2010-07-24 - Dunwich Dynamo DD18

Some pics at flickr; one even taken by VB himself

my first dynamo and managed it fixed, not feeling any pain yet but expecting it... met a few other fixie skidders on the way - followed a very fast group at some point after dawn - missed a turn and had to double back. Big thanks to Velocio and The Seldom Killer, coach was awesome. Will def ride this again next year, thoroughly enjoyable.

A big thanks to the forum member who hooked me up with some sort of isotonic supplement for my water at the rest spot. I don't know if it was laced with PCP or what but afterward I was like Ben Johnson in his prime.

Thanks dude!

That stuff was 'nuun'. It helps re-hydrate, and it looked like you needed a little help at that point.

Glad Crispin got rescued, and generally that Seldom KIller's selfless efforts prevented any traumas occurring.

Well, that was my first Dynamo and I loved it. Felt fresh after 8 hours of cycling andgot to the beach just before 5am just in time to watch bits of red come through the morning sky.

Had so many great bits and no bad ones. Wonderful ride, wonderful people, and I totally loved the perhaps 45 mins of total solitude I found myself on in the darkness. Not sure who it was with buckled wheel that I rode a huge middle chunk with. And I loved the Dulwich Paragon groups who you tie your elastic to and get pulled along for 10 miles.

One of the best things was having our own coach, leaving so early and to be able to stand there and just say, "This is an organised coach but it isn't your coach", "But I have a ticket!", "Yes, but do you have a username? Nope, well then... this is not for you". Heh.

Not sure who it was with buckled wheel that I rode a huge middle chunk with.

That was me. Thanks for the pace setting.

wonderful, wonderful all round- ride was awesome, coach was spot-on, big thanks to all the random people who helped me out route-wise (must take map next year) and v sorry to Owen whose pasta I stepped on.
Cheers Velocio and TSK and Digger, sterling effort all round. Off to get some sleep zzzzzzzz

Ah that was fun. Thanks to VB and Seldom Killer for sorting everything out. I can highly recommend a peanut butter bagguete stuffed in your jersy pocket. Worked wonders.
Also thanks to Henry for setting a great pace and being great fun to ride with, and the Dulwhich boys for giving us a new burst of energy for the second half/

Such fun!

"Yes, but do you have a username?"
Haha, such an improvement on last year's free-for-all.

More massive thanks to Velocio + co and esp Seldom Killer for sweeping me up, also the kind guy whose campy spanner saved me AND got me home afterwards!

I was about to start a 'wanted: left crank' thread but may be worth asking here first, its ofmega 'super competizione' 165mm but really i'm just after something similar looking that'll last. Cheers

Just woke up from a nap, feel fairly rancid.

Massive cheers to VB for the coach (super smooth, cheap, and properly VIP 1st Class, just swanning outta there at our leisure), and TSK for being in just the right place to deliver me from a truly gutting but painful knee.

Right, I'm off to milk a mongoose.

wonderful, wonderful all round- ride was awesome, coach was spot-on, big thanks to all the random people who helped me out route-wise (must take map next year) and v sorry to Owen whose pasta I stepped on.
Cheers Velocio and TSK and Digger, sterling effort all round. Off to get some sleep zzzzzzzz

Are you on twitter? If so, did you tweet that you were snoozing at the feed stop? If so, I got worried that you didn't wake up to do the rest of the ride...

my bike now makes awful noises.

That's your knees damo, not your bike.

Great fun - my first DD and about four times further than I've ridden in one go before.

Left at 8 with some ex-colleagues from CTC and caned it (well, it felt like that at the time) to the feedstation. Several hours of self-doubt which vanished as the sun came up. Hit the beach with energy to spare... before realising that we had to head to Ipswich. Arrived many, many hours later with knees in total agony, and am now limping like a complete fettle.

Wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Best moment? Being overtaken by Team Brompton who were flooring it along before the feedstop. Seriously, how fast can 20inch wheels carry you? The mind boggles.

Best moment? Being overtaken by Team Brompton who were flooring it along before the feedstop. Seriously, how fast can 20inch wheels carry you? The mind boggles.

They kept losing their waterbottles though.

Three photos.

1) The beach at 5am
2) The beach at closer to 7am
3) A load of zombies on the coach

3 Attachments

Had a wicked ride. Baddmatt Merx keeping good pace. And some awesome streches of darkness with no other riders. Chain snapped 7 miles to dunwich, thanks to the guy who had a chainbraker, can't remember your name, but your a lifesaver. Massive thanks to VB and TSK. Couldn't actually sit down on my bike from Smithfields to home. Next year I'll try not to do the extra 10 miles in detours...

damn that was fun, and twice as long as i've ever done fixed.

trying to ride home from LMNH (aka RMSLM) also interesting... got as far as london bridge... i could have left my knees on dunwich beach for all the use they are now.

thanks soooo much to david and andrew for taking all the mental effort out of getting home. and thanks to everyone who waited for me at the start! next time i will break my bike in expensive ways at least a day before.

now to bed, sweet dreams all!

I forgot to put this in my earlier post. A massive thank you from myself and my pal goes to VB and TSK. You boys did good! You realise the same has to happen next year, right? :)

3) A load of zombies on the coach

is that a staged/posed for picture or the real deal?

well done all of you.

Props to **Velocio **and TSK, organisation was fantastic (my own fault I didn't hook up with forumengers at the start, and also missed dumping stuff with van - caught up with it at Sudbury). I'd call it basically flawless arranging, mainly because TSK cared enough to phone me to call me to the coach while me and Debs (yellow jacket in coach pic) were slumped across one of the caff benches.

