I’ve had an interest in cycling all my life, but it’s only recently that I have developed the same sort of passion for it that I had as a boy. When I was younger I used to be bike mad. My parents used to call me Bicycle Repair Man, a reference to a Monty Python sketch, because I was always making up bikes out of old bits that I had found.
I used to love planning rides into the unknown using 1″ ordnance survey maps and then riding them. Nowadays I plan my routes on-line, download the data to my Garmin and then ride them! The planning still holds a great fascination for me – looking at an unexplored section of the map and thinking “I wonder what’s there?”.
Some of the rides I can remember from back then included riding to Harlow, Essex (from Bermondsey) with a friend. I remember that it was really foggy and freezing cold going through Epping Forest, and when we got to Harlow we had to wait outside a café until it opened, it was so early in the morning. God knows what time we had set out, must have been 5 or 6 AM! Another time I remember cycling to Southend and back, and then somewhere in Kent the next day, totalling 110 miles for the weekend. I also remember cycling to Virginia Water and back on my own; that must have been 60 + miles. All this was before I was 13 years old!
I used to belong to the Rodney Cycling Club based in Kitto Road, Nunhead. I have received so much interest from ex-‘Rods’ that I have created a whole page deicated to the history of the club. See here:
I used to go to Herne Hill cycle track every Wednesday (?) evening. I also remember going to the Skol 6-day Track race at the Wembley Empire Pool indoor arena on my own. I still have the program for that somewhere.
Between the ages of 15-17 my bike became merely a mode of transport. I used to cycle from Lewisham back to Bermondsey where my friends were. Then from 16, I would cycle to my girlfriend’s house in New Cross. When I was 17, I got a car and the bike became used much less. I used to use it for travelling to work. Throughout the 80’s and early 90’s I commuted to London off and on, but the bike was never used purely for recreation during that period.
During the late 90s/early 2000s I only used my bike on a handful of family rides in parks and on cycleways. Then in 2002, after I had moved to the countryside, there was more of a lure to take up cycling again, so I bought a Giant TCR 3 road bike. and for the next 5 years did a few shortish rides (20-30 miles) when the sun shone.
Vince, I’m sure I was out with you on the SFA run to Burwash, you had the Giant Composite Defy 2 2012 that I so admired. I managed to track one down, grew a pair and eventually bought it. Only been out in it twice, yesterday with Saturday 9 o’ clock inters and week before, couple of 56 milers. What a cracking bike. Glad I took it yesterday (even though my precious got dirty) I needed that 32 on the back. We did Church Hill at Boughton Monchelsea as a warm up, then a circuit round Hunton, trying to miss flooded roads, that was hard. Then more long testing climbs that had some brutal gradients un announced round tight bends ( think I lost a couple of teeth on the big front cog in a panicky gear change!). Dunloran Park for a coffee and brekkie and back off straight into another hill. Quite a fast ride home with some sneaky tac tics being employed on the sprint; 2 of them kicked down a gear before a junction and leapt off leaving everyone else stranded. I took advantage of their bemusement and carried on too. Didn’t know that you were a South East London boy? I went to school at Aske’s. Looking forward to catching up with you out there, but this is a great blog. Only found it by googling Church Hill gradient and found you ( if it is Vince with the Giant?)
All the best
Danny
Hi Danny,
Thanks for the comments. Yes, I am he of whom ye speak! I’m glad you got that Giant DC2 in the end. They are great bikes. There’s another young rider in the club who rode with us a couple of weeks ago who has one too. I was out a bit later in the day than you yesterday, but I was riding in roughly the same area, taking in the delights of East Hall Hill and Hunton Hill. Unfortunately the weather got in the way today – I was due to see the Catford Hill Climb at York’s Hill with the Sunday Inters, but the weather put me off! Hope to catch up with you soon.