Newcastle Overnight Ride - 1 December 2012

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Adrian E
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Location: Newtown

Postby Adrian E » 16 Nov 2012, 13:52

Hi folks,
A bunch of us are going to be doing this awesome ride on Dec 1. We're leaving Observatory Hills at 9pm for a full moon ride to Newcastle. If you missed out on the fixie century, this is your chance to ride 160kms but make sure you bring good lights!!! More details are available at: http://newcastleovernight.wordpress.com/
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timothy_clifford
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Joined: 13 Feb 2012, 19:04

Postby timothy_clifford » 16 Nov 2012, 18:53

So wish I could do this. Good luck.

scully
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Joined: 07 Apr 2011, 18:22

Postby scully » 17 Nov 2012, 09:29

Great idea.Have you sorted out your route? I know a good way if you need advice.

timyone
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Joined: 22 Nov 2006, 20:29

Postby timyone » 26 Nov 2012, 21:17

ooooo... 0.o

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Adrian E
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Joined: 07 Mar 2007, 13:15
Location: Newtown

Postby Adrian E » 01 Dec 2012, 15:34

We're on tonight. Should be an interesting night.

Hope to see some of you there.

Eleri
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Joined: 31 Dec 2009, 08:43
Location: Erskineville

Postby Eleri » 01 Dec 2012, 15:38

I'm doing this.

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jonboy
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Joined: 01 Sep 2011, 20:26
Location: Marrickville

Postby jonboy » 01 Dec 2012, 16:20

Good luck - you might experience some weather along the way.

The most dangerous part of the ride might even be the morning swim. Watch out for those great whites that breed off Stockton beach.

Ride report please!

J

Eleri
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Joined: 31 Dec 2009, 08:43
Location: Erskineville

Postby Eleri » 02 Dec 2012, 18:12

Adrian Emilsen and I were the only DHBC people I spotted.

I am told 70 starters, 50 finishers. I saw 35 or so of those finishers before hopping on an 8.30am train back to Sydney with a bunch of others. I rode in with Adrian Eand met a few people at the York Lane Bar (which looked like a really cute bar btw - thanks for the coffee!)

9pm at Observatory Hill and bikes were still arriving. It was dark and hard to see who was who but I spotted a couple of people I knew and said hello. A short safety briefing from Garth and signing waivers and we were off across the Harbour Bridge bike path. A few drops of rain made sure we knew the weather was a bit iffy. Humidity at about max possible I think! I was keen to get away from a couple of beat-box noises and a chap with a squeaky pedal. I figured that would get annoying.

It was a great ride that started along the Pacific Highway to Hornsby which wasn't too bad. Adrian and I pretty much took a lane the whole way leaving a whole lane for cars and 2 guys jumped on our wheel. Fortunately traffic wasn't heavy so this worked OK. Got minor grief from "BMWs" but OK. At Hornsby we caught a bunch ahead of us and all rode together for most of the ride after that.
Descending past Pie in the Sky in the dark was good fun. I felt sorry for the heroic dude riding an old school TT bike, now a fixie but without brakes ... It was one of those funny ones with a small front wheel and a sloping top-tube. Hard work, and he was off and walking up to Mt White. I'm thinking he was a DNF.

Stopped for snacks and welcome hot drinks including Milo at Mt White. Although it was so humid that we were sweating like anything. More water! We discovered there were 2 guys ahead of us by about 5 minutes hoping to get the first train in Newcastle so one of them could come back and do another ride on Sunday morning. Like you do. But otherwise we were the lead bunch. Not that it was a race or anything :-)

Gosford and that part of the Central Coast is memorable because of the descent into Gosford where we all got our max top speed and then the locals who were entertaining! Lots of P-Platers wishing us well mostly but in rather raucous fashion. We got there after midnight so everyone coming home from whatever passes as Gosford nightlife. Much of which appeared to revolve around Maccas which offered the only toilets around. Thanks for the facilities!

