A Chapter of Accidents 07/07/2024

On a sunny but overcast day, plenty of Easy Riders turned up in Weavers Park.  The medium group, led by Ian T and Peter M, were off to Olivers nursery at Earls Colne.  About 12 of us headed up Bocking Church Street, and across to Lyons Hall Road. 

Little did we know at this stage that there had been a serious road traffic accident on the A120 between Kings Road (to Stisted) and the Marks Farm roundabout.  This meant a lot of vehicular traffic came on the single-track back lanes, creating an eastbound 20 car tailback at the junction at the bottom of Lyons Hall Road, and a westbound tailback coming down Whitehouse Road (from Stisted).  The front part of our group negotiated the tailback and pedalled on, but the rear part of our group was dropped (no-one sat on the junction).  Due to the sheer weight of traffic, I stopped here and started directing cars to go up Kentish Farm Road, as if any more traffic went on Lyons Hall Road, it would become gridlocked, and no-one would be moving!  Our rear 4 riders decided to go right up Whitehouse Lane and made our way to Olivers café, confidently expecting the rest of the group to have already arrived – except they hadn’t!  They had routed via Greenstead Green, and it was slightly longer than our route. 

Health & safety tip for the day is mostly for ride leaders.  It had never occurred to me before, to check the traffic news before we go out to ride.  The A120 accident happened at 0845, and maybe we could have avoided getting caught up in traffic, had we known earlier of traffic levels on minor roads.  Maybe, maybe not.

As we were about to depart Olivers, Tony discovered he had a fault with his derailleur on his new bike.  As usual there were plenty of people assisting, and between them Tony got it to the stage where he could ride in one gear and make his way home on his bike. 

Ian had planned a good route back and we headed back via Americas Road, to ride a loop back to Coggeshall.  We crossed the A120, and Neville punctured.  He has self-sealing tyres, but this time it did not seal.  The group split, with Ian and Peter taking the main group back, and I remained with Nev.  At one stage, it was almost sealing, and he used a plug which worked … until he took off the outer end of the plug, at which point it leaked again.  So, I rang Jim and asked him for a pick-up.  He was quite happy to drive out to pick up Nev and take him home.  Jim is quite happy to be our support driver, as it makes him feel useful.

I happily pedalled home on my own, through Coggeshall, across the prairie. Here there are quite a few fields being turned over to solar panels.  I know they are controversial but make the sage observation that solar panels can be removed, and land returned to agriculture, whereas if farmers sold them for housing development, the land has no chance of reversal.

30 miles (by the route I took) and 9.3mph.  1 incident and 2 mechanicals, but a very interesting ride.

Cathy MacTaggart