Number 315

Sunday 1st April. TUAG: Turn-Up-And-Go
Don’t be a fool and be left behind – come out for a ride – somewhere.
Nothing planned in advance – turn up, discuss and go.
Meet: McDonalds near Tally Ho, North Finchley N12
Time: from 9.30am for coffee and planning – leave at 10am.

Monday 2nd April. Evening Ride
Kicking off the new season of evening rides, Graham will lead a local ride ending up with a meal back at Tally Ho.
Meet: 7pm Tally Ho, North Finchley N12
Ride leader: Graham Jones 020 8440 7247

Sunday 15th April. Sunday Ride: The Swinging Sixties!
For those of you who do remember the 60s ... come and wallow in a bit of nostalgia at the St Albans museum.
A ‘fun and interactive’ exhibition: fashion, house interiors, music, TV programmes and toys. Free admission. This will be a joint ride for part of the way and we will be meeting up with the Spokes group from Watford at the Orchard Cafe in Shenley for coffee in the morning.
Meet: 10am Tally Ho, North Finchley N12
or 10.30am at the junction of Hillside Gardens and Wood Street, Barnet
Ride leader: Charles Harvey 020 8455 5174 charles.harvey@hotmail.co.uk

Thursday 26th April. Monthly Meeting
After a bit of business chat and a coffee we will look at getting your bike ready for all the rides to come – what to check,
what to replace, can you do it yourself or do you need expert help.
Come along with questions, tips or even a bike (or bits of one.....)
Meet: 8pm Carey Hall, Trinity Church Centre, Nether Street, North Finchley N12

Saturday 28th April: The Big Ride
A mass ride in central London is being organised to support the LCC’s Love London, Go Dutch campaign.
The route in London should be closed to traffic, starting near Hyde Park and ending near Blackfriars Bridge
See lcc.org.uk for full details.
Meet: 11am for 11.30am start Park Lane (near Marble Arch).

For all rides:
Please remember to bring a spare inner tube in case you have a puncture and some basic tools that fit your bike.
Can you remove your wheel easily......have a go and if you can’t come along to our meeting on the 26th April!

Any questions about rides please contact Alison Ewington: alison.ewington@ntlworld.com 01707 376282

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MEMBERSHIP NEWS

WELCOME to new members:

Alistair Lambert and Anna Weber

We look forward to seeing you on a ride or at a meeting soon.

Jo McKenzie (Membership Secretary) 020 8449 4813

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  Barnet Cyclists Committee

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All contributions, letters, cuttings, cartoons, etc.
for the next newsletter to be sent to
The Editor, 106 Long Lane, Finchley, N3 2HX,
or e-mail to wunohsix@btinternet.com.

You can also contact us by e-mail at info@BarnetLCC.org
Our campaign group is at www.barnetlcc.com
and see our discussion group at
groups.google.co.uk/group/bcnz

CHILDWICK GREEN
Sunday 18th March

No, not Camberwick Green .... but Childwick Green. After an almost traffic-free morning and a fine lunch at Morrison’s in St Albans, 16 riders headed over to this little hamlet that is part of the Childwick Bury Estate. You enter through elaborate gates off the A1081 Harpenden Road and in a month or so the drive will be ablaze with colour from the rhododendrons – as it was, the daffs made quite a good show of themselves.

The small, but perfectly formed church in the hamlet was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott. From here there is a useful lane (part of the Hertfordshire Way) that leads down to the river Ver and the west side of St Albans. But we turned to the east and headed back to Welwyn for a cup of tea at Stanborough Lakes before catching trains (or for three brave souls, riding) back to Barnet. It more or less stayed dry for the day but was pretty chilly by late afternoon.

There was an excellent proposal from Graham that we forget this business of putting the clocks forward an hour in Spring but instead advance the week by one day so that Sundays become Mondays. This would then solve the mystery of why, when we have a run of good weather, mysteriously Sunday is suddenly cold and damp then miraculously Monday dawns bright and sunny. Ain’t fair, isn’t right – do you think such a move would fool the great God of Sunday Weather ... ?

Alison

How wet is was, how wet ... but actually to start with not as wet as you may have thought when you looked out of your window on the 4th and decided not to go cycling. (Later it was a different story with the rain turning to snowy/sleet).

But nonetheless four people turned out for the March TUAG and had a little tootle round the parks of Barnet before calling an early halt to the day.

Thanks to Ron for leading the way and Annabelle and Alison A. for turning up!

Alison

Sunday morning March 26th saw a gathering of cyclists at New Southgate station assemble for the first ride organised by Barnet Cycling Campaign. A route had been chosen to highlight various crossings of the Great Divide otherwise known as the North Circular and end up at Staples Corner.

The ride/event had been publicised in the LCC magazine, on Twitter, via leaflets, the newsletter and on the BCC website. Around 80 people turned up from across North London including a 7-year old. The ride was led and marshalled by experienced riders who kept the bunch tight and fairly orderly. This made things easier for riding as a big group, as the group becomes one large vehicle instead of loads of little ones. As such drivers didn’t seem to object too much as the marshalls held up traffic at junctions and, where the road was wide enough, ensured there was room for cars to pass. Keeping the ride in one mass is essential to avoid drivers and motorbike riders going for half a gap. You still get drivers going the wrong side of traffic islands to pass the group - usually at high speed having been held up for a couple of seconds.

I had to leave the ride early with other commitments and would have preferred to stay, but just before the ride got to Henlys Corner I couldn’t put off going off to an AGM elsewhere. I’ve no idea how things went after that, there’s a little bit on the BCC site with more photos and movies to come -
“Thank you to all who came to ride with us yesterday! A special thank you to our marshalls and ride leader. We had just over 80 people including one as young as 7! Barnet Cyclists were there in force as well as LCC members from other boroughs. There will be a full report, more pics and a video later this week (when I get time!). Anyone who has pictures or video, can you please let us know by dropping us a line to: barnetlcc@gmail.com. Great photos from @smsm1”

So, those from Barnet Cyclists, how was it for you? What are your thoughts on the day? Anything you particularly liked/disliked? How did you feel about the ‘temporary bike lane’ on the A5 at Staples Corner? How did you feel going round the one-way at Tally Ho with no hassle? Please let us know and/or add a comment and/or pictures at Barnetlcc.com.

Pictures are from me and from BCC site and Flikr photostream. Keith.

May meeting will be one of our film shows. Last time the emphasis was on various cycle sports and tricks. This time? If you have any cycling related videos - any length, quality etc. please let us know so they can be included. (We won’t have enough time for something like Belleville Rendezvous - unless we stop for a tea break.)

Later on in the year we plan to have another auction to raise funds for Barnet Cyclists (things don’t get cheaper). Start looking about for (hopefully) cycle-related objects that others may want - Clothing, tools, lights, tyres, books, bike accessories, bikes . . . The format is a cross between an auction and bring and buy - you bring stuff for us to sell for club funds, buy stuff that others have brought, take home anything of yours that didn’t sell. Should you wish to have a percentage of an item sold it’ll need arranging before the auction.

Then our Rummage Box
could be for you. Just pop them into the box at each meeting.
If you want any money for them make sure your name and price are marked.

Any item not taken away must be removed from the box at the end of the meeting.
Go on, bring something to the next meeting - it could make someone's day.
This really is re-cycling! Ian Ollier

Opinions expressed in this newsletter are the views of the contributors and are not
necessarily those of the Editor, Barnet Cyclists or the London Cycling Campaign.