A quick Review.
Not thinking myself as a huge fan of riding through busy streets, the freewheel event in London struck me to be an ideal opportunity to cycle the streets of central London, enjoying the sounds, sights and most of all the ride to a extent that cannot normally be achieved due to fear for survival in the traffic.
Myself and two friend set off in my car from Oxford early in the morning, the original plan was more eco-friendly train ride in, but we discovered that rail works scuppered that option as the replacement busses refused to take cycles, so we reverted to plan B.
We parked up in Camden at the best value (and infact only car park I know) in London. From there we headed off on the bikes, a 2007 blinged out santa cruz chameleon, a 2008 Kona fire mountain, and my street slick 1989 Pace RC100 Keeping the retro spirit!
The pace having only just been assembled at 1am in the morning, not quite perfectly tuned!
The ride through Camden’s traffic and clutter was fun and a much better experience than I usually remember road rides turning out to be. Its actually quite exciting tearing off from the lights on a switch to green, avoiding busses and cars.
At this point we were a little lost, none of us are London natives and the big city left us a little confused, however we seemed to have some divine guidance built in as we stumbled across an entry to the Freewheel route by complete accident.
The route itself spread between Hyde park in the west and tower hill in the east, and was interesting more than out right fun. For safety sakes every one was consistently told to keep its slow, it all felt a little suppressed to be honest. And at the same time there were parents riding alongside small children who they let swerve all over the route, accross multiple road lanes, the parents were not much better on the whole. I would have thought a better rule to up hold would have been to keep any one with less than 26" wheels in the left hand lane, allowing the on the whole older and faster crowd a safer route through.
We did a lap and then chilled for a bit in the sun at st.james's park, had a little lunch and waited the arrival of my sister who was making it in from Shoreditch on her 70's Raleigh shopper...making my 1989 RC100 look seriously modern.
After the big meet up I pootled another lap in and my somewhat slower sisters pace while my friends went around for a fast one. I actually enjoyed this bit, it gave me more time to look around at the city than a quick lap with my mates would have done.
At the end of the lap we regrouped at tower hill before heading out to Shoreditch to have a look at my sisters new flat, again a fairly sedate ride, drinks and a brick lane curry later we picked up the bikes from the flat and set off on the final leg of the day.
The aim was to get back to the car prior to the car park being locked at 8pm...It was 7pm...and we had no idea which way to go!
We once again followed our noses, and eventually stumbled across upper street, Islington, an area I know relatively well, and could also mind map a route to Camden from. At speed through the consistently busy streets we ducked, dived and burned through the streets over taking just about everything and every one... I was loving it, I have always been wary about street riding, but this was the most fun I have had in a long time. Turning onto Holloway road the pace picked up, only to be ground to a stop out side Holloway road tube by a blow out on the kona.
15 minutes later we had made the repair, having struggled to remove & replace the tyre on the rim with no levers. Off we set again, still conscious of the ticking clock on the car park gates.
We turned onto Camden road, slightly over doing it on the hill section but managing to keep the momentum rolling. The route back down was superb, traffic lights playing our game and turning green as we approached, cars being left in our wake as we slipped through the darkening streets at speeds the drivers could only dream about.
We swung into the car park entrance at 7:30 ish, panting, sweating, but thrilled!.
Loading the bikes onto the car we were only too aware we would soon have to join the queuing masses on the streets outside, to make our way back to the quiet roads of Oxford.
Home, imaginary coco (I didn’t have any real coco
) then bed...
The pace rode superbly, Fully rigid and rolled very fast on the 1.25" slicks. The gears were a little mish mash, the chain had a few two many links (and my splitter has managed to cross thread its self). It got a few appreciative comments from passers by whilst layed on the grass in St James's park and I noticed many a turned head from fellow cyclists on the route.
In summary, a great day, an interesting event, but a fantastic city ride after the event that made the day that little bit extra special.
There will be a few pictures to follow when I get them off my mate!
