Origami
Phoenix Monthly Cycle
Ride
Contents
About
the Origami Phoenix Ride
Planned
meetings
How
to get to Meriden
Reports
on past rides
About
the Origami Phoenix Ride
The
'Origami Phoenix Ride' is a
cycle ride usually held in the
English Midlands, normally on the second Saturday of every month. The
location varies from month to month, with about one third of the rides
starting and ending at Meriden, which is designated the geographic
centre of England. The ride was originally held particularly for the
owners of folding (hence the 'Origami' of the ride name) and separable
cycles, but anyone riding any kind of cycle is welcome - indeed, you
are welcome to join us at the start for breakfast and a chat even if
you don't have a cycle or don't feel like riding! Many of those who
attend are either members of The
Moulton
Bicycle Club,
the VCC
(Veteran-Cycle Club) or The
Folding Society (or subscribers
to A
to B
magazine), but as mentioned
before, anyone, and any kind of
cycle,
is welcome.
The
usual
arrangement is to meet from about 10:30, with a ride starting at about
11:00. The distance covered is typically 10 to 25 miles. This is a
social ride, and we ride at the pace of the slowest, with plenty of
stops along the way to regroup if necessary. Rides start
and end at the same location, which is usually near a railway station,
so that those who do not choose to travel by car can easily get to and
from the event. When the ride is located at Meriden, the starting point
is Meriden Tearooms, where a very satisfying breakfast can be
obtained at the Tearooms before the ride starts.
The
Origami ride attracts a
wide variety of cycles and riders, with less of a Brompton leaning than
at some Folding Society events. You do not even have to come on a
folder, as the Marin mountain bike seen here shows!
The
first Origami Ride was held in
August 1994, but was a one
off,
and it was not until April 1997 that the ride was revived on a monthly
basis (hence the 'Phoenix' of the ride name). The ride was originated
and organised until his death in February 2002 by John
Pinkerton.
Although we no longer have a formal organiser for the rides, they still
take place every month, unless the date (second Saturday of the month)
coincides with a Bank Holiday, Moulton Bicycle Club BoA Weekend, or
another major cycling event.
Planned
meetings 2010
For
all rides, we meet from about
10:30am, with the
ride starting at 11:00am, unless stated otherwise.
Note
that as the location of these rides
varies from
month to month, it is important to check the location before travelling
to an
event - the planned rides are listed on this page (see below). You can
also check by contacting the Origami team via email here
to see what is planned.
Further
details will be added for the
rides
as they are available.
August
14th Didcot and South
Oxfordshire figure-of-eight.
Meet from 10:30 for an 11:00 start at Boswell's
Café, The Orchard Centre Orchard Street, Didcot, OX11 7LG NOTE:
not at the station, and don't confuse
with the company's HQ in High Street !
Getting there:
By
Rail:
Didcot Parkway is served frequently from the east, north and west by
First Great Western trains (on Cross-Country trains you'll need to
change at Oxford or Reading for a service which stops at Didcot Parkway)
By Road:
From the north or south the A34 passes nearby, exit at Milton
Interchange and take the A4130 eastbound. This will take you to Didcot
town.
From the west and east there are several A-road choices.
Parking:
Many thanks to FS member Stuart Glen, who has arranged for FREE parking
at his conveniently central Didcot workplace - Baptist House:
For directions download
a map from here or use the post code OX11 8XD. The entrance
is in the side road with Barclays Bank on the corner and Origamists
should use the staff car park at the rear of the building.
Alternatively, the private car parks near the station charge a couple
of quid for all-day parking on Saturday.
The
ride:
We will leave Didcot via Cow Lane bridge and Ladygrove estate then
travel north along NCN5 through Long and Little Wittenham and the
Clumps, then via White Lees and across the A4130 to North Moreton for
lunch at the excellent CAMRA-approved Bear at Home village
pub.
After lunch we carry on over the GWR through South Moreton and over
Cholsey hill (short ascent to fine views!) then through Cholsey and Wallingford
and on to the tea-shop
at the Root 1 garden centre.
Once fully refreshed we'll meander through Brightwell village, along a
short bit of A4130 (single file please!) then through N. Moreton again.
However, this time a right turn at South Moreton will get us back to
Didcot, making a ride total of about 25 miles.
A map of the proposed route is here.
September
18th
Meriden
(Note
3rd
Saturday in
conjunction with Swindon Smallwheels to avoid clashing with the
Bradford-on-Avon Moulton weekend)
October
9th Blythe Bridge
November
13th Hagley
December
11th Meriden
Origami
mailing list
We have a mailing list, members of which are usually sent details of
each ride about 2 weeks before the event. Normally there will
only be
one email per month (possibly 2 if there is a real need), and the list
is normally only used to give information specifically about the
Origami Rides. If you would like to be included on the list, please
send an email indicating this to origami@foldsoc.org.uk.
No
personal
details are held apart from simply the email address.
Travelling by train to
Origami rides
While folding
bikes are usually
carried as 'luggage' without restrictions carriage of non-folding
bicycles by rail in the UK can be complicated. The excellent a to b
website has useful information on carriage of bicycles by train here.
H
How
to get to
Meriden
By
Cycle
See
notes below on routes from
stations etc. Meriden is on the
B4102, just off the A45 Birmingham to Coventry road, OS map 139, SP 239
823 CV7 7LN.
By
Train and Cycle
The
nearest station to Meriden
(for those occasions when the
ride is
based there) is Hampton in Arden, which is about 2 miles from Meriden -
a fairly flat ride on reasonably quiet roads. This is the line from
Coventry to Birmingham and Wolverhampton, and is served by local trains
every 30 minutes. The local trains (usually class 323 or 350) carry
bicycles free of charge and with no restriction on numbers. On the
class 323s the space for cycles and luggage is in the middle carriage,
at the end away from the overhead pantograph. If you are travelling by
main line train you can either change to the local at Coventry or (from
the Birmingham direction) at Birmingham International. Alternatively,
you may prefer to travel to Birmingham International and cycle all the
way from there (an extra 2 miles). From Hampton in Arden, turn right
out of the station, and follow the B4102 to Meriden. Take care at the
roundabout where this road crosses the busy A452. Go straight on at the
roundabout in Meriden, and you will see the Tearooms almost immediately
on
your right. From Birmingham International, descend to ground level and
turn left. Bear right at the first small roundabout, and then left at
the
next, larger, roundabout. Go straight on at the large roundabout above
the A45,
and then follow the B4438 towards Hampton in Arden. There is a shared
cycle/foot path on the right hand side of the road for much of the way.
Take the third road on the left, signposted as unsuitable for heavy
vehicles, and follow this lane to Hampton in Arden. Turn left in
Hampton in Arden, passing the station on the right almost immediately,
and then follow the route described earlier.
Rail
Information
By
Car
Access
by road is easy - see
road information and map
reference above. Meriden is only a couple of miles from junction 6 of
the M42,
which in turn is close to the M6/M42 junction.
Reports
on past rides
We
have now changed this listing so that the most
recent events
are listed first, which we think will probably be more convenient for
most people. Since we changed to using a more convenient 'blog' system
for posting Folding Society news, we will usually report on Origami
Rides there rather than below. The news blog is available by accessing The
Folding Society web site.
Photographs
of more recent rides can
be viewed on a
FlickR group (UK
Origami-Phoenix)
that has been set up for this purpose. Anyone joining an Origami ride
is encouraged to join the group and upload their photos of the ride.
Folding
Society home page