I mentioned this subject in another thread - South West Coast to Coast I think - but it probably needs a new subject / topic.
I rode this route, along with several others, last year, in a charity ride raising funds for Phase Worldwide (phasewoldwide.org) a charity that my wife and I are heavily involved in. This year, I was not riding, but Dilys was the lead organiser and I was a driver and bike fixer. I mentioned in the other thread that my ever helpful bike shop (Butterworths, Hillsborough, Sheffield) had lent me various odds and ends and talked me through things I was unsure about. Thanks, Chris.
So, how did it go? Organising the was pretty difficult, not really relevant here, pm me if interested.
We all met on Clapham Common on Friday 22 May - nice sunny and not too warm day. 7 riders, 4 support volunteers / drivers. I was pleased to see well used bikes, quite a few scratches on them, nothing straight out of the box, always a good sign. 2 Spa tourers, 3 road bikes, and yes, 2 Thorns! An RT and a RST, father / daughter as riders. They were both kitted out with fairly heavy wheels / tyres, and in fact the RT has been ridden by the rider's son from Singapore to Nepal via Cambodia, China and Tibet!! So I reckoned I would be OK.
The Thorn riders did not know about this Forum! I'll be putting that right
Day 1) London to Newhaven Day2) Ferry to Dieppe and ride to Gournay le Bray Day 3) Gournay to Paris. Route very much as described in the thing on the net by Donald Hirsch, very helpful notes.
http://www.donaldhirsch.com/dieppeparis.htmlBrilliant weather all the time. The riders divided into 3 groups -
1) About the same pace as me last year, approx 10 mph average. The Spa riders were here
2) A bit faster - the Thorns and 2 road bikes stayed together here
3) "Which way did she go??"" A woman on a road bike who zoomed along, beat the support vehicles to some of the rest stops, and would have given even Dan a run for his money.
No major incidents, I am pleased to say, though 3 riders reported being pretty closely carved up by vehicles (2 in UK, 1 in France).
Bike problems - no punctures in a total of around 1500 bike miles. One rider fell off (didn't get out of her clips in time) and bent her derrailieur, so it fouled up the spokes on the large cogs - we readjusted the cable and throw rather than bend the gear back, and all OK. One of the Thorn riders was a good bike mechanic, I'm pleased to say. The BB bearing on the RT was a bit shot, but no worse at the end of the ride than at the beginning. And I had a problem with my pump! I took a Lezyne micro pump rather than a track pump, which is hard to fit into a loaded car, and it just leaked air around the pressure gauge! Pressure dropped rather than increased. In frustration, and to keep the show on the road, I cut the tube and rebuilt it without gauge, with a shortened tube - worked fine. I emailed Lezyne today, and they acknowledge they have had a problem with a batch, sending me a new tube, but the lesson is - TRY ALL KIT BEFORE SETTING OUT!! Even on brand new items.
The biggest 'near miss' was with the support vehicles! The people carrier driver (for the return journey to UK) - a very experienced good driver - got into selection 1 on the automatic shift somehow, forgot she was driving an auto box, wanted to change gear, pressed the 'clutch' . . . . . and the car stopped suddenly as she stamped on the brake. I stopped an inch off her bumper, and everyone stacked up behind, with much Gallic hooting of horns. It could have been worse.
The event raised about £10k, so we are pleased with that and catching up on sleep.
Keep riding and stay safe, folks
Lewis - Sheffield
