Well, that was carnage. Respect to anyone who started the Dunwich Dynamo this year. More again for those who finished.

It was the most horrible ride I’ve had for a long while. It was my own fault for mucking around so much with my bike a week before the ride. I didn’t follow my own advice and suffered for it. Basically the bike I’d ridden was 42×18 singlespeed up until a week before the DD when I received some track cogs from On-One. I fitted the 15T thinking I could use it with the tail-wind and the 16T was a backup if there was a headwind. The 75″ gear felt wrong compared to the usual 44×17 (69″) I run but I stuck with it. I fitted a new saddle – a Selle Italia SLR to match my road bike which I’m quite comfy on. Using a seat-post from JimmyP (this worked – thanks!) I set about fscking everything up in an attempt to match the road bike’s measurements. Mistake.

Met Ed at Ealing Common and rode in to Bethnal Green to meet up with some of the LFGSS bunch. Introductions were made, Stompy gave me a zip-tie to hold my broken headset together and then we rolled over to the Pub on the Park in London Fields to the start area. There were loads of bikes around but it started to spit with rain and the forecast was dodgy so I think lots of riders bailed at this point (I overheard someone at the finish saying numbers were half what was expected).

Collected my return bus ticket and handed over a ?1 for a route sheet. We rolled out around 20.30. There was a small amount of confusion about where to go and our bunch of fixed freaks split up quickly. The rain grew heavier as the sky darkened. My speedo wasn’t working as the magnet didn’t grip the spoke properly – that put an end to any distance measuring I’d planned. Rode with Tommy for a bit and then lost everyone so just tacked onto groups here and there. It became obvious this was not going to be painless. I was grinding up the bumps and constantly shifting around trying to get comfortable. Every so often I’d have to get off the bike, stretch and try to crack my back for some pain relief. Not how I was supposed to be feeling. All I could think about was stopping and I was cursing the fixed wheel choice – there was no chance to just coast down the hills and stretch out as you would on a road bike.

At one point some guys I was drafting stopped. One of them had a GPS unit on his aero bars so I stopped with them and asked him the distance we’d done and how far to the rest stop. I was frickin’ desperate to stop and somewhat hungry. “10mi to go” he said as random riders went past on a different road (wtf?). I handed over some Bassetts for the info and continued on to the rest stop.

MA3K, JonnyWilkinson and an Alex were already there. I headed over and grabbed some soup and bread, a couple of bananas and a coffee. For the next maybe 2 hours? I sat there refilling coffees and eating.. happy to be out of the rain and off the bike but dreading the return to riding. Tommy, brett, Scott not Scot, slaam, Stompy arrived over time while we all sat around noting how riders were arriving wetter than the ones before.. not good.

Eventually we got going and walked out into the f-f-freezing cold night. It was ridiculously cold! Literally teeth-chatteringly cold. I had to warm up so headed off quickly. Matt (LFGSS brett’s mate) had the same idea. There was a tricky turn and we stopped to ponder over directions. When we rolled off Matt and I held steady pace and the rest were nowhere to be seen. It didn’t bother us – keeping warm was more important. Then we split up. At some point I noticed a car tipped over into a ditch. It was also starting to get lighter. A bunch of people had stopped for direction checking and I stopped with them and decided enough was enough – I moved my saddle forward 1cm. It was great after that! If it wasn’t for a couple of roadies waiting by a small lane I would’ve ridden straight past the turn. 50m after this little turn I found Matt. “How did you get behind me??” he puzzled. “I stopped” I grinned back.

Off we went again, leaving the group he’d stopped with behind. At a large round-a-bout I was sure we should turn left, but it was dual carriage way so instead I just rode right around the round-a-bout! Back at the turn.. there were now 50 riders!!! Included in the bunch were all the lads we’d left earlier – Tommy, JonnyWilkinson, brett, um.. yeah memory fading..

Off we went. I’m not sure if it was the stop and food, the light, the fact the rain had stopped, the saddle adjustment or the company but I was feeling tonnes better! Now I could ride up hills and chase people down and ride off to have a leak and all the stuff I’d do on a normal bunch ride. Saved! I’m not sure how much of this we ended up doing but I know that at the “Dunwich 7mi” sign it was myself and JonnyWilkinson and two of his mates(?). We were almost there and the signs teased us as we approached the coast with Dunwich This and Dunwich That before we finally saw a pile of bikes outside the Flora cafe!

DONE THE DUN!

There was actual sun out now although it still took hours to dry out. I made short work of a fry-up, some jam’n’cream scones and a cappucino. The bike was covered in crap splashed up from the road. (It would stay like that for another week). We arrived around 8am? So, a bit under 12hrs with perhaps 2hrs spent at the food hall. Lots of chatter ensued as more familiar faces arrived, stories of the horrors were told, ciders and beers and more coffees were put away. Mention of doing next was not dismissed.. then it was accepted.. then positively “can’t wait!”.. nutters the lot of us!

Sleep came easily on the 3hr bus ride back to the city. Then there was a 30min(?) wait for the bikes to show up. Time for more coffee and a Snickers. When the trucks arrived with the bikes I took mine, said some quick goodbyes, said ‘thanks’ when I spotted the guy from Condor who’d fixed my cranks (I couldn’t find a 7mm allen key anywhere!!), then rode home through town quite rapidly, filled with a large sense of achievement! I looked like a total zombie when I arrived, with dark, evil bags under my eyes but I was grinning.

Now planning a 300k/200mi ride.. somewhere.

LFGSS Thread – Dunwich FAQs – Dunwich Route – Dunwich Pics – Ed’s RR