The Fridays Cycling Club is best known for organising the Friday Night Ride - an overnight bike ride, most often from the city to the coast, starting at midnight. There are rides throughout the year and they vary in length from 55 to 75 miles always with a half way stop of around an hour. Leaving at midnight, we expect to be at our destination between 8.00 and 9.00am the next morning where riders can enjoy a full breakfast. More recently we have started to offer day times rides, including the popular Sunday London Ride. The Sunday London Ride is a short social ride around the city, usually with a theme.
Our overnight bike rides are at a conversational pace, arriving at our destination in time for breakfast. They are quite inclusive. We have all sorts of people on all sorts of bikes: some in Lycra, others in shorts and T-shirts, some on road bikes, others on town bikes. We've had tandems, recumbents, eBikes, fixed gear, even a BMX.
It's hard to be precise about the speed because we allow all riders to travel at their own speed - the faster riders will be at the front with the leader and the slower riders will be spread out further down the road, some at the back. The ride leader ensures that the riders stay together and the pace is appropriate and we have regular re-groups where everyone gets back together.
Help and support is very much part of our mantra. Our Tail End Charlies look after the slower riders and help with mechanicals and punctures. While ebikes are welcome, riders are responsible for charging their own batteries sufficiently before the ride or bringing a spare. Wayfinders stand at turns and junctions and point out the road ahead. Our destinations all have convenient train routes back to the start, although some hardy riders will choose to ride home.
The Fridays is a cycling club affiliated to Cycling UK. Registration for rides is essential and third party insurance is required.
History
The magical cycling adventure known as the Friday Night Ride to the Coast (or, FNRttC for short) began in 2005.
Since then, we've done around 250 night rides - from London to Brighton, Whitstable, Felpham, Southend-on-Sea, Burnham-on-Crouch, Emsworth and Newhaven. And explored further afield from York to Hull; Cardiff to Swansea; Manchester to Morecambe. Some riders have even extended the Newhaven run all the way to Paris.
We've even gone on tour (in daylight!) from London to John O’Groats. We've explored Normandy; ridden from Caen to Bordeaux; from Cherbourg to Hoek van Holland via Amsterdam, from Hoek van Holland to Dunkirk. And more.
If you're wondering about the practicalities of night riding, Mat Wills' Facebook post should bring a tear to your eye.
Many of our riders capture the experience on their cameras. You can see some of these in our photo gallery.
If you have great photos from one of rides and you'd like us to showcase them, please get in touch.
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