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Mega weespectacles! Well done fella.

Home of the Penny Farthing Micro Pub, nom noms!

Kerrrrrrrrrrrikey! The mileages you fella's achieve in one ride. I'm well-impressed and more than a little in awe.

I doff my sweaty bike helmet you Sirs, respectacles to you both.

Phwwoooooaaaarrrr, that was both fun and rewarding. I think I've managed to find most of the bits of paths and tracks where you can ride next to or as close as possible next to the Thames between the Dartford Crossing and Tower Bridge, henceforth known as "The Northside Thames Tickler". I had a whole day to meself to do it so took lots of time detours, a velo-voyage-of-discovery if you will, all 33.4 twisty turny miles of it.

Loadsa piccies along the way, starting with a picture of an inquisitive wally with too much time on hands and rubbish bike that needs riding waiting for the lift over the Thames to Essexth.

Safe landing, ride along the Rainham Marsh Path and took the obligatory (!?) Paddlesteamer heading down stream to the river crossing at Dartford picture.

Nothing worth taking pics of until I discovered a little path I didn't know of in Creekside that takes you down to the Barking Barrier...

I don't know of a way of keeping close to the Thames along the section betyween Creekside and Becton but you can get on the Thames path at Gallions Reach and cross a coupleof lock gates like this one near the Redgrave Bridge...

which is right under the City Airport flightpath where some joker has put the Christmas lights on early...

Picking up the Thames path again you go past this funny little boat by North Woolwich, whats it for?...

Continuing along the lovely scenic (ahem) path to the Ferry...

Then I had to come inland a bit as Tate n Lyle own the river frontage along a big chunk o Thames at Silvertown but I did get to find a little park and path that leads you right up to the north end of the Thames Barrier thus..

Then over the Lower Lea crossing and bit of a detour into Trinity Bouy Wharf just because I could, and it's got good views of Mega-Bucks-Land....

and a crash helmet with aerials sticking out of it...

Shimmy onto the Isle O' Dogs and take the 1st left after the big blue bridge and here's a little bit of my partners family history....

and...

Can't see nuttin' right? Well, many years ago there was Shipbuilder on this site, it was the Pitcher Shipyard. My would-be-Muvver-in-Law-if-I-married-her-bonkers-Daughter is a Pitcher, a direct descendant of that fella who owned that yard. Coolio or what? Unfortumatley there's no Onnasiss (sp?) mega dosh dynasty to be inherited as the business went bust due to boats sinking years later due to dodgy rivets or summat. Meh.

Talking of boats, here's the launch site of Brunel's SS Great Eastern, what a whopper it was too...

..which was on a nice riverside path around towards Canary Wharf, lovely views up stream along it too IMO. Then you get thrown off it around Limehouse where upon sits number 131 Wapping High Street...

Thats where in the late 80's I signed away a fortune to buy a 1970's MusicMan Stingray Bass and a huge Mega Boogie all valve bass rig. Still got and play the Stingray but I've got no need for huge backline amps now so the Boogie went. I digress...

Further along Wapping I found you can get close to the river again, sweet views of Tower Bridge getting closer...

And so after a very pleasant 33.4 miles I thought I'd let my heap take the spotlight...

and thrash it to within an inch of its life back to my fave pub close to home. 1Hr 2 mins to do this...

Slight tail wind helped me keep up an Av. 15.67 mph which was good for me on the Fixie.

Arrived happily knackered at the pub and found this guest ale being served,

Awethumne! I'm a big King Crimson fan, saw them in Aylesbury at the beginning September and they were amaaayyyyyyyyyzing.

2 pints, night night.

The end.

:)

Ta for the 'stylistic-props' everyone :) Its appreciated. I'm having a go at a North side of the river 'Thames-Tickler' today (Sunday) starting at the Dartford Crossing and seeing how far I can go after a very stressful week starting my 1st new job in 20+ years. I need Phixxey Therapy pronto.

On it.

Yey! Thanks Mr Owl.

I'll do 2 types of ride reports to keep everyone happy if it helps :)

Thanks Skully, yep, I have been already this week after work.

I finally got a local job. My new cycle commute to work takes 4mins 8 seconds, 0.8miles to be exact.

Its a bit of a shock after 32 years of commuting into The Smoke, I likey.

I've done a few rides this week, making the most of the last week off. I did a Phixxxeeee Phun Ride from Dirtfud to Grain Village via Allhallows and back on that blisteringly hot Thursday...

....which was actually 56.3 miles of quite hard work.

