Pedalling for Palestine
05/06/2024 Day 5: Ripley to Brighton
70.8 km, 1485 m climbing, 4 hours 18 minutes, 16.4 kph - day with the most climbing!.
[The height profile is at the bottom of the map.]
Setting off from Paula & John's
Son Francis and I met for lunch at the Hornbrook Pub, Horsham. He had cycling up from Brighton. Many of the subsequent photos are his.
Bike close-ups!
This is the poster I had on the bike to let people know what I was doing. I only spotted the date error when I got back home!
Handlebars, showing how I secured the cable from the battery pack, to make sure the phone lasted all day.
This lever is from a six speed, but quite happily coped with my modern Shimano CUES 9 speed.
Rear cassette - 11 to 46t. When I rode this frame as a schoolboy, I was pleased to have 5 gears, and very happy when I acquired double changer - a simple lever mounted on the seat tube.
A week or so before the ride the back brake wasn't working - staying on. A quick inspection revealed its spring had disappeared! So hastily bought a small reach replacement, and adjusted the height with a section of repurposed pedal crank. Works very well ;-)
Back to the journey!
Crossing the South Downs Way, not far from Brighton.
Welcome tea stop just before the last big climb, Saddlescomb Road.
Journey's end! Francis and I welcomed by Teresa, Gill and Linda. Thanks to Roger for these Brighton photos.
Gill awarding me the "Blood sweat and gears" cup ;-)
Me, Teresa and Francis on the promenade.
Celebrating!
Transcript of my Instagram reel for this day
I'm in Brighton. I did it! It was quite a hard day today because though the mileage wasn't very much, only 69 kilometres, there were hills, there was a lot of climbing and on Devil's Dyke*, just outside Brighton, I was down to my lowest gear, pedalling ever so slowly, 4 kilometres an hour, which is not a lot, but I didn't fall off and I got to the top! [* actually Saddlescombe Road.] So that was great. I was riding from Ripley to Brighton. Francis, my son, oldest boy, came and met me at Horsham. We had a nice pub lunch and then did the rest of the journey. I've done 504 kilometers and I've climbed 2,754 meters, which is about 30 percent of Mount Everest, and a big chunk of that was today, 900 meters of that was today. So, after all that flat stuff in Lincoln, I'm not used to hills, but, the bike is geared correctly, very low gears, so I got here. So, I've done it, I'm really pleased, I was met in Brighton by my wife, Teresa, and by Jill, and Roger Hurle, and Linda Mesney, which is really lovely. Big thanks to them. So, it's done! And if you haven't sent loads of money, do it, do it. You know you want to. I won't be as Bob Geldof about it, but, you know, it's a really important cause. Okay, cheerio for now, and bye bye.