BHF Goodwood Ride


Sunday 26th July 2009 was the day of the British Heart Foundation Cycle Ride around Goodwood racetrack so Louise, Chris and drove down to the circuit. Louise had suggested we try something different this year so loaded in my Yaris Verso were two two-wheeled recumbents and Chris' Trek. The 'bents were 'on hire' from Future Cycles of Forest Row and we had previously had a one hour trial session during which the bikes had to be setup for us and then we attempted to ride them. I say 'attempted' because we both fell off at least six times before we mastered the tricky act of setting off and balancing. The reason for the difficulty in balancing was compounded by the handlebars being at the end of a long arm which produced a 'tiller-type' of steering. This meant that if you want the front wheel to turn to the right, you had to swing the handlebars to the left!

It was nearly 11.00am by the time we had registered, stuck our numbers on and got the bikes ready to go. After a brief pause for a photo shoot...

...and a wobble or two to get going, I was away and out of the pits but I only made about 100ys before - hiss - the puncture fairy bit me! It turned out that a previous rider had kerbed the front tyre and damaged the sidewall which allowed the tube to protrude and touch the metal rim! After patching the tube and putting a patch on the inside of the tyre, I was ready to go again but by this time, Louise and Chris had already done one lap.
Louise needed a bit of guidance from Chris in order to set off but once rolling, she made pretty quick progress. I was now out on the track and enjoying the relaxed riding position of a recumbent. From the pits, the track rises slightly to the first corner and it was into a fairly strong headwind before reaching the back straight with a crosswind, then after the dip and a left and right, it was along the bottom straight with a tailwind before rounding the last corner to the chicane before the entrance to the pits straight again. Despite pushing hard, I was unable to keep up with the quicker riders on conventional bikes - even into the headwind which surprised me as being low down, I thought I would be at a great advantage.

Five laps later, I was just about to catch up to Louise when she pulled into the pits so I did the same. Brian and Sue were sitting on the pit wall so after a bit of a chat, Brian sat astride Louise's 'bent and declared it was 'weird' which was quite true. The five of us then adjourned to the cafe for a spot of lunch before returning to do some more laps.
This time, Louise, Chris and I set off and rode the next three laps together and it was most noticeable that Louise could pull away from me on the uphill bit into the first corner and I had to push hard to catch her again during the rest of the lap. Her 'bent was on two 20inch wheels so she was quite a bit lower than me on my 26inch two-wheeler but she is heavier than me so I couldn't work out why she was quicker on the uphill bit.

Note the expression of grim determination. Look at the camera - you must be joking!

Another five laps later and our legs were tiring so Louise pulled into the pits while I tried to do two more fast laps. The combination of pushing hard on the pedals and maintaining balance meant that you tend to ride with a constant rocking motion. I was pushing so much that my legs started to ache and on the last lap, my foot slipped off the pedals twice. On the second occasion, I lost my balance and went sharp left off the circuit onto the grass where I gracefully fell off(the guy at Future Cycles explained that being 'clipped in' would solve that but I wasn't that confident to be so attached). I was now in a high gear and consequently, couldn't get enough propulsion when starting off so I fell off twice more before I changed to a low gear and succeeded in completing the lap.
It was now 3.00pm so again, we adjourned to the cafe for tea and cake just as the rain started to fall. Twenty minutes later, Louise decided to do a lap on Chris' Trek....

....in order to compare a conventional bike to the recumbent and then we collected our certificates and medals before driving home.
Each of us had covered 33miles and it had been a very worthwhile experience whilst raising money for a good cause. It was also great to see whole families, some with very young toddlers, circulating around the traffic-free circuit.