Here's this week's bumper compendium of news and updates....

===

RIDE REPORT
Viking Coastal Trail 04/04/09

We've done this ride several times before but it's always popular. 27
turned up for today's outing, filling every available space on the
outgoing train. Despite the early drizzle, it stayed dry all day and
we even saw the sun for the final stretch.

The reason it's so popular is the quality of the route. Within one
minute of leaving Birchington On Sea station you're up on the sea wall
with that unique seaside smell that confirms that you're getting some
proper fresh air. The helpful geography of this part of Kent gives you
more coastal riding than any other circular route could offer as you
move from the wide Thames estuary round to the English Channel.

We stop off at a greasy spoon cafe for elevenses that easily deals
with our numbers and lunch at a Ramsgate fish and chip shop. The wide
traffic-free promenades and boulevards offer a unique opportunity for
multiple riders to ride side by side and chat away without fear of
blocking the route. Even when we move inland to cut between the
coasts, we're using lanes partly closed to traffic, concrete farm
paths or dirt tracks before getting back onto the sea wall.

I'm sure we'll be doing this again later in the year.

28 miles, 6.5hrs of riding plus train travel time. See the pix on Flickr at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pollardshillcyclists/sets/72157616305408287
or
http://tinyurl.com/phc036

There are some more pix here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/yvonnewright1965/VikingTrail#

Thanks to all who submitted photos - I had well over 100 to choose from!

===

RIDE REPORT
Not Cake Boy 05/04/09

I've been wanting to try a half day ride again for a while. We used to
do them monthly but they became viewed as a wasted opportunity for
those who preferred the full day 30 milers so we quietly laid them to
rest and let the Beddington Park rides take up the mantle. I was
waiting for a free Saturday so I could try one without upsetting the
Sunday regime and see who comes. I have no explanation for how I
managed to confuse Saturday and Sunday this weekend but suffice to
say, the great idea of going to Cake Boy was thwarted by them not
actually being open! D'oh!

I offered today's 7 riders the choice of going to Loo Loo's cafe at
Leader's Fields (similar mileage and almost identical route) or
chasing the elusive Sunday cup cakes at Orange Pekoe with the option
to burn off the calories through the extra couple of miles. It also
meant one hill needed to be added in but the backstreets route we
chose meant it was short and sharp and reduced the need for a long
slog up Wimbledon Hill.

Wimbledon Common was swarming with cyclists and the racks by the
windmill were completely full. The ride straight over the common to
Tibbets Corner is lovely when the sun's shining, especially the little
hill off to the left that must have been the inspiration for the
landscape in the animated TV version of The Wombles (we saw one once!)

We called by the immaculate Marc Bolan memorial and rode a series of
equally immaculate paths over Barnes Common, almost all the way to
Orange Pekoe - the best tearoom in London (says Time Out). They
certainly know their teas and will help you chose what to try via a
process of elimination. The cakes are good but no cup cakes out today
and to be fair, they can't rival Cake Boy on that front. Most of us
sat outside on a reclaimed corner of pavement.

Some tyre trouble on a couple of bikes as we approached the Wetlands
Centre saw yours truly forced to depart for a prior appointment,
leaving the remainder to ride the Thames Path to Putney where a new
tyre was purchased and the journey continued along the Wandle Trail
back to base.

We'll probably bring this in as a monthly ride but to make amends for
today's mix up, let's try again next Saturday when Cake Boy is
actually open. 9:30am at the library car park. Definitely no hills and
definitely back for lunch!

Today was 20 miles, out for longer than originally thought at 5hrs.
Some pix on Flickr at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pollardshillcyclists/sets/72157616395865306
or
http://tinyurl.com/phc037

===

LIDL CYCLING OFFERS

From this coming Thursday, Lidl will have another selection of cycling
goodies. My picks would be the excellent tool kit that will deal with
almost any repair including removing cranks, bottom brackets and rear
cassettes, the £18.58 shoes which are sported on many PHC rides and
the track pump at £5.99 is an absolute must for any cyclist. As
always, don't expect much from the £1.99 locks except perhaps to
secure your bike in the depths of the countryside where opportunist
thieves tend to not operate. I don't know much about the £3.90
on-the-road repair kit but the inclusion of bulbs is odd in the LED
age.

===

ISLE OF WIGHT RANDONNEE

A couple of riders have booked into the Dorset House B&B on May 2nd &
3rd for the free to enter turn-up-and-go 60 mile round the island
cycle event on May 3rd. They'll be leaving from Clapham Jct if anyone
wants to do a Group Save. Best bet here is to register your interest
on the forum - I've made a sticky post that will stay as the top
subject.

http://www.cycleisland.co.uk

===

NEARLY FAMOUS

A picture researcher from The Times contacted me this week to ask if
she could use this PHC photo of the Digger's mosaic:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/13/89801726_c79053304a.jpg

It was taken on our ride in January 2006 when we followed the Diggers
Trail, a heritage trail leading to St Georges Hill in Weybridge
commemorating the 1649 movement led by Gerrard Winstanley. She found
it whilst browsing Flickr. Unfortunately, I don't think it was used
which is a shame because they pay between £50 - £100 depending on the
size. The article is online here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article60\
28098.ece

We've had other pictures used in the local press and this one was
featured as the January image on Merton Council's 2007 calendars after
it won a photography competition:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/34/72441571_8e7ff6f817.jpg

Not bad for a shot taken over the shoulder whilst riding!!

The Flickr account now has 4500 images taken on our rides, going right
back to the very first ride in 2005. It's a great way to kill half an
hour, flicking back through them.

