kLite Dynamo is a newcastle based local business making the brightest dyanmo powered lights on the market. We thank Kerry for his suppport of the event over the years and are proud to have them sposoring the event again. One lucky registered rider will win a kLite light prize pack !
The Newcastle Overnight costs $6 for Members of Audax Australia, (If you are not a member you can buy a temporary membership for $15)
This equates to approximately 3.5c per Km or 12c per Km for non members. If you find a cheaper or better large scale cycling event in Australia please let me know.
We highly encourage donations via cash or EFT to the ride organisers to cover the food supplied at the tea stops.
If you are interested in these sorts of long rides and the spirit of randonneuring I highly recommend joining Audax on some of their other rides.
Some evenings Sydney just really turns it on , that perfect touch of warmth in the air, the Jacaranda trees blooming, the sun just gradually nudging the horizon. And so it was, after a couple of years of bad weather, that we had what most would describe as perfect conditions for the Newcastle Overnight ride in 2022.
Dieter from York Lane Bar was happy to host us for dinner again and we really cant stress enough how much his support has meant to us over the years.
215 registrations is a good number for us, 315 registered last year but the rain probably saw a good number stay home. Suffice to say there were a lot of riders at Observatory hill and the nice riding conditions we reckon led to a bumper number finishing at Merewether Baths.
Next year we will likely return to finishing at Newcastle Oceans baths when it reopens post renovations. That said, it was nice to visit a different magnificent sea pool. In a funny illustration of the somewhat impossible task of being a ride organiser we had at least one complaint from someone who didn’t like the ‘fancy’ cafe food at Mereweather and missed the hot chips from Newcastle Baths. This somewhat flies in the face of the consistent feedback every other year that people don’t like the hot greasy mess that Newcastle Baths generally presents as breakfast fare. We just generally laugh and take it in our stride, filing it away with the email we received one of the very early years saying “Really enjoyed the ride, good fun, nice route but why did it have to be so dark?”
This year saw a relative scarcity of “inappropriate bikes”, perhaps the lingering effects of Covid making us all soft or perhaps because we failed to organise any prizes.
We would like to redeem ourselves so have in fact sourced some beautiful printed T-shirts for all our nominees (and also for volunteers)
Leading the way was Jason on a modified single speed BMX with a sidecar attachment. Now this is just a bike that screams inefficiency but the real challenge is that it is in fact very difficult to turn left at any speed above about 12kms/h without tipping over. Perfect for whipping around a circular track where you only turn one way, not so perfect for a long windy ride to Newcastle. A moderate counterbalance in this case was provided by the life-size skeleton , angled as far as possible out the side to give Jason a fighting chance of getting around the corners in one piece. Just imagine hurtling down the descents at Mooney Mooney or into Gosford while being aware that even a minor course correction could see you flip this contraption.
Special mention also goes to Lindsay and Bill on a beautiful classic steel racing tandem. Both part of the Dulwich Hill Cycling Club assisted cycling project, Bill is blind and so for a spirited adventure such as this requires assistance. We think there is something wonderfully quirky and poetic about a sighted rider guiding a blind rider on a 175km bike ride in the dark.
Massive thanks to our tea stop Volunteers from Mt White, even on a glorious summer eve its still a wild thing to find yourself perched on the side of the road making hot cups of tea for strange cyclists. We are enormously indebted for these folks giving up their time (and sleep). Thanks all those who generously donated as well, we covered our costs for another year which is always a good thing.
Photos courtesy of Oliver Cashman, Ben Porter, Jason Lynch and Rohan @”Suburban Dirt”
York Lane bar and diner is a longtime supporter of the Newcastle Overnight. That’s where we congregate on those fateful Saturday evenings before heading up to Observatory Hill. Dieter from York Lane has done the ride himself a few times, but every year he puts on a solid dinner to power you up those hills.
This year the menu is roast vegetable pasta for $17, or with chicken $19.
There will be banana bread, muffins, protein balls and other assorted extras on the night. The coffee machine will be on as will a full bar including XO cafe patron shots available.
SMS Dieter on 0415 236 351 to preorder your dinner now!
“My page was too white My ink was too thin The day wouldn’t write What the night pencilled in” Leonard Cohen
We always try and sit down a few days after the Newcastle Overnight ride and look back on the ride The forecast in the week leading up to the ride was undoubtedly a tad on the grim side, 50mm of rain and thunderstorms forecast. After almost two years of lockdowns, cancelled cycling events and other covid restrictions, we took the view that it would take more than a bit of bad weather to nudge us into another Saturday night on the couch.
