The Full Bifta - 2023 version

With the Dunwich Dynamo not being viable this year, we wanted an overnight challenge that played to our strengths - minimal travel, lots of get-outs, and a beer or two at the end. As such, the Bifta was born. 2023 was our first attempt, and it was pretty much perfect (apart from absent friends)



Morzine 12 (Day 3) Promotional Video


Morzine 12 Day 3 Promotional Video
Footage of all four participants and guest bovine appaearance
(Movie is too large for Blogger) 
Spaces available for Morzine 12a 






Dunwich Dynamo 2019


So much that I want to say about the 2019DD.  My 5th, but the first time I've done it in 10 years.  

London Fields was, again, awesome, and a great introduction to the ethos of the ride for the guys doing it for the first time.   Hackney is so cool nowadays, especially for backwoodsmen like us.  Masses massed, all friendly, smoking, drinking, dancing, nervously setting off early to beat the rush.  Some hope - the consensus seems to be 3,000 people rode the route.  No pre-race nerves, no jostling for position, just people smiling.

We set off at about 8:20pm after a number of middle-aged gentlemen had to do what middle-aged gentlemen do.  The first hour through London was slow but good.  A lot of smells (well, 1 smell in particular), sounds and sights to keep us occupied as we followed the long trail of bikes out into Essex.  This part of the ride was markedly different to my previous times - all of the bike lanes.  No weaving in & out of cars, no annoyed drivers.  A bit slower, but those lanes weren't built for the amount of traffic they had on them.  The next part of the ride has always been the most unpleasant, out to Epping.  We had a particular driver & passenger who seemed to be congratulating us on making love to homosexual vaginas, but they were alone in a sea of 'people just co-existing'.

Out of Epping, we turned right, and boom - country lanes all night long.  So many great memories keep hitting me about the ride from here on in - the kids sat by the roadside wrapped in blankets & cheering us in as if we were on the Tour.  Going around corners in sleepy and sleeping villages to find the entire road closed due to drinking, eating & happy cyclists.  3 blokes stood by the roadside in the middle of nowhere cheering us on.  Sudbury coming along at just the right time.  The haystack fire near Sudbury.   The sheer number of people on the road at all times.  The fake sunrise that turned out to be Ipswich's lights.  Needham Market where we met a very tired Weever Fish jnr.  And then the light started to change, subtly and slowly it was a new day.


By now we were strung out.  2 had gone home from Needham Market, 3 of us were ahead, Weever Fish jnr was dropping his kids off at the pool and the final 2 were coping stoically with a puncture outside a huge BBQ...

Then we were through Framlingham without seeing the carstle on the hill, and the fabled '7 miles to Dunwich' sign went past.  The transport for our bikes was already in Dunwich and people were milling around in the dawn light.


Suddenly we were going downhill and were there, into the car park in Dunwich, nicely before 6am.  I walked my bike over the pebbles on the beach and dipped the front wheel in the sea - as far east as we could go together.

An awesome ride for me, completed with one of my oldest friends and some of my oldest friends...



Finally, The Ship and breakfast & a pint (it was evening for us still...).  

Bring on DD XXVIII in 2020.  More pictures here and the ever smart Strava flyby (curated just to show the groups) here.

The Maystybaiters - Sheffield 2018


"Sheffield in May" isn't a poem by Wordsworth.  And when we arrived on the Friday it was easy to see why.  Steel City was looking rusty, but David had found a couple of stainless parts for us.  Not much distance in either of them, but they gave us an appreciation for the following 2 days terrain & had all bar 1 of us blowing hard - the 1 with a secret weapon, the electric bike.  Then we took the blind man knife throwing in thick fog.  This was more like a surfers weekend away.

Saturday turned up bright and beautiful.   After a lungbuster to warm us up we had the first of a weekend full of incredible views and then fun downhills.  We ended up at Lady Cannings for a trail session, and then off for lunch with the Alpacas.  Enough uphills to make us all a bit envious of the electric bike.  Home in time for Alan 'I worked in the army for 80 years' to get us to Kelham Island, Sheffield's answer to Shoreditch.  Great meal, then West Street via a dodgy Irish pub and The Frog And Parrot to play pool until 1 am.  Alan 'ID all over the world' got us home safe.

Sunday was even warmer.  We had a large loop around Ladybower and Derwent resevoirs which took most of the day, ending in a 15 minute climb for some of us.  Home in time for Alan '£60 fine for THAT' to take us to the Eccy road for a curry, gins, beer and finally a dance for Al.   Alan 'Bloody lunatic IT'S A 20 LIMIT' got us home safely.

A fantastic weekend - some new-found appreciation for Sheffield for some of us, and the Peaks really showed themselves up in all their glory.  Exceptional organisation, met up with 3 'outsiders' and no tin-tin-ducks.




Harry's Stag Day and Night


Late trains, litres of gin in backpacks, Pokemon movie gatecrashing,  air-guitar solo straddling a pedibus, pub fights, £80 poppadoms, the day had them all and more.

Sleepy-time

Flight-club


Morzine Ten


Was much the same as the previous nine years? Fun, exhilarating (as much as you want it to be), bit damp on one day, full on sunshine for the next four, beautifully carved trails through spectacular Alpine scenery, letting gravity and then the peaceful lifts do all the work. Relaxing in a chalet that you could not afford during the summer, replacing every single calorie that you used with Reblochon cheese and local beer whilst enjoying the mountain fresh air and the view from the deck. So this was much the same awesome week as before except Clark came along, so we enjoyed just that little bit more, laughed a bit more, drunk Aperol Spritzers of course, and the word on the street is that despite his moment of invincibility (which meant we got a live-in chalet host/cook) he will be there in 2018, stronger and faster than before. Living up to and building on the previous years the 10th anniversary was faultlessly choreographed by DP and feels like the only thing I want to do. Downhill is the answer, whatever the question. Roll on 2018. Images by Maysty and all the riding ones are of the rainy day as we were too busy riding on the dry ones.



















2017 Calamity Cup

Much like his namesake, CS flew through the air to gain this.