Four maiden Centuries

The magazine A to B suggested that the owners of folding bicycles should mark the occasion of the longest day of the year (Sunday 21 June) by completing a century ride (100 miles in one day). Apart from the personal satisfaction and enjoyment, this could be used to demonstrate to doubters that folding and small wheeled bicycles are serious machines. A to B founders David, Jane and Peter Henshaw were proposing to ride a circuit from their home at Castle Cary via Glastonbury, Bristol, Bath, Bradford on Avon, Trowbridge, Westbury and Frome, circling the Mendip Hills. They invited subscribers to A to B to join them for all or part of their ride. I've never tried a century ride before, my highest mileage in a day being about 80 miles, but the idea attracted me. My own area is moderately hilly, with the unappealling prospect of up hill riding for the last 5 miles plus, so rather than do a local ride on my own, I decided to join the A to B ers on their ride.

To be there for the 8.00am start, I travelled down on Saturday, having received a very kind invitation to stay with the Henshaws that night ready for the start. The weather locally was very uninviting on Saturday morning, with grey skies and continuous quite heavy rain. In view of the weather I rode to the nearest station, Tipton,. rather than to Birmingham New Street as I had originally intended. I also refitted the mudguards which I had removed from my NWT on Friday night in order to minimise weight. The local trains carry bicycles unfolded at no cost and no restrictions, so I delayed folding until I had changed platforms at Birmingham. I had just received one of Jane Henshaw's lightweight covers for the Friday, so this was my first chance to try it. In fact the cover was not finished, it had been sent for a trial fitting only, but not only was this a chance to try it, but also to take it back for any minor adjustments and final finishing of seams. The cover fits over the bike, and for carrying you lift the bike by its frame via a hole in the top of the cover. I find this has many advantages over the Bike Friday bag - the cover is far lighter and smaller, and easily fits in a pocket, it is much quicker to cover the bike this way than fiddle about bagging it, and it is much easier to carry when holding the frame rather than the handles of a large bag, whcih bangs painfully against the leg. Oh, and it's much less expensive than the original Friday bag! I'd supplied dimensions for the cover to Jane, but it turned out I'd been a bit over generous, so the cover was very loose fit - not really a problem as the thin, light material does not increase the bulk. On arrival at Bristol I had to change platform, and compared with the last time I did this at this station, when the NWT was in the standard Bike Friday bag, this was a joy with the new cover! I was also pleased to find that there was no sign of rain, and indeed it was warm and sunny.

On the train journey from Bristol to Castle Cary I watched with amusement as three or four owners of mountain bikes struggled to load their bicycles into the limited space, and a good tempered conductor supervised, and attempted to get past the obstacle they created in order to check the tickets. My NWT by contrast sat unobtrusively in the corner of one of the door lobbies. David and Jane met me at Castle Cary station, and escorted me on teh mile journey to their home. A short ride to a local hostelry for an evening meal was done on their 'spare' 3-speed Brompton, recently fitted with dual pivot Alhonga brakes, described in the A to B magazine. Initial application of the brakes was not noticeably different from the standard Brompton brakes, but when you pulled a bit harder on the levers the difference really showed - on a standard Brompton not much more happens, but with the Alhongas pulling harder on the levers does result in a significant loss of speed.

Sunday dawned sunny and warm, but with some breeze. Our contingent arose early and was ready to depart only a few minutes later than originally planned, at about 8.10. David and Jane Henshaw were both riding 3-speed Brompton L3's, Jane's being the ultra-light gold machine. Peter Henshaw chose to ride his modified Birdy Green (now sporting 16 inch wheels with the excellent Primo tyres, and a conventional chain with 7-speed hub gear and Brompton chain tensioner). I had my Sachs 3x7 geared NWT, with City Jet tyres, and the fifth member of our party was Anna Finch, an experienced cyclist, but very bravely using a 3-speed Brompton which she had only acquired two days before. As the bike was very new to her, she was 'only' planning to ride to Bristol (50 miles plus, quite adventurous for a first outing!), and as Jane was having problems with her knees she also intended to cut the ride short at some point.

The ride basically circled the Mendips, making use of as many side roads, cycle paths, canal tow paths etc as possible, and avoiding hills where practical. The first stage to Glastonbury went smoothly except that we found that after a mile or two the front bag mounting on Jane's Brompton was very loose. A bungee was used to reinforce the mounting, and in Glastonbury we stopped at a garage to see if we could buy a suitable screwdriver. Unfortunately the garage sold petrol, papers, food etc, but not any tools. However, by a stroke of good luck there was an AA van parked on the forecourt, so we decided to see how cycle friendly the AA are. Happily they passed this test with flying colours, the helpful AA man willingly lending us the necessary tools - full marks to the motoring organisation on this occasion!

From Glastonbury we continued on a fairly flat route via side roads and a cycle path towards Bristol - not the most direct route of course, but one chosen for enjoyment. On the cycle path we had an exciting ride through a tunnel, long enough for David to make good use of his lights, while Jane and I, following side by side just behind him has a nasty moment when we realised that all we could see was his rear light, and we did not know if we were going to run into one another on the narrow path in the dark. Happily we negotiated this without mishap, so it merely added to the fun.

