South Downs Gravel Run — What We Rode, What Broke

The Route

We left Brighton at 7am on a grey Saturday, sixteen riders, zero matched kit. The brief was simple: gravel tracks from Devil's Dyke to Ditchling Beacon and back via the Weir Wood loop. About forty miles depending on how lost you got.

The beauty of a CBC ride is the spread of machinery. On this one alone we had:

• A 1978 Raleigh Twenty with fat tyres grafted onto the original frame
• A cargo bike running drop bars and a rack full of tools (very useful, as it turned out)
• Three modern gravel bikes that looked almost boring by comparison
• A custom steel 650b build from a local frame builder in Lewes
• A recumbent that somehow kept pace on the climbs

Highlights

The Dyke descent is always chaos. Chalk turns to mud after any rain, and we'd had a week of it. Three riders went down at the same bend. Nobody hurt, everyone laughing.

The cargo bike came into its own when Dave's derailleur hanger folded mid-climb. Ten minutes, a spare hanger from the rack, and we were rolling again. That's why you bring a workshop on wheels.

The Verdict

Forty-two miles. Four hours moving, two hours standing around looking at each other's bikes. Exactly right.

Next month: the Ouse Valley loop. Bring lights.