180km of Sweat and Gears: London to Dunwich by night.
I cycled 112 miles from London to the coast in Suffolk for the Dunwich Dynamo — an annual overnight bike ride that takes place every July. It hurt. A lot.
Hey you, thank you for being here. For anyone who follows me on Instagram you’ll know that whilst I was in Japan recently I rode a 50km bike trip called the Kibiji Bike Trail. The journey officially begins at Bizen Ichinomiya station, but I started from Okayama City instead. The ride ends in the town of Sōja. 25km there, and 25km back if you start in Okayama. I rode the entire journey on a one-gear rental bike that I picked up from my hotel which had a step-through frame. Not exactly a bike for doing long distances on! It was absolutely glorious though and I did it for the sheer thrill of riding a bike through the Japanese countryside. Someone I know once said “you don’t need to go to therapy, you just need to visit Japan” and I agree wholeheartedly, but now I’d like to change it to: “you don’t need to go to therapy, you just need to ride a bicycle through the countryside of Japan”.
I will be writing a letter here on Substack all about that journey very soon, please look out for it! Another reason I made that journey though was as a little warm up for a much larger bike ride that I’ve been keen to do ever since I heard about it from the lovely chap Stephen from whom I bought my trusty Dawes Galaxy a couple of years ago. Please let me share that story with you here.
So, last weekend I ticked off one of my 24 Challenges for 2024 which was to ride the Dunwich Dynamo aka 112 miles (180km) on a bicycle from the centre of London to the coast in Suffolk.
The Dunwich Dynamo is a yearly event where a huge group of cyclists — 2,000 riders in some years — cycle from Hackney, London to the Suffolk coast. The ride takes place on the Saturday night closest to the full moon in July and riders usually set off around 8pm. The unofficial goal seems to be to reach the beach before the sun rises around 5:30am. Spoiler alert: I certainly did NOT beat the sun rise!
The sentence I chose to describe the journey, after nearly falling off my bike as I rode into Dunwich, was "That was horrendous". I was only half joking! In reality it was actually a lot of fun and although my soul felt like it had been crushed at around 90 miles into the journey, I am so glad I managed to make it all the way. I felt proud that I didn't walk any of the hills, of which there seemed to be many right at the end. Further punishment to your legs which are already screaming at you to stop this nonsense!
There are plenty of stories online about people who have completed the ride on a penny farthing or tandem bikes or even cumbersome Boris Bikes. So up until the night of the ride there was always this small voice in the back of my mind that asked "How hard can it really be?". Carelessly, I didn't really prepare all that much and thought I could train to ride 112 miles by riding 112 miles. Turns out you can't really do that! Well, you can, but it sure is going to be a rough night. The only preparation I had really done is the 50km trip in Okayama, Japan that I mentioned at the beginning of this letter.
I'd never done the Dun Run — as it's affectionately called — before so I was a little bit unsure of what awaited me. I decided to head to the starting point early to see if I could chat to anyone to soothe my pre-ride nerves. Maybe even find someone to ride along with. I spoke to the first person I found standing alone and had a great chat with a guy called Michael who had made the journey before and answered all my naïve questions about what I was about to embark on. Thank you Michael for being so patient! He told me that he had seen a penny farthing cycle off about half before I got there. We both wondered where we would catch up with it. I learnt after the ride that penny farthings actually move at quite a clip! We didn’t catch up with her until about 2 and a half hours later.
The majority of riders started cycling off into the streets of Hackney at about 8pm so we followed. It was slow going at the start as we had the traffic to contend with and lots of traffic lights. Once we hit Epping Forest on the North East of London the pace picked up rapidly though and I lost my new friend in a cloud of bike lights and lycra.
One thing that struck me, and is definitely one of the charms of this ride, is that it has a strong community vibe. Cyclists won't think twice about striking up a conversation as they ride up alongside you. There's also a lot of spectators by the side of the road cheering on the riders flying past. One chap sitting in a deckchair with a bike pump near the beginning of the ride was especially friendly. Apparently he's there every year and offers a quick pump of air to any tires that need it.
It was at the first rest stop — god knows where I even was, I was just following the trail of red bike lights — that we caught up with the penny farthing. I found it propped up outside the church hall that we had all crammed into to refuel. The hall had been turned into a true oasis for riders. Cakes, drinks, tea and coffee along with free water refills; what a wonderful place. The community atmosphere was holding strong.
The journey was really smooth up until Sudbury, or about 80 miles in. I was swept up in the joy of the experience and enjoyed chatting to fellow riders and seeing a trail of red lights far into the distance. But around this point is when my body started enquiring about what on earth was going on and why we weren’t currently wrapped up in bed! Throughout the ride, everyone kept asking if my legs or backside were hurting, but it truly was the neck pain that was the hardest to contend with! Staying in one position for hours on end, with your neck tilted up to see the road, is incredibly difficult. I did my best to silence the little voice in my head that was trying to draw attention to the pain and kept on keeping on.
A few more hours of some serious Stoic training later and we reached the final rest stop of the ride which was at Gosbeck. By this point the sun had started to tickle the horizon and I knew I had no chance of getting to the beach on time to see it rise. Though realising this did help somewhat. I decided to slow my pace a bit at this point as I had no need to rush anymore, but I made the silly mistake of trying to do Gosbeck to Dunwich without stopping again. On the map it looked close enough! Apparently not! It turns out I'm quite stubborn and once I'd made my mind up to cycle it in one shot I felt I had to stick to the plan. Unfortunately, being stubborn at the end of an 112 mile cycle ride is not such a great idea. At this point my legs were so exhausted that any incline, no matter how shallow, seemed to take all of my energy to ride. Small hills were suddenly setting my legs on fire! It's honestly hilarious to see a group of cyclists (myself included) panting like dogs and putting all of our energy into getting up and over a small hill that usually wouldn't even cause our heart rate to rise more than a couple of beats per minute!
As it got brighter there was a renewed sense of energy in the air and it felt like everyone's spirits lifted. It was at this point that I started seeing people coming back the other way towards me. They'd clearly reached the beach earlier and were on their way back. Some of them may be heading to another destination in Suffolk but I know for a fact that some people just turn around and cycle right back to London again. All the money in the world wouldn’t have made me do that!
The warm sun beating down on the cool ground caused some gorgeous mist to rise above the fields. It was picture perfect, but the stubbornness of not wanting to stop forbade me from stopping to take a photo but I really regret that! In the moment I was determined to keep on cycling.
Eventually, I got down to the final stretch of the journey and watched as the countdown of miles on my route calculator ticked over to less than 10 miles remaining. After what felt like the longest 10 miles of my life, I finally pulled into the beach at Dunwich where a whole throng of cyclists were lying exhausted on the stones or queuing up for the famous beach cafe which opens super early on the day of the ride to give all those early birds a decent coffee and something warm and delicious to congratulate them with.
My wife and family came to pick me up and brought what was easily the most delicious sausage and bacon bap I've ever had. For the entire ride I was munching on trail mix, protein bars, bananas and onigiri. Some warm food was heavenly. I didn't swim in the sea as is the tradition but maybe next year.
Who wants to join me for 2025?
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SJF
I’m so proud of you my love! ❤️