A few more hills along the way, some towns along the coast most of us had never heard of - especially the Brits - and not much water to be had. Eventually at a servo we found snacks including Pringles (Adrian) and chocolate milk (me and others), met some more locals who were concerned we were wearing helmets inside the servo shop against the sign. No MHLs in central coast servos! We regrouped at this point and picked up a couple of others not far behind us and were in a bunch of about 10 or so and all worked together. We were cranking along at this point with fairly good access to the road, hardly any traffic and plenty of warning when something was coming. It was great riding along in a bunch that size in the dark.

Adrian, hard man, was riding a single speed and sat on the front. Some of the rest of us rotated off the front on the other side (we were riding 2-abreast) but no-one could match him for long. Eventually we got to the turnoff for the rail-trail bike path which was not surprisingly fairly flat and just kept a good pace into Newcastle. About half way along it started to rain and we were feeling pretty miserable. I realised I could see better if I took my glasses off otherwise the flashing red lights were almost blinding as they reflected and magnified every flash.

Suddenly we were in Newcastle and heading for the Sea Baths. Most of our bunch got there at 5:10AM but a couple including one guy on a fixie not that far behind us.

We didn't actually see the sun come up because of the cloud cover but it did get lighter and Adrian impressed everyone even more by riding off to find a bakery and bringing back food!

Stayed around for a couple of hours to welcome in the next travellers who came in fits and starts and in groups of 2 or 3 mostly.
In summary, a really good ride and well worth doing. It's not a ride I would want to do in the day time because I think there would be too many cars, but at night there were many stretches where we saw nothing coming either way for ages.

I know it wasn't a race but ... really impressed with our bunch. We averaged 26kph which I was pretty happy with considering the amount of climbing, the heat and humidity.

Adrian at the start in York Lane
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The start at Observatory Hill
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The rail trail tunnel
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Weary at end just after we arrived in the dark and rain before we found anything to eat
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All too much for this guy
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By about 8am about 30 people had turned up
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Definitely doing this again next year.

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Stuart
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Location: Dulwich Hill

Postby Stuart » 02 Dec 2012, 19:19

As I said elsewhere you are all completely mad ... but a big Chapeau to all who did this ride. BTW, please explain how you took enough lights / batteries to actually see the road in the dark for 8 hours?

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JoTheBuilder
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Postby JoTheBuilder » 03 Dec 2012, 06:50

Well done guys... What was it like riding between 2-4am?

Where was that photo taken of the rail trail tunnel?

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Adrian E
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Location: Newtown

Postby Adrian E » 03 Dec 2012, 06:56

Seeing the road for was fine. I used a Supernova E3Triple head and tail light with a hub dynamo. No batteries.
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There were some impressive lighting systems on the ride including Eleri's Ayups. I noticed that a few people running low on their batteries by the time we reached Newcastle but almost everyone in our group had brought backup lights.

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Stuart
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Location: Dulwich Hill

Postby Stuart » 03 Dec 2012, 07:10

How long do Ayups last then? I know my 900 lumen 'bought from deal extreme' light only lasts about 2-2.5 hours tops.

Eleri
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Location: Erskineville

Postby Eleri » 03 Dec 2012, 16:58

Well done guys... What was it like riding between 2-4am?

Where was that photo taken of the rail trail tunnel?
I didn't get tired on the ride really, which is a bit surprising. No more than I would on any ride where I had already ridden 100 kms or something.

The rail trail tunnel is on a bike path that goes from Belmont to Newcastle called the Fernleigh Track https://www.railtrails.org.au/trail?view=trail&id=80

The whole track was pretty good I thought - would be good to see it in daylight :-)

Eleri
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Joined: 31 Dec 2009, 08:43
Location: Erskineville

Postby Eleri » 03 Dec 2012, 17:00

How long do Ayups last then? I know my 900 lumen 'bought from deal extreme' light only lasts about 2-2.5 hours tops.

Don't know. I had them on from about 10.30pm I think and they were still going strong at 5am. Mostly on low beam but perhaps 1 hour or 90 mins max on high? I didn't think I needed high when going up hills.

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JoTheBuilder
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Postby JoTheBuilder » 03 Dec 2012, 19:54

I know the Fernleigh track well. Thought it might be that but wondered whether you guys had just come straight down the Pacific Hwy. It was my regular commute to work, I just didn't recognise it in the dark...


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