An unofficial Dunwich Dynamo

Adam organised a ride from London to Dunwich on the Suffolk coast, mostly following the route of the annual Dunwich Dynamo but according to "Fridays Rules" i.e. set off on a Friday at midnight, no one gets left behind, etc.  There were 11 of us. We travelled as a group -- within shouting distance of Adam with his GPS -- so didn't need Wayfinders. Martin T and Dave aka 'Topcat1' acted as unofficial TECs.

Getting ready to set off from The Pub In The Park

Delaying our departure til midnight meant we had much less traffic and hassle exiting London. Soon, we were through Epping Forest and off the main road into countryside interspersed with small charming old villages.

Dawn also arrived much 'earlier' in the ride, so parts of the route that we'd all ridden in darkness before on the official DunRun could now be seen and enjoyed in the light - especially the old houses.

Bombing over Dunwich Heath

remains of a 13th century Franciscan priory at Dunwich

arriving at last at Flora's Café on Dunwich beach

Final check of the camera for Topcat1.

welcome pots of hot tea!

Sonia prepares to tuck into her omelette

massive fillet of salmon, with salad and chips

Dunwich Beach.

(Confession: I didn't step foot on it as it was bl**dy cold out there!)

I really can't pretend to know exactly where the route took us. This is a part of the country I don't know and I'd really hate to have to navigate it myself! Thanks goodness for GPS - the route we took is here.

Temperatures were colder than forecast - about 5C instead of 9C. The headwinds were a bit tiresome after awhile but not particularly troublesome. I had more or less the right clothes and back-up stuff in my saddlebag, so was okay. But it would have been nice to feel some warmth when we got to the beach!

PHOTOS: All photos shown here are (C) Adam Bell.  Dave aka Topcat1 has also posted an amazing selection of photos here. (His camera was mounted below his saddle pointing backwards, set to take a photo every 30 seconds.)

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This was a fantastic ride, so I was really disappointed to have a pretty miserable experience of it:  severe saddle nose pressure, aching left wrist and grumpy knees.

I am astounded that I completed the Dunwich Dynamo in 2010 with nothing more than fatigue and some saddle soreness. I was on the mixte (5 gears with the lowest not working) and had never ridden more than 45 miles before. I am now so much fitter and stronger now and riding a much more suitable bike.

Given the problems I've had this spring Adam wonders if my knees have deteriorated again to the point where long rides are just not possible for me. I wonder too but am not yet prepared to concede defeat.

I do have great days/nights out on the bike where I feel brilliant (e.g. Whitstable last week). Other times, I start hurting within the first hour. I think the key is whether or not I've been kind to my knees the day (or preferably two days) preceding a long ride. I was pretty tired going into this one, having had to travel down to my flat in Mitcham and back during the day, which involved a mad scramble changing platforms (via lots of stairs) at one point. My knees do not like that kind of thing and my bike was heavily loaded. Similarly with the two days leading up to Wowbagger's Cambridge-Southend ride, which involved a day of transport testing (40km of repeated stops and starts) and the previous day dressed to the nines in high heels. The knees were pretty nasty that night too but each time I stopped and did some stretching, I persuaded my knees to go awhile longer. (Nothing else was hurting.) And I stupidly set off on the ill-fated York-Hull FNRttC after a day of walking around cobblestones in cycling shoes! I see a pattern here...

So I've got to be firmer about resting before a long ride. Also, I'll be getting another proper bike fitting soon (the first with the Pacer), especially since I'm having at least intermittent problems with all contact points and wonder if the severe pronation of my right foot is causing problems further up the leg. Once that's been revisited, I may get a GP referral for another round of knee-specific physiotherapy.

As for the saddle-related pain, my Swallow saddle failed this week. It's completely unrideable and I'm negotiating with Brooks to have a new leather top put on it. A couple of days ago, I 'borrowed' another Swallow off the mixte and put it on the Pacer but obviously had not got the fit dialled in yet. I was having 'saddle issues' within the first hour of this ride. Tweaking the fore-aft position at 12 miles helped my legs but the nose pressure issue only got worse. I didn't think it feasible to keep stopping and tweaking the saddle through the night, holding up the group, so decided about 45 miles out that I was going to have to bail at the halfway stop in Sudbury. What I did in fact was catch a train from there to a station about 5 miles from Dunwich. That may have cut out 60 miles for me, but those 5 miles out to Dunwich and then back again to Darsham station weren't any better. But I did get a fabulous lunch!