London to brighton cycle ride September `25 – on a super cool vintage bike…

Ah, the London to Brighton cycle ride sportive – its a huge and really well known cycling event and, as its name suggests, takes from central London (Clapham Common) to Brighton – just over 50 miles / 80k and always features the challenging Ditchling Beacon climb…

***Please note – the sound is bad in places, after the ride I`ve found some play in the mount thats direct to the camera and fixed it so should be loads better moving forward***

For this years 2025 Septembers London to Brighton we dust off the awesome 1988 Battaglin/Carrera team bike ridden by Italian super sprint star Guido Bontempi back in the day – just because its such a cool bike – though I maybe regret the Delta brakes…

www.vintage-velo.org

#londonbrighton
#londonbrightoncycleride
#londontobrighton

Hi guys, I’m Dan at vintagefellow.org and today well we are doing the London to Brighton uh bike ride sportive. Um always a very very popular ride here in the UK. Uh probably similarly to something like Ride London that kind of thing and there are literally thousands and thousands of riders uh taking part raising great money for charity stuff like that. Um I did uh this is take two first one the camera didn’t quite get it all so I figured I’d do it again. I’m at the I think the first feed stop here at the moment. Um the real cold has gone. It’s starting to warm up. So that’s always a great thing. But there is a huge storm due to hit uh here in the southeast of England later today at about 2:00. So um I mean at the start line, everyone was trying to get out as early as possible cuz trying to get to Brighton as quick as possible to get back. Now the route is pretty much almost a straight line down from London through to Brighton. Um it’s about 53 54 miles which is something around the 85 km mark. About 1,000 meters of climbing uh which is all good. You know it’s nothing too stressful. Of course ditching beacon uh is always the thing in the back of your mind. Um most people are going to be absolutely fine cuz there are modern bikes with enormous gearing. Me maybe less so. But we’ll go and have a look at the bike in just a moment. Okay. So, uh, bike I’ve gone for today is well, it’s just the super stunning, uh, Batglin, Batalan, Batain. I’m never quite sure. Um, I always get corrected cuz you guys are really good at pulling me up on my horrific pronunciations, especially of Italian words. Uh, but this one here, um, it’s gorgeous. Classic Ro era. Uh this one here is the 1988 team bike of Gido Bond Tempe Sprint King uh multiple uh Grand Tour and um Tour to France stage winner. Um he wore the yellow on this berry bike uh in the 1988 tour. And definitely if you know your RO era history, he was definitely a Visentini kind of guy rather than a RO guy. There was two distinct camps in that one. Um but the bike itself, it’s glorious. Um, it’s my kind of size always helps. Very rare for this channel. Uh, and a the most beautiful uh and divisive brakes in the uh ever created, the Campanolo Deltas. Um, yeah. Yeah. Um ah given the somewhat erratic braking uh of groups today, I’m I’m starting to think that the progressive style of braking that you get from Deltas is uh even with cool stop pads is a bit of a challenge. Uh but the rest of it fantastic. Uh we’ve got a lovely big boy Crecord group set on here. Um, obviously completely illought out 53. I’m hoping that’s a 39, but it may well be a 42 on there. Uh, with a rear uh 11 to 23. So, ditching beacon. Yeah, that’s going to be an out of the saddle grind. Anyway, time to get back out there. Uh, get a few more kilometers underway. So, uh, we’re here now at one of the main coffee stops, and I bumped into these guys who are bizarrely, uh, they’re on a tandem, and apparently there are three tandemss here today. How are you guys getting on on there? Yeah, we did, haven’t it? Excellent. You do a lot of tandem riding. We ride it quite often. Increasingly, short. Short. Um, I mean, yeah, I wasn’t, to be fair, I wasn’t expecting to see tandemss on this kind of route. Have you been up Ditchling Beacon on Okay, we’re looking forward to that. Yeah, I mean tandemss, if there’s one floor with a tandem, it’s a proper climb. Um, but hey, if it goes wrong, no one want to notice. We’ve got a really big climbing gear at the back, so we’re hoping that’ll be all right. I think you’ve got a pretty good chance on there. Um, have you guys ridden in France at all on this? Have you ever heard of the Anu Vintage Festival? Oh, no. So, that’s in uh Sierra. So that’s kind of midway down France in late June. Very much of more of a vintage festival than a bike festival. There are tons of tandems. One of those tandemss everywhere. Um and it’s really in fact uh I’m still trying to convince my wife that it’s a very good idea for us to get a vintage tandem and go do that one. So if you get the chance, highly recommend. Anyway, good luck out there today and yeah, best of luck on that bad climb. You’ll be fine. We’re going to power up. Nice to meet you. back. Okay, so we’re doing good so far. I’ve got a fair few kilometers under the belt. Um about maybe a third of the way through. All’s good. Still quiet at the moment, but I do get a lot of riders trying to get to the end as quick as possible uh before the storm gets laid on. Now, there is only one thing. There is a very mixed level of rider here. Um, so you’ve got that classic sporty flow where you know, um, some are spanking it, some are going really slow, some are struggling. Um, and there’s some very bizarre braking procedures and stuff going on as well. Bronson always cool. Um, so you got to be a bit more alert. Harder to just get in the flow. Oh, good. If you’re walking there, you’re in trouble. Right. Okay. Now we’re slowing down. Something going on ahead. Let’s just pay a bit more attention. Yeah. So, it is the issue closed roads southeast of England. A lot of cars as well. They’re trying to get past cyclists who are going slower. Keep slow down