Train to STOWMARKET, ride back. Sat 1st March 80 miles

For those who might be interested in riding back from STOWMARKET to LONDON, 80 miles.

I have looked into the logistics of a bunch of cyclists taking the train.

First problem, to ensure that you can travel with your bike on ONE TRAINS, you need to book a space.
Second, each train will only take up to four bikes.

So if there were eight interested we would need to take two trains. I have looked at the timetable for 1st March and there are two trains within half an hour that could accommodate two group for the cost of £6 per ticket.
The 7:30am from London Liverpool Street, arriving Stowmarket 8:52 is direct.
The 8:00am from London Liverpool Street, arriving Stowmarket 9:31 has one change.

08456007245 is the number that should be called to book a bike space, which is free. That would be prior to buying a ticket on line at.
www.onerailway.trainsfares.co.uk

I think given the problem of booking bike places. It would be better if those still interested in this ride booked bike places and purchased their own tickets.

Given the difficulty of co-ordinating this, is there still any body who really wants to do this, or should we just do a bigger loop on that weekend.

For those of you who want to do an 80 mile ride this Sunday 17th., here is my suggestion (all of which I have ridden myself):

Waltham Abbey - Roydon - Widford-Much Hadham-Standon-Puckeridge-Great Munden-Little Munden-Whempstead-Datchworth Green-Tewin-Cole Green-Essendon-Potter's Bar-Crouch End. This combines two shorter known routes with some extra hills, very quiet roads from Much Hadham, and cuts out the worst of the A1000. An alternative, new route:

Barnet-Potter's Bar-Colney Heath-Sandridge-Wheathampstead-Kimpton-Whitwell-King's Walden-Ley Green-Preston-Langley-Driver's End-Knebworth-Woolmer's Green-Burnham Green-Tewin etc as above. Mostly very quiet roads. Road most of this one last Wednesday.

On both rides, if anyone wants to cut it short, can do so easily.

Also know routes to Chipping Ongar in Essex and north towards Great Dunmow (very quiet roads again - road this today as Wednesday is my day off....)

Will bring maps on Sunday!



Michael

i like the idea, but i prefer to do this a little later, perhaps late march when the weather will be better? i'm a lazy bum myself, and like nice weather. that being said, if neil and nick are in, then i'm game too.

A rare compliment from Kelvino!

I'm gonna be away that day, I'm only gonna be at next Sunday's ride (going away this weekend) and then in March my first will be 23rd... after that, I should be there every week right up to L'Etape du Tour!

BTW: Kelvin, I've got some suspicious-looking powder in a large plastic bottle for you. And some peanutty recovery bars. Will drop them off at Anna's tomorrow, if I get a chance, so you can start using them...

Is this still going ahead / are there still spaces on the chuffers? A Sunday ride is out on the 2nd March for reasons that should be appparent by now so this looks like a good crack.

DerekW wrote:Is this still going ahead / are there still spaces on the chuffers? A Sunday ride is out on the 2nd March for reasons that should be appparent by now so this looks like a good crack.

Sorry, looks like its not going to happen due to the problem of getting more then four bikes on a train. We might do longer rides on agreed days instead.

we can meet to arrange to ride further at 8 am for an extra loop and then meet up with the rest of the ride at 930 to get more miles in?

if we don't want to stray to far, we can just do loops in finsbury park, there will be nobody there in the mornings and we can just take our own pace and see who can lap who?? i always thought it was a cool place because there is just small little hills that we can sprint up and down on...

Are you sure that only 4 are allowed? It seems to depend on the type of service. A local service should be able to accommodate about 4 per carriage.

http://www.onerailway.com/our_services/community/cycle_information/cycle_carriage

I've used similar services to Chingford with my MTB, and there are often two or three per carriage and I've not needed a reservation.

ciron wrote:Are you sure that only 4 are allowed? It seems to depend on the type of service. A local service should be able to accommodate about 4 per carriage.

http://www.onerailway.com/our_services/community/cycle_information/cycle_carriage

I've used similar services to Chingford with my MTB, and there are often two or three per carriage and I've not needed a reservation.

I called one railways and was told the max number of bikes allowed on the early weekend Stowmarket train was four. Also to ensure we could get on the train, it would be necessary to book a bike space.

So all that stuff about helping cyclists with secure parking, and a coordinated transport system is what I thought it first was, hot air. Oh well.

The road surface in the park (especially the part closed to cars) is bad and full of glass and stones. Perfect for tube changing practice

Here is a possible route we could do, which slightly increases the ride we did last Sunday 24 Feb.

www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1660869