Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => Rides and Touring => Topic started by: SpaceBadger on 30 July, 2020, 11:17:32 am
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I know, but I'm feeling positive and there's not much else to do but look ahead (and start a new topic) ;D
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Touchy topic, but did many ride it this year?
I live out in N Essex, so did a 240k there-and-back on the Saturday picking up the route around Sudbury. We had lunch at the Ship in Dunwich (which had just reopened) and the landlady there said it was the first time in 10 years that she wasn't having an afternoon kip to ready herself for pints and bacon rolls at 2am.
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Well, I'd like to have another crack (if you'll pardon the expression) but I'll definitely have completed 2/3 of a century by then and it's probably going to be beyond what is sensible. But that hasn't stopped me in the past.
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Yeah, I'll be there, galvanised on caffeine for the first 60-mile dash.
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According to Faecebook, Southwark Cyclists aren't booking coaches, so it'll be like last year. I don't have transport back, so I won't be there.
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I wouldn't mind doing a there and back to (near) Sudbury, as that's home, but I have my doubts that we'll be allowed.
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Ditto.
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Touchy topic, but did many ride it this year?
I live out in N Essex, so did a 240k there-and-back on the Saturday picking up the route around Sudbury. We had lunch at the Ship in Dunwich (which had just reopened) and the landlady there said it was the first time in 10 years that she wasn't having an afternoon kip to ready herself for pints and bacon rolls at 2am.
Same-ish! On the DunRun Saturday morning I rode some of the route (and back) from home, but breaking away further east after a bit and heading to Aldeburgh for fish n'chips. However, the queue was massive - way down the street, extended by about 400% due to social distancing, so Guinness Record length! Instead I went to the Co-op and put together a picnic for the beach. Until I decided to do an SR series in September, that (144 miles) was my longest ride of the year.
I had a cheeky pub stop at the Three Horseshoes in Bures on the way back, as they had just re-opened. They were playing it with commendable seriousness: Intensive Care levels of PPE, arrows and other markers on the floor, plus signage overload. Beer garden was normal, with fairly p#ssed locals, a great many bikes parked there, including two very clean brand-new e-mountain bikes.
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I think it was easily my longest ride of 2020 😭
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Have always wanted to do this ride but living in Shropshire the logistics have not been good. Have pencilled it into my diary this year. Now to find a way to get from Dunwich to the start
without having to cycle there
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Have always wanted to do this ride but living in Shropshire the logistics have not been good. Have pencilled it into my diary this year. Now to find a way to get from Dunwich to the start without having to cycle there
Pick up the Chiltern trains service into Marylebone (much cheape than the main line into Euston) - ride from Marylebone to the pub start. That's the easy bit - it's getting home from Dunwich with n other riders clamouring for the train that's the problem.
Long shot is that I may do it again (last time was with the old C+ gang incl Charlotte, Chuffy, Baggy, Nutty, Ravenbait, the Pikes, LW&B and others in 2003) - if I do Mrs robgul will be persuaded to drive to Dunwich for chauffeuring home on the Sunday AM
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Have always wanted to do this ride but living in Shropshire the logistics have not been good. Have pencilled it into my diary this year. Now to find a way to get from Dunwich to the start without having to cycle there
Presume that means you're driving to Dunwich and leaving a car there. The easiest way to the start is to cycle to Ipswich and pick up the train to Stratford (east London). From there it's a short ride to the start.
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DD03 meant then-MrsLWaB and I drove to near Dunwich and took a train and bus replacement to that-there-London for the start. Luckily we were on Bromptons rather than big bikes. Then-etc. is still very proud of her first overnight ride being the longest ride she had ever done. Great conditions and she finished in much better shape than me. I’ve never managed to get to another DD.
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I'd like to do it again, but then there's lots of other things I'd like to do again.
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DD03 meant then-MrsLWaB and I drove to near Dunwich and took a train and bus replacement to that-there-London for the start. Luckily we were on Bromptons rather than big bikes. Then-etc. is still very proud of her first overnight ride being the longest ride she had done. Great conditions and she finished in much better shape than me. I’ve never managed to get to another DD.
That's correct - we drove past you on the 2 Bromptons as we, and you, were crossing the heathland just as you leave Dunwich . . . after a Little Chef breakfast en route it was a glass of Champagne in my garden when we got home.
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I think we were the only ones on Bromptons that year. During the ride, we heard of a couple of blokes who’d done the previous DD on Bromptons but the old hands weren’t sure if anybody had done so before that. By my reckoning, that makes then-etc. the first lady to Brommie the DD. Nowadays, Bromptons at DD are almost de rigueur.
