/2021/01/14/ride-to-rhenigidale/

Hey! Will pop in soon to say hello! I often lead family rides for LC there and quite enjoy mashing about in the woods for a quick bit of off road on my way home.

Really awful. http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/deptford-bridge-crash-woman-dies-after-being-hit-by-cement-truck-in-south-east-london-a3565366.html This looks like it has happened right on the crossing. It's a really badly designed one. Two stage, toucan, narrow central island for the volume of cyclists and pedestrians that need to use it (bus stops with lots of buses on both sides, college building, where the Waterlink Way crosses the A2. Long, long waits at each crossing point. Poor woman. Feeling deeply sorry for her loved ones.

Reports we had (Lewisham Cyclists) was that this was not a cyclist, but a pedestrian hit by a bus. Still horrid news and all the issues that make this area an unpleasant place to ride in also affect pedestrians.

Locals saying it's outside McDonalds. Road closed and back of vehicle screened off. Hoping for the best possible outcome for the rider. Route of proposed CS4, but not time or place to discuss here.
Not been good on the streets of Deptford over the last 48hours. A woman killed on Deptford Bridge junction yesterday. Not a cyclist, but those big junctions are difficult for all of us out there on the roads who don't have a ton of steel armour to protect us. Feeling sad for her loved ones.

I used to take a pair of plimsolls, tackies or whatever people call them. Or a pair of light Keen sandals. Although, I have been known not to take any other shoes apart from my Shimano MT91's. Ever since I did my Dungeness to Durness trip when, as I dozed outside my tent in the evening sunshine in a field near Spalding (exotic, I know) a fox ran off with one of my nice little sandals. Managed the rest of the 1800 miles (I rarely take a direct route, in case you're wondering) with just the boots. Even if they were a bit ripe by the time I got home.

I work with WfW too...once a week at HHV...love it! Lots of adult 1 to 1 training this week which I find interesting and very different after a whole career of teaching children in a classroom. As I have been doing a fair bit of teaching adults who can ride how to plan and ride a commute, I have been learning a few new skills myself. As in, how to deal with a massively crowded cycle route (Elephant to Blackfriars and beyond) where the main hazard is other cyclists!

Definitely a bit of that going on!

If tights are too big, can I have next call on them? Oops just seen someone else already called. No worries!

Level 1 course. Big skill mix of children, including larger number of non riders than usual (course not really meant for them). Two bikes with stabilisers. However, we split the group and I took all the non riders. Took stabilisers off. Got the whole lot riding by the end of the session. Did not think that would happen with such a big group, so really chuffed. Not as chuffed as the kids. The look on their faces as they finally sailed off round the playground, completely independently, pure magic. Even managing little slaloms and figures of eight and a final game of follow my leader. The hardest kids to teach were the ones who had had the stabilisers. I guess not surprising as they had to unlearn stuff they'd already internalised.

Only just seen this thread...Lewisham Cyclists talked a bit about doing the full route but eventually gave up on the idea but a few of us are riding our own London Classic Poor Relation on Sunday, so may well bump into you...ours chops off the northern bit, and is solely South London based (shame, I do so love Back Lane and Wapping) and is about half the distance. However, we do Canonbie the hard way! Well, I'll walk it the hard way. We intend to finish at Gipsy Hill Tavern for PR. Have fun and maybe see you all there.

Yup...three years away. And had to walk the last bit of Barnehurst on our Surrey Hill 100 miler on Saturday for the first time in my life. (I blame the heat, not my ageing legs, of course!) So, finally beginning to realise I am not a kid any more. Time for a third chainring on the road bike, I think!

In 1979, I was riding along Lee Bridge Rd. As I rode over the railway bridge, I heard a shout and turned, automatically, to see a van alongside me, slowing down. The passenger, his body strangely contorted in what I hope has since caused him recurrent back pain, was waving his penis at me through the open window. I remember being bemused and somewhat revolted at the time, although, strangely, not as intimidated as I have been by other stuff I've experienced over the past forty plus years. I have had my backside slapped several times, lost count of the lucky saddle type comments, probably had hundreds, maybe even thousands, of shouted comments over the years about the size and shape of various bits of my body and what the shouter would like to do with it, or me to do with it and them. On the occasions when I have answered back, either I have been met by aggression and vile insults, or, the old excuse, come on darling it's just a compliment and the implication that I should be grateful for the attention. During the early 80's, at the E&C, I was physically attacked when I told a couple of guys shouting obscenities at me out of their car to get lost. They pulled up, jumped out and, in a rather surreal way, began beating me over the head with a rolled up umbrella. (That was weird, as well as very frightening).
And, even though I am not that far off sixty, it still happens. Riding to work yesterday, yet another lucky saddle type comment. It really makes me furious and sad at the same time that in the forty plus years I have been riding on London's streets, so little has changed. And that there are people out there still saying it's not harassment, take it as a compliment, when it's so obvious it's nothing of the kind.

