Anyone going to Cha...
 

[Closed] Anyone going to Charlies Gravel dash at the weekend?

Posts: 169
Free Member
Topic starter
 

Just sorting out the tent, praying for lots of sunshine and gearing the bike for the Singlespeed pub crawl extravaganza... Anyone else making the pilgrimage to Swanage?


 
Posted : 21/05/2014 12:34 pm
 Yak
Posts: 6939
Full Member
 

Yes.

Got to shift a nasty cold first though. Just eaten a chilli and ginger heavy lunch to see if that helps.


 
Posted : 21/05/2014 12:39 pm
Posts: 35
Free Member
 

Oh yes. I'm not riding on the Saturday, as I think I'll need all my energy for Sunday. Current plan is using my fixed Karate Monkey.....


 
Posted : 21/05/2014 12:40 pm
 Yak
Posts: 6939
Full Member
 

fixed Karate Monkey

Good to hear. I'm on a ss rigid 29er. Was a bit worried that everyone else would be on cx bikes.


 
Posted : 21/05/2014 12:42 pm
Posts: 0
Full Member
 

No, CX bikes in for SRAM recall 🙄
Niners in bits having some replacements put on it..

Could Roadie it, ohhh nahhh better not, maybe the foldie 😆


 
Posted : 21/05/2014 12:43 pm
Posts: 6417
Full Member
 

Was hoping to slip stream my mates Pugsley but it looks like he might be bailing & leaving me to my own devices 🙁


 
Posted : 21/05/2014 2:24 pm
 gee
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Yes I'll be there, should be fun to do 100 miles somewhere other than the Surrey Hills.


 
Posted : 21/05/2014 2:29 pm
Posts: 0
Full Member
 

hopefully squeezed in now the weathers cheered up, lame excuse I know, can't decide on bike, full rigid Chinese carbon I think......


 
Posted : 21/05/2014 3:00 pm
Posts: 251
Full Member
 

[i]hopefully squeezed in now the weathers cheered up[/i]

we've been promised 40mm of rain tonight a little further east of there 🙁


 
Posted : 21/05/2014 3:02 pm
Posts: 0
Full Member
 

Hope not its my wareham ride tonight! must of it should be quite dry, was more riding in the rain after racing in the rain the day before I was trying to avoid!


 
Posted : 21/05/2014 3:13 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

I'll be on the Dash on Sunday. Rigid Niner with some gears. ChrisN on here will be joining me on his Kaff with some CX tyres.

I'm local to the north half of the course so we'll be on the visit-as-many-pubs-just-off-route-as-possible plan, hopefully winning our beer costs back in Charlie prizes at the end of the day 😀


 
Posted : 21/05/2014 3:27 pm
 gary
Posts: 534
Full Member
 

I'm in. No copping out due to weather on account of missing other events to do this! Vintage Ritchey cross bike is all polished up and ready to go.


 
Posted : 21/05/2014 3:51 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

I'm in on me BurleyCross Ragley, making a trip of it and riding down loaded up. Hoping for not to many thunderstorms over the next two days.
Good to hear there will be a good mix of bikes out 😀


 
Posted : 21/05/2014 4:32 pm
Posts: 35
Free Member
 

I'll be happy to get back on the same day.......................


 
Posted : 22/05/2014 8:33 am
 Keef
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

yes,not doing the serious thing,just pubs...
can't decide between,
SS homebrew fatbike,
fixed crosser,
or drop bar rigid SS ?
Help.


 
Posted : 22/05/2014 9:15 am
Posts: 5823
Full Member
 

Saturday is currently looking wet in that area, good luck gents!


 
Posted : 22/05/2014 9:23 am
Posts: 169
Free Member
Topic starter
 

SS 29er with some bounce on the front.. should be perfect for hills and pubs


 
Posted : 22/05/2014 10:08 am
Posts: 12522
Full Member
 

Yup, coming straight from arctic Norway on Friday night. Twentysickser for the SSaturday, geary Peregrine for the Sunday.


 
Posted : 22/05/2014 10:16 am
Posts: 35
Free Member
 

Keef, Please bring the fatbike, then I can take some pics. I think my mate is struggling a bit with my "project".

See you there.............


 
Posted : 22/05/2014 12:01 pm
 Keef
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

ok Flashes,Fatbike is winning atm....;-)


 
Posted : 22/05/2014 12:07 pm
Posts: 8
Free Member
 

Heading down early Friday for an afternoon ride on Sunday's loop on the northern section.

