Saturday

On Saturday no one met me at Ladywell Fields. Ronnie, Roy, John and Steve made the numbers up to 5 at Cutty Sark Gardens . Good to see Steve riding a bike again after our gremlin hit Reading Ride when Steve's recumbent developed a terminal fault (at least as far as the ride was concerned) and the last we saw of him he was trudging off disconsolately to Staines Station. Steve made it to Bike Fix who eventually, after 2 weeks fixed the problem. The bike needed anew rear hub. No recumbent today for Steve, he had a very stately, elegant 80 year old something or other. Why didn't I have my camera? Why didn't I take note of the name? I'm sure we'll see it again on another local ride.

So our route to Excel took us down the Thames Path to Woolwich. Fortunately today, this was an uneventful ride and enjoyed by all in the warm autumn sunshine.

We all took advantage of the Secure Bike Parking at Excel. There were two areas here, one for people with locks and one for people without. The organisation of the parking looked good and I felt sure that our bikes were safe. Maybe they could have done with a larger area, it was only midday and it was already looking quite full.

We decided to give ourselves a couple of hours looking around and then meet up again to see if we were going to stay longer.

A brief impression of the show: Absolutely packed, well attended is an understatement. A great variety of exhibitors, retailers, manufacturers, the government, the media, cycling clubs and organisations, a lot of knowledgeable people with the time and enthusiasm to talk to you, fashion shows, competitions, films, lectures, a cycle track to try out various kinds if bikes and Excel has a lot of places to eat and drink (no queues). Someone somewhere said this wasn't a very large show but in two hours I only bumped into roy, Ronnie and John once each. I had to drag myself away from an enjoyable David Duffield (Eurosport commentator) interview as the deadline for our rendezvous loomed. Once outside all except for Roy decided they wanted more and we stayed for another 90 minutes. So it was a great show, a view shared by all on this ride. I don't think you can underestimate the power of consumerism to drive forward an activity like cycling.

Leaving the show we all split up and went our separate ways.

Ian Pendleton