Ealing Friday Riders

Niall was keen to visit the tower at the top of Leith Hill, so I investigated a route.  The roads don't quite go to the top, but there is a track that goes from the summit of Leith Hill Road, up to the tower, and then down to Coldharbour.  It looked possible, but a MTB riding friend advised against doing it on a road bike: he thought there might be quite a bit of walking involved. On the day, Niall was unwell and couldn't join us, but I was curious so I left the group at the Coldharbour turning, and carried on up the last bit to the summit of the road, turned left, and cycled up the track, which was unsurfaced but less steep than the road.   Within half a mile I was at the tower, where there is a great view, a cafe and (today) loads of Duke of Edinburgh award students, who were celebrating not being lost.   You can climb the tower for an even better view.   The cafe would make a good lunch stop, but I preferred the pub at Coldharbour. ...

Tony's ride to Dinton Pastures country park. About 75 miles, stopping at Datchet, Dinton and possibly a third stop for tea on the way home. Tony..

Great ride today from the Birthday. Loads of parks and open spaces.

This Friday we will be riding to see the amazing view from Alexandra Palace and back, via a large number of green and pleasant parks.   About 39 miles round trip from Ealing, and only two  three hills. On the way there we'll visit Hampstead Heath and the Parkland Walk - several miles of disused railway track in the heart of London.  Be prepared for a bumpy surface.   This takes us to Finsbury Park, from where it's a hop, skip and a climb to Alexandra Palace. The route back follows Pymme's Brook towards Barnet, passing through Arnos Park, Brunswick Park and Oak Hill Park; and back south along Dollis Brook and the Dollis Valley Green 'Walk'.  At some point this becomes the mighty River Brent and we go past Brent Reservoir and Brent River Park on the way to our tea destination, the historic Ace Café near Wembley (and not too far from Ealing either).   15 miles to 11s, then 20 to tea, with an optional stop in the middle, to be decided by refe...

Niall led the first sunny ride for this year. Jenners Maidenhead for 11's then Moss end for lunch. Tony..

Well what a day. A good turnout at Cafe Nero. A friend of Rachel's turned up to rie with us but her brake cable snapped. Off we set and Guy's front wheel bearing started making  a hell of an awful noise so he headed for home.We reached Egham for coffee at the cafe "Egham on Toast", great cafe and very helpful! Started raining just before we left and the guy from the cafe came out with paper towel to dry all our saddles! It now rained continuously to Brooklands so I took a shortcut and shaved off a mile or 2. We were all very wet when we got there and the place was packed so a queue for food,. Once full a short period of wandering to take photos and then back out into the rain.  Lunch at Brooklands I decided to take the most direct route which everyone great-fully agreed on,so many large puddles to miss! Through Hamworth and the puncture fairy struck Paul. We sheltered in a bus shelter while Paul and Cici took shelter in a garage to repair the puncture, it ...

We will leave Syon Park at 09:30 and head towards Chertsey and then to a new (to me) elevenses venue at Foxhills - the Old School Café.  Twizzle around the lanes a bit through Chobham Common, Pennypot and Horsell, among others, before a War of the Worlds themed lunch in Woking.  Heading back along the canal towpath (which has tarmac under the residue of fallen leaves) and then Weybridge & Walton before heading to the new Time by the River at Molesey for tea.  About 50 miles round trip from Syon Park, not too hilly but not too flat either.

5 made it to Syon, 2 by bike, for coffe. Photo courtesy of Michiko.

Nick & Tony made the trip by bike, Niall had already arrived. Sarah and her little doggy arrived soon After followed by Michiko.  No ride took place.

It certainly didn't feel like spring when we met at Syon Park for Guy's ride to Chobham.   There was still plenty of ice at the sides of the road.    No excuses but plenty of reasons today and so there were only eight of us.    Jobs, streaming colds, ventures overseas - mainly feeble reasons like that.   We missed you all. It soon turned into a glorious sunny day, although Rachel's satnav didn't agree.  It kept telling her to turn round and go back home.   Then we discovered she'd put it on upside down (not really).    We went the normal route to Hampton Court but then suddenly turned right at the roundabout instead of going over the bridge, heading to Shepperton and Chertsey before venturing back north of the M3 for a bit, almost hitting Windlesham and then diverting to the lovely Turkish café in Chobham, which does great cheese sandwiches.   And I'm told they do excellent Turkish breakfasts too. Back past ...

The group waiting for Rachel's puncture to be repaired

It started with Dave's puncture ... On Friday John led about 14 of us to Chipperfield - out through Northolt, Ruislip, Harefield and Rickmansworth and then along quiet lanes around Chorleywood Heath and near Sarratt, including the beautifully named Dunny Lane.  It turned out that last week was not Chiggi's last ride: she rode with us part of the way before she had to go back to attend to other things :-) Lunch at Chipperfield garden centre Back through Latimer, Chenies and Chorleywood, where Ruth took the train home (possibly arriving after we got home due to a person on the line), back to Harefield and then mostly a different route back to Greenford, where the group split.  I made it 44 miles from Ealing to Greenford, and 2200 ft of climbing.   Thanks John!

Bye bye Chiggi 

A good turnout for Chiggi's last ride. Cold and damp just like our mood with Chiggi leaving us. ​      Bikes at Wetherspoons Beaconsfield Tony..

A real strong windy today, only 4 (Niall, Dave, Tony S and Tony H) at Syon and we left late heading to Windsor and it was a struggle in the headwind.. Safely ensconced inn Wetherspoons we lingered over lunch. The return along virtually the same route saw us it 25mph plus at times with the tailwind, no rain and not really cold. A nice short if hard ride. Tony..