Dunwich Dynamo 2018

Ride out was joyous, fast with the tailwind and loads of friendly people at the roadside and in the various groups I latched onto. Arrived to the beach in the cold and the dip actually warmed me a bit.

Planned to cycle back via a friends in Woodbridge so set off through the rspb park. No one about lovely roads if slow, but the headwind was a nightmare and there were several tree branches across the roads. After I left my friends the constant rain and head wind sapped the fun out of it so i headed to Stowmarket to train back.

That's going on the shopping list then.

... which all prompts the question, where is @user92433 / @Nishiki_Alien 's ride report? :)

Enjoyable ride as always left just before 20:00 and got to the beach at about 05:30, kept having to knock the pace back as it so easy to hammer it. Only had one driver incident near Epping, one asked at the lights if he could give us a bit more room, came out with the classic, 'once you start paying road tax. My only other grips are speedy riders who don't give a shout as they come tearing past inches between you. It's dark and potholes appear suddenly a slight move and it could end up in a nasty accident. People who have stopped but are stopped in the road and not on a pavement or verge, we missed hitting a group as we crested over a hill and half of them were just stopped in the road.

Big shout to the sausage man and coffee dude at Needham lake, much needed.

I was riding with le @Chung so no need for an individual report, but I wanted to give a shoutout to the peng(e) crew. Heard a lot about/saw several of the riders and it was always positive.

My first ever DD, enjoyed it a lot, but not sure yet how I feel about sleep deprivation for the sake of a ride. Interested how others motivate and manage? Do you go about Sunday as normal -- I did, to not mess with the rhythm of being awake during the day and sleeping at night. Zombie mode.

Left at 9pm and arrived at the beach at 6.30, comfortable/easy pace, WTB Nano's rollllll and hummmm. One longer stop at The Cyclist and a few shorter one's. Had a different pace from my friend so rode alone, or found groups to follow for pacing, eventually got talking to a stranger so we rode together chatting, lost him and then found again an hour before the beach.

Coach back, took 4 hours with the driver missing the last turn to Surrey Quays, 20 minutes later we turned around and arrived. Feel spoiled by the luxury or taking a pre-arranged coach and truck carrying your bike. I guess we're supporting a local business (I think?) so that's cool.

Surprised by the amount of puncture repairs that went on on the roadside -- perhaps LBSs could benefit from pre-ride checkups and advice?

Stoked to have seen people of wildly different ages, different genders, accents, etc. I hope it continues to be an inclusive event and improves in aspects I may have missed.

2019? Maybe.

This year was my first and I very much enjoyed it despite the lack of training and preparation - though I am glad I got a decent pair of bib shorts and a full service before hand.

I ended up doing most of the route by myself, which was empowering, but I reckon the social aspect is key, and I would have struggled to repair a puncture myself in the dark. Will definitely form a posse if I am doing for it 2019, and probably have a less ambitious Saturday before the event.

I did it for the 1st time with a couple of friends. Left about 9.30 got to dunwich at 8, after numerous food, beer and pee breaks. Lovely night once the moon came out from the clouds, really quite magical. It was easier than I expected - riding uphill in total darkness seems to take some of the pain out. I didn't seem any bad behaviour but we did get diverted at High Beech (RIP Dominic).

High points:

● Broad demographic of people doing it ●Feeling like the road is pulling you through the blackness
●People waving you on, selling flapjacks and filling water bottles from their front gardens
●The weather (also see bad points)
●A granny cycling covered in fairy lights with DD illuminated on her jacket.
●A guy on a recumbent with a fibreglass shell painted as a race car.
●Pub stops and the very welcome pre-booked grub at the cyclist in sudbury. ●Seeing groups already cycling back to London
●No punctures, no cramp and a pint of stout for breakfast.

Low points:
●Fatality mentioned above (Not that I knew what had happened during the ride) and seeing another cyclist getting treatment at the roadside.
●My saddle working loose and becoming progressively uncomfortable until I worked out what the problem was.
●Change in the weather - showers and headwinds for the last 5 miles or so. and it also pissed it down the entire time I was in Dunwich!

I'd definitely do it again , providing I can get a lift home again (queuing for coach in the rain didn't look fun).

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DD is such a wonderful cycling experience imo.
After a rest, breakfast, chat and few minutes of shuteye, felt really good so stuck with the original plan of riding back. Greeting everyone still on their way there was just amazing. Realise there are heroic efforts scattered throughout the entire field of riders! The mutually imparted good vibes set us up very well for the rest of the return ride, which ended up being by the far the furthest I've ever ridden into a hard headwind. Rained most of the day too, but was actually quite nice as wasn't cold at all.

I hope you all had a wonderful DD. Sorry I missed it this year. There is always next year!

Ever get round to using that Jonny?

huh?

ah on the subject of lights saw a guy with Dunwich Dynamo illuminated in his wheel. Not sure how such jiggery pokery works but was impressive.

We three kings (and temporarily 4) of LFGSS fame set off from Hackney Fields in a flurry of well… a shit ton of the usual traffic.

