Another Brand Spanker from West London Cycling … and a bit of a gem, if we may say so! Don’t miss October’s Saturday Special from West London Cycling on 12th October.

West London Cycling’s routes are based on years of experience riding local roads. Occasionally, we find new cycling pastures and plan a route that you may not have done before. Once planned, it is checked (by Dave M and Leon Evans in this instance), tweaked and finalised. We’ve ridden it, it is a gem, and the destination cafe is exceptional. It includes a small off-road secion on the the old Nickey Line railway, but it is a cycle route with hard packed gravel so should be fine. We have provided a detour just in case weather is particularly wet, but the off-road section is fine and we recommend it.

This ride is totally inspired by Bijay and Nargis, they devised the first version of this route, and whilst we have tweaked it, both based on ideas from the owner of the Spoke Cafe and our own local knowledge, this ride will always be the originals … props due!

When Bijay and Nargis suggested a club ride out to the Spoke Cafe, we totally agreed that a visit was long overdue. So Dave M and Leon tested the route and the cafe with an overal 10/10 rating …. one of the best cycling cafes you could ever wish to visit. They were also treated to a tour and a long gossip with Jonathan, the owner, who turned out to be a massively entertaining character.

So, onto the club ride, a Saturday Special on 12th October starting at 8am from the Polish War Memorial.

The route back includes a few kilometres of the old Nickey Line Railway of which about 5km is not tarmacked. It is a hard-packed cycling path and is OK, but riders may choose to bring a Gravel Bike. That said, it was fine on a road bike. In case of particularly bad weather or for anyone scared of getting their precious steed dirty, we do offer an alternative route that avoids the Nickey Line. Both routes are around 117km long.

As it happens, Spoke are running a Sportive the same day, starting at 9am with 100km and 60km options for anyone that is interested, £25 entry. We will not reach Spoke in time for the start, it is approximately a two hour ride from the Polish War Memorial to the cafe.

OPTION ONE: Spoke’s Sparkler 117km (includes Nickey Line offroad segmemt)

OPTION TWO: Spoke’s Sparkler Avoiding Nickey Line) 117km