2009-07-04 Sat - Dunwich Dynamo 2009

big thanks to alex for buying the soup (£2 for that shit and a stale roll . I tell you we nearly had another IOW on our hands) when they ran out of change with 300 customers to go. Do people organise rides and then phone up their mates and say "hey Bill, you know that stash of shit stale food you've got in your garage? well there's going to be hundreds of tired, physically stressed people willing to buy that next week...oh yeah and charge at least double what they would pay down the west end"

IOW food stop 2009

cheers Al
@ sam - nice one mate. did your secret travel plan come off?

Wow what a good ride, just been dumped back at Smithfields. We were lucky and had our bikes in the coach. Perfect weather.

after a pootle for hovis brown and a nice long slog for me, we got in about 7.30am. have now just woken up after a nice snooze, hot shower and being fed cooked breakfast, tea, biscuits, anything else in the house, to breaking point by my mother. god bless her socks.

off to the pub now :)

@ sam - nice one mate. did your secret travel plan come off?

shhhhhhhhh!

PS Yes it did. Nice route too, although it didn't really matter as come Ipswich about 6 others were waiting with bikes, including forumenger Jung.

Great ride - Awesome effort Ian (Brun) for getting to the beach for the sunrise. I have to try that next year.

Thanks to Marco, Hugh and Matt for great company and a nice pace for my first century ride.

See some of you on Tuesday at Norths, Vatturn Rundan next year anyone?

Well done to everyone who made it. Unfortunately my parent's house was just over 100 miles into the route so I decided to drop off and get in a warm bed (much more fun than a wet cold beach)..

Thanks to Clefty for the music. Thanks Jay & SpagHoops for the company in/around the food stop and Radius for the little sprint sessions. Thanks to Paul for the pretty much constant riding together. Thanks to VV for the garmin ;) those extra detour miles were actually quite fun!

Also, nice to see so many forumengers along the way. Failing another ride to my parent's home next year I think turning around at the feed station is a pretty good idea..

[Too long--it may be useful to ignore this post.]

[And sorry if this comes across as a bit Rapha-esque--I genuinely love this ride!]

And it was all going so well. Ride back passing off beautifully, after a good pub lunch in Sudbury we were motoring up a hill just outside Finchingfield when one of my rear spoke nipples exploded. On my wheel with 24 spokes, unfortunately, that meant too much wobble to continue. I knew this because I had broken a spoke on the Raid Essex 200 Audax just a couple of weeks ago, didn't notice at first, and the wheel jammed completely.

That was the end of my ride, with only 42 miles left to go back to London. The miles had been flying past, we were still on a good average (16.3mph for me after crawling up the hill outside Sudbury) for 178 miles.

I was riding with Daniel, whom I'd met on the Exmouth Exodus last month, and who's a strong rider training for LEL. We'd started out from Dunwich together with Greenbank and his mate Scott, but inexplicably lost them in the annoying gravelly lane just after/before (depending on whether you were going from or to Dunwich). Greenbank, what happened? We waited for you for a good while, but no news. Hope you were alright/didn't have a mechanical!

Daniel and I carried on and we worked well together, which was a pleasure. Getting something vegan in the Grover & Allen in Sudbury was slightly difficult and much delayed, as the food suitability list had gone missing, and then sadly the vegan tomato and basil soup, on which I was extremely keen after the amazing soup at Great Waldingfield, proved to be unavailable. Oh well, two plates of tiny servings of pasta (at a low price, so no worries there) were a good meal, washed down with a pint and quite a lot of water and orange juice.

We felt fresh and made good time to Finchingfield, and luckily were just outside it when it happened. The landlord and staff of the Three Tuns just inside the village were incredibly helpful and researched minicab firms by the lorryload, and eventually we found one that took me to Stansted. Several trains later and home, much later than I would have got home by bike.

This was my sixth Dynamo and one of my favourites. It doesn't quite beat the 2003 edition, my first, but is joint second with 2006 (storming tailwind all the way). I always ride with my mate Ian, whom it would not be unjustified to call GarmIan, even though he doesn't own any form of GPS--he doesn't need to. Unbelievable numbers of people at London Fields and people leaving at silly o'clock--I saw several groups leave at 7:30pm. We went off at 8:25 or thereabouts and had an unbelievably lovely ride up to Great Waldingfield, only marred by two of Ian's lights jumping off his bike and a third coming loose. The average up to GW was 18.1mph.