Bikes were a rather flashy blue Canyon with di2 and discs (beautiful colour), an equally flashy Cervelo R3, and a less flashy 18kg Gravé Commuter with more add-ons and luggage than apparently everyone else put together (snug smugness to follow).

Dashing to get out of London, the newly built cycle superhighway was ironically ignored by most - we whirred out into the heartlands of Essex.

Riding was very nice on the way out with subtle but omnipresent tailwind, we were going like a shit of a shovel - I felt particularly aware that the kingdom was going to come crashing down eventually.

We finally happened upon a couple of pubs that felt distinctly un-London. Feeling clever, we went to the second one. What was un-London was not the incredible lack of any badly-named bitters and ales - but the distinct lack of crappers. I mean, really? After ordering drinks and explaining what cleats were and that mid-ride pints meant it wasn’t a proper 120 mile race, we continued into dwindling sunlight.

As halfway drew near, a coffee and midnight snack session was imminent at the newly renamed “The Cyclist” in Sudbury. Here, there was a thinly veiled vision of chaos with ten, nay - a million different queues for payment, coffee and nosh. Yuppie packed lunches were grabbed and gobbled.

As we pushed on through the tiny villages and hovels, the locals came out in their dressing gowns in droves to cheers us on. Diversions took us outside of village clubs which made us want to get on some jagerbombs and get jiggy to the classy sound of 2008’s Taio Cruz.

Every now and then, we happened upon a train of riders that we could sit on the back off to try and keep up manageable pace. Unfortunately we also happened upon the occasional competitive urgency that made us want to ‘beat’ them, in what is still not a race.

Sometime around 3am was my cracking point. No longer filled with the enthusiasm that only Stella gives you, hills and consciousness became a struggle.

After only a single puncture between the 3 of us (and only 8km from the end) we got to the beach just after 5, where I promptly collapsed into terrible-when-awake, luxurious-when-tired sleeping bag.

Before I knew it, one of our number was making his way back to Ipswich for the train, and our other compatriot took off some time after that (I was blissfully unaware of any time passing due to the soft embrace of the pebble beach).

Coach and lorry loading wasn’t as easy as previous years, but managed to get into good chat with a guy from Temple bikes and Blaze bike lights in the queue.

Excellent night as usual, DD has another participant for next year.

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First time for me too, no punctures, fellow rider desserted me at my point of weakness at 3am. It was bloody hard, I did go for the padded shorts option which helped but my hands were in quite a lot of pain. But hell, I made it and the extra 32 miles back to the train at Ipswich. The best bit was the bit just before Ipswich -gentle ups and downs but it seemed like more down and watching so many red lights ahead into the distance, and the night time combine harvesters sci fi moment.

●Feeling like the road is pulling you through the blackness

Probably the tailwind there

is there a thread anywhere about the disco / christmas tree lights that lots of people had? Are they battery powered? Where do you get them for a good price?

https://www.facebook.com/darren.gillings.7/videos/2140860342851876/

I think that they are Adafruit Neopixels. not cheap.

A bloke put something on the Facebook group last year afterwards, a video of him at Needham Lake, but I have had a look for it and can't find it.

Edit: found it

https://m.facebook.com/groups/47776534011?view=permalink&id=10156500757619012&_rdr

To do the downlighting on my cargo bike I bought some LED strip lighting off Amazon that's meant to provide ambient colour behind TVs. It had 4 strips, but I only used 2. It was about a tenner for the LED kit, and I hooked it into one of those USB battery packs for charging phones.

It came complete with a remote that lets you change colours or do sweet disco fx. The LED strips have a self-adhesive backing and can be cut to length.

That’s brilliant, looks like a hoover board.

I caught the fella in the light blue and glasses on the way up to London fields! I was the rider in red, on a red nishiki with a white cycling cap that was jumping lights (because I was late please don't hate me).

Second time for me, last year fixed and back to Ipswitch, this year geared and all the way back to Wimbledon.

Lovely ride out, we left Hackney early, 7:30ish, which gave us time for 3 pint stops and a sausage bap & tea break before hitting the beach around 4:45. Turned back around 5:15 when it was spitting with rain but it didn't start properly for another couple of hours. Got home at 3pm, absolutely knackered after facing that headwind, rain and a puncture.

Lovely folks in both directions, thought it was quieter than last year but probably because we left early. Less boy-racer idiocy through Epping which was nice.

I was hoping to do the round trip fixed so maybe next year...

Saturday night was my first Dynamo. It was also my first time after joining the forum in 2008 meeting members in the flesh in the overly tall forms of Seager and GoatandTricycle.

They have both reported on the actualities of our ride so i haven't got much to add.

That said i loved it. Hypnotic riding along gently undulating roads framed by fields made luminous by the moon as we cruised out the last 50km was great. Definitely will be back next year.

A shredded side wall on the A12 on the way to Ipswich the following day less so.

You rode down the A12 the whole way to Ipswich..?

Not all the way down to Ipswich but far enough to know i'd made a poor navigational decision