and then, you know, kind of sprint past. Here we go. get past some of these cars. There we are. Hope they don’t pull out, past some of these slow riders. Um, it’s just going to be the the rhythm of today. Hard to really keep any particular pace steady. Oh, that way. How you doing, buddy? You good? Oh, I’m getting there. I saw this at the B station back there. Yeah. I’m assuming this is your own creation. Yeah, absolutely. Pretty awesome. Thank you. What uh what was your thinking apart from as much pain physically possible for yourself? I built it for a ride that I did about two or three weeks ago down the Oh wow. on road. Okay. Right. Yeah. Okay. Fair enough. I mean it is super cool and the saddle really really neat. Weight wise I’m going to guess you what 20 kilo plus y figures. Yeah the drinks. Yeah. Oh okay. Drinks in there 30. Booking 30. Anyway, I wish you the best of luck. I’m going to guess you’re going to be walking up the beacon, aren’t you? 100%. Yeah, that’s fair. Walking up this I think. Yeah, when you accept something like that, then then it’s still a super cool bike anyway. 50 mph in the Well, I’m going to bigger coonies than me. Oh, yeah. Fair enough. They would definitely be worthwhile. Yeah. Anyway, good luck out there. Thank you. And you? So, this is uh what happens a lot. Soon as we start going uphill, we get this kind of cars slowing down, some overtaking, and you got to just slow right down and then try and pick your time to get past the cars before they swing out and you can get past everyone. Um, all a bit challenging. Okay, coming through Arling Lie now. He’s picked up the back wheel of this guy. He’s putting in some reasonable efforts and working his way through the crowds quite nicely. However, he does have the loudest 300 man. I’m going have to have a chat with him about that. Nice a quiet one. Okay, we are on the climb proper. I’m in the uh I’m in the 39 23. Uh straight away I can tell you don’t really have enough gears. uh 3928 would be nice but you know don’t have it on here. This reminds me actually I think last winter maybe taking that Shaun Yates 711 sorry the Sha Yates Motorola team bike up the wall climb and that I think was 4219 and that was a horrific experience. This is just unpleasant. Go on buddy. Keep it up. Look at those cars pumping. Come on, guys. We’re doing great. Tell yourself you’re halfway. That’s it. We’re doing great, guys. Not far now. That’s it. Keep it up. Not far to go. [Music] Last bit out of the saddle, I think. Yeah, it starts to open up on the canopy up here and you know you’ve done it. Keep it up, guys. It’s doing great. You want to push through? Someone ignoring the close road. Sorry, just one second. Don’t worry, guys. Road was closed. Don’t worry. Dude definitely started with a bike. Yeah, he came down to get me cuz I What a guy. What answer? Come. Oh, look at that. Show off. What a go. Okay, that’s the uh infamous ditching vegan out of the way. Um it’s not too bad a climb really. Uh it just goes on a little bit longer and it’s a little bit steeper than you expect towards the top. Um but yeah, you can pretty much get up that one no problem. Certainly on this uh the uh Matag Glint I’m going to say. Um yeah, get it up. It’s not a climbers bike for sure. Got Bont Tempmpi. It’s a full door sprinter. Uh, but it does climb up there. Did it nicely up there, not an issue. Just a slightly more bit of gearing than a 23 on the back sprocket probably would have helped an awful lot. I did the vast majority of it sitting. So, you know, does go to show you that you’re not really giving anything away on a vintage steel bike like this, even with an older group set. Uh the only thing I am giving away I’ll be honest uh are those delta brakes uh which um yeah the modulation on them uh is uh yeah it’s okay if you’re on your own. We’re in a big group. We got no idea who’s going to stop where and cars trying to weave their way through traffic. Yeah, it’s a bit of a challenge. Uh but uh we’re up here on the top of the downs now and uh yeah, the clouds are really coming in. Um, so we’re going to have to uh put the pedal down, go to Brighton, grab a quick bite to eat, and then straight back uh cuz I need to get back before this storm hits. impressive to come across the finish line on a Bronx. Well done to you. The first I’ve seen today. We normally see a couple. Okay, so just through the uh the finishing line there. Uh to be fair, uh coming through Brighton. Yeah, it’s it’s like every rider for themselves there for a fair bit. Um it’s pretty chaotic. Lots of traffic. Reminds me why I do not like riding in cities as a rule. Um, and the plan now, where are you? It’s still getting bad. I’ve got now logistics in these kind of things always a bit of a challenge. Um, and I got to lift close to the start line, but now I’ve just got to I live about like 30 mi to 45 km away from here. So, the idea now is to turn around and cycle home again before the storm hits. But I’m not doing quite as badly as my new buddy down here. What was your name? My name’s Reese. Reys. Reys here uh took himself. Oh, we got a bit of blood. So, Reese here took a tumble. Was it one one mile in? One mile in. Yeah. Set set the tone for the rest of the round. Yeah. Um, was it a baddie or just a, you know, a bit of a a bit of a flesh? A few scrapes. The rear hanger was bent, the shifter was bent. We have this. Oh, check that out. Oh, man. That’s an expensive casualty there as well. I know. I had to get a flat pedal around 30 km in. Before that, I was cycling. You were riding on that? Yeah. Chain was dropping on the hills cuz the hangover was great. You made it. So, that’s the best thing. And and hey, it’s you know, that’ll all fix. But, you know, it could have been worse. Yeah, of course. But now I’m not cycling home. Now, I’m going to do the sensible thing. Yeah, do that. In the meantime, uh yeah, I hope you enjoyed that. Uh the next video I think we’re in Italy for a Tuskanyany, my favorite time of the year, my favorite race of the year.