Isle of Wight this Sunday

Dave Larrington wrote:

JohnB wrote:

Highlights included hurtling back down into Cowes where some yoofs
were standing in the road trying to intimidate riders. Aimed the trice
straight at them on full power and they scattered ;-)

I came close to reducing the chav population of Essex by about six in
Writtle yesterday...

Its fun isn't it :-))

John B

On 2 May 2005 13:12:08 -0700, "MartinM" wrote:


Mark Thompson wrote:
My friend had an encounter with a traffic calming measure on the
bridge, flipped over the railing and ended up at the bottom of a
20-foot embankment with a fractured femur.

What sort of traffic calming measure is this?
Sounds lethally dangerous to me!
I am apalled that you friend has suffered this fate, though I
appreciate his injuries might have been much worse.

Wonder how fast he was going? Not that I'm suggesting the guy might
have
been cycling 'furiously' or anything...

I saw the aftermath of that (ie a closed road sign and heard the mee
mar of the ambulance)


garryb59 wrote:
Yes, I'm pretty commited to being there, on my very own
home/brazed/welded effort-of-modeof-transport at that too.


I think I went past you just before the Wight Mouse if the home made
'bent is what you were on.

That may well have been me, especially if you saw my mate, sweating
like a pig, cursing every hill we encountered - he's 3 stone over
weight you see :-) On the flat he's king, bring on the hills and he's
a goner.

I enjoyed the day a lot, especially when the weather broke and the sun
appeared, it was really quite bleak out of Yamouth first thing at 9am.

But I have to say, I don't classify myself as anything but a
casual/leisure cyclist, but It was really quite a tough ride, and a
lot more hilly than I had anticipated. Not that the hills were really
bad, but they just kept coming at you. I took it nice and easy, and
made sure I paced myself, [and especially being on the bent that I'm
not really used to], so in the end it wasn't a problem.

My mate was nearly flat on his back at the end, but after 5 pints of
Stella normal concsiousness was resumed. I had a couple of pints of
the milder Bugle bitter - real tasty stuff that, real nice.

I'd be interested to know how much in donations they collected. A few
people put in a lot of hours give it some structure. I hope it was a
decent sum.

Sorry to here about the guy above though, hope he recovers ok.

Cheers
Garry

Did you all see the swarm of Honda 70cc monkey bikes?, saw them on
the Military Rd and again at the finish. I think they were playing an
elaborate game of 'catch' with the Goldwings. Lots of forklift trucks
with a sofa on the back and motorbike front forks as well (all ridden
by helmetless riders apart from one female passenger)

I arrived back at Havenstreet (after wasting an hour on railway tunnels
and cashpoints or lack thereof) at 1430.
After returning to Spinnaker City went on the Hayling ferry which looks
fairly moribund and came back up to
Havant on the old Hayling Billy railway line.

A great day, as good as cycling gets, riding along a two-way road
through woods carpeted with bluebells and not a car in sight, that's
the advantage of a nice bit of expensive water between Mondeoman and
the island. Shame about the fog on the South side but at least it
stopped me seeing the tops of the hills ;-)

On Tue, 03 May 2005 10:56:29 GMT, JohnB wrote:

Al C-F wrote:

Just got back. 3:30 from Cowes.

Bit misty on the south side, but an excellent ride.

Got back at tea time last night after a good ride home (exceptng a few
BH Monday nutter drivers)

Rode the event on the trice, along with my 13 yr son and 17 daughter and
a friend.
Unfortunately said silly daughter really suffered as she came a cropper
when riding down the day before.
She learned that sprinting with laden panniers is not sensible practice,
and a collision with a fence left her with broken glasses, near black
eye and bruised shoulder :-(
The climb over Blackgang Chine was difficult to say the least.

We started at Cowes and met Neil of ICE

Yes, I met him too. Obviously didn't know who he was at first when he
came over and started surveying my homebuild. I thought he was some
bloke out walking at first, dressed as he was and with his camera
dangling from his hand. So I started blabbering on about this and that
- mapp gas, old auction bikes, plywood seats held together with door
hindges, and how long it took me to do with a hacksaw, hand files and
without a workshop to do it all. So he then made the comment,
'Sure, I build them too'.
"Oh yeah', I said, 'what type of bike do you like to build?'.
"Mainly trikes"
"Oh yeah, really?"
"Yes, that's one of mine over there"
[As he points to what was obviously a very fine looking bike]
So I loooked at the bike, then looked back at him...
"I actually do it professionally, have you heard of ICE?"
"Oh right!!!!

lol....amusing moment, well I found it anyway. He wasn't anyway being
patronizing, seemed like a decent bloke, it was just amusing how the
conversation went. Almost a kind of David Brent moment!

A good day.

cheers
Garry

on, I think, a Monster, and also
a couple of urc with red ribbons - but am annoyed as I now can't
remember the names.