Not thinking myself as a huge fan of riding through busy streets, the freewheel event in London struck me to be an ideal opportunity to cycle the streets of central London, enjoying the sounds, sights and most of all the ride to a extent that cannot normally be achieved due to fear for survival in the traffic.
Myself and two friend set off in my car from Oxford early in the morning, the original plan was more eco-friendly train ride in, but we discovered that rail works scuppered that option as the replacement busses refused to take cycles, so we reverted to plan B.
We parked up in Camden at the best value (and infact only car park I know) in London. From there we headed off on the bikes, a 2007 blinged out santa cruz chameleon, a 2008 Kona fire mountain, and my street slick 1989 Pace RC100 Keeping the retro spirit!
The pace having only just been assembled at 1am in the morning, not quite perfectly tuned!
The ride through Camden’s traffic and clutter was fun and a much better experience than I usually remember road rides turning out to be. Its actually quite exciting tearing off from the lights on a switch to green, avoiding busses and cars.
At this point we were a little lost, none of us are London natives and the big city left us a little confused, however we seemed to have some divine guidance built in as we stumbled across an entry to the Freewheel route by complete accident.
The route itself spread between Hyde park in the west and tower hill in the east, and was interesting more than out right fun. For safety sakes every one was consistently told to keep its slow, it all felt a little suppressed to be honest. And at the same time there were parents riding alongside small children who they let swerve all over the route, accross multiple road lanes, the parents were not much better on the whole. I would have thought a better rule to up hold would have been to keep any one with less than 26" wheels in the left hand lane, allowing the on the whole older and faster crowd a safer route through.
We did a lap and then chilled for a bit in the sun at st.james's park, had a little lunch and waited the arrival of my sister who was making it in from Shoreditch on her 70's Raleigh shopper...making my 1989 RC100 look seriously modern.
After the big meet up I pootled another lap in and my somewhat slower sisters pace while my friends went around for a fast one. I actually enjoyed this bit, it gave me more time to look around at the city than a quick lap with my mates would have done.
At the end of the lap we regrouped at tower hill before heading out to Shoreditch to have a look at my sisters new flat, again a fairly sedate ride, drinks and a brick lane curry later we picked up the bikes from the flat and set off on the final leg of the day.
The aim was to get back to the car prior to the car park being locked at 8pm...It was 7pm...and we had no idea which way to go!
We once again followed our noses, and eventually stumbled across upper street, Islington, an area I know relatively well, and could also mind map a route to Camden from. At speed through the consistently busy streets we ducked, dived and burned through the streets over taking just about everything and every one... I was loving it, I have always been wary about street riding, but this was the most fun I have had in a long time. Turning onto Holloway road the pace picked up, only to be ground to a stop out side Holloway road tube by a blow out on the kona.
15 minutes later we had made the repair, having struggled to remove & replace the tyre on the rim with no levers. Off we set again, still conscious of the ticking clock on the car park gates.
We turned onto Camden road, slightly over doing it on the hill section but managing to keep the momentum rolling. The route back down was superb, traffic lights playing our game and turning green as we approached, cars being left in our wake as we slipped through the darkening streets at speeds the drivers could only dream about.
We swung into the car park entrance at 7:30 ish, panting, sweating, but thrilled!.
Loading the bikes onto the car we were only too aware we would soon have to join the queuing masses on the streets outside, to make our way back to the quiet roads of Oxford.
Home, imaginary coco (I didn’t have any real coco
) then bed...The pace rode superbly, Fully rigid and rolled very fast on the 1.25" slicks. The gears were a little mish mash, the chain had a few two many links (and my splitter has managed to cross thread its self). It got a few appreciative comments from passers by whilst layed on the grass in St James's park and I noticed many a turned head from fellow cyclists on the route.
In summary, a great day, an interesting event, but a fantastic city ride after the event that made the day that little bit extra special.
There will be a few pictures to follow when I get them off my mate!
