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

===

RIDE REPORT
CTC's A Day On The River 23/08/09

Nobody volunteered to lead a PHC ride today so we piggy backed onto
the Central London CTC ride starting at Cheam station. 23 riders in
total headed to Kingston for morning coffee before heading along the
Thames Path to Teddington Lock for a pub lunch. The afternoon saw the
ride go through Bushy Park to Hampton Court and then along to Nonsuch
Park for a final afternoon stop.

See some pix on Flickr at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pollardshillcyclists/sets/72157622128448988
or
http://tinyurl.com/phc072

===

MIDWEEK RIDES

We've done a couple of rides so far, one to Guildford for a loop down
to Dunsfold with 4 of us and then 9 of us for an explore on the
desolate Isle of Grain. Train restrictions make rides in certain
directions quite difficult on midweek days but we might repeat parts
of the Grain ride on a future Sunday. If you're interested in midweek
rides, let me know. They're completely ad-hoc, could be on any day of
the week and will only happen if someone has an idea and wants to
suggest a route.

===

FUTURE RIDES

Any requests? Any offers to lead? We'll definitely do a ride out to
Herne Hill velodrome on Halloween for the evening cyclocross racing:

http://www.rollapaluza.com/?page_id=326

===

ROYAL PARKS

I was asked in the week if we would host a stall in Richmond Park at a
small cycling event. I refused for various reasons which I will share
here:

Firstly, it's too far away. Richmond Park attracts people from all
over London and we need to carefully target where we advertise so that
we're not distributing hundreds of postcards to people who live too
far away to get to our rides.

Secondly, and more importantly, Royal Parks remain very anti-cycling.
They have a cycling department and are forced to pay lip service to
cycling but you sense that they would prefer to ban it instead. There
are very few legitimate cycling routes across the Royal Parks and a
policy of enforcement is in place against those who stray off the
marked paths. Where they have allowed cycling, they insist on
unenforceable speed limits such as the laughable 5mph limit on the
Broad Walk in Regents Park. You can walk at 4mph! Their policy is
heavy influenced by the anti-cycling Ramblers and militant dog walkers
and as cycling groups tend to be populated by woolly liberals with no
desire to make a fuss, cycle provision in the Royal Parks remains
wholly inadequate.

Thirdly, one of the stated aims of the cycling event is to "catch"
cyclists using "illegal" routes in some of the Royal Parks. Whilst
London Cycling Campaign and others seem to think this is acceptable, I
believe that there is no reason why considerate cycling cannot be
allowed on all hard paths in every Royal Park. It is not an
anti-social activity!

We're not a campaign group and never will be but I cannot condone
putting our name to an event that will do nothing to further the cause
of recreational cycling. Therefore, I refused the offer.

===

TRAIN ETIQUETTE

I wasn't aware that not everybody is familiar with the situation
regarding bicycles on trains. Here's an overview:

- Each train should have a cycle compartment that is marked on the
outside door with a Cycle sign. Although they officially only hold 2
bikes each, you can get at least 4 in there, sometimes up to 7.
Sometimes there are multiple cycle compartments.

- The train companies can refuse to carry bicycles unless they are in
the marked cycle compartments. It is the train guard who would enforce
this, not the platform staff. It is nothing to do with the staff on
the platform, regardless of what they might try and tell you.

- There are restrictions on full sized bicycles during the rush hours,
normally 7am to 10am and 4pm to 7pm, on services operating into London
in the morning and out in the evening. These do not apply at weekends.
Each train company has slightly different variations on this and
Southern include trains in and out of Brighton within their
restrictions.

- Tandems, tricycles and trailers are not permitted at any time

When we travel at weekends, we are nearly always putting an excess of
bikes onto the train. This has only been a problem on one occasion and
should continue to be fine if we are sensible and cooperate when
required. The first thing we need to do is spread out along the
platform in small groups. The electronic arrival boards often state
the amount of carriages a train has and signs on the platform indicate
where a train of that size will stop. All riders should be looking for
the cycle compartments and should move along if the carriage with the
cycle compartment stops near you.

We should board the train quickly and effectively, allowing other
passengers to get off the train and then allowing foot passengers to
get on. Once on board, cycles need to be stored so that the guard and
other passengers can walk through the train. If you are not lucky
enough to be in the cycle compartment, place your bikes against the
doors on the right hand side as most platforms are on the left.
However, there will be occasions when the platform is on the right and
you need to be aware of this and be ready to move the bikes over to
the left or take them off whilst other passengers embark and
disembark. Make sure your bike is secure and won't roll away or fall
over when the train pulls out of the station.

If the guard asks you to move your bike, you should do so without
question. To not do so is to put all the other cyclists on the train
in jeopardy as we could all be asked to leave.

===

NEXT WEEK

On Wednesday, we've got a short evening ride to pub where we'll meet
up with the Bromley Cyclists for a drink and a natter. Meet 7:30pm at
Carshalton Westcroft Leisure Centre for a short ride to the Crown pub
on Wickham Rd in Croydon or meet us there from 8pm onwards.

Sunday's ride is a reprise of the mostly flat route to the Prince Of
Wales pub on rural West End Common. Meet outside the main entrance to
Wimbledon train station for a 9:30am departure. Garson's PYO farm is
around the corner but can everyone please note that it won't be an
extended lunch stop so you'll need to manage your time if you're
eating in the pub AND going to the farm shop.

On Monday (Bank Holiday), we'll be in Morden Park (not Morden HALL
Park) for the Change 4 Life festival with a stall advertising our
rides. We'll be hosting a picnic for those who want to come up and
hang out. There'll be other cycling-related stalls and various
activities. If it's not to your liking, you could always head over to
Carshalton Park for the annual Environmental Fair which normally
attracts around 10,000 people. Take some of our postcards if you do!

Mark
PHC Co-ordinator
07711 688189

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