2010-07-24 - Dunwich Dynamo DD18

kids have to wear safety goggles when they play conkers at school these days and that's If they are allowed to play with them.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/september.htm

Seriously though, the resistance to change is that popularity generally changes an event. L2B used to be a nice ride down to Brighton, now you have to set off insanely early to avoid the morons walking 7-a-breast up the slightest incline. Some may like what the event becomes, but plenty of people don't, so they don't want it to get really popular.

You say "leave the DD alone" but the DD won't be the DD with 10 times as many people, give it 10 years and that's what it could be.

Oh well, in that case there'll be other rides worth riding then for the 'true' aficionado and early adopter. It's good if the secret of how much fun cycling is comes out just that little bit more to more people. I don't mind. I found this year's DD a lot of fun, having completely managed to avoid any huge queues, again. The main thing is that I think more volunteers will have to do the work at the feed. I might volunteer myself sometime.

i don't see what all this fuss is about.. it's a great ride all round. why would you want to spread the load and thin the numbers out? what would that do? apart from dilute every aspect of it. if anything, we are safer in high volume - from the drunks, the chavs and the crazy cars.. all of which are really a tiny weeny spec on the whole event. fucksake, i'm affected by drunks and chavs and drunk chavs and crazy arsehole drivers at least once a week anyway - they're everywhere. we can't control these things.

you know.. kids have to wear safety goggles when they play conkers at school these days and that's If they are allowed to play with them.
fucking ridiculous antibacterial wet-wipe society we have evolved into is Killing me.

leave the DD alone.

rant over.

thank you.

Top ranting!

Totally agree. The DD is great because it is so big. One never feels abandoned, because there is always someone ahead and someone behind. I would have hated it if it was an exclusive event for the snobby roadie who insists it blast along at 20mph. So what if people get off and push? Hills are shit, so getting off your bike and pushing it is an entirely reasonable reaction to them. (By the end of the Dunwich though I was so knackered I was pushing my bike up slopes barely bigger than dropped kerbs!)

So what if people get off and push? Hills are shit, so getting off your bike and pushing it is an entirely reasonable reaction to them.

Getting off and pushing isn't a problem, it's when people who do it are so inconsiderate that they block the entire width of the road stopping everyone behind them from cycling.

The more people you get doing an event the more examples of fuckwittery there are. At some point it crosses my 'i can't be arsed to put up with this' threshold and go somewhere else.

It's one reason I like Audaxes, you rarely ever get more than 50 people on a ride, so you can choose to ride with others, or do the whole mind-numbing spirit-crushing 300km+ on your own occasionally bumping into people at cafes or at the roadside doing the Goretex dance.

I would have hated it if it was an exclusive event for the snobby roadie who insists it blast along at 20mph.

i thought you were capable of pushing your old raleigh at 30 mph in traffic.

Not for 112 miles I can't!
More like 112 feet.

Not in traffic either. It takes a long stretch to get it up to that speed, but it carries so much momentum that if you increase speed gradually it's possible to be spinning like crazy in 4th, which is about 90 inches.

oh.
i thought you recently posted about moving in traffic pushing your heavy old raleigh at 30 mph.

why would you want to spread the load and thin the numbers out? what would that do? apart from dilute every aspect of it. if anything, we are safer in high volume - from the drunks, the chavs and the crazy cars.. all of which are really a tiny weeny spec on the whole event.

Double Fail

Fail the first: The volumes of riders out there now have diluted the sense of being out there on your own, the peacefulness of the night uninterupted by nothing more than the occaisional lone soul in a car on their own voyage and a handful of friends to keep you company. It's a different experience and one i think is worth trying.

Fail the second. Security through obscurity is a false notion. For example, in the second year that I did DD, there was an unpleasant moment when a couple of cars full of drunken idiots drove along the line of riders swerving and harrassing them. Safety to suggest that they were probably attracted by the number of riders on the road and put a large volume of them at risk. On the audax rides that I've done through the night, I've attracted more goodwill than bad as a solo rider, even from "chavvy", drunken petrolheads. Even out in a group of about 15 on the Solstice Ride we attracted far less attention than I have on DD. As for my own personal safety, beyond the M11, I've felt more at risk from other riders than I have from drivers and other members of the public.

snobby roadie who insists it blast along at 20mph

Tossers

me and branwen had a fair few periods where we were all alone, was nice enough:

the breath and beat,
the spinning feet, a summer
for whirring derailleurs.

me and branwen had a fair few periods where we were all alone, was nice enough:

the breath and beat,
the spinning feet, a summer
for whirring derailleurs.

Mid-season, half-spent,
we start the descent, free
from mechanical failures.

I'm really Sorry.

hee hee.
this forum is obsessed with haikus.

peace and quiet now
for a while, whooshing along
on our lonesome way

(wannabee interlec-tuals innit)

Haiku? Bugger. I'm syllabically off the pace; though in my defense I was just aiming to supplement your nicely rhythmical meter. Honest.

Double Fail

Fail the first: The volumes of riders out there now have diluted the sense of being out there on your own, the peacefulness of the night uninterupted by nothing more than the occaisional lone soul in a car on their own voyage and a handful of friends to keep you company. It's a different experience and one i think is worth trying.