Any event where you get to put faces to forum names is good, let alone the legendary dynamo, the main annual ride for Londoners who think they know one end of a bike from the other. Big ups also to **Digger **and the rest lounging around the LFGSS van, a friendly lot youse is.

I may post a ride report and a few observations, mainly because other people may think mine's crap, and write better ones, and I actually enjoy reading them. I'm really interested in some of the stories of people who went off course, as very many people on the ride took wrong turns, and some didn't seem to come back, that I saw.

Maybe in a couple of years' time, most people on the ride will be Google Latituded, and Google will send you an automated text ["Wake up, you dozy sod!"] as soon as Latitude can determine that you are off-course according to a standard route plotted on Google Maps...

One of the best things was having our own coach, leaving so early and to be able to stand there and just say, "This is an organised coach but it isn't your coach", "But I have a ticket!", "Yes, but do you have a username? Nope, well then... this is not for you". Heh.

Bet that got a few odd reactions.

How full was the bike van? Will net year need a 7.5 ton truck?

To TSK - you are famous now ;)

Arrived late so didn't kick off to 9.30 after haring round Hackney trying to find anyone who loooked like they knew where to go, but made decent pace and got there just before sunrise. Great fun, lots more fixies than I expected (I rode geared), some of whom hit a serious pace. The sight of an endless line of red rear lights through the night warms the cockles.

TT'ing the last 20 miles or so into Dunwich with a few other speedy guys was exhilarating, if not ideal prep for the cycle back. c.250 miles total, but don't feel too bad. Must sleep now tho, must sleep lots.

Marvellous organisation, huge thanks to V, TSK and any one else involved, seemless. shame about the mono fork situation, thankfully it didn't happen on a decent.

Also massive shout out to "Man with Dog" whose arrival at Dunwich was warmly received and we were lucky enough to see passing LMNO @ around 4 Sunday afternoon. What a lucky dog you have.

is that a staged/posed for picture or the real deal?

well done all of you.

G, that was definitely not staged I'm out of shot but was passed out next to Prav at the back - VB that pic is pure class!

Had a great ride, set off late as Fluff had an epic mechanical and had to get BC to change her whole crankset! (thankyou Jimbilly) lost most of the forumites on the way, road a good way with Emilia and her bro. Last year i relied on others for direction and therefore had to match their pace, this year I was self sufficient so pootled along, Fluff got hit by a giant bat/moth/bird, didn't hit the feed stop until around 3, had some frankly fantastic hot pasta from my flask (thankyou scott) and felt pretty good. Gave a gee up talk to a big black guy who was feeling it, Fluff gave him some jellybeans and that cheered him up immensely - was nice to see him on the beach at the end!
Saw the moon and some stars as the cloud cleared..Fluff got a flat just outside Sudbury due to drawing pins on the road, which affected quite a few people (there was a group of about 4-5 fixing flats on the side of the road)
Made it to Uncle TSK in Sudbury, where we topped up Fluff's tyre with the track pump and dumped some luggage, and saw the broken Crispin.

Saw a beautiful morning sky, had some comedy toilet moments in various bushes (Grassos - became the new chamois cream joke of the ride) felt smug when directing other lost riders because I had a garmin (that actually worked). Was the last of the forumites to arrive to a smiling David and TSK - happy that I'd tracked down the coach, which I'd passed a mile back.

Cooling feet soak in the sea, clean clothes and then home in the forum bus.
I just wish I'd have eaten something as was completely dead when I got to smithfields, and the thameslink was closed so had to walk to waterloo to get the train home, I was in too much of a dangerous state to ride (I crashed twice on the ride home from wimbledon - albeit very slowly).

Epic thanks to VB and TSK for the LFGSS Broom wagon/bus home - lets do this again next year!

If you have a long ride report, but are a bit shy about putting the full whack into the main DD thread, then please put it here. If you have more to say than just shout-outs to other forumengers, e.g. gobby stuff to say about:

• what you experienced
  
• how you felt
  
• what you ate
  
• what you saw
  
• your pre-ride prep (or lack thereof)
  
• your bike
  
• your pics
  
• if you could ever imagine managing London-Dunwich-London
  
• strange Essex people
  
  

Feel free to put a link for your opus in the main DD thread, so anyone interested can hop over and have a look.

That coach pic says it all :-)

Thanks VB for laying that on - it made all the difference.

My first Dunwich. I hurt now. I got to the beach around 8am which was way faster than I had expected, so I'm pleased about that. So glad I did it geared. Thanks to Hillbilly for building the wheel, the Nexus 7 speed hub performed brilliantly, far better than a derailleur. I got used to the coaster brake too and it really is great. Tempted by the new 11 speed now.

I managed not to get lost, except I did not notice the feed station at all, having been looking forward to reaching it for a good hour. Where the fuck were the signs? I realised 5 miles later, riding alone in the dark and thoroughly dejected. Huge thanks therefore to TSK who's magical van full of bottles of water (and more importantly my beans and sausages in a thermos) was a godsend. As were his words of advice and enouragement. From Beacon Hill services and heading to Framlingham I was in familiar territory as I spent a large part of my youth there and it mostly followed my old school bus route. This gave me renewed strength and motivation, so off I went. I was just thinking how I might refill my water bottle when I reached the house where they too had been up all night making bacon rolls and tea. You lovely lovely people! Tea was unexpected and delightful manna from heaven at 5am.

I'm not sure I'd do it again. The bicycle is not a sensible mode of transport for going 112 miles. I'm still feeling the aches more than the sense of achievement. But I'm glad I did it.

Niall