London to Brighton night ride.

toomanyframes

Retrobike Rider
Claud Butler Fan
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Hi all.
As the title suggests, I'm taking part in the London to Brighton night ride in a couple of weeks.
I've never done anything like this before so,is anyone on here taking part and could you give me some tips and advice?
Any help greatfully received. :D
Cheers.
 
get some decent lights I guess. sounds obvious but what you thought were ok for a 30 min commute in winter may well be inadequate 4 hours into a ride. other than that enjoy Ditchling and Turners Hill. (I assume its the usual route) remember your body clock wont want to pedal at 11pm so make sure you have had rest during the day and active at night at least the day before if not two days before. sounds excessive for a 60 mile bike ride but every thing to make it a bit easier right?. carbs before the ride, slow release fuels ect and protein after. wear anti glare glasses to prevent your night vision from being blasted out from oncoming vehicles and take warm layers. usual stuff really but obviously temperature and vision will be your main concerns.
 
This is on roads? As I think there is an offroad night version too??
A buddy of mine did this last year - beware potholes on dark descents - so the better your lights, the more likely you are to pick them out at speed on a downhill!
He hit one so hard, his lights fell out and his bars moved in the stem (sounds like they should've been tighter but you get the gist).
I'll ping him an email see if he has any other thoughts.
 
Carge":2wn8hc30 said:
This is on roads? As I think there is an offroad night version too??
A buddy of mine did this last year - beware potholes on dark descents - so the better your lights, the more likely you are to pick them out at speed on a downhill!
He hit one so hard, his lights fell out and his bars moved in the stem (sounds like they should've been tighter but you get the gist).
I'll ping him an email see if he has any other thoughts.

There was some big off's this year and that was in the day.There's too many inexperienced rider's out there mixing it with what we call rider's and they crash and burn every year :LOL:

Some lass used her face as a brake on one of the descent's,can't remember which and it wasn't pretty :facepalm:

On another note though,this year i found a very noticeable difference in the bike's used.For year's it's been mountain bike's mainly being ridden but the switch to road bike's shocked me a bit this year as i didn't see many retro mounatin bike's at all.Every year you could count on seeing the odd stumpy and xizang :roll:
 
player":2a85vw5z said:
Some lass used her face as a brake on one of the descent's,can't remember which and it wasn't pretty :facepalm:

Surely she only had the one face - which was less pretty after?? ;)
 
Fit two rear lights: one on flash and one constant. It means that drivers don't lose your position if you are in a group of several flashing. Also you have a backup if one fails.

At least one front light needs to have a set of backup batteries, just in case.
 
Comments from the buddy who did it last year
"Good bright sturdy lights that will last the full time of the event or take additional batteries. Some areas are very dark.
I also had a spare Head torch which I used – handy for seeing around corners as your main light shines straight ahead.
There are some very tight T- junctions at the bottom of some hills which come up very fast.
At the start try and get as close to the front of the group as possible.
Feed stations are good with hot food/coffee mechanics etc.
Take spare tubes
Early morning gets chilly"
 

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