DunRun Bike Preparation

I spent the evening doing final bike preparation and checking for the Dunwich Dynamo this weekend. It meant missing a curry out, but needed to be done.

I will be riding my Canyon Roadlite AL with a 46/34 compact double and a 12-30 10-speed cassette, SwissStop Blue brake pads, because my head is too important to skimp on the safety equipment ;) It is fitted with a Selle SMP Dynamic, which is hands down the best saddle I have ever owned.


This will be the longest ride I've attempted to date, while wearing a bluetooth phone earpiece. It's been fine on 4 hour rides, so hopefully it will be comfortable on something this long. The reason I cycle with it, is so that when I get lost, I can hear my phone ringing etc when Lesley phones me to tell me where to turn to correct my course.


I'm using the iGadgetz top tube bag, which I'm not entirely happy with because it's not waterproof, but DunRun this year should be dry. I don't think this bag will be part of my final configuration for the LeJogLe attempt in September, or a future Transcontinental, but it will do for now. It will be full of battery packs, batteries and my phone. It does have handy clear window at the top for my phone screen to still be visible. There is no room for the Spot Tracker in my top tube bag with all the other stuff in there for DunRun, so will be trying that out in my back shirt pocket.



My trusty Garmin Edge 810. This will be my first time going off on DunRun without a route, planning on just following other people, and falling back to the maps on the Garmin if I need to get myself 'unlost' at any point. Having done DunRun three times before, I more or less know the sequence of villages we cycle through anyway, so hopefully there won't be too much getting lost going on.

This is my first overnight ride with my new dynamo (SP-PV8) powered front light. I also have an Exposure Joystick on the bars as a fall back if something goes wrong with the dynamo light.

My racktop bag is loaded with inner tubes and other random spares and some basic tools.

I will be foraging for food on the way to the start, rather than organising and packing food in advance. This will be a bit of a trial run for potentially doing some unsupported long distance cycling in the future.

There are a couple of Camelbak Podium bottles mounted to my frame, which will just have water, because this ride isn't long enough to need any sort of energy formula or re-hydration mixture. Also, that sort of thing won't necessarily be easily available on a long distance unsupported ride, so I may as well get used to managing that sort of resource on a short ride.  These bottles are the nicest to drink from, and their seal is good enough for them to lie side-wards in your bag and not leak a drop.

I'm planning on riding this without any gooch cream, although I will have a supply on hand in case of messages of distress from my undercarriage. I've been using Crotch Guard rather than gooch cream
recently. It's an oil that gets absorbed completely by the skin, and is more of a skin strengthening treatment than a lubricant. This is also a pre-preparation for ultra long distance unsupported rides when I can't be stopping every few hours to re-lubricate my undercarriage, or try and buy more supplies in a foreign language.