Rough riders events of old

[foxyrider]

I was riding with West Kent CTC mid-sixties.
There was a whole range of "Tourist reliability trials" .....ridden in groups like a club run, not competitive as such, the idea was just to get round the course in the time. I don't remember anybody checking that you didn't take a short-cut!
You got a certificate for completing each one, or you could get an enamel pin badge if you paid extra!
There was a 25 mile "roughstuff" reliability trial, inevitably using some tarred roads, but as much as practical on tracks like the Pilgrim's way which I remember as generally following the bottom of the north downs.
I think there was ;
24 hours, either 220 or 240 miles, I guess that was run nearest the longest day, in the days when you had "Never Ready" battery lights or a tyre dynamo!
12 hours, 120 miles, i think
100 miles, 8 hours
50 miles 4 hours
25 mile roughstuff, I don't recall the time cutoff at all, or what time of year

My mother & grandfather rode with West Kent DA in the late fifties, Mum was proud to have completed all the challenge rides, she was girls 'champion' in i think 57 & 58! (still have the tankard trophies at my Dads place) At that time there was a 100 in 12 that was significantly routed on the chalk downs, one year it was wet which caused carnage and she only just completed in the time.

[brumster]

I've got a small collection of old Cycling magazines. Competitive timed Rough stuff events appeared quite popular. Article/ images below taken from 2nd March 1938 issue of Cycling.

[slowster]

"Rough riders events" are specifically mentioned in the Cycling Time Trials rules for the Best British All Rounder competition as an example of 'specialised events' that are not eligible for the BBAR. That indicates that at least some rough riders events were competitive time trials with particpants setting off individually at timed intervals.

Presumably in the 1950s and 1960s the routes of such events would be likely to have included what are now classed as bridleways. (I'm guessing that they were point to point routes or a route comprising a single long circuit, as opposed to the small circuits of cyclocross races). The 1968 Countryside Act made cycle racing on bridleways a criminal offence, including time trials, so it might have become very difficult after that to continue to run such events.

https://www.cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/articles/view/323

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/19 ... ay/enacted

[Grandad]

If my memory is correct there used to be Cyclists v Harriers races where part of the course went over the racecourse at Epsom Downs

[Carlton green]

I've got a small collection of old Cycling magazines. Competitive timed Rough stuff events appeared quite popular. Article/ images below taken from 2nd March 1938 issue of Cycling.

Thanks for posting the article, it’s quite an insight into the times and riders. The author's style makes for companionable reading and, to me at least, he comes across as an informed, modest and inspirational person.

One particular thing that comes out of these old rides is the utility that guys in the past dragged out of their simple bikes. Cyclists today would do well to take note and question why we need bikes that are so much more complicated and role specific than our forefathers rode. Perhaps though some of the answer lies in fitness, weight and age; we here are typically older than the author, don’t cycle commute ten miles each way every working day and couldn’t ride a 1 in 4 hill on a 66” gear.

… but as they say: “ it’s what you do with what you have that matters”. Some did rather a lot …

[mattheus]

I've got a small collection of old Cycling magazines. Competitive timed Rough stuff events appeared quite popular. Article/ images below taken from 2nd March 1938 issue of Cycling.

Great stuff.

Two riders not allowed to start due to lack of bell. !!!

[mattsccm]

Cheers, these are what I was thinking about.
My club has a hard core of audax riders, some up at Pan Celtic level plus GBduro stuff as well as pacy gravel riding . (+ the uusal stuff) and I want to plan something hard for the spring.