I’m very lucky to have pals who commit to big plans and full days out; I asked my friend Maria if they’d be free for ‘a ride’ on a coming Saturday, and they immediately came back with a full .gpx file going from Hackney to Brighton overwhelmingly off-road. For me this came to a day’s 165km/100mi of riding. We kicked it off at 0715 to make the most of the sunshine and to hammer it out of London before it got too hot, and we met up with two other pals in Richmond and Weybridge. It was a great day out with some big wins and learning points, so here they are.
Success 1: Early starts are super worth it in the summertime
Brighton is always a big destination for Londoners on a warm weekend, and my idea of hell would be trying to squeeze bikes onto a super busy train full of drunk people trying to get the latest possible ride back to London. Further, I hated the idea of being under any kind of time pressure, so the early 0715 start headed off both things, in spite of our lengthy break stops and some mechanical issues (more on that later). If you plan on doing something like this in future I’d highly recommend a c. 0700 start, or even earlier if you can stomach it. We found getting the 1924 train back with our bikes very easy in Brighton on account of how most of the weekend visitors weren’t yet minded to get back. We didn’t have to reserve spaces for our bikes, and had plenty of time for a relaxing beer and a paddle.
Success 2: Dynaplugs really are fantastic and worth the money
One of my ride-ees, Tom, caught a puncture with his tubeless setup which would only self-seal after losing a lot of tyre pressure. We reinflated, but the puncture opened back up again and the tyre became soft, so our next move was to plug the hole. Tom had brought the classic ‘tubeless worms’ with him, but couldn’t fit the tool through the hole and was understandably reluctant to start reaming out holes in his tyre to fit it in.
I lent my dynaplug tool instead, which instantly sealed the hole without needing to use any sharp tools on the tyre, with the brass tip letting the plug get through the hole with some moderate pushing. We reinflated and it held firm for the rest of the ride. As far as I’m aware that repair should be permanent for the life of the tyre. Tom intends to get hold of one in time for the gravel racing season on account of how easy it was.
Success 3: The gravel bikes were really in their element for this ride
I do still firmly believe that if you can only get one bike for off roading in the UK, it should be a hardtail mountain bike, but on account of how dry the terrain was and the mildness of the inclines, gravel bikes genuinely really were a good pick for this ride. The towpath and downs link parts of the route were very firm under the tyres, and the drop bar configuration meant we could make efficient and swift progress on the smoother bits. Specifically, the first part of the ride where you go from Hackney to Richmond was a real blast on my bike.
My friend Maria on the ride did say they’d done this ride at a different time of year where it was much muddier, which had been very difficult. But for this dry and hot weekend we all really lucked out with our bike selection. My bike and I were both thoroughly dusty by the end of it, but I sorted myself out by jumping in the sea. One of the principal reasons I got this bike is for touring on long distances with bumpy cycle paths, so watch this space.
Learning 1: I didn’t eat enough and the food was wrong
This was really what felt like my longest day out riding in some time, and I hadn’t packed the right kind of food to keep me going. In hindsight I was much too reliant on ‘dry’ carbs (scones, malt loaf) and didn’t have enough variety to ensure I kept fuelling. It can be a bit trickier for me to keep fuelling on rides like this because eating while riding off-road can be a bit bumpy and I didn’t want to make people pull over and stop just because I wanted to get the malt loaf out of my bum bag. In future I’ll consider getting some kind of carbohydrate additive for my drink (I had plenty of water) and packing some smaller ‘one at a time’ snacks I can graze on while going instead of just munching down on big malt loaf blocks. Thankfully I didn’t fully ‘bonk’ but I was definitely pretty cooked for the last 30-40 kilometres. After the rest stop in Brighton and train home, where I’d eaten plenty, I was back to full strength during my ride from London Bridge Station to home.
Learning 2: This was a full day out with no time for further stuff
The draft plan for this day had been to meet, do the ride to Brighton, then get the train to London and spectate at Herne Hill Velodrome. However we definitely arrived to Brighton maybe a little later than planned, helped by the 60 minute stop in a pub (chips and orange juice only), and ended up not getting back to London until 2042, and I wasn’t home until 2142. It just goes to show how difficult estimating timings for this kind of thing can be. I thought if we started at 7:15 and allowed for an average speed of 18 km/h, accounting for stops we’d be over and done with by 4pm. We did have 2 punctures (one which sealed with a plug, and one that required an inner tube because the rider wasn’t tubeless) which did slow us a little also. On the whole this was still a great day out, but this was definitely a full day’s work.
Learning 3: Some towpaths are actually OK
Towpaths haven’t historically been my favourite place to ride a bike, I’ve often found them to be worryingly narrow, very busy with pedestrians, and sometimes slippery and off-camber which can make you feel like you’re constantly at risk of plunging in, so I’ve usually avoided them. Our route joined towpaths from Richmond to Guildford, and while they were a little busy with people walking, it wasn’t as packed as I’d dreaded, and we got to see some people enjoying kayaking and paddleboarding. And as a big plus, they were all in the shade which made the ride a lot more tolerable. The towpaths are managed very well and nicely graded, it was single file but still a lot of fun. So this is my sign to be less of an anti towpath snob.
Ending
I hope you’ve got something out of reading this. You can get the route from my Komoot profile here https://www.komoot.com/tour/2217498245
Other blogs I’ve written that are relevant here are my tubeless tips blog, which focuses on the dynaplug that I fixed Tom’s tyre with. Touch wood you make some time to take advantage of the long British Summer Time daylight!
Calum On Wheels 