London to Brighton 2025! We (kinda!) did it!

On Sunday Sept 24th 2025, the three of us set out from Clapham Common to do the 55 mile ride down to Brighton. It had some trials and tribulations as you’ll see… but overall it was a great ride. And people kindly sponsored us £660 towards the worth Sickle Cell Society… thank you everyone!

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Morning everybody. Today is the 14th, Sunday the 14th. We’re here in Clappam Common because we’re doing the um London to Brighton. We’ve got my cousin Leighton. We’ve got Birmingham cousin Daniel. And you can see we’re here early. with Wesley at um a 10:00 start, but they’ve given us a weather warning for Brighton and said that everyone can start early. Um so we’ve got down here early. We’re about to go to the start line and see if they let us through. Really, they said we need to sell at 6:00 or 7, but you know how it goes. So, let’s do this thing. Let’s go. Uh 10:00. Oh, Nathan. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Cheers. Thank you. So, I don’t know what that rigma road was all about. The message obviously hadn’t reached the guy who tried to stop me going through early. But alas, 7:30 we were on the way to Brighton. [Music] So after our first slight uphill, we found that many people stopped, which was our plan as well, just to get a bit of water and maybe a gel pack. We we passed Cole Shelton Beaches and we’re at the first unofficial pit stop and it’s been all right so far. Well, how you found it? Yeah, the first climb. All right. Yeah, it’s all right. Cool, man. All right, we’re going to head on. And trying to get back onto the road after an unofficial stop is always like a a little bit of a dodging game. But there we are on our way again. And you know this saying, what goes up must come down. This was our first proper decent descent. Absolutely loved it. Although we were slowed a little by the yellow bib who was blocking our way and kept pressing his brakes. One thing with me, I rarely get out of breath. If if I’m suffering from any fatigue, it’s just fatigue in my legs rather than an aerobic issue. But I was clearly out of breath here. Daniel’s making his way up this thick and steep hill and I have had to get off and walk. We’re near the top, but these cleats, my legs ain’t used to the pulling. So tired. And this isn’t even the beacon. Damn. A few moments later. Surprised that I mean, I’m just flying up this hill and I don’t know what’s going on with Leighton and Daniel. They’re just like lagging. Boy, look at this. [Laughter] So, me and Leighton were quite ahead of Daniel and then we heard like a a heavy metal object dropping on the floor behind us and we thought, “What was that?” and turned around and saw Daniel had pulled over to the side of the road. So, we loop back around to see what had happened. What’s happened? The pedal came off. It came off. Yeah, bro. I thought you I thought I climbed it properly in it. So, this is a result of Daniel putting these pedals on this morning. I did that on it cuz I don’t normally do this. Well, all it is is a screw on. That’s it. But at least it hasn’t snapped off like the guy said. That’s fine. I think it’s actually been misreaded. It’s mispladed, I think. Yeah. Yeah. It’s mis It’s been put in misreaded. That’s not going to stay. That look right there meant I can’t believe you actually done this. Unless we can get it to the first check. All right. So, 20 minutes later, we’re still here. We figured out that it’s not 20 minutes. Okay. How long have we been here? Probably about 10. It ain’t been no 10 minutes. I mean, my body’s cooled all the way down. Anyway, the the pedal is misthreaded. It’s been misthreaded into here. So, it’s come off and there’s no thread left in this bit for this to stay in. So, we’re trying to figure out a route to for Daniel to be picked up and taken to a bike shop maybe. And hopefully they’ll have an arm that can fit so we can finish this route. But let’s see how we get on with this. How old are you now? I mean, this guy’s not even um he’s not mechanical. He’s medical and he’s trying to just You’re not going to get that fixed. No. Um, all I can say is stick the pedal in your pocket. Yeah. And just give your right leg a hard going over, but be really careful. So, crack on there. You got a left. You got a steep downhill. There’s already been two nasty accidents. What? Yeah. On that downhill. Just guys, take it easy. Yeah. Okay. So, the gentleman there has said that the event staff are overwhelmed at the moment cuz it’s like 5,000 of us. Daniel has texted the location. Had no response yet. So, we’re going to try and limp down. We’re going to try and limp down to a bike shop that opens in about 20 minutes. [Music] So then we set off and Daniel’s trying to limp along using his right foot and then using his left foot to push the arm on the pedal. It was a bit awkward. You all right? And there were places where I was pushing Daniel and Leighton would chip in and push Daniel, but on the uphills it was just impossible and he had to get off and walk. [Music] Yeah. Basically, I think it’s a Shimano 105. We’re basically 2 miles down the road. So, I want to know if you had a crank arm in stock. It’s the moment of truth. We’re going to find out if they have one. Yeah. I don’t know if you got anything. Unfortunately, what you might be able to do possibly is we can run a new thread into the existing crank hole potentially. Depends how bad it is. So, they don’t have an arm. They don’t have an arm, but they said that they might be able to rethread it for you, which would mean that you need to get down there rather than late and driving to riding to pick up a Yeah, no worries. But, we decided that it wasn’t worth Daniel trying to get down to the shop for them to potentially thread the arm. Uh so instead we continued on to the first checkpoint. All right, we’ve managed to make it to the first stop. It took a lot longer than expected, obvious for obvious reasons. Um we’ve tried to find various cycle shops around. Um and no one’s got anything that can help him. So he’s going to do a last ditch attempt to see if this mobile mechanic can wrench his pedaling somehow. And um if not, then it might be it might be curtains for Daniel. [Music] So the bad news is is that the mechanic has seen that he’s actually misreaded the second paper as well. So that one is