Fail the second. Security through obscurity is a false notion. For example, in the second year that I did DD, there was an unpleasant moment when a couple of cars full of drunken idiots drove along the line of riders swerving and harrassing them. Safety to suggest that they were probably attracted by the number of riders on the road and put a large volume of them at risk. On the audax rides that I've done through the night, I've attracted more goodwill than bad as a solo rider, even from "chavvy", drunken petrolheads. Even out in a group of about 15 on the Solstice Ride we attracted far less attention than I have on DD. As for my own personal safety, beyond the M11, I've felt more at risk from other riders than I have from drivers and other members of the public.

quadruple fail.

firstly, if you want to go and experience uninterrupted 'peacefulness' with only a handful of friends, then no one is stopping you riding on the same route, on any of the other 364 days that are left in the year with your hand picked nearest and dearest. you fail here because you fail to recognise this as personal preference that does not reflect the interests of most of the riders that join in on the dynamo. and it is the majority of riders that make the dynamo.. the dynamo.

secondly, in your second year of doing the dynamo you encountered some drunkard drivers harassing the cyclists, probably attracted by the quantity? - well that's an isolated incident isn't it?! i'm not saying it doesn't happen.. but let's keep things proportional. the roads aren't lined with mobs trying to kill us all are they?

the positives of riding large outweigh the negatives; lots of people do the dynamo on their own - even if they start out with a group, they can find themselves on their own quite easily and within a relatively short space of milage .. and when they do, it's a relief to have other cyclists around - for support, breakdown help, or just to meet nice new people.
i don't know one woman who would want to do the dynamo ''there on [her] own, the peacefulness of the night uninterupted by nothing more than the occaisional lone soul in a car'' - that's probably one of the worst situations a woman could find herself in cycle-wise. and there were Lots of lady cyclists at the dynamo.
we raise awareness of how great cycling is for All; more people do it each year because they've heard about it and it's accessible. yes that's right.. everyone is entitled to cycle! it is not a secret little group that nobody is allowed to join unless they wear lycra/talk about campy, pinarello, aerospoke, velodromes..blah.

i say; if you don't like the dynamo then don't do the dynamo. do the same route on a different day.

*fails:

1. personal preference used to suggest fail = x2 fail.
   
2. exaggeration of past isolated incident to manipulate current statistics = x2 fail.
   

the roads aren't lined with mobs trying to kill us all are they?

I thought Henry was chasing me down ... that was why I kept riding fast ... ish

firstly, if you want to go and experience uninterrupted 'peacefulness' with only a handful of friends, then no one is stopping you riding on the same route, on any of the other 364 days that are left in the year with your hand picked nearest and dearest. you fail here because you fail to recognise this as personal preference that does not reflect the interests of most of the riders that join in on the dynamo. and it is the majority of riders that make the dynamo.. the dynamo.

And of course the majority of riders are what make the dynamo very different from what it used to be.
Besides, if you pay attention to what has gone upthread, you'll glean that the dynamo has changed from what it used to be when there were less riders and it isn't a great stretch of the imagination to suggest that what you may enjoy about it now may be lost if the numbers of riders were to triple or quadruple, such as they have over the past 5/6 years.
I'm also aware that it can be ridden on other nights of the year, even to the extent that I have mentioned it upthread with the qualification that it would be for those wanting to recreate the feel of dynamo of years long since passed.
Therefore not fail.

secondly, in your second year of doing the dynamo you encountered some drunkard drivers harassing the cyclists, probably attracted by the quantity? - well that's an isolated incident isn't it?! i'm not saying it doesn't happen.. but let's keep things proportional. the roads aren't lined with mobs trying to kill us all are they?

That's rather close to a straw man fail. I was simply offering and example of stuff that can happen to riders on the DD, based on experience, in order to counter a suggestion of security through obscurity. I didnt' say that the roads were lined with mobs trying to kill us did I?

i don't know one woman who would want to do the dynamo ''there on [her] own, .

I reckon I could come up with some for you. Admittedly mostly audax riders who don't think that lone souls out driving at night are any more of a threat to them than othee drivers. If you want some examples, read up on some of the tales written down in the yacf audax subforum.

well it is how it is now. nothing stays the same. it will grow.

and you know what.. so will all the other rides.

the end.

1. personal preference used to suggest fail = x2 fail.
   
2. exaggeration of past isolated incident to manipulate current statistics = x2 fail.
   
   

1) Not at all. You said it diluted the ride, I gave examples of how this isn't always the case and depends on your perspective.
2) Again, not at all. I didn't exaggerate (although I note that you did exaggerate my point). I simply gave an example of where a suggestion of security through obscurity was flawed. Neither did I engage in statistical debate, mine was purely anecdotal. You offer it little credence and I accept that, but don't take it for what it wasn't.

i'm going out for a cycle.

on my Own.

i'm going out for a cycle.

on my Own.

Phew, for a moment there I was worried you might go out on a stolen cycle. ;P

oh.
i thought you recently posted about moving in traffic pushing your heavy old raleigh at 30 mph.

I can't really back that speed up with paperwork.

well well, can I just say that I enjoyed it?