Dunwich Dynamo 2010

Lets ride to the coast they say... Dunwich Dynamo anyone???

Whats that... Its a semi organised ride from Hackney to Dunwich on the Suffolk coast 120ish miles away... Oh and its through the night...

....Well okay, but how do we get home...

.................Lets ask the W.A.G.S to pick us up... YEAH there is a plan

So Saturday 24th July we all met at Sam's house, girls and boys to go on our seperate journeys to the coast. The girls set off towing the trailer for a night out in Lowestoft, which apparently has a dangerous beach and a strange pub as highlights, via stops for coffee and traffic.

Us Boys set of for london on our rag tag fleet of road bikes via Beaconsfield station we find out the longest ride Adam has ever done is 30miles so we think this will be a long night, but Adam as always makes things look very easy...

We cycle across London only getting slightly lost on our way to Hackney and the so called start, so called because there is no start its "go sometime after 8pm and we will see you at the beach". We enjoy the last orders at the BBQ and generally nervously chew the fat, looking at the oddities of lLondon cycle culture.

Ive never ridden in a pack of 200 riders, let alone through traffic and it has got to be experienced at least once!! So through the sights, smells and sounds of east London we head towards the wilds of the Essex border.

The locals didnt know what to make of us all as we headed along our merry way...
"Ere Trace, ive just seen the F*****g tour de france go past... No lie init" has to be the quote of the year.

Then once out of the traffic the groups flowed along at a merry old pace, with chatting and banter along the way.

Having the advantage of GPS, yes cheating to the purist, allowed our merry band to just ride and have fun without worrying about getting lost in the dark. And so it would seem did about 40 other riders, when after an emergency stop to rescue Adams rear light from falling off a large group pulled in with us and waited until we set off again. Brilliant.....

A stop for lunch at about 1am for sandwiches in a local village hall at the half way point spirits were still very high. Once refreshed setting back out into the night in another large group for the final half to the beach.

So what did we get for our troubles, no sleep, some saddle sores, the best breakfast ever, but most of all a fantastic experience that we are already discussing next years event and maybe even a few other long rides of our own.

A massive thanks to the girls for enduring the traffic, Lowestoft and smelly tired boys on the way home....

Riding out of London

Middle of nowhere

We made it!!

Simon at the Pass’Portes du Soleil

imon went out to France to take part in one of the most fun events of the year, so in simons words:

"Pass’Portes du Soleil is an amazing XC festival based in Les Gets/Morzine in the French Alps and this year a group of Summit riders entered, many for the first time. For me, it was possibly one of the best days I have ever spent on my bike.
In one day a Pass’Portes rider can experience the widest possible terrain, from gorgeous natural single-track through pine covered slopes, long fast fire road descents and full-on downhill switchbacks, with table tops and kickers. All against a backdrop of Europe’s most beautiful mountain range close to the French/Swiss boarder.

The event’s seventh year attracted 4,500 riders from all over Europe aboard a very wide range of machinery from racing downhill rigs to slender-tubed hard-tails, but the majority were probably riding full sus long travel XC bikes.

The concept is simply pure genus. Go up the mountains on ski lifts, ride along the trails and down breathtaking descents, then on to the next lift. In all I counted 13 lifts on our 80km route, which open from 08.00am to 18.00pm. There are shorter routes but having made the journey most would go for the full loop which took us the thick end of 10 hours to complete.

Nick, Judith and I started around 08.15am and kept a steady pace going, making sure we didn’t linger too long at the well stocked feed stations and just finished before the final lift closed. We started and finished in Morzine where we were staying, although officially the event departs from nearby Les Gets.

Signing-on was all done inside 15 minutes and although the first run was busy with keen riders I would never have called it crowded. After that we were never held up on the trails nor had faster riders on our wheels and getting served in the feed stations was never a problem.
Hard to believe we shared the event with over 4,000 others.

The man-made trails have been developed for more than a decade and are clearly aimed at downhill riders with either big travel MTBs or downhill bikes. They are just amazing offering multiple bermed swicthbacks, fast swoopy chutes, steep rooty or bumpy sections, double jumps and table tops. Make sure your brakes are in top condition as you will be using them a lot as some of the descents drop 1,000 metres!

There is also loads of natural trail in between the bike park stuff. Miles of woodland single-track, some rocky sections, fire roads and tracks much of it being the old byways local people used to travel between the valleys and through mountain passes. At times I was reminded of UK trail centres or places like the Lakes and Peaks, but all the trails are just longer and more satisfying.

Although quite few folks ride downhill bikes there were others on hardtails, so something in between the two extremes is probably a good bet. Again next year I will ride a full sus XC bike, shod with proper downhill tyres (I used Maxxis Minion front and High Roller on the back, both 60a compound) as we saw a lot of folks with regular XC tyres fixing punctures.

The Eighth Pass’Portes is being extended from two to three days next year and will be held on 24/25/26th June, so watch out on the club forum for news of registration opening in early February.

Thanks to Andy TS for the kind loan of his Iron Horse Expert Mk3, Alan Wakeman for sound advice on tyres etc and especially Nick and Judith for their good company and accommodation."


Look for next year and get your entries in quick at:
http://www.passportesdusoleil.com/

On the chairlift to the start