Loads and loads of familiar faces at the feed--Tao, Alex, and Dan from CC Hackney, and Tao also from the forum, Gus, whom we'd seen loads earlier in the ride and who hopped onto the perfect group for the second leg, leaving about half an hour before us, Brun, claus, furious tiles, and several I've probably forgotten, sorry!

The tomato soup completely made my evening--sooo tasty! I'd had a bit of stomach ache and stitches on the way up, but the soup saw to that completely. I don't really like the pasta they do there that much, but the soup was utterly brilliant. And a huge thank you to all the helpers, of course!

The refurbishment of Great Waldingfield Village Hall was a little odd, with bizarre and dangerous ridges in the newly-laid floor that I saw at least two people stumbling over. One fell. But the new toilet block is great--anyone who knew the old toilets will agree.

We didn't really know when to sensibly continue, as we'd got to the feed at about 11:50pm, so we dragged our stay out until about 1:05am and then went. We got to Dunwich at 3:50 on a 17.5mph average without major disruptions, only me overshooting a turn once.

The cafe was already selling tea and coffee to the first three groups that had got there and breakfast started to be offered at 4:30am. They make a decent vegan breakfast there.

I initially wanted to go swimming, but just as I was about to, the group mentioned above was leaving, so I didn't swim. I later regretted not staying for longer when the sun came out, but not much.

Spotted at Dunwich: gormley, joe smith, furious tiles, Dropout, tika, jonny, The Seldom Killer, Gustav, and lots of others. hillbilly and Plagiarist had already got to Dunwich, too, but wanted to leave later for going back. And doing the way back is worth it just for spotting people you know. Too many to mention them all, in no particular order--VeeVee, jaygee, stelle, illy (who didn't hear me shout, I think), braker, tricitybendix, scott not scot, fred, Emilia, marcom, and of course Charlotte on her ordinary, surrounded by a busy hive of hangers-on! Lots of forumengers I don't know, and non-forum friends, too. I'm too tired now to think of everybody whom I saw. Good to see you all!

I had an absolute blast. I love this ride.

[Too long--it may be useful to ignore this post.]............................blah ...................blah................te on her ordinary, surrounded by a busy hive of hangers-on! Lots of forumengers I don't know, and non-forum friends, too. I'm too tired now to think of everybody whom I saw. Good to see you all!

I had an absolute blast. I love this ride.

excellent post, i really enjoyed reading this and wish i could have been there. enjoy your well earned rest and well done to all of you that did the single and double.

I've been awake from 10am Saturday morning, I'm now very tiered I'll see everyone later. Nighty night.

Awesome ride though. Thanks Object, you're a cunt xx.

yay, i did it back home now and in need of a cuddle !

Why did I fall asleep on the beach? I now have two bright red legs.

But worth it: swimming in the sea as the sun rose about 4:15. And a great pack from a bit after the feed station - I think 3 fixed (one in black rapha) and the rest of of geared.

Def. should have rode back. Kudos to those that did.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/booksnake/sets/72157620861691087/

My first DD. Here are some snapshots of my impressions.

1, It was big, Way bigger than I expected.

1. It didn't seem as long as I thought it might. The first leg flew by and the second leg only really started to drag when it started to drizzle (and I was knackered) with 20 miles to go.
   
2. The food at the feed station was dire.
   
3. I took way to much food. Took home: 3 Trek Bars, 4 samosas, 2 malt loafs and a packet of Jelly babies. Marco is packing my bag next year.
   
   

Memories:

1. The dawn as we "sped" throught the Suffolk country.
   
2. The world's smallest rainbow near Dunwich.
   
3. Simon's freewheel. It was so fuckin loud it must have been in breach of Health and Safety legislation.
   
4. The queues at the feed station and in Dunwich. It could have been so much better organised.
   
5. Sam with his hand down his shorts applying his bum cream in someone's front garden. It could all have ended so horribly.
   
   

It was good to meet and ride with so many forumengers. Thanks especially to Matt, Marco and Simon. You were awesome dudes - great company and you pulled me up the "hills". Thanks also to Joe and Sam for the chats and Joe for the tea and the remains of his brekkie at Dunwich.