We arrived at Bristol in time for a late light lunch of sandwiches, and we were met by the head of the Andrew Ritchie (the designer of Brompton) fan club - Gary Lovell - and Pocket Rocket owner Ray Racy (actually riding his Brompton on this occasion). Although we did not have a very precise timetable, we felt we were a bit behind schedule at this stage, and in view of the time and feeling a little below par, Ray decided not to accompany us on the next stage, although Gary did ride part of the way to Bath with us. Anna also made her way to the station to catch a train back, as per plan, but Jane decided that her knees were good enough for the rest of the journey, and so stayed with us. The ride from Bristol to Bath, using the cycle path, was very easy and relaxed in terms of effort, but fraught with danger on a Sunday afternoon as a result of the large number of walkers, dogs, children and cyclists, most of whom seemed oblivious to anyone else using the path. On more than one occasion people cycling the other way occupied the whole width of the path and barely moved over in time to avoid an accident.

Jane, David and I finally reached Batch safely, and stopped at the station for a cup of tea. Peter was behind us at this stage, having stopped to show Anna the way to the station, so we hoped to give him time to catch up. After a short stop we joined the Kennet and Avon canal towpath for the ride to Bradford on Avon. About half way along this both Jane and I found our energy had drained away, and just as we were about to stop and take a food break, we saw Peter ahead, held up by an open bridge over the canal - very lucky, as he had overtaken us during our tea stop in Bath. Apart from celebrating the reunion, we used the occasion to eat some of the food we were carrying, which happily restored those of us who had started to flag.

Above: Taking a breather on the towpath between Bath and Bradford on Avon. L to R: Bike Friday, Peter (Birdy), Jane (Lightweight Brompton L3) and David (Brompton L3)Henshaw

Approaching Bradford on Avon the sky turned black, and a heavy shower interrupted our progress - we took shelter for 20 minutes or so while it passed over. Bradford on Avon is of course the home of Alex Moulton and Moulton Bicycles, so the shower was probably some sign of disapproval that none of us was riding a Moulton! Once the worst of the rain had stopped, we resumed our journey, and although the sky continued to look threatening for a while, it did gradually brighten, and we did not get any more rain.

Beyond Trowbridge we were well into the 80's (miles), and we were beginning to think about just where the 100 mile mark would be reached, and whether to try to cycle all the way back to Castle Cary, or stop at Frome and catch a train, as by then the 100 miles should have been reached, and including a train section in our overall journey would be very much in keeping with showing the benefits of folding bicycles. As legs were becoming weary the majority favoured the train solution.

A few miles from Frome we had our only accident: I had drawn some way ahead of the others, and therefore slowed right down, to allow them to catch up. I was keeping half an eye on my mirror to see how close they were getting, when I realised I had strayed onto the white line along the left hand edge of the road. Now this line was marked about 1 foot from the edge of the road, as is often the case, with tarmac to the left of it up to the grass verge. Well, that's how it had been up to the bend where I went onto the line, but just here the line was right on the edge of the tarmac, with a sharp drop of about 6 inches and then a gap of about a foot to the verge. The bike slid down the drop and I fell onto the road. No serious damage was done, but one knee was cut and my hands were a bit of a mess. The bike was unscathed - apart from the blood dripping onto the frame and brake levers. Also damage to my left thumb made operating the RapidFire lever for the hub gear impossible. That gave me a good excuse to go along with the others in opting to stop at Frome and catch the train from there.

By the time we reached the station the 100 mile mark had been passed (agreed by both the cycle computers we had fitted). As we were too early for the train, a short meal break was taken by the others - I couldn't eat anything, as I am a vegetarian, and the blood on my hands would have got on any food I tried to eat(!). The trip from Frome to Castle Cary by train was accomplished without incident, and did enable the century ride to incorporate a real element of folding the bicycles. At the end of the short trip from Castle Cary station to the Henshaws' house my computer read 101.8 miles, while the one fitted to David's Brompton read about 2 miles more. No one was feeling any ill effects from the long ride - none of us had ever done a century before - apart from some sunburn. Indeed, on Monday morning everyone commented on how fresh they still felt, with little in the way of stiffness, or discomfort from such a long day in the saddle.

All the bikes performed impeccably, and it was very impressive how the riders of the 3-speed Bromptons managed a ride of this length. Not surprisingly given the extra gears, wider gear range, lighter frame and more comfortable riding position, I think I was the freshest at the end of the trip, and had it not been getting dark, and had I not had the fall, I would have liked to have ridden the additional 18 miles or so back to Castle Cary. This was my longest ride in a day ever, by a considerable margin (80 miles was my previous maximum, done in August last year on the same bike), and as I was easily the oldest of the riders (52), I was glad of the performance margin the NWT gave me. To many Bike Fridayists this mileage, and the leisurely pace at which we rode would probably not be impressive, but it was certainly an achievement for me. I don't have any particular plans to tackle such a mileage again in the near future, but I now know I can do it, and it gives me more confidence in tackling what up till now had been long rides of 50-70miles.

My return journey by train on Monday was uneventful, and once again the new cover (now finished, and reduced in size to fit the Friday neatly) made folding and carrying the bike on the train easier than it has been in the past.

I'm grateful to the Friday for helping me to do this ride so comfortably, and bearing in mind not only what I achieved, but also that the two Bromptons and the Birdy did the same, any suggestion that small-wheeled folders are not serious bicycles should be easily dismissed in the future.

Finally a big thank you to my companions for planning such an excellent route, and not only providing me with such pleasant company on the ride, but also accommodation on the night before and after the ride.

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Last updated: 25 June 1998
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