And then yesterday I cycled up to Lundun and back to meet my partner at the Imperial War Museum where she was studying for the day...

which was great until I got 'doored' at London Bridge by a passenger getting out of a car in stationary traffic without looking to see if there's a short hairy bloke on a bike in the Cycle lane coming up before doing so, kerrrrrrrruuuncheroonie....I slammed into the 5 Series BMW door and got thrown off the bike into the pavement. Wrist and Hip took a pounding and the brake levers had been forced round the bars a bit but my bell suffered spring carnage! I launched a full-on Lycra Lout stream of abuse at the eeejutt who splattered me, from their nervous shaking I think they got the message. Thank you concerned passer by x 2 who checked I was OK. I so I carried on the journey with the bell defunct cos I'm well-tough innit! :)

Cycling's fun!

Apart from them 2 bluddy big guns out front is there anything I can lock my bike to at the Imperial War Museum?

Super proper weekend ride yesterday, none of this mid-week shenanigans... cycled to our daughters (BatFace) house down nr Guildford in Surrey. Perfect conditions, had the entire day to get there too so I thought I'd create a new ride, 'The Thames Tickler', where you try and tickle the soft southern underbelly of the Thames as much as possible before hunger and need for a pee (I'm in my 50's don't forget... stop sniggering at the back!) dictated a central Lundun diversion. Refreshed and heading westwards..., I then came across road closures EVERYWHERE! Duh, that'll be the big cycling event in Lundon you bluddy wally FOMOAF, great day to try and cross the West End (ya tit). Managed to get across the course at Regents Street (thanks nice understanding Security peeps) and then mashed it (correct term?) all the way through to Putney Bridges then continued the tickles round to Weybridge then down the Wey Navigation and then Basingstoke Canal. Ace fun, 66 miles on the SS bike and I've busted the B67 on the Fixie, oops.

Southeastern and Southern you don't have to I found out this week, but full size bikes can only be carried on the train during off peak hours IIRC.

Thanks again all, it was 'sort of' fun! It was right on my limit fitness/stamina wise but now I know whats in store better I'm going to try the Dartford/London/Brighton trek soonish. At ~75-80miles that'd be my longest ride ever in all my 51 years.

Good luck with that bonkers Ditchling ride Gio, I wont be joining you on that one just yet!!! :)

Thanks one and all. I was chuffed, thats one I've had on my t'do list for ages but always been a bit Chicken.

Yeah gio, I let Mr Garmin plot it, it seemed to go very 'around the houses' I must say. I'm going to attempt to do Dirtfud to London to Brighton next using that route you linked to that went out West then down country a bit. It seems a lot less killer than the witches hat ride I did yesterday. Ta for the gentle prompt BTW.

I did Dartford to Herne Bay last week Fixed, I don't think I posted that one up yet. It's great having time to be able to do this sorta thing, 1st time I've been 'between' jobs in 20 years.

Hey giofox, I did it, remember you were advising on a London to Brighton route a while back? Well I let my Garmin guide me, kerrikey I must've upset it in the past... so many Hill's.
Yesterday I did this....no... not draw a line on a map in red ink... thats my little Garmin plot of where I rode yesterday. Dirtfud to Briteon.

It's the hilliest ride I've ever done in my life so far...proper cyclerists may scoff (let them! :) ) at my feeble hill climbing abilities but ... phwoooaaarrrrrr, so many pointy bits!

Ditchling beacon dang nearly made me go 'pop'. I stopped to do a selfie, look at the pretty red colour of my face!

I was even cheating and didn't do it on the Pffffixey, I was on my skip-saved single speeder home-built special with new fangled 'freehub' thingum. Celebrated not dying en-route with a couple of pints in my fave pub down there and 2 plates of Veggie Curry at eat-as-much-as-you-can Veggie Indian Buffet. Came home on the train.

Got 2 'PBs' (Personal Bests) yesterday. 1176M climbed and fastest I've ever been on bike... 43.3MPH, it was downhill, I beleive I fell off the edge of the Surrey Alps.

Oooo, ta Velocio! It sort of works, I logged out then in again but still 'appeared' as User 67532 but at least I've managed to reply to you adding in the word 'Old' to my FMOAF user name.

I can live with that if it makes things easier. Also, the forum software (I'm guessing) still has my old work email address, I can't seem to change it which is a bit of a bum.

Heeeeeelp! Can anyone assist? I'm locked out I think. I'm 'FatManOnAFixie' but today (Matthew) I'm appearing as User 67532.

To add to the problem, I no longer have access to my old work email address which I registered LFGSS with many years ago.

Can it be mended or do I have to give up cycling now?!