I'll cowboy the Rohloff into a SS (Charlie approved) for Saturday's ride and Gravel Dashing with gears on Sunday.

Bike = Travers Ti 29er+ Rohloff with Belt Drive.

See you down there


 
Posted : 22/05/2014 2:11 pm
 Keef
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

not looking good for us,youngest son who was supposed to be coming down with us had a temp of 39deg last night....


 
Posted : 23/05/2014 6:47 pm
Posts: 8
Free Member
 

Anyone coming down tomorrow morning via a bike shop that they could pick up a Rohloff rear cog from please.

Charlie hasn't one in stock.

Beer reward and cash waiting.

Please help


 
Posted : 23/05/2014 7:52 pm
 gee
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

What a fantastic event! Coffee and bacon sandwiches, amazing 100mile lap, stunning views, some fun descents, pint of ale at the end, a free t shirt and a burger. Can't say fairer than that!

Massive thanks to Charlie and co and also to Paul Errington for showing me the way 🙂

GB


 
Posted : 26/05/2014 9:15 am
Posts: 12148
Free Member
 

Waiting to hear the tales, my mate did it and is either in bed or at work.
So where did the 100 miler go?


 
Posted : 26/05/2014 9:21 am
 gee
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

It was a clockwise loop along the Coast, inland to puddletown and bulbarrow hill, the round to Blandford and down the Coast back to swanage.


 
Posted : 26/05/2014 9:29 am
Posts: 12148
Free Member
 

You get the impression it was on gravel like the big American events, but was it more good old off road?
Love that part of the country and fancy a weekend down there with road and mountainbike.
Got a GPX or anything?


 
Posted : 26/05/2014 9:34 am
 gee
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Yes but only what Charlie sent out - I had garmin issues during the race...

Saw some people had short cut the out and back bit at the start - really? How silly.


 
Posted : 26/05/2014 9:35 am
 gee
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Oh and bacon and cheese cake? Win.


 
Posted : 26/05/2014 9:37 am
Posts: 0
Full Member
 

We need more tales, Charlie's events are always amazing and full of proper riders...

Help us out eh lads, tales of beer and woe..


 
Posted : 26/05/2014 9:50 am
Posts: 6417
Full Member
 

prizes surely go to the third placed guy who cycled down there from Northampton, won a pair of rims which he now has strapped to either side of his front wheel ready for the return trip but had managed to rearrange his face after riding into a tree on the campsite after a few beers

We hooked up with nick after he'd punctured at the first headland, two snapped chains, two punctures, two bent mechs & a bent chainring between the three of us we still managed to get back in time for prize giving, - which was good as alan had won the fatbike category 🙂


 
Posted : 26/05/2014 10:50 am
 Yak
Posts: 6939
Full Member
 

No tales of woe - instead a great day out. Mrs Yak and I rode together, both on singlespeeds. Bit late off the start as I'd forgotten to sign on before the briefing, but no probs. Just tapped out a steady pace all day over a lovely and varied course and came in at about 10hrs as 2nd and 3rd singlespeeders with Mrs Yak as 2nd overall female too. All good! No tales of beer though, had to get back for an early kids pick-up today. Great day out! Cheers Charlie!


 
Posted : 26/05/2014 11:26 am
Posts: 6417
Full Member
 

fairplay to you & Mrs Yak - think we did a bit of sharing of gate opening duties before you stopped for lunch and then you left us for dust after our lunch stop 😳 - we were the threesome on crosser / fatbike / mtb


 
Posted : 26/05/2014 11:47 am
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

alias Mrs Yak

Awesome day out with Mr Yak. Fab selection of bikes, mainly steel, took on the challenge. Great spirit out on course.

We took the tortoise approach: started steady and stayed steady. Coffee at halfway was a saviour. Climb back from Harry's Rocks the only pushing section.

Chuffed with the 10hr time.

Tired today.


