Thank you to all the intrepid Moultoneers who made the trip to London for our Monopoly Ride.
17 made it from a far and wide geographical area. Manchester to Dorset and points in between. One brave soul made a 2 hour cycle ride from the outskirts of Surrey to be with us and one Moultoneer from not 1/4 mile away from our meeting point.
After registration for CTC insurance cover we set off in to the already heavily congested roads.
Our Monopoly Ride rule was the first rider to see and call our designation point and seen by another would be good enough. The London Prudential Cycle Weekend was having quite an effect around the closed roads routes with Tower Bridge suffering horrific traffic jams. We on our Moultons managed to nip in and out of the trouble with very little delay, if any, on our way down to the Old Kent Road. We were lucky that I remembered that the Tower of London itself is in fact a genuine prison and still has the capability of being used as such. More notable recent prisoners held there was Rudolph Hess in 1941 also Ronnie & Reggie Kray in 1952 .
We trundled along the embankment, ticking off places on the board as we passed. The entire Embankment was given over to cyclists and we rode in a huge peloton. Kids on tricycles, mums on Dutch bikes, hipsters on fixies and Lycra warriors on carbon stealth-like machines. Bromptons were in attendance by the 1000, I kid you not! If I had a £ for every Brompton I saw I would have had enough to buy a Moulton !
We were zig-zagging off route to cover a good number of points on our Monopoly board , we took lunch at St Paul's Cathedral cycle zone ...moving off from there we moved on to Leadenhall Market where frame-building exhibitions and leather cycle luggage were showing their wares.... Time was getting on and our group of riders had begun to thin out ... One puncture during the day didn't dampen our quest but time and 1,000s upon 1,000s of other cyclists and road closures beat our goal .... Nonetheless, the social aspect was well worth every pedal stroke ... I know many people in the Club but I can now claim to have met even more through this ride, ... Planning is quite simple, we all have the same aim and each rider on a Moulton ride supports each other , rides can be fast or slow (mine are very slow and more of a social event!) ....I plan to organise a London ride ever year of some description ... We could join the London Bridges Ride or even the Midnight Ride. Thanks all for coming ..... I'll keep you posted ...... Craig Elliott.
