Here's this week's news & reports...

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RIDE REPORT
Eltham Palace 01/03/09

The milder weather is definitely suited to cycling. We had 20 riders
at the library for a hilly but short morning ride out to the Horniman
Museum cafe. Although Grange Hill is really steep, it's not very long
and doesn't really slow us down. Once you're at the top, it's a
straight run into Crystal Palace where we had the benefit of some
local knowledge of the Palace and the railway from one rider. Despite
being slightly early, the museum cafe was already open. The actual
museum is always worth a look too, especially as it's free.

The next part of the day, didn't run quite so well. As one astute
rider observed, the route had been devised on paper and nobody had
enough spare time to do a recce. We were trying to improve the Eltham
route from last time because it got us stuck in muddy fields but
despite a lot of it being London Cycle Network roads, it turned out to
be a series of never-ending barriers and footbridges. The first
obstacle was a bridge over the railway between Catford Bridge and
Lower Sydenham stations, just after crossing the Waterlink Way.
Clearly, you are allowed to wheel bikes over the bridge as it has an
awkward, narrow "drainpipe" wheeling ramp (but this wouldn't be much
good to trikes, tagalongs, trailers, pushchairs, etc.) We eventually
re-assembled on the other side of the bridge and set off again to
meander easily along the LCN route. We paused by the Excalibur prefab
estate for a photo opportunity, mindful of the fact that the council
are trying to tear it down.

We turned onto Railway Children Walk, a traffic-free route with
awkward barriers at each end. Then we had another bridge over a
railway to tackle. This one was a longer bridge (some people got on
their bikes to ride across the top!) over a main line between Hither
Green depot and Hither Green Sidings. We cycled along Mottingham Lane
and past Mottingham Farm where we found another fiendish barrier in
Kippington Drive before crossing the busy A20 at a toucan crossing.

The barriers kept on coming, all the way to Eltham Palace. The old
tilt yard area outside the palace feels as though you've been
transported back in time. It's a really lovely spot. Unfortunately,
the same cannot be said of Eltham town centre which is a bit of a
dump. However, town centres have cheap Wetherspoons pubs so we all
piled in to take advantage, having securely locked up outside.

The afternoon route avoided the barriers but took us down some of
Bromley's unmade roads, of which there are 200. The surfaces can be
terrible, making farm tracks look good. Eventually we entered
Beckenham Place Park in the wooded area and rode up to the cafe.
Riders split into different groups at this point depending on where
they were heading to. Pollards Hill riders went through South Norwood
Country Park and took advantage of the Heavers Meadow cut-through
towards Thornton Heath.

28 miles. See the pix on Flickr at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pollardshillcyclists/sets/72157614607852239
or
http://tinyurl.com/phc031

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CICLOVIA FOR LONDON?

Jenny Jones from the London Assembly has offered to table a formal
question to the Mayor of London:

"Will you begin a weekly Freewheel in central London, as happens with
the Ciclovia in Bogota?"

This will be asked at the next Mayor's Question Time (or possibly the
one last Weds) but I'll let everyone know the response.

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NEXT WEEK

We're reprising the Mad Ride. We tried last year but the weather was
abysmal. After we made a poor decision to cross a soggy clay field and
ended up with half the field on our bikes, we pretty much gave in. Up
until that point, we'd seen some fantastic stuff. The ride is based
around the old Victorian asylums, all of which are now defunct. The
key feature of each is the water tower, identified by Enoch Powell in
his Care in the Community speech about mental health reform; "There
they stand, isolated, majestic, imperious, brooded over by the
gigantic water-tower and chimney combined, rising unmistakable and
daunting out of the countryside - the asylums which our forefathers
built with such immense solidity to express the notions of their day."
And he's right - they're pretty impressive. Many are now upmarket
apartments but some are being demolished and this could be your final
chance to see them. The only downside is that they're all on top of
hills so it's not a flat ride. Departs Westcroft Leisure Centre at
Carshalton at 9:30am prompt. Toilets and vending machines available
inside the leisure centre.

Steve also has a ride from Orpington on Saturday, details of which are
on the SLC forum.

Mark
PHC Co-ordinator
07711 688189

http://www.pollardshillcyclists.org.uk
http://www.southlondoncyclists.org.uk