 
Posted : 26/05/2014 12:04 pm
 Del
Posts: 8273
Full Member
 

flipping good effort from the 100 mile lot and from Charlie and his crew too.
I was in the SS slackers lot who went for a potter across the hills via pubs, and had an excellent weekend, met some great folk, ate and drank very well indeed, and managed to catch a bit of sun in the lion beer garden at the finish of the 100.
awesome achievement for those who took part in the 100.
the chap who came first had won a 6 hour race the day before, apparently 😯
thanks to Charlie, Ian, and the other guides/hosts, and Jack and Sam for providing the enthusiasm of youth ( now shut up 😉 ).
in fact thanks everyone. top weekend. 😀


 
Posted : 26/05/2014 1:16 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Great day out. Sub-9hr ride for me for something like 12th place (but it wasn't a race 😉 )

Loads of non-technical local trails that I haven't ridden in ages all joined up to make a great route. Lots of banter with JohnClimber, Paul on the Niner gravel racer and Chris Noble amongst others added to the fun. Being cheered into the finish by a hundred people was a nice surprise.

Had a brief discussion with Charlie at the finish about a Dash 200 route for next year... 8)


 
Posted : 26/05/2014 3:35 pm
Posts: 169
Free Member
Topic starter
 

Thoroughly enjoyable weekend, we did the SS route on the Saturday , riding along the beach was a first for me and I won a Tshirt for not being knocked off. Drank a few beers, met some very nice people, shame about the punctures but hey.. The slippery descent after Corfe castle was fun I can still feel the stinging nettles now.
Sunday we left the gravel rashers to it and did a pub crawl, it was pretty messy by the time we got to the Red Lion.
Well done Charlie and the gang another cracking weekend to remember, thank you.


 
Posted : 26/05/2014 3:42 pm
 gee
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Yes I won the Erlestoke 6hr race the day before. 1st of 3 double weekends of racing this year... Yesterday was 6hrs 50mins for the 92 miles and was a lot more enjoyable than Erlestoke in the mud!

GB


 
Posted : 26/05/2014 3:43 pm
Posts: 35
Free Member
 

Brilliant weekend, great course Charlie, even the mud and puddles were warm. Me and Cab were first fixed gear bikes back. 11 hours, very pleased with that.....[URL= http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff194/19582cv/imagejpg2_zps16959cea.jp g" target="_blank">http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff194/19582cv/imagejpg2_zps16959cea.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL]


 
Posted : 26/05/2014 7:13 pm
Posts: 699
Full Member
 

Cracking weekend. I'm another who didn't do the 100. Right now I can barely handle a quarter of that. So thanks instead Charlie and others for the two more leisurely rides, the pubs, the views, great company and the met office beating mostly sunny weather. Next year? Yes please.


 
Posted : 26/05/2014 8:37 pm
 GDRS
Posts: 0
Full Member
 

Good work charlie for mashing up two events on the same weekend. I just did the ss weekend and had a great time.....good to catch up with some familiar faces in both events......top pub stops......riding on the beach.....good cakes......doing it again next year?


 
Posted : 27/05/2014 10:31 am
 Yak
Posts: 6939
Full Member
 

Nice one Flashes and Cab. Cheering crowd just out of shot to the R 🙂

We were with you for a bit approaching Lulworth ranges. Couple on the singlespeeds - similar looking red jerseys. (married tweedle dee, tweedle dum approach...)

Dickyboy - nice one too! Not sure we left any dust..ahem! More like steady plodding, but luckily no mechanicals. Sounds like you had you fair share. Good packed beer garden cheer though on your return and well timed for Alan's fatbike triumph! Cheers again Charlie and co.


 
Posted : 27/05/2014 11:08 am
Posts: 35
Free Member
 

Yes, on One and Singular (?). you could have gone for matching bikes. but very good route and my shoes are nearly dry...............


 
Posted : 27/05/2014 1:29 pm
 Yak
Posts: 6939
Full Member
 

that's us!
Matching bikes? That would break the standard house rule of Mrs Yak's bikes being nicer than mine 😉


 
Posted : 27/05/2014 1:38 pm
Posts: 12522
Full Member
 

Think we saw you fairly early on on Sunday, Mr & Mrs Yak? We were 4 cross bikes (2 singulars) a hire 29er and an Orange? Some chat about starting slow? You did better than us!


 
Posted : 27/05/2014 1:42 pm
Posts: 12522
Full Member
 

We took an extra-social route on the first day: Shop – campsite – Square and Compass – Scott Arms – Square and Compass - campsite.

I won the most exquisitely painful nettle stings I’ve ever had the fortune to experience, from a patch of max strength post-rain stingers. The result of an overly optimistic attempt to trials it up a steep little section of narrow, rocky, slimy path with a nettley drop to the right. I tottered on the brink for quite a while before I succumbed to gravity, falling in stages, backwards down the slope, at each pause thinking “I can rescue this!”.

