My inane babblings about various cycling things.
A nice route though through Carshalton Beeches, Banstead, Chipstead, Coulsdon with Farthing Downs and Happy Valley as the highlight.
4th February 2024
so this is my specialized Sports LA bike which I bought off eBay probably about 6 seven years ago uh it was about 250 quid at the time and um it’s one of my well one of my favorite bikes I try and keep it as clean as I can chain doesn’t look too bad um and I actually absolutely love it I’ve always done the London to Brighton on it and it’s it’s a really good road bikes pretty light carbon fiber forks um and I just I just love it wouldn’t want to sell it wouldn’t want anything else for Road biking so I’m going to Farthing down today which is around 19 Mi Loop and some amazing scene scenery over um London so I will show you more when I get there could have got over a bit further that it’s a lovely host thank [Music] you sun is trying to break through milder today this is the first day this year I haven’t worn long trousers for rides about 12° I think yeah much nicer could do with a bit more something so this here is the garan 520 Edge which uh I mean I think a bike computer is are really important especially when I don’t know where I’m going it’s pretty much a satinav as well as killing all my stats but uh it’s probably the cheapest and the smallest one in their range and it does the job not a big fan of Garmin I don’t found don’t find their uh their app and the navigation of it all very intuitive um I struggle with it a bit but it was quite expensive even this one and uh I can’t really justify getting a new one just cuz I don’t like that oh it tells me where are we need to go so ahead of me we have a high down prison in suon sorry I uh I’m just passing I’m not visiting but this is a young men’s well men’s and a young offenders prison uh I think it’s pretty old wrong way I’m going go left so I think this is banard Woods on the left not really suitable for a road bike so not today but it can be fun Offroad let’s get those legs working sorry still got a sign up there for the 2012 Olympic Games some Poes here this is a fast long road as [Applause] well as you can see by that car wasn’t too close but pretty fast too [Applause] fast nice Smokey that does not smell healthy so the quality of the road is definitely definitely affects the ride this is terrible and it is slightly uphill it just makes cycling on it so hard slows you down every [Applause] step well this little road here How Lane is fairly long steep Road gets narrow in places uh I prefer coming down it uh but this is one of the routes for London to Brighton the bhf ride comes out this road so it’s kind of one of the first big Hills it’s got to take your time and plot along this is a busy road for [Applause] cars annoying squeak on the front wheel I think something needs more grease down there all right left here that’s a good [Music] pass still terrible Road surface this is uh more now into the country there some other horses can’t see them wow downhill for a changed oh Road’s still terrible he I’ll slow down for you don’t worry ah [Music] oh that was [Applause] fun oh left here this is a lovely temperature now it’s good good for cycling certainly not too cold but not too warm got the right amount of clothes on and uh it was nice good scenery nice properties around here R it w that’s a disgusting car h [Music] [Music] it’s not [Music] fun [Music] this is faring down we going up here that’s not great viewing ability today so this is the view from uh Google Earth [Music] right so this is Farthing down uh not the greatest day really for seeing a long distance but uh I guess you can just make out L over there quite low clouds today um so this is on the North ound on the edge of L sorry it’s a chalk spur home to an array of birds bus flies and wild flowers yeah it’s a lovely Place popular with dog walkers and cyclists sometimes you get cows here as well see some in the distance over there I used to have clipless pedals on this bike and uh when I learned to use them I mean I fell off quite a few times at the beginning but you finally learned to use them um didn’t really like it um so in the end I took them off I just don’t like clipless fedal you see a lot of people riding into London with them the time it takes them to clip in and clip out I’m already past them I don’t quite know why they’ve B doing it there too many [Applause] lights a photo shoot going [Applause] on you don’t have to come far out of London until you see this chips did coolon way sorry feel very much like the country now [Applause] WoW race to lights can quite stop in front of could you [Applause] curious [Applause] [Applause] you wouldn’t a guest Enterprise around here would you that’s a cool house that’s terrible about Road Andy cyc Lane just coming up on your right sorry so where do the ccle lane go to then it just disappears that’s a bit weird smell [Applause] petrol so 18.78% can relax now