Recycling writing#

Sat, 06 May 2006 00:55:10 +0000

The LFNS has a new weekly email newsletter, the Week on Wheels. I won't be cut and pasting it here every week (you may be relieved to know), so if you like what you read today, go and sign up for your own copy on the web site

This Week, on Wheels, we talk about

LFNS and Stroll news
Forthcoming: Sunday Stroll to Alexandra Palace, 21 May (one way!)
the Le Mans 24 hour relay race, and the man doing it all by himself
our new sound system (nearly ready)
how to get into marshalling
mappa vendredi

... and more.

== LFNS ==

LAST WEEK, "Snakes and Ladders". - "Good skate. Much fun. I'm going to go hibernate for a few weeks now." - "Great skate,great music and nice route!" - "Exellent skate, good pace, and fantastic marshalling" - "WHOOOOP WHOOOOP WHOOOOOP I did the whole skate. I did the whole skate." [message continues in similar vein] - "Kensington church street is now my new favourite road! grins like a loon "

More in this vein at http://www.serpentineroad.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16862&start=70 Our photos at http://www.lfns.co.uk/route.php/20060505

THIS WEEK, the London Friday Night Skate heads to Clapham, via Vauxhall and Stockwell, and back past Battersea Park. Nice straight bit on the Clapham Road, and a fun downhill (but look out for the bits of concrete stuck to the road surface) back towards Battersea. Half time is by Clapham North tube station.

Tonight, Wellington Arch, 8pm start as usual. Look for the large group of people in skates and hi-viz vests - though it's not easy to confuse hundreds of skaters assembling for a street skate with a couple of cycle commuters and a jogger, so you should be safe. Circular route, twelve and a half miles, expect to be back for around 10pm in time for a drink before closing.

http://www.lfns.co.uk/route.php/20060512 http://www.serpentineroad.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17129

== Sunday Stroll ==

The Sunday Stroll is slightly over 9 miles this week, heading towards the City for some of London's most-loved sights. We'll be passing over Waterloo Bridge, through Covent Garden and Lincoln's Inn Fields, then to St Paul's and The Gherkin.

2pm start, from the eastern end of Serpentine Road (by the kiosk). Half time is at Fencourt (nearest stations Monument and Fenchurch St).

http://www.lfns.co.uk/route.php/20060514

You need to be able to stop, turn, control your speed on an incline, and keep up for nine miles. If it's your first Stroll and you're not sure whether you'll manage it, why not turn up early and pop along to the nice people at Skate Patrol first? They're in the Park from 1pm each Sunday giving free training to beginners (how to stop and turn), and although they can't teach you all the skills you'll need to manage a street skate they're accomplished skaters who can certainly offer you some advice.

(And if you have friends who you'd like to drag with you on street skates, but you're worried that "drag" might be all too literal at the moment, send them along to Skate Patrol too)

http://www.skatepatrol.co.uk/

== Alexandra Palace Stroll, NEXT WEEKEND ==

Another reminder, just so we don't see anyone disappointed a week on Sunday: on May 21st (not this weekend, next weekend) we'll be doing the first one-way skate of the season. The route takes in Camden, Highbury Corner and Highbury Fields, Arsenal Stadium, Finsbury Park, Crouch Hill and Crouch End, and finishes up at the People's Palace, with a great view over London.

The total distance is about 12 miles, but we'll be taking it at the usual steady Sunday Stroll pace (so expect to arrive about 5 or 5:30pm). And we won't be coming back, so you will need to make some kind of travel arrangements of your own to get home.

== 24 Heures du Mans ==

Fancy a weekend camping in France? A weekend camping in France on the site of the famous Le Mans Bugatti circuit? A weekend camping in France on the site of the famous Le Mans Bugatti circuit with over 5000 skaters who will be taking it in turns to skate laps around the track for twenty four hours?

The annual Le Mans "24 Rollers" event has become a bit of an institution for London skaters. Teams contain up to ten people, usually arranged into three or four shifts so that each skater can spend a few hours on the track alternating with two or three others, then some time off for eating, sleeping or partying. Depending on your team, there may be more or less of the last - for some the party doesn't really stop even when they're out on the track. Expect lap times somewhere between 7 and 20 minutes ...