probably going to come off as well. So I think his journey might be over. [Music] The long of the short is that Daniel can’t carry on anymore, which is a shame. We’ve been looking forward to this, but at least he managed to get to the first checkpoint. Um, but the bike is missed, so he just can’t continue. So, me and Leighton are going to continue. Daniel, any last words? I know you’re not happy. So, sometimes things happen for a reason. At the moment, I don’t know what the reason is and I’m very frustrated. Um, but wasn’t meant to be in it. So, with that, Daniel was picked up by our very kind cousin Joanna and me and Leighton set off to complete the rest of the journey by ourselves. Okay, just a quick stop. me and Leighton since we’re rolling solo. Um, we’re down by Crawley now. So, we still got a bit of a way to go. I think we’re about halfway. And I’m not going to lie, like with these cleats, I’m exercising muscles that I don’t usually exercise. So, my legs are feeling a bit more fatigued than I anticipated, but we’re still pushing through. Just had to have a quick battery swap and a quick stretch. Um, and now we’re going to make our way and continue. And after cycling for another 15 mi or so, we came up to another stop. And this time it had refreshments. What’s that? Oh, nah. I maybe I’ll have a pack of Chris. Yeah, that’s cool for me. Thank you. All right, we are at the second stop. We’ve passed Crawley and it’s welcome. But it’s been a good ride so far. It’s a shame Daniel’s missing out in all of this, but yeah. Are we halfway now or more than more than halfway? We’re more than halfway. So, we’re just going to try and up the pace a bit and um try and make up a time before this weather hits. And then we set out again. And after another 15 mi or so, there was another little break, a water stop. All right, we’re at yet another stop. This one’s a smaller one. Um, I was going up a hill and got a cramp. boy. Like, I can’t tell you the last time I had a cramp in my leg, but these guys look like they’re vibing over here. And after some water and a protein bar, once again, we set off. One thing you’ll notice that after every hill, you see people kind of stop for a little break to gather some energy. But here, um, I got a second cramp in my leg and I was forced to pull over. Guys, I’ve walked too much for my own comfort. But I think we’re in Dixland now. So, we’re kind of on the home stretch. We I think we’re about 45 miles in. So, we probably got about 10 more miles. Okay, we are at the foot of the beacon. Just stopped to take some gel packs and some energy and then we’re going to try it in. But I tell you what, my legs I think it’s going to be a walk up the beacon, you know. Lee, he’s gone. Okay. And this is the start of the beacon climb. You can see lots of people here mentally preparing themselves to push themselves up. I’m on the bell beacon. Look at that hill. We’re walking up the hill and there’s even more hill on an already steep hill. It’s awful. Awful. At this point, Leon uh just powered ahead. He cycled up the entire beacon while I walked most of it. Downhill on the way. Hey, this is how high we’ve come so far. And we’re not done yet. [Music] Still climbing. [Music] Go on. Go on. Go on. Get in there. Go on D. Go on. Go on. Get in there. Yeah. Yeah. Let me go. nicely. You know what? We are finally at the top of Ditchlin Beacon. Leighton looks like he’s been waiting here for a minute for me. He’s he’s formed relationships, friendships, and all sorts. But we’re here. It looks like a storm’s going to kick in in a minute, so we’re going to get going. Now, the way to Brighton from Dishling Beacon is mainly all downhill, and I live for that. However, the heavens opened up. I had hailstones pelting me in my face and the rain was so heavy. The camera’s not quite picking it up, but I had to stop and let Leighton go ahead while I put on my rain gear. And here we are just coming down into Brighton and onto the pier and then the finish line. [Music] It’s the second time I’ve done this ride and I love going through that finish line. You feel like a proper hero just for themselves and their own personal gain. We’ve done it organization. Happy smiles. We’re here now to get back to London. Crossing the line there. Oh my days. The rain. the rain. We are drenched. We’re drenched. And we’re so much later than we wanted to be. You’re supposed to be back in London now. And we’re in Brighton. Everyone reach ride freebies. This was the queue to get our bikes on the truck to transport them back to London. And it was a long queue. And we were in the rain. Drenched. Guys, it is raining. The wind is starting to blow. We are drenched from head to toe. Daniel is probably laughing at us now, thinking, “Haha, I missed out on all of this.” We joined the long queue to get the bikes sent off. Leighton is lucky because he didn’t pay for the coach, but we managed to finesse them into thinking that he was Daniel. So he’s got his he’s got a journey back with us. Oh my days. What a day. And there’s people actually playing beach ball over there in the So for me, the Brighton part is where the organization kind of fell apart a little bit. We joined a long queue to drop off our bikes. Um the the the food they had for us was cold and soggy. Uh there was only two small tents to shelter yourself from rain, tiny tents, and they were of course full. Um and we were in the queue to get on the coach for absolute ages. They said coaches were leaving every 15 minutes and I think we were waiting for in the coach queue for about an hour and again the rain was relentless. So we were just there waiting cold and shivering until eventually um a coach came that we could get on. The organizer said that there was traffic in Brighton and that was the delay for the coach but I didn’t experience anything like this the last time I done London to Brighton. 58 mile 1 hour 44 minutes. Yes. 1 hour 44 minutes. That’s it. Right. Damn. 58 miles to driver. So, we arrived in Brighton at 3:30. After all the queueing and everything, by the time we got back to London and then collected our bikes after standing in more rain, it was about 7:30. But the Brighton side of part, it was a very good ride. We enjoyed ourselves. It was a shame Daniel couldn’t complete it. And because of that, we will probably end up having to do it in 2026. Thanks for watching, guys. I hope you enjoyed.