Wilfred and Paul
The Dunwich Dynamo is an overnight bike ride from London to Dunwich Heath held on the Saturday night nearest the full moon in July. It is roughly 112 miles depending on which route you follow. I decided to take on this challenge with my Dad and to raise money for Cancer Research UK.
The Training:
Our training plan was to start small with short 10-mile rides and gradually build up over 3 months adding in longer weekend rides. 2 weeks before the event we completed a 70mile ride to West Mersea and back with brunch at the Black Water Pearl, we totalled 120 miles for the week, my best week for speed was a 16 mph average over a 20-mile loop.
The Ride:
On the morning of the ride, I had a lay in and relaxed. Then at around 4 p.m., we set off for London fields. We arrived by car in Hackney and made our way over to the Pub in the Park where the ride begins. We met two of my Dad’s friends, Andy and Simon and enjoyed a drink and lounging around soaking up the atmosphere and admiring some of the wacky bikes people would ride the route on, including a Penny Farthing! We set off at around 7 p.m.
Our first stop was the Fyfield Scout Hut, where I had a delicious burger at 24 miles in. We then set off just as darkness was falling and ended up riding with a man in a pickle suit and another friend of my Dad’s, Gareth. After riding with them for a while, Gareth sped off. Shortly after, we met someone playing Daft Punk from a speaker.
Next we arrived in Finchingfield, stopping outside the pub. You could see a stream of bike lights coming down the hill on one side and a stream of rear lights heading out the village on the other. During the segment after Andy dropped back and Simon left us as we reached Sudbury, having already ridden his full suspension mtb to London! We continued on to our next stop: a busy pub in Waldingfield where we got a hot dog and ate most of it before storing the rest on my Dad’s bike rack.
Once we were back on the road, we headed toward Needham Lakes, where we met a lady who generously donated £100! By this section, I was starting to get tired, so we took a short break. We ended up in a field after going off-route and following a diversion, but eventually joined back up with the route for the final official stop in Gosbeck at around 4 a.m.
When we set off from there, we rode solo for a while before stopping for a snack break at 5 a.m. at a bus shelter. We ended the ride with yet another diversion and some rain. While that doesn’t sound too good, the rain was actually very pleasant for some reason! Finally, we crossed the finish line at Dunwich, raising over £1200 in total and racking up 117 miles in total.