Villiers Velo Ride

By Tim Evans

It was a perfect day for this gentle pootle with friends, the sky was blue and the sun was hot. Twenty of us gathered at Paul Villiers’ workshop at Pier Approach, Gillingham, Kent. In the case of my TSR Rohloff it was a return to the place of its birth. We stoked up on tea, coffee and delicious home made cakes whilst discussing Moultons and also admiring some of Paul’s handbuilt frames; I could be seduced by that curly Hetchins inspired frame with chrome fork ends and beautiful lug work but I can’t think it would ride as well as my TSR.

Unusually there were no F-frames on this ride. The closest was Arthur Smith’s AS1, which is Moulton MK3 frame with AM front forks and AM rear triangle. Pure Moulton and much admired. Ah! what might have been if, 40 years ago, Raleigh had not known the price of everything and the value of nothing. Arthur’s done Lands End to John O’Groats and many other rides on it. Then there was Grace Elliott’s Bridgestone Moulton and an SP Brompton, which owes much to the Moulton MK3.

Eventually Paul called us to order and we set off to ride along the Medway estuary path which had an amazing number of width restrictors to prevent use by unauthorised vehicles or horses. The smell of the sea was lovely. There was a bit of a reference back to Charles Dickens with hulks sitting rotting in the marshes, but no prisoners. Eventually we joined quiet country lanes and arrived at Upchurch with its beautiful 14th century church with its unusual 'candle-snuffer' steeple. Wikipedia says the distinctive shape is believed to have been chosen to serve as a navigational aid for shipping on the River Thames and that in Roman times the village was the site of a community for ex-soldiers who wanted to settle in England.

Next stop was the Three Tuns Pub in Lower Halstow, built in 1468 and with an ale licence since 1764. They’ve changed the barrels many times since then and the hand-pulled Kent ale was in perfect condition. The food was good too. After a leisurely lunch in the garden we cycled back to Villiers Velos for more cake, squash and tea. The track from George Coulouris’ GPS is at http://www.gpsies.com/map.do?fileId=zdlrwfflzbktckhk. It was a bit of a Garmin ride as well as a Moulton ride with 2 Garmin Edge 605s (both using Open Street Maps free maps) and 2 Edge 800s. George’s pics are here as well http://tinyurl.com/63jssqj. His advice about how to get the best from a Garmin Edge GPS is at http://www.coulouris.net/biking/Garmin605.html.