2013-07-20 Sat/Sun - Dunwich Dynamo DD21

^^ Ah yeah I remember them :)
(and the sausage trailer guy, Framlingham I believe, he needed MOAR signs!)

Highlight for me was chasing a bat along the lane next to Dunwich heath, it would fly ahead of me for a hundred meters or so, never more than a meter ahead, and then dive and swoop off, the last time it did, swooping right at me. Can't have been more than a few inches away.

Was also very nice to ride alone for some of it, its incredibly nice to stop in the silence looking out on a field at 2am and knowing that I didn't have to rush back onto the bike for anyone else

Rode a lot of it by myself but was great fun tagging onto some of the trains passing by. Nice to see Skully and Oliver at the village hall - that food and coffee came at just the right time but I still think there should be a more visible way of indicating where the stop is. I know plenty of people that missed it.

Nice to see you, too, Robb! Yes, finding SH village hall is a known problem. I wanted to stick someone on the T-junction above the church to give directions but in the end we didn't have the one volunteer that we would have needed to spare. I thought Skully had chalked out info on the road surface? We have had problems with signs going missing before. It would certainly be interesting to find out what would happen if we got even more people to find the feed stop. :) As it was, we served easily in excess of 1,000 people--I'd say 1,200 to 1,500, but of course it's impossible to keep an exact count. You're quite right that it's an improvement that's needed--hopefully we'll make it next year.

The soup was brill

Thanks, Yemble!

Got home about an hour ago. Cycling from the bike drop off in Bermondsey to Fulham really hurt. Rolled at 5mph all the way. Even walked Westminister Bridge.

As for the DD itself. Was on the beach at 9.45am, didn't set off till 10pm. So that is nearly 12 hours! But I did stop a lot, maybe 2 hours total. So not bad at all, for a first DD experience. Glad I finished it without any dramas - other than the minor detour of about 5 miles though Earl Soham and Saxted Green. Will post a proper ride report at some point.
fasih - well done fella. Hope you feel proud of yourself!

great ride - though that headwind was hard work in places... and the beach was cold! (though the water was warm..)

thanks to oliver and miss mouse and all the southwark and hackney and suffolk people who make this happen !

Yes, and a very welcome sight they were. There was also a couple sitting on a bench in the middle of nowhere cheering people on who had brought a track pump with them for riders to use. Lovely stuff.

Haha yeh that was really sweet, I wonder if anyone got a puncture right in front of them lol. Seemed to be a lot of puntures. Was very nice that people made signs and cheered every rider that endered Dunwich they were still doing it an hour later when I left the beach! And the bleary eyed cyclists just looked bemused lol.

Yes, and a very welcome sight they were. There was also a couple sitting on a bench in the middle of nowhere cheering people on who had brought a track pump with them for riders to use. Lovely stuff.
Amazing :)

Also, at 2:30am I started feeling very tired. I had a bottle of High-5 but I'm sensitive to caffeine so I need to avoid using it unless I'm really desperate. Instead I busted out my headphones and listened to glitchstep which really helped.

Unfortunately as I went through a really heavily wooded bit in the darkest part of the night, my mp3 player decided to blast me with a bit of this:

Bassnectar - I Am A Laser - YouTube

The intro of which, combined with the dark and the fact that I was riding solo and could see no red flashies in front nor any white lights behind, and that I was starting to hallucinate things standing in the road, was CREEPY AS ALL FUCK. Will definitely be more careful about my mp3 playlist next time.

I guess arrows chalked on the road are easy to miss, Oliver. There's always the chance that signs and arrows were removed (there's a resident in SH who was trying to soak the arrow posters off with his garden hose). But in the end, it's just easy to miss all these things on the dark, and if you follow people ahead who miss it, you miss it.

@bothwell I may be a 'curmedgeon'. I'm not into sport. There are plenty of outlets for people to flex that stuff elseshere. In the same mould that the London Classic has also followed, DD is a broad church I agree, but there's no room for egotrippin.

@bothwell I may be a 'curmedgeon'. I'm not into sport. There are plenty of outlets for people to flex that stuff elseshere. In the same mould that the London Classic has also followed, DD is a broad church I agree, but there's no room for egotrippin.

I'm being, of course, affectionate. I know how much you hate sport in all its forms and expressions but some people do enjoy it and it'd be a shame to want to deprive them of it because you don't like it, innit.

The mixed case on the welcome sign is blowin my mind

Just got home from my first dun run and I'm knackered.

Me and by bro clocked up 7h43m not including 1 hour or so of stops.

Last night was truly life affirming. Will be back next year. Maybe on gears this time.

Amazing ride, my first one and thoroughly enjoyed it! The darkness made it feel deceptively fast, clocked in 7hrs 15mins, the last 10miles nearly killed me though. And I fell in a ditch whilst taking a piss at about 3am this morning, like an idiot.
Props to everyone that organised it, bravo!

Dun run was in some way great and other ways not. Came up to the forum lot in London fields, but was too anxious to say anything to anyone until (probably a shit description but all I can think of right now) a sharkpitted muscular bloke with a sexy voice said I looked moody and said hello and after that I felt far more comfortable, left with a person I'd only met a couple times and never ridden with before, but they are a more "serious" cyclist than me and also on gears and me on fixed, so the gap opened up soon enough. Did almost it all on my own tailing various people. 48/17 was a bad choice, and though I'd happily do it single speed I don't think I'll be doing that kind of distance fixed again. Turned round from the beach pretty soon after getting there to go to Darsham station, and was back in London by half 11 for free :)
Very happy after my first dun run, considering my longest ride before this was about 30 miles!

