Sunday 13 January 2013

Police, Camera, Action on a Couple of Brompton Bikes!!

One thing I omitted from my write up of yesterday's great test ride for the Greenwich Loop which is officially called the 'Thames Triple Chaser' was some shady, dodgy goings on near London City Airport.

As we rode along the Thames we came to a section that ran parallel with London City Airport. In fact as we cycled alongside a plane was taking off. All very impressive stuff. There soon came along a problem in the form of a locked fence with gate. What were we to do?

After scratching of heads it was decided that we would climb over said fence and pass bikes and bags over. Once on the other side we would be able to continue our journey.

I offered to be first over the top and although I allude to the bravery of people from the past who did just that, I was not. The spot I was going to go over was deemed not to be the best place to perform this task by Mark. He offered an alternative location I could begin my attempt of mount fence. (I suspect he has done this sort of thing before).

To my surprise I negotiated this obstacle pretty well and was happy that it offered a new form of cross-training for the Nocturne next week. With S-bag and both bikes over we resumed our journey.

The docklands location reminded me of those 1970's police television programmes where fences are overcome on order to catch the baddie. I don't quite think that the car chases often seen in these programmes would have ever had as much impact as two people pursuing a criminal on a pair of Brompton bikes?!

I doubt whether our antics will appear on those, 'Police, Camera, Action,' type television programmes but if they do, can I say now that I am very sorry, I won't do it again and please do not tell my Mum and Dad!

3 comments:

  1. "You-ar nicked!"

    http://youtu.be/UmUOee7fRRQ

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  2. This totally reminds me of a fairly recent incident just outside of Brussels where I was cycling. I passed the grounds of a (smallish) castle where the gate was opened, so I figured it was open to the public. In I went on my Brompton to explore. I quickly realised that, in fact, this had been converted into private residences, and so I turned around to leave as there was nothing to see. To my horror, as I approached the gate I had just come through, I saw it was closed!! Pondering whether to disturb the posh residents, I instead decided to go over an adjacent chain link fence with my Brompton! The fence was around 7 feet high. It wasn't easy.. but I was able to gently put my Brompton over the fence, and then climb over myself. Lesson learned! Couldn't have done this was a non-folding bike!

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    Replies
    1. We all certainly seem to get up to a lot of adventures on our Brompton bikes!

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