Will I do it again? Yes I will. I still don't see the need to do it geared despite the number of exotic and expensive bikes deployed by forumites. However, there and back again by bike does seem like a cruel and unusual punishment.

I'm knackered - even after 4 hours kip and a huge fry up. See you all next year.

Note to anyone riding on the wrong side of the road, the roads are in two directions in Suffolk. Keep your eyes open for people riding back and please move out of the way.
Note to others dropping route cards, gel wrappers and the inner tube I saw on the side of the road, you give all cyclists a bad name and make a mess of the places where I ride regularly and others live permanently.
Hopefully nobody on here are the culprits.
Rant over, cannot wait till next year now.

Some amazingly idiotic manoeuvres - lots of stopping/waiting in the middle of the road, and swerving wildly towards the white line when oncoming cars are approaching, and people overtaking are shouting 'stay left, STAY LEFT, AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHH!'

Also, I watched a couple of families trying to cross the road to get into London Fields by the playground bit, and the line of riders beginning to head off just kept on slowly going, never quite leaving enough gap for them to cross. Having realised they'd been there a good few minutes, I double checked that they wanted to cross, and blocked the road for them. Sure, they could've been more assertive, but fuck me, what's the matter with the riders who acted oblivious?

People en masse really do my fucking head in sometimes.

sweet night all. was good to ride with such a wide diversity of riders. thanks to all who i rode with, especially the two peletons which I alternated between.

my knees hurt.

And, Robbie: this is ipswich, my friend.

I've been awake from 10am Saturday morning, I'm now very tiered I'll see everyone later. Nighty night.

Awesome ride though. Thanks Object, you're a cunt xx.

Sweet dreams sleepy head. x

Whoever the guys were that we rode with for the last 20miles. Thanks. Fuck load of fun.

The 2 wide train that we led at somepoint on the way there. Kudos. You were all strong riders. A dedicated piece of club run is always admirable.

+++
For those who care, we had some navigational issues on the way back and ended up riding the A12 for 20 miles towards Ipswich. We decided to call it a day at 150.8 miles with an average speed over the distance of 16.7mph. I believe the high point was around 38ish. Jim will, no doubt, clarify later. Next time we're sleeping more the day before.

Jim, you're always going to be one of my favourite people to ride with. Rest well, I want a ride tomorrow to stretch the legs out a little. One day we may end up actually using the big chainring.

Additional. Jim, I told you that we'd missed the feed station. Listen to me next time you cunt.

Great night, shame about the rain at the beach.

Always good to see familiar faces on the road to keep the spirits up.

Special thanks to Jonny for a life saving cup of tea .

Nice to meet some new folk as well.

Rest well, I want a ride tomorrow to stretch the legs out a little. One day we may end up actually using the big chainring.

If you don't mind if I tag along let me know when/where you're going I could use a little spin out as well.

Cheers

If you don't mind if I tag along let me know when/where you're going I could use a little spin out as well.

Cheers

I'll let you know as soon as I have any idea what's happening.
I'm thinking something around the 50-70mark. I guess that's dependent on how our legs feel in the morning.

woooow, first epic ride on a recumbent, and i think i need my knees upgrading. The most social, festive dunwich i've been on, met lovely people, maybe cos we did it so slow and all had time to chat - so much time the penny actually caught us up at one point. awesome.

Can't believe Object beat us home and we were on the coach.

What a wicked night, couldn't even get annoyed with the coach stuff cos we were so happy from such a lovely ride. Can't wait for next year

Fantastic! The best ride I ever did. I didn't feel tired until I sat on the coach and slept the whole way to London. So many highlights, the sunrise this morning was really special. Even all the wait in the rain, followed by breakfast in the warm with very sweet cups of tea and lying on the beach and throwing stones at Spagettihoops (we were killing time waiting for the coach).

It was great riding with Jaygee, Clefty, Wibble, Radius and Hoops and all the others and meeting up with people on the beach and in London.

Special thanks to the tail wind.

The ride back Smithfields to Tooting Bec was hard...

The ride back Smithfields to Tooting Bec was hard...

i bet those epic climbs from stockwell to clapham north and balham hill really hurt wot with the headwind too. :-)

The head wind was a killer, I actually can't even remember that climb to Clapham North...

And I had a very firm word with a kid in a car who almost knocked me off and tried to go into Clefty's wheel. He was pretty scared. You don't fuck with a French woman who has just ridden 120 miles.