2010-07-24 - Dunwich Dynamo DD18

@BlueQuinn - as Mr.Schick often points out, unfit people who hardly ever ride their bikes do the DD on heavy MTBs. You'll be able to make it if you go at a decent pace and eat/drink little & often.

Oh, I'd completely missed that Niall was whinging again. :P

Yes, you'll be fine, Niall. Do some longer rides beforehand, and it'll still be a stretch for you, but you'll be a lot fitter than a lot of the people on the ride. Once you've covered the distance even only once, it'll seem much less intimidating to you. I think of the DD as quite a short ride now, having done it every year except 2005 since 2003, but at first it seemed like a very long way to me.

Everybody should always remember that the main difficulty isn't the distance, but whether your bike's alright--nothing is worse than bike problems on a long ride--, whether you're wearing the right combination of layers, whether you're riding with the right people ('don't go sprinting off with the skinny greyhounds', as I think it used to say in the Southwark Cyclists FAQ), that you know where you're going (getting lost can add surprisingly long distances to the mileage), that you know how you want to ride it (the connoisseurs' tip is slowly and socially, which I think I might do this year, as my brother might come to ride it), and other little things like that.