Thanks, folks, for coming along and being a really friendly, laid back, chilled bunch.
According to Dermot, who joined us after a night out in Soho, it was oddly much less crowded than usual on a Saturday night, so we may well have been fine riding through it and using Bar Italia anyway. Especially as the group wasn't quite as big as it has been in the past. Lovely bunch of people though. At midnight, I was almost regretting running the ride, feeling pretty shattered and if I'm honest, if I had the choice, would have stayed in bed. But, once I turned on to the riverside at Greenwich, I began to enjoy that strangely calm and free feeling that riding in London late at night always gave me years ago, when I did it far more often. Lack of sleep does seems to affect me much more than it used to. But really glad now that we haven't let the tradition slide. Next year it's on a Monday night, so Soho and Bar Italia will be fine. But on the other hand, most of us will have work the next day. Big thanks to everyone who turned up. You definitely made it a ride worth leading.

There's always Polo on Bishopsgate...it's just we like our usual greasy spoons and most of them want a guaranteed minimum number to open up as early as they would do on a weekday. And you can't blame them for that...my partner's family ran a caff in Smithfield for years...incredibly hard work and their Sunday morning lay in was precious to them as every other day of the week they were up not that long after midnight! It would have to be worth their while to open up at 6am on a Sunday.

It's that time of year again! Lewisham Cyclists will lead the the traditonal yearly trip from Greenwich via London Bridge up to Primrose Hill to view the sunrise of the longest day of the year. A ride first introduced to me years ago now, by the fondly remembered Barry Mason. Another reason for keeping it going, for me anyway.
It's a Saturday night/Sunday morning, however, so our usual journey through Soho with a coffee stop at Bar Italia would be problematic. We have struggled to get through those streets on a weekday night and I can't remember the last time I managed to get inside Bar Italia on this ride. So, looks like we'll head through the city, then turn right at some point to join the old route past Regent's Park to Primrose Hill. We may skip the coffee stop, or could head past Beigel Bake on the way. Sunrise is at 4.43 so would aim to be at Primrose Hill around 4.15 to 4.30am. We usually leave Greenwich at 2am. London Bridge around half an hour later.
Generally, once sunrise is over, some people drift off but we usually lead the hungry to a caff for breakfast. Traditionally, we have used the Island Cafe, once we used Lock 7. which opened early for us. Neither of these is an option now, the former is closed on Sundays. Lock 7 doesn't really do food. So, apart from the Polo Bar or back to Beigel Bake, not sure if breakfast is possibe, unless anyone knows a caff that opens before 7 on a Sunday.
All are welcome to join us. Any advice about cafés and coffee stops welcome, any back marking help welcome.

Thank you. There's quite a few similar in other parts of London, but not so much in the borough of Lewisham. And the Dr Bikes we used to run at local fairs were always over subscribed...so we thought there was definitely a need.

Lewisham Cyclists got some money from the CCFL (Community Cycling Fund) to set up a drop in self help style workshop (bit like 56a, Hackney Bike Workshop etc...you know the kind of thing) I've uploaded the leaflet which has all the details so far...the service is free, and cost price for parts we provide (basic ones only though...inner tubes, brake pads, cables). Al welcome, although if your bike has lots of problems, best to ring and discuss it with us first!
And if anyone has any bike fixing skills they want to share and would like to help us out, on a volunteer basis (free coffee, tea and cake though!) get in touch. Additionally, we have a small budget to pay a qualified mechanic. Obviously, it's only a few hours a month here and there and you would have to have people skills too...it's not a repair shop, people will be coming to learn as well as get their bikes mended, so you need to be able to share stuff and explain. If you're interested, either in volunteering or the paid mechanic hours, PM me.

I finally did get the Vulpine trousers. Parcel was wIting for me on the doorstep on my return from off roading in the Cairngorms. So I guess I was lucky they were still there! They feel great. Size small fits me. Just. Very comfortable. Haven't really worn them anywhere yet as the weather has been too warm in a London since I got back and still in my Marks and Spencer stretch denim long shorts, which I almost lived in this summer, apart from when I had to wash them, or was doing a longer or harder ride.

I keep meaning to...however, I am getting so old that 6pm rolls up and I doze off. Also, it's CM tonight and, although it's ages since I've been, an old friend is visiting from abroad and wants to revisit our badly spent youth by going.
Do you meet in that new place that was Mr Lawrence's? What time?

They look good...can't find the sizing for women's trousers though.

She sounds as though she was an amazing woman. What a loss.

Poor family. Again, no words. Just feel so sad for this young man, his family and friends.

So sad. So sorry, Prestige, for you, your sister and the rest of the bereaved families. Not to mention friends of the deceased. So many people's lives affected. No words, honestly.

I am not a competitive cyclist, not since my teens anyway. But I do enjoy watching racing and especially enjoyed watching the peloton sweep up and down roads in this country that I have ridden many times over the years. But this news dampened my enjoyment quite a bit...http://cyclelondoncity.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/6million-cycling-safety-budget-pinched.html