===

CICLOVIA UPDATE

Boris knows I want to see the entirety of Central London closed to
motorised traffic every Sunday from 7am to 2pm after Jenny Jones posed
a question at Mayor's Question Time. The answer is typical political
waffle but I'm interpreting it as "lack of political will to make it
happen". Here's the question and answer:

"Will you consider a constituent’s request to replicate Bogotá’s
weekly Ciclovia by closing the entire central London area to traffic
every Sunday between the hours of 7am and 2pm giving pedestrians,
cyclists, bladers, joggers and boarders miles of streets to enjoy?"

Answer from the Mayor:

"The Traffic Management Act (2004) places a statutory duty on all
highway authorities (including TfL and the London boroughs) to manage
the road network. Accordingly, any potential road closure, be it
temporary or permanent, must consider the needs of all road users,
together with the requirements of residents, businesses and other
stakeholders.

TfL provides funding to London boroughs through the Local
Implementation Plan (LIP) process for them to run events promoting
sustainable transport and, where appropriate, for them to run ‘car
free’ events giving priority to pedestrians and cyclists."

Jenny Jones fully supports instigating this but doesn't have the time
to take it on. Koy Thompson from LCC hasn't replied yet but he's
normally very good at responding to my emails so I won't write him off
just yet. Once Koy responds, I'm going to ask CTC if they will throw
their might behind it and then see if we can at least get it on the
agenda. If car-centric cities such as Mexico City can have the balls
to close their streets to motorised traffic then London has nothing to
fear. I'd love to see a civilised London full of pedestrians and
cyclists.

What's a ciclovia? Click this....

http://www.streetfilms.org/archives/ciclovia

It's already happening all over Latin America and North American
cities are starting to copy the phenomena. San Francisco just
restarted the 'Healthy Saturdays' in Golden Gate park this weekend to
complement their car-free Sundays. Last year, non vehicular park
traffic increased by 40%. London needs this!

===

SIR ALAN

There has been much interest this week in last week's Mail on Sunday
story of Sir Alan Sugar's cycling exploits. He wouldn't tolerate our
social pace, preferring to power his £6800 bike around a 50 mile
course in under 3hrs. It's a good read:

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/health/article-1165492/Sir-Alan-Sugar-reveals-fitn\
ess-secrets-helped-lose-stone-.html

===

CARSHALTON LAVENDER'S ECO-DATING

I wouldn't normally include non-cycling related topics but as this is
organised by someone on this list, I'm making a rare exception. Plus
Carshalton Lavender a fantastic project and we must try and call by on
harvest day this year to eat the lavendr biscuits. In the meantime,
try this......


Eco-dating with Carshalton Lavender - 18 April 2009

Do you want to meet interesting people? Do you like to get outside and
do your bit for the environment? Would you like to meet a green-minded
partner? If so, eco-dating could be for you!

The eco-dating event will take place between 10am and 1pm, on
Saturday, 18 April 2009, the Saturday after Easter in Carshalton
Beeches. It costs just £5 to take part, and refreshments of hot
drinks, biscuits and cakes will be provided.

Booking is essential, so if you are interested, please see
http://www.carshaltonlavender.org or email
jane.carshaltonlavender@... for further information.

Carshalton Lavender is the Observer Ethical Award-winning community
group that manages three acres of lavender fields on disused
allotments in the London Borough of Sutton.

===

SUTTON EVENING RIDES.

Every year, the Cyclism campaign group organises a series of evening
rides from various starting points. They're just rides - no pub stop.
Download the list from:

http://www.pollardshillcyclists.org.uk/Eve_Rides09.pdf

===

FUTURE RIDES

Now the website is almost fully functional again and Google have put
us back on their Christmas card list (for which we are indebted to
Jez), there's a new rides list up. Eagle eyed readers will notice a
novel twist - they're all train-assisted. Normally I aim to do one
train assist a month but when I get requests for rides, they almost
always require a headstart which means getting on a train. This isn't
without it's problems as we are really stuck if engineering work
necessitates a replacement bus because they won't take bikes at the
best of times, let alone 20 of the things! So it's important to check
your email or log onto the website just before the ride to make sure
no last minute problems have arisen. You should also be aware that
we're only allowed on at the guard's discretion so there's always a
chance we'll get turfed off but I've never actually known this to
happen.

The meeting times are deliberately earlier than the train departure
time because we need 15 - 20 minutes to buy the Group Save tickets.
Please bring change with you as the normal procedure involves one
person buying all the tickets and getting reimbursed by everyone else
on the train. Group Save is a great permanent offer that enables you
to get 4 tickets for the price of 2. We split the costs evenly between
all the riders.

===

NEXT WEEK

The Waterlink Way is so called because it links the Thames at
Greenwich with the English Channel at Eastbourne. After the excellent
mix of parks and riverside paths to South Norwood Country Park the
route because erratic with suicidal lunges down steep bridleways and a
bumpy descent off the North Downs. We know those parts well. What we
haven't done yet is to explore the part where common sense returns so
that will be rectified on this ride when we sample part of the Cuckoo
Trail. Rather than do a linear ride, we're letting East Sussex County
Council guide us around a loop that will include some quiet lanes from
their series of published cycle guides. Lunch is at an untested pub
and afternoon tea will hopefully be at April Cottage. Not sure of the
morning stop but we've several options open to us, although hopefully
we'll be able to go to the Farm Museum's tea room. Meet outside the
CEX shop (by the Visitor Centre) at East Croydon station at 8:45 to
partake in the Group Save offer. We're catching the 9:05 to
Crowborough which arrives at 9:51. Fares could be as low as £4.70
using Group Save.

And as previously mentioned, we'll actually go to Cake Boy on a half
day ride on Saturday. 9:30am at the library car park. It's a great
ride for those who are daunted by the prospect of being out all day.
And if anybody can rustle up a previously non-cycling friend to come
and try this excellent ride, I'll buy them a cake!

Mark
PHC Co-ordinator
07711 688189

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