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a sharkpitted muscular bloke with a sexy voice

Worst alias ever, Iain. :)

Station at 08:10:

Having heard about problems with the trains in previous years I decided to rent a car, load up with post ride goodies, drive up Sat afternoon to dump the car and take the train back in time for the start.

...it didn't go that well. It took bloody ages to drive up and take the train back, especially with trains only going once per hour. I didn't get to London Fields till 22:45. Many thanks to the guy I spoke to at the pub who gave me a route card and allen key. Finally reeling in some flashing red lights in the countryside felt great. Got to beach just before 7.

Driving back I fell asleep at the wheel every time I encountered a red light... don't think I'll do that again.

Dun run was in some way great and other ways not. Came up to the forum lot in London fields, but was too anxious to say anything to anyone until (probably a shit description but all I can think of right now) a sharkpitted muscular bloke with a sexy voice said I looked moody and said hello and after that I felt far more comfortable, left with a person I'd only met a couple times and never ridden with before, but they are a more "serious" cyclist than me and also on gears and me on fixed, so the gap opened up soon enough. Did almost it all on my own tailing various people. 48/17 was a bad choice, and though I'd happily do it single speed I don't think I'll be doing that kind of distance fixed again. Turned round from the beach pretty soon after getting there to go to Darsham station, and was back in London by half 11 for free :)
Very happy after my first dun run, considering my longest ride before this was about 30 miles!
I guess that would me me :-) cheers for the compliment! Next time you get a hug.

Worst alias ever, Iain. :)
I am not dull

Just to reinforce what Slamm says a bit ago.

Cheers CS Grupetto for the lift home.

Safe.

well that was a really nice dunwich, rode the first half with matt (middleofnowhere, ramaye, al and ian conker
first half of ride was dispatched with much haste, maybe too much haste ( yes you matt ) i don't think i could have kept clinging onto his back wheel all ride
our peleton split at the feed station ( nice to see you skully / oliver ) and ian, al and myself rode on at a more leisurely pace
no real incidents of note, no mechanicals which is always nice ... 3 nicely oiled bikes whipping silently through the night is always a pleasure
the last 20 miles or so seemed to go on for a good while with the breaks becoming ever more frequent
the diet of pork pies and flapjacks kept me energised through the night
the drizzle and grey skies over dunwich were an unwelcome sight as people just wanted to stretch out on the beach and be warm and comfortable ... luckily my rucksack contained a fleece jacket and trousers so i just curled up on the beach and had a kip
left for ipswich and the train, i don't know when, rolled slowly through the suffolk country side as gradually the sun came out
jumped on a train at ipswich with no problems what so ever at about 3.30, 20 or so other bikes in the guards van 3 stops to liverpool street
end of.

great ride, nice to meet lots of forumengers along the way, respect to everyone who did it

Driving back I fell asleep at the wheel every time I encountered a red light... don't think I'll do that again.

It might be worth having a nap at Dunwich before you drive home, a 30 minutes sleep can make a massive difference.

The mixed case on the welcome sign is blowin my mind

What an amazing 30 hat that dude's rockin'.

I suffered with aching shoulders (dislocated 6 weeks ago) so to reduce pressure on them had to scoblise my bike, raising the stem ever higher. I rolled into Dunwich like Miss Marple.

I was undecided about whether to join the sharkpits or the darby & joan crew at the pub on the park, but the new railings made the decision for me. A pint of Wandle, plenty of chat between 7 and 9, and then a gentle roll out with a couple of other folk of my sort of vintage. It was all very agreeable up the A104, possibly due to it being a bit later.

Rolled on past the crowds at the usual pausing points, but stopped at Finchingfield and was treated to a delicious pint of Hop & Soul by Stedlocks, who told me about his foxscapade. Nattered with him and Wobbly John, watched the splendid sight of the front lights rolling onto the village green, hitting the pothole before the bridge (despite the locals standing by it with torches and shouting warnings) and then the red lights winding up he little ramp and out of sight.

With my 48/19 gear I was able to haul my excessive bodyweight and carradice up all the slopes but some of the really fun bits, as ever, were where I could attack the climb at a silly cadence, knowing they are all short enough. As the night wore on, that got harder to do, and by Sibton I was grimping slowly on every other incline, and I rolled into Dunwich at about 6.

Good to meet Soul at the pub, and to chat with chainbreaker and Hannah and to witness their comedy routine of sending wallet, coach tickets, house keys etc off to Huntingdon in Soul’s drug dealer car, and realising a few minutes later what they’d done. Conversation was a bit dominated by how bloody freezing it was, but of course we did discuss the Foffa sale thread and other such modern legends.

Mrs Ludd and two Luddlets joined me at about 10 and we lolled on the beach before walking up the coast to Walberswick, eating a fantastic burger and chips in the garden at the Bell Inn, where the sun came out, and walking back through the marshes (where I think we passed tricitybendix and companion with camping gear) and through the woods back to Dunwich for another spell on the beach. We piled into the car just after 6, got back to Forest Hill just before 10pm. Shower, gin, tortilla, bed.

Was that you on the Pearson, Ludd? Someone matching your description made a comment about me being Forest Hill which made me do a 'whaaat?'

50/18 for me, which apart from a couple of descents felt excellent the whole way. Allowed me to tear up the hills in the last 30 miles, passing lots of grinding geared riders.
Could have just been all the caffeine I was taking in and a 'right, I'm fucking bored now' attitude though.

Was that you on the Pearson, Ludd? Someone matching your description made a comment about me being Forest Hill which made me do a 'whaaat?'

Yep, that was indeed me.