Nope. I went deep. Full coverage on the backs of both calves and right forearm. The venom worked itself down overnight past where I’d been actually stung and I woke up with pins and needles round my ankles and down the outside of my feet into my toes. Mmm-Mmmm. Still itchy.

Sunday was great, we started together (if not last off, then pretty close) as a mixed group of new and old friends from different places, not all up for the full 100. We thought we’d figure out somewhere to part ways up the trail, but decided pretty quickly that we’d rather stick together and have a lovely day out than split up.

We cemented the deal by leaving the route and stopping at the first cream tea shop that we found open - Past and Presents (great name!) by Lulworth Castle.

The rebranded “Cream Tea Dawdle” then took us down to the beach at Lulworth Cove for stone throwing; up and over to the Sailors Return for pints, sandwiches, puncture repairs and chainring flipping, then back east on some absolutely primo trails - churny porridge in the woods, silage farmyards, first tracks push to re-establish a BW across a freshly ploughed field. Sarnies and snoozing under a tree, then back up over the top for some fun riding over and down to Corfe Castle. Breakfast baps, beer and teapot impressions in the Model Village courtyard where we said goodbye to David, over to the Square and Compass for a couple more before pootling back to the campsite. Quick change, then down to the pub to take ourselves off the Dead List. Curry.

Well done everybody, especially Charlie and the Mongerettes, Gee for a pretty incredible showing Saturday and Sunday, and all the riders who went the distance.


 
Posted : 27/05/2014 1:45 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

prizes surely go to the third placed guy who cycled down there from Northampton, won a pair of rims which he now has strapped to either side of his front wheel ready for the return trip but had managed to rearrange his face after riding into a tree on the campsite after a few beers

what kind of idiot was that 😀

Friday night firepit and beers was cool, and the food, oh! just superb thanks Ladies.

Great event, fun route, the dice with the CX boys on my BurlyCross setup was ace fun. trying to gap them enough on the downhills before they powered past on the flat sections. Finishing in a pub was brilliant, such a great welcome for all the finishers, and good ale.
Nice to meet some of you guys there, nice one Charlie.

Me and rims got home OK,if a little wet. Now I'm destroyed.


 
Posted : 27/05/2014 4:34 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Jack you made it back, amazing effort along with the scars to prove it!
Ditto, cheers to Charlie for putting on a top event. Hope to be back next year.


 
Posted : 27/05/2014 8:14 pm
Posts: 35
Free Member
 

Anyone know where the ride pics are posted, I'm interested to see if my gurning on the last hill up from Harry's Rock made the final edit.

Charlie, this has to happen next year........


 
Posted : 27/05/2014 8:47 pm
 GDRS
Posts: 0
Full Member
 

Hey I forgot to ask this on sat / sun but did anyone log / strava the ss weekend routes? Nice routes for a pootle on another occasion and I don't quite trust my memory to replicate on an o/s map. Cheers.


 
Posted : 30/05/2014 9:00 am
Posts: 2448
Full Member
 

http://road.cc/content/feature/124434-one-foot-gravel-dorset-gravel-dash

That's a good link from Jo Burt, and Paul errington blogged it at alpkit too.

Just had a stupid idea... Iceland has a road around its coast, its not Tarmac... Iceland gravel dash 1000?


 
Posted : 16/08/2014 10:39 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Doing the ride with a few people from the bear bones forum at the end of this month if anyone fancies it.


 
Posted : 16/08/2014 11:21 pm
 Del
Posts: 8273
Full Member
 

that is a stupid idea.
nice write up for an event i rubbed up against. 😉
you got any 'kills a kitten' stickers left? i need a couple...


 
Posted : 16/08/2014 11:53 pm
Posts: 17388
Full Member
 

charlie the bikemonger - Member
...Just had a stupid idea... Iceland has a road around its coast, its not Tarmac... Iceland gravel dash 1000?

Suitably bonkers. Yes please.


 
Posted : 17/08/2014 12:46 am
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Would be allowed under my 1 international epic a year rule!


 
Posted : 17/08/2014 3:17 am
Posts: 0
Full Member
 

Well if this could happen again later this year I'm deffo IN. 8)

The Iceland 1000 sounds on the face of it a bit of a challenge to do in a day, dunno just think out loud 😆


 
Posted : 17/08/2014 8:49 am