Yesterday, we and five other members of The Fridays cycled from south London to Brighton to eat fish and chips on the beach. But we had company -- unusual company.
It was the Historic Commercial Vehicles Society's annual London to Brighton run. We understand there were 200 of these vehicles out on the run yesterday. Oddly enough, we seemed to play leapfrog with the same dozen!
 |
| Meeting our friends in Purley at 8.15am |
 |
| A typical Fridays' selection of bikes: Enigma, Planet X/Lynsky, Van Nicholas plus 1 1970s Holdsworth). Also present: another Planet X (non-Lynsky), 1 Mercian, 1 Orbea... and 1 recumbent! |
 |
| (The traffic cone marked the start of a mile-long stretch of lane closure for water works -- which gave us a lovely car-free ride on what otherwise was a dual carriageway.) |
 |
| Three of the guys drafting an omnibus! |
The halfway stop was at Broadway Stadium in Crawley where we could get coffee, use the toilet facilities and walk around for a closer look at some of the interesting vehicles. Our friend Jenny joined us here, having come up from Brighton by train to ride back with us. We also bumped into a few friends who were out with their local CTC group.
Back on our bicycles, we left Crawley behind and -- once past the melee of the Pease Pottage Car Boot Fair -- were soon on lovely rural roads running through picturesque villages in Mid Sussex.
 |
| A stop to regroup and shed jackets at the top end of Cuckfield |
 |
| Vestiges from a by-gone era (pub window in Cuckfield) |
 |
| Another re-group at the bottom of Pyecome Hill. |
 |
| Unsure of the route from Ansty, we waited for a likely looking vehicle to come along -- and tucked in behind! |
As ever, riding with friends and for pleasure (not speed or competition) means there's always someone quick to spot unusual sights worth stopping to have a good look at.
 |
| From our stop at the bottom of Pyecombe Hill, we had a view of Jack and Jill, the windmills up on the South Downs. |
 |
| Jack and Jill |
 |
| The entrance to Clayton Tunnel under the Downs on the London to Brighton railway line -- built on conditions set by the landowner, including construction of a cottage with twin crenellated turrets! |
Journey's end: Madeira Drive on Brighton's promenade
We parked up and enjoyed surprisingly good fish and chips in glorious sunshine on the beach.
I guess I'm still just a bit of a petrolhead at heart! Having removed cars from my own life doesn't mean I hate them, though I worry about and am at times appalled by the dominance of motor vehicles in modern life and the de-humanising effects of motor-centric policies on both quality of life and the health of our eco-structure. But I love mechanical design and function, whether it takes shape in a four-wheeled carriage or two. I certainly enjoy the odd day of celebration for such marvellous machines.
42 miles with the group on the official route (another 10-12 getting ourselves there and back). Rolling hills plus two long challenging climbs. Mixture of urban streets, dual carriageways and swoopy fast country roads. Our overall average speed was 12.6 which is a good 2 miles per hour faster than my usual pace. A couple of long arguments were had with Grumpy Knee -- but in the end I won!
Grand day out -- worth getting up at 4.45am for! Now looking forward to the "Old Crocks Run" (pre-1905 private automobiles) in November.
* Photo credits a mix of mine and Adam Bell's.
** Ian wrote a nice little report with more photos here (scroll down to message #71).
*** Dave aka TopCat1 took some remarkable photos here.
No comments:
Post a Comment