Sunday 11 March Ride to Singleton

The weather was relatively mild today with overnight at 8C and reaching 12C during the day. Despite a weather forecast of showers all day there was nothing all day during the Ride with a SE mainly tailwind and even a brief spell of sunshine in the early afternoon.

I was the leader and I was joined at Chichester Cross by Sam, Russell, Jeff and Guest Rider Tim Morley a friend of Jeff’s from Selsey.

It was a special day for Sam with the first proper ride of his newly converted electric bike. This was one of Sam’s Roberts Bikes with added crank mounted motor and ginormous battery. The advantages are much lighter at 19 lbs and possibly a range of up to 100 hilly miles. Being a test ride though we gained a running commentary on the various thing going wrong possibly due to operator error or setup. Mileage went wrong due to gloves being too big and pressing too many buttons. The motor was running too powerfully possibly needing some more precise setup.

We headed out via Centurion Way turning off on lanes to go via West Stoke to Funtington via some fairly muddy lanes. Then on via the B-Road and West Marden to Compton Tea Rooms arriving at 10.10 just in time to beat the worst of the cyclists rush from various groups and Clubs.

The nearby destination gave us the chance to explore some lanes not used much of late. After going very briefly further north we turned right before leaving the village on an even muddier lane. This took us over some steep hills via Apple Down to North Marden. We then turned off on the road coming down from Harting and on via Chilgrove. Then lanes via Colworth Down with a long uphill where Sam’s chain came off but his motor kept going. The down hill to West Dean is a beautiful descent through woods, so quiet that some beautifully coloured pheasants had to get off the road and retreat through the hedges

A short stretch on the main road took us to the Weald and Downland Museum Cafe. Russell left us to head straight home for a Mothers Day lunch. The rest of us continued to lunch at the cafe. The menu there is too basic to attract too many mothers for special lunches so we got a table fairly readily.

The way back was fairly direct with a bit of main road and then the Centurion Way back to Chichester. After using the entry at West Dean we diverted briefly to go look at the Tunnel where they had cleared away some trees and undergrowth.

Mileage from and back to Chichester was 30. My mileage from and back to Pagham was 43.

My latest processed picture was taken in London a few weeks ago at Clapham Common, one of the few underground stations in London where trains travelling in opposite directions can be caught from the same central platform which makes for a great photo with a wide angle lens.