2023-07-01/02 Dunwich Dynamo XXXI

Did @Skülly ride or was I shouting at a random bloke on a Pedersen?

Pictures look amazing.

Flippin heck, before 5! Magic powers.

Just arrived. We're here (use Tag skills)!
@OneLessCardigan If Tom wants my lock still, let me know! :)

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Hah. I just got on a coach. Was getting a bit chilly and they promised it would be boiling until they started the engine and the aircon kicked in.

Was great. Might do again.

@Rod_Munch is around somewhere and @Ruserius might've made it too.

We set off with a random person from Brighton who proceeded to drag us along to Sudbury at some obscene pace.

Another photo.

Also someone said hello to at a snack stop in way that they knew me. I was so zoned out it didn't register. Apologies of was anyone here.

That was a lot of fun. Been meaning to do it for 15 years but never worked out with timings.

Surprisingly good on a Brompton, too. Especially the hills in the last 20 miles.

Next time I’ll take a wahoo or some nav in case I get separated.

Did @Skülly ride or was I shouting at a random bloke on a Pedersen?

My doppelganger apparently! @OneLessCardigan informed me

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W0W

I know :)
The last is just outside Westleton as I left after the sun has risen. I could have taken a lot more like that!

Same as me never sorted myself out or work got in the way. Such an enjoyable ride. Next time I'll take pair gloves, maybe a sleeping mat and bivi for waiting for the bus as i was really cold.

First year for me and my partner as well. We took it easy and made it to the beach at around 8am when it actually seemed like a sensible idea to go for a swim. An absolutely amazing experience and we're already thinking about next year and friends that we could persuade to take part as well. We took the coach back organised by the Southwark Cyclists so a huge shout out to them!

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Had a great ride, arrived about 6.30, sea was beautiful and calm

Seemed quite a bit quieter along the route than I remember it, probably because first proper one since covid.

The village hall food stops were all awesome, big respect to the volunteers who put those on. Our favourite stop was somewhere around 80 miles I think, bloke doing tea and coffee (from real mugs!) out the front of his his house, had his sons working away running back to the house for coffee refills and washing up! 👌🏻

Also these nutters (not my photo)

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Weather was perfect. My knees held up pretty well. Thoroughly enjoyable, but especially the parts before and after Finchingfield, so pleasingly fast and flowing. Really is the most fixed friendly route around.
Saw those penny-farthings up close at the end. The two at back in the pic above appeared to be brakeless (guy in the orange has a brake on the rear wheel). Mad

Yeah massive shout to the penny fathing nutters !

Missed the last three and happy to see that the ride still retains that delicious, slightly eccentric quality. Feels like an adventure every time. Lovely to see the folk rolling in at 10/11ish in kit and on bikes that looked like they'd just popped out to the local shop - perhaps they had...

Coach back was a first for me - being dropped off by Millwall's ground was a shock to the Chiswick system.

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One of the best bike rides ive done. Really great. apart from the roadie close passers (burn in hell) it was great to ride onto the beach at sunrise for a change. Free chips at a random pub where one of the highlights.

First time doing this, should have joined this group, initially rode with the Brompton team which was fine but a lot of starting and stopping which didn’t help with the overall time and feel when I got to the beach.

But glad I did it. I think I saw another forum jersey rider on a fixie, who rode back too. Kudos

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that was me! good to see you

I left London Fields a lot later than I'd planned, thanks to little sister and her surprise trip to watch the new Indiana Jones film with Niece #2. As a result, I didn't leave London Fields until nearly 10pm, so the early part of the ride was a bit lonely. However, since that's the grim part leaving London and heading through Epping, that wasn't such a bad thing as I could press on. Rest of the ride was excellent. A pint and a bag of peanuts at 2:30am definitely helped moral.

I got to Dunwich at 6:30, had a couple of hours' sleep on the beach, and then rode back home to Ely. 120km of a strong gusty headwind wasn't quite what I wanted, and I was quite broken by the time I made it home. The DD itself was great though.

I left London Fields around 8:30 which is a bit later than I planned as well, mostly due to my Wahoo being annoying and not loading the route. Generally went fine, I went solo but managed to join a club group from St Albans, and then later on in the last 1/3 joined a random group who were doing a return trip. Got there around 3:30am for the sunrise. Had a full English then kept on buying cups of tea so I could stay inside as it was pretty cold until full sunrise. Had a nap on the beach and then got the coach back. Luckily this time I waited to load my bike until the truck was full so when we got back to Millwall it was one of the first out. Overall had a good ride, apart from some persistent back pain related to something else.

Are the two dudes on the tandem on here? I took my daughter to watch the passing riders on lea bridge rd and saw and waved at about 9.15pm or so

Great riding and catching up with @OneLessCardigan! Thank you for stopping and waiting - leisurely would be one word to describe my pace. Glad you were able to return to your pace after the lovely Finchingfield pint/sausage/vegan roll stop.

I got to the White Horse around 3 and could see the first signs of dawn which meant seeing a few villages/landscape before Needham that had always been dark before. It was a beautiful dawn and sunrise.

The free chips sign was cruel! So tempting, but I was convinced there was a catch, and so kept going.

I decided not to hang around queuing for a coffee at the lake and headed straight for Gosbeck. I swear they put something magic in their bacon rolls as again my energy levels picked right up for the last two hours to the coast. It was nice to see the defibrillator they had been raising money for last year. I think this year it is a charity visit fund.

Managed a brief swim which was invigorating after the ride. It would have been longer had I not left my water bottle in the toilet cubicle. I was too polite to ask the poor soul in there after me to pass it under the door but 4 people went through the other one by the time he'd finished so I probably should have done.

Tickets worked fine, thank you @Bosh!

Another really lovely dynamo.

P.s @rhowe I owe you half a pint my friend cheekily asked you to get!

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P.s @rhowe I owe you half a pint my friend cheekily asked you to get!

Feel free to buy one for @hoefla who gifted a bottle of Speckled Hen!