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These days it's not a proper Dunrun if you don't pass (or get passed by, depending on the condition of Wowbagger's rent-a-stoker) a fold of Bromptons. :thumbsup:
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I still keep in occasional contact with my rent-a-stoker. The poor chap tells me he's been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
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Are there any takers for a Team Slow / Team Camping this year?
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Are there any takers for a Team Slow / Team Camping this year?
Not me Wow. I've hardly been on a bike since last September (?), and doubt I'd make the distance. Something up with my left knee, which I've been putting off talking to the GP about. Time for some gentle canal side pootling to see if my leg drops off, and then slowly try to get back into shape.
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A few of us were talking about how it's time to get the gang back together, but I'm so far north now that the effort of getting down there for a ride resembling my last DR (2006 -- the queues were insane, even without social distancing) no longer seems worth it, even if I could get my fitness up this year.
Sam
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A few of us were talking about how it's time to get the gang back together, but I'm so far north now that the effort of getting down there for a ride resembling my last DR (2006 -- the queues were insane, even without social distancing) no longer seems worth it, even if I could get my fitness up this year.
Sam
I think 2022 is better for getting the gang back together. It'll be reduced numbers this year. Rumour is that the cafe won't even open until 8 or 9!
Btw, 2006 queues were not too bad. I rode with GruB and Rae and remember drinking tea with Sam Walker at the feed stop, so I must have been able to buy one. It went really bonkers from 2009 onwards. We didn't eat at all that year, because the queue was snaking round the car park. Just got water from the bogs and pushed on.
It was easy in 2019 because of all the pop-up feeding places.
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I recall not even trying to get food in 2006. I used the loo and retired outside to avail myself of the snacks and coffee I'd brought with me. Oddly enough, it was what persuaded me to do the Dumb Run -- the amenities being unavailable on the Dun Run meant not having any at all on the Dumb Run (with the exception of the very fine pub and the Cumbernauld and Dalgety 24hr services) wasn't an issue any more.
But I might be fit again in 2022! We'll see what the next chest x-ray says.
Sam
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Living close to the Dun Run route, I can confirm that - in non-Covid years - it bears no relation to the event of the early noughties. I would guess that at least 10 times the number of riders back then are now participating, the candles in jam jars along the route are no longer a feature, and every burger van in Essex and Suffolk turns out for the night! That doesn’t mean it’s not still fun, but it is different. Many more of the participants are racing snakes going for a 5 hour time, and the legions of chain gangs haven’t made many friends for the event. Every racing-oriented cycling club round me has designs on the Kom for the entire ride, and plans for how to spike their ‘competitors’.
I won’t be doing it again.
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Thought I'd posted something about this but maybe not. Id love to do something like this but equally think the size of it has made logistics harder especially for the return and for me personally getting to the start would be a PITA
Now I just ran a quick Google maps and it says from The Peoplea Republic of Saafend to Dunwich beach is C95miles. That route would pass pretty near my house and not a million miles from where I think Arrabella lives, just in case she reads this I know to Town level that's it. We could almost do a route between YACFers abodes
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I've done this several times and am minded to give it a go again this year. I've done it from London once but never again. I now do a 'Finchingfield feeder' version where a small group of us meet near Haverhill at 11pm, cycle over to Finchingfield to join the ride just after the bridge over the river. We typically arrive in Dunwich between 5 and 6 am and then cycle an alternative route (usually via Wally's cafe at Acton, Long Melford) back to the environs of Haverhill. Its a 250km round trip at full value Audaxing speed :-) . This year I'm minded to return via the Maglia Rosso so that it doesn't matter if we are late for breakfast (Wally's shuts at 11 on Sunday's)
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For quite a while, I have had a vague desire to scatter some tealights in jam jars from signs along the route but have never got round to it. The newbies seem to miss out on that cheering little tradition nowadays, which is a pity.
I don’t know whether I will be up for riding the Dynamo this year (might clash with life) but I would like to do it again sometime.
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There were some tealights present a couple of years ago. Not enough to navigate by. I believe the local oikery have learned to meddle with them. Can't remember if the LEDs on the signs in Sudbury were there or not.
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I figure everybody is doing the GPS/ phone thing now anyway. It would just be to give riders the right vibe, rather than practicality.
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If it's vibe you're after, then there's been a boom in chalk and roadside decorations along with the many informal food stops in recent years. It's not the same vibe, but I don't think it's worse.
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Different vibe.
The late and inimitable Barry Mason would've probably disapproved.
So, like Kim suggests, it might be better. ;)
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I like what I like.
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Did it a few times, usually on to Ipswich for the proper train home, the one time I was determind to ride back I wrecked the front wheel and the loaner wheel was firmly recalimed at Dunwich.
