Retrobike National Series Rd 3: Surrey Hills ~ Aftermath

Thanks for all the nice comments!

Glad everyone enjoyed themselves, it makes all the route planning and recce's worthwhile.

Well done Max who has the patience of a saint, for sweet talking the Hotel into letting us use their private garden, and for all the logisitics - I know there were many including liasing with an awkward so and so like myself over route planning and recce rides!

Cheers everyone

What a fantastic day yesterday

Big thanks to Max and Pete and crew for making this another stunning ride. So little Tarmac ridden to me shows the effort in putting this ride together

Great to see all the regulars as well as new faces and bikes.

I have a couple of pics here and I will get some footage from "Rat Cam" (no nad shots i promise ) I will get uploaded tonight, I have just had a quick look and I somehow managed to catch someone falling off a Klein , this was post lunch so I don't think it was the Cheese sandwich that put him off balance, now ......... If had been after lunch and one of them colossal Burgers it would be a different story.........

I'm glad the Rat Kona got a good reception, I was expecting some controversy and a few more digs maybe

Lunch was great in the sat in the sun (in the correct beer garden not the granny's front lawn as someone else was) I can still still hear the cheese sandwich and Burgergate , special mention to DAJ and (chappy on orange forgot username ) who stood in for JB666's lowered tones during lunch Where were you Jonnyboy ?

Awesome ride. Feeling it today though.

Really great to get the Ti out and some other awesome machines out there. Eye watering grello, Kleins and Fats.

The trails were stunning and I'm in awe of the guys rolling it fully rigid, your wrists must be way stronger than mine..

Top moment of the day outside riding was seeing kingroon drop a Tomac style, disk drive augmented, slide on a fast wide left hander.. Awesome.. Anyone selling a Disk Drive?

As everyone has said it was a fantastic day, and thanks to everyone involved in organising and guiding us around.
It's the first time I've ridden there and the trails were exactly the type of singletrack I love riding. I enjoyed all the climbs too, especially the technical ones.

Gravy Monster":3cn4t1dc said:

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Who's the fat b*stard in the Mint Sauce shirt (just like the one I was wearing) and on a bike just like the one I was riding?



Oh "Can't touch food - Diet Time"

Great ride and a great day yesterday. Well worth the 5am start and the long journey down to sunny Surrey.

45 riders created quite a dust cloud at times and I'm sure the sun went supernova after the lunch stop.
Great bunch of riders as usual. We really are spoiled on these rides with the quality and variety of bikes and people.

Well done to the ride guides and helpers, who despite the large numbers kept things moving along smoothly practically all the time.

Here's the group shot from near the end of the ride:



I shall post up the rest later on this evening as soon as I've developed the wet collodion glass plate negatives.

Great ride - many thanks to the organisers who did a fantastic job of keeping us moving.

The last descent into the car park was great fun and the whole route was well thought out for retro riding but with a relatively high 'Daj get off and walk per mile o'meter count' which keeps things interesting

Looking forward to next year, hope you guys have booked the sunshine again

What a brilliant day that was! A week or two ago we could only have dreamed about weather like that, eh?

I had a thoroughly brilliant time, and that was the first proper outing for my Explosif and the first time I've ridden retro since, well, when I WAS retro!

I'm amazed at what I can still ride with narrow flat bars and my head down, arse up riding position. An excellent baptism methinks!

Can't wait for the next one and I'm toying with this idea of coming up for the 'Dales ride if I can

May, many thanks to everyone involved. Eleven out of 10!

PS - Do I get a 'Retrobike Rider' tag on the left now?

Rob Atkin":3ib9ej7o said:

I had a HUGE crash at the end which no-one saw

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Pics or it never happened.




The irony is that at the top of the descent where you may or may not have fallen off your brother was waxing lyrical about how splendid and rapid a descender you were and about how you knew your bike better than the back of your hand...

i believe in fixies":3jz5awwx said:

Rob Atkin":3jz5awwx said:

I had a HUGE crash at the end which no-one saw

Click to expand...

Pics or it never happened.

The irony is that at the top of the descent where you may or may not have fallen off your brother was waxing lyrical about how splendid and rapid a descender you were and about how you knew your bike better than the back of your hand...

Click to expand...

That's embarrassing!!!!

Unfortunately when Mr Root comes a knocking the results are painful. My shoulders are in a load of pain today so I can't lift my arms properly. I look like a Muppet!