Interested? There may still be places left on some teams, and most are looking for support/pit crew (people who don't race, but help out with cooking/lap timing/massage/general organisation, or just making sure the drink doesn't run out)

http://www.24rollers.com/ http://www.serpentineroad.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=22

This year there'll be nine full teams from London (actually, one of them's from Camberley, but they visit London a lot) and one man doing it on his own. One man, skating, for twenty four hours continuously (an hour off for eating and bathroom breaks, he says). That man is Hans Brown. He expects to "lose about 5kg over the 24hr period, probably damage parts of my anatomy I have not yet discovered, and cover about 500km". And he's raising money for charity in the process: Breakthrough Breast Cancer is committed to fighting breast cancer through research and education, and has established the UK's first dedicated breast cancer research centre. You can donate to this cause online

https://www.bmycharity.com/V2/lemans24solo

Be nice to him, he's a marshal ...

== Sound on Skates ==

We've had comments about the lack of music on some skates lately - yes, we know how much more fun it is with a soundtrack. And thanks to the LondonSkate for helping us out from time to time with the loan of theirs.

We are working to get a new sound system online and out there, and the plans are coming together - we've paid for practically all of it, for a start. I've seen some of the parts arrive already and they're SHINY. It promises to be very very loud.

Look out for pictures in the very near future, and the beast itself on the road not long after.

== Marshaling the marshals ==

As the skate grows in the summer and stretches out, we need more marshals to keep it safe and separated from the other road users. If you've secretly hankered to wear the honoured hi-viz (and to get a clear path up the right hand side of the skate when you want to get to the front), come and talk to the marshals before or after the skate to find out what's involved.

You don't need to be super-fast: if you're comfortable with the pace at the front of an LFNS, that's what we're looking for. A degree of common sense is more important. It's a great way to get fitter, to develop more traffic awareness, to give something back to skating, and to better get to know the rest of us bunch of slightly mad committed skaters.

(And you don't have to turn up every week, and if you can't do Fridays, why not Sundays?)

If you're not interested in marshalling but you have talents or contacts in other areas (First Aid, press, publicity, IT, or experience dealing with charities/local government/etc) and would like to help out, please get in touch using our feedback form

http://www.lfns.co.uk/feedback.php#contactus

== Route/Course Analysis ==

Each week we design and check a new route, and feed all the details into the route planning system that (with a little help from Google) generates the maps you see on our web site. As marshals we think they're great - mostly because we can zoom right in to see the road names, and when you're trying to learn the route that's a lot easier than half an hour with an "artist's impression" and an A-Z. It's really important to know exactly where you're going when there's a couple of hundred skaters catching up behind you at 15mph ...

But you don't need them for that (unless you get badly lost, you can follow the lead marshal anyway), so as part of our ongoing web site review, we'd like to ask - do you like the maps? what do you use them for, what would you like to use them for, and how can we make them more useful? Again, comments via the web site

http://www.lfns.co.uk/feedback.php#contactus

== Wrapping up ==

That's your lot for this week. Next week look out for

- more details of the Alexandra Palace Stroll - the Goodwood Marathon (more skating on motor circuits) - an insight into how we design our routes - and the Lurker's Guide to serpentineroad.com - not as scary as it looks

In the meantime, see you on the streets or in the parks. And don't forget we post pictures on the site after each skate (when our photographer remembers to bring his memory card) - check back to see if we've snapped you or your friends. Or if you've taken photos or video of the skate yourself, let us know and we'll post it for the world.

Comments? Questions? Don't reply to this mail: it'll bounce. Use the feedback form on our site. To unsubscribe, use the link in the the mail footer (look down - further down - yes, there)

http://www.lfns.co.uk/feedback.php#contactus

We've just started Week On Wheels and already the audience is growing fast. But we'd like it to grow faster. If you have friends who are interested in skating, why not forward them this mail (no spamming, please, we're British) and let them know how to subscribe and get their own copy.