But my first effort, using a routesheet, was saved by noticing a tiny candle in a jar at a very discrete side road turning. God bless whoever placed that one.
I was keen on this year but did fear the increased popularity, the last I did must be over 10 years ago and that was busy, as lifetime's worth of flashing red lights.
Mind you, I suppose setting off promptly/early and setting a half decent pace would avoid a lot of the mob.
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Well, I have finally decided to do it this year after logistical problems preventing me from doing it previously. I have booked myself a train ticket to Euston on the Saturday afternoon and a Premier Inn at Ipswich for the Sunday night. I might then ride back to London on the Monday and get the train home again from there or get the train from Ipswich instead. Might have a kip on the beach at Dunwich before the ride back to Ipswich. Will report back after the event.
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If it's vibe you're after, then there's been a boom in chalk and roadside decorations along with the many informal food stops in recent years. It's not the same vibe, but I don't think it's worse.
There was a CDC just before Gosbeck in 2019.
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Good luck to anyone dodging the showers tonight.
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I'm about to head over. Not done it since 2010 (when ISTR I rode with Tynan ^^).
Will turn round half way though as knee not up to the full there and back and don't want to be stuck without trains.
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In my mind I'd cancelled this ride but the combination of Weather Bagel and Met Office has convinced me it won't be too bad, so I **WILL** be doing my FinchingField feeder to Dunwich and back. I'll likely depart around 11pm. as that gets me to Dunwich some time between 5 and 6 am.
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It always makes me feel empty inside when I don't ride. 2013-2018 was my longest stretch without a Dun Run, although I had to miss 2011 due to lack of transport back (that's usually the reason).
May the roads be tack-free, the Essex boy racers friendly and the pubs open!
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We'll probably be tagging on around midnight from Dunmow, depending ... snack stops in Sudbury and Needham Lake; Framlingham perhaps, we're in no hurry?
Some of us will have a bit of kit onboard, so we won't be fast - maybe get to Dunwich around 8-ish?
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I’ve been thinking about doing this for a few years but keep forgetting. I might wander out later and throw things at people as they cycle past.
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Good luck to anyone dodging the showers tonight.
This. I feel a bit of a pang, but I have no lift back, the weather is likely to be hostile and I don't have any inclination yet to get on a train.
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I got my fix of night riding earlier in the week, on the grounds of temperature, so I'm sticking to my 2019 resolution:
Fuck the Dunwich Dynamo.
(Attitude may have improved by next year, so hopefully this post will serve as a reminder.)
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The weather forecast seems to have improved all the way along the route. I reckon there's a chance that most riders will avoid rain.
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I think that's right.
I'm on the way back, at woodford, having turned just after Finchingfield. Am having a15 minute break. No rain yet and it doesn't seem to be getting any nearer.
It was fun seeing all the riders going the other way. The last one was at epping at 1am, I don't know what time they get to Dunwich! But there were hundreds before him, they only thinned out around the Rodings.
Another hour and a half and I should be home,ideally before the sun is up.
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Reports on Faecebook suggest it was a good ride, with little wind or rain. Some wet fog (which, personally, I like on a night ride). Numbers about 1/3 of normal.
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Completed 2021 Dun Run safely with two of my sons.
A few highlights were,
1.the kindness of strangers. A fellow cyclist named Paul from Bildesden led us to the coast over the last ten miles after our Garmins went kaput.
2. That iwas accompanied by two of my sons, and thus was a family affair,
3. We ( just) dodged any rain, just thick mist by the coast,
4. Marvellous pop up food and refreshment stalls in the middle of the night in pitch black east anglia, Like Oasis.
5. Watching grown men dressed in cycling clobber shuffling by the Sea shore at 4 am trying to take selfies,
6. Witnessing tens of happy men and women complete a fairly unique cycling event.
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The ride for us was complete dry apart from one shower around Sudbury.
We got delayed for various reasons early on and encountered zero open foodstalls after Dunmow-ish, apart from the Needham Lakes coffee van and the Gosbeck village hall. Not sure if that was just due to our lateness or if there were none.
For the drive home we reached the A406 via the M11 just as it was closed by flooding. We ended up being one of those idjits driving through inches of floodwater on Redbridge roundabout because the alternative was to... set up camp on the hard shoulder?
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Haven't listened yet but there is a recording on BBC sounds called slow radio The Dunwich Dynamo. Gonna give it a listen later but thought I'd flag it up here
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I listened to it last night while scrubbing rust off Moulton parts. I think it would work better through headphones. Possibly in a state of intoxication.
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I'm at work so neither is advisable, although cycled train cycled to work today so the latter wouldn't be as much of an issue as usual