At Recycle a Bike and the Rusty Bike Café we have regular customers who have become great supporters of our cause. One cyclist in particular, Dave Morrison is quite central to many cyclists in the area and has branched out from his club activities by setting up his own 'hub' that meets on occasion to enjoy rides in the West London area (Sometimes known as the West Thames Area etc.)
I decided to check out his website www.westlondoncycling.com and it was crammed with great information. And the beauty of it seems to be a collective of cyclists with no hard core goal of competing for club and country. It
seemed to be all about just 'getting out there and riding your bike' which was a refreshing change for me. When I started several years ago with a small and fun club called 'Viking Wheelers' it had 'fun' right at the top of the agenda, and then racing next. Funnily enough, it was very successful as a racing club, and the laughing and pranking mixed with winning podium places did rankle our rivals.
So a ride was plotted on the website with a jaunt around the Chilterns; roughly 58km give or take a few kilometres to get there and back to the start/finish point.
The group started with about 8 or so riders and then split into the fast and slow groups. I accidently drifted into the fast group (yeah right, show-off!) and enjoyed a cracking ride with 4 lads who paced really well a solid 26kmh average. I was glad to have taken my race machine, my Scott CR1 which I really only raced four times this year in time trials. I didn't struggle on the hills and felt quite strong in the group. Nice.
We met up at the finish which was
quite cool as it was about 3km from my house. The Eastcote House Gardens and café was rather surreal as I had no knowledge of the place, which I've lived near for 22 years!
But yes, a really nice refreshing ride with everyone being really friendly. And all this before 12:30 in the afternoon - what a bargain!
Terms and conditions: Recycle-a-bike Uxbridge is not responsible for the content of external websites. Any link to a third party website, from the blog or news pages should not be interpreted as an endorsement.