Highlights included hurtling back down into Cowes where some yoofs were
standing in the road trying to intimidate riders. Aimed the trice
straight at them on full power and they scattered ;-)

Another was waking up on Monday morning and looking out of the tent to
find a couple of Robins perched on the flagpole.

A brilliant day.

John B

On Tue, 03 May 2005 11:28:17 +0100, Nick Kew wrote:

Sandy Morton wrote:
We are very cyclist friendly.

Very nice. But it begs the question: if you're big enough to merit
using a bike (as opposed to just walking), how on Earth do you get
away with it? Looking at the page in your .sig, I'd guess the only
journey that's a bit far to walk is round-the-coast, and that's a
case of make-travel, rather than getting from A to B.
A trip round the island is a favourite outing for Glaswegians.

Many people will remember a day out in their childhood, going down by
train and ferry to cycle round the island.

John Hearns typed


On Tue, 03 May 2005 11:28:17 +0100, Nick Kew wrote:

Sandy Morton wrote:
We are very cyclist friendly.

Very nice. But it begs the question: if you're big enough to merit
using a bike (as opposed to just walking), how on Earth do you get
away with it? Looking at the page in your .sig, I'd guess the only
journey that's a bit far to walk is round-the-coast, and that's a
case of make-travel, rather than getting from A to B.
A trip round the island is a favourite outing for Glaswegians.

Many people will remember a day out in their childhood, going down by
train and ferry to cycle round the island.

I remember an idyllic adolescent week we spent on a school biology field
trip on The Bicycle Island. After that I *had* to buy a bicycle. That
was 30 years ago, this month...

--
Helen D. Vecht:
Edgware.

On 3/5/05 6:36 pm, in article ,
"garryb59" wrote:

So I loooked at the bike, then looked back at him...
"I actually do it professionally, have you heard of ICE?"
"Oh right!!!!

lol....amusing moment, well I found it anyway. He wasn't anyway being
patronizing, seemed like a decent bloke, it was just amusing how the
conversation went. Almost a kind of David Brent moment!

Reminds me of when my Boss was being interviewed by a BBC radio reporter.
She noted teh weather info on his screen saver, so he went on at length
about how Dundee weather was great and his home weather station. Finally he
asked 'Do you have an interest int eh weather then?'. The BBC reporter was
Heather Reid, more commonly known as Heather the Weather..

...d

Helen Deborah Vecht wrote:

I remember an idyllic adolescent week we spent on a school biology field
trip on The Bicycle Island. After that I *had* to buy a bicycle. That
was 30 years ago, this month...


/me glares at Helen, ... and other overprivileged kids who got to go on
interesting field trips ...

In our day it was lack of money. Today it's fear of lawyers.
But it seems not to apply to everyone.

Bah, Humbug. OK for some, innit?

--
Not me guv

On Tue, 03 May 2005 22:27:00 +0100, Nick Kew
wrote in message
:

/me glares at Helen, ... and other overprivileged kids who got to go on
interesting field trips ...

That would be me, then. A farmhouse in Wales with ferns growing up
the insides of the walls in the gents. Brilliant! Mr Billingham
allegedly managed to roll the school Land-Rover driving up the track.


Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken

Nick Kew typed


Helen Deborah Vecht wrote:

I remember an idyllic adolescent week we spent on a school biology field
trip on The Bicycle Island. After that I *had* to buy a bicycle. That
was 30 years ago, this month...


/me glares at Helen, ... and other overprivileged kids who got to go on
interesting field trips ...

It *was* an excellent trip, heavily subsidised by our Local Education
Authority. I think arrangements were eased by one Biology teacher being
married to a Biology Professor with connections.

I was not at a particularly posh school - County Grammar going comp,
situated in the middle of a Council estate. (There again, I could not
relate at all to Robert Elms' 'The Way We Wore' recently read on Radio
4; I was at school in Burnt Oak in the early 70s...)

In our day it was lack of money. Today it's fear of lawyers.
But it seems not to apply to everyone.

Fear of lawyers is crippling kids, more's the pity.

--
Helen D. Vecht:
Edgware.

David Martin wrote:

Reminds me of when my Boss was being interviewed by a BBC radio
reporter. She noted teh weather info on his screen saver, so he went
on at length about how Dundee weather was great and his home weather
station. Finally he asked 'Do you have an interest int eh weather
then?'. The BBC reporter was Heather Reid, more commonly known as
Heather the Weather..

Great faux-pas of the 20th century #27:

Scene: a train, in the middle of rural China. Aboard it are Dr Larrington,
her chum, a BBC film crew and a KiloSeveral of Natives.

To pass the time, Dr Larrington engages the BBC's reportery-type in
conversation. The topic turns to the Falklands /Wa/, which had finished
but a few months previously.

Dr Larrington: So, did you go to the Falklands, then?
Brian Hanrahan (for it was he): Er, yes...

--
Dave Larrington - http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/
Official: Living in a wardrobe can be injurious to one's health
URL:http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1567961,00.html