On the Friday and Saturday before the ride however the forecast improved and it was a very pleasant surprise to ride to dinner at York Lane Bar and then stand at Observatory hill above the city lights with barely a drop of rain. There was a pretty undeniable tailwind pretty much the whole way, it was easy to forget about it and just kid yourself that you were pedaling unassisted. Turning the corner for the last few hundred metres into the baths heading into the wind was a rude shock and a reminder that really the ride was very kind to us this year.
We hit 335 people registered which we believe may well be a record for us. Exactly how many of those foolishly stayed home we do not know, but the crowd at Observatory Hill certainly seemed pretty sizable.
A combination of the weather forecast and some organisational hiccups meant we needed to pull the plug on the second tea Stop At Budgewoi. This is always a hard one with riders spread between about 1am and 7am, a difficult location and a long drive for Volunteers. In hindsight it was a good idea to pull it as most riders rode through Budgewoi in moderate rain and a steady tailwind, we suspect few would have been inclined to stop for long in the slim shelter of a roadside marque.
As it was, the Ocean Baths Cafe was open from about 4:30am doing a busy trade. We truly appreciate them opening early for us as there is always a degree of incredulity when we ring to discuss our ride plans. While the number of riders going for a dip in the pool was a little low this year, it is quite understandable as the majority were thoroughly soaked already.
As always there were a couple of odd stories from the night and we would feel remiss not to share some. We generally discourage riders from going hammer and tongs on the ride as it puts them in Newcastle around 3am. Try as we might, we can’t convince the Newcastle Baths to open their cafe quite that early and generally speaking there is not a lot happening at the baths at that hour. This year however by some accounts the earliest riders found themselves interrupting a romantic rendezvous in the baths. The exact details of which will likely stay between the consenting adults and this first batch of speedy riders, but we as organisers are chalking it up as another reason to slow down and enjoy the ride.
A similar lesson was learned by a gent who was seen cycling furiously out of the Mt White tea stop chasing his mates who had departed off down the road. He reappeared a few minutes later saying, “Why hurry, it’s warm and dry here and there is food to eat”.
At the opposite end of the ride our applause goes to a hardy group of three women riding together who found themselves dealing with a flat tire and a stuck thru axle on the highway outside Newcastle around 7am. With heavy rain falling and the light of day bringing an increase in traffic, they were apparently spotted using a cycling shoe to hammer out the stubbornly stuck axle. When this failed A Woolworth delivery truck came to the rescue with a vague promise to deliver them somewhere closer to Newcastle. Only two could fit in the truck so one was left to ride solo. Of the two who went in the truck one rider appeared at the finish around 10:30 am and the other has not been seen. We would like to tip our hats as organisers to the resilience of all these three women, the one left alone to ride on, the one who made it to the finish and the last woman who may well be happily munching away in the back of the grocery truck.
And somewhere in the middle we have to congratulate two gents in their early late 50s who despite never having ridden more than 60kms, tackled the ride on a pair of older mountain bikes. Starting from Lane Cove, and then rather unfortunately taking a wrong turn at Budgewoi (every year quite a few riders seem to take this unsanctioned detour) , their total ride was probably closer to 200km. A very good effort gents and proof that really the only prerequisites are a functioning bike and a modicum of fitness.
Standout riders in our most inappropriate bike awards have to go to Garth (an organiser) and his mate Pete on the home welded tall bikes. These garage creations, born out of lockdown frustration, made it all the way in surprisingly good time. Peter on the second tall bike was apparently so tired towards the end he couldn’t climb back on so had to stop only near handy mounting rails. While they may look precarious by all accounts they are very stable and have the added bonus of not needing mudguards as the water flung off the wheels doesn’t go high enough.
Also worth mentioning was a very keen bloke on a TokyoBike Mini Velo, a bike designed for Japanese apartment life and the grocery run. Apparently it was a moderately challenging bike to ride with its short wheelbase and limited gear range. Well done on making it to the finish and barely looking tired. To wrap up, can we express our immense gratitude to everyone who turned up to ride, thanks for engaging with our slightly off the wall vision for a good time on a Saturday night.
Massive thanks also to our sponsors, Omafiets, York Lane Bar and K-Lite Dynamo Power. The Winner of the Dynamo Wheel and Klite dynamo setup was a nice gent called Brent who has stoked to win such an awesome prize.
Photo Credit: Oliver Cashman, David Thompson, Jason Lynch.
With 229 256 people registered already we weren’t sure if we even needed to offer prizes this year. But just in case you needed any extra encouragement to sign up for the best ride of the year, how about a giveaway?
We are thrilled to offer a kLite Dynamo powered headlight and a Dynamo generator wheel from Omafiets, installed on your bike just in time for the night ride.
Simply register for the Newcastle Overnight ride and we will draw a name at random next weekend (Sunday 14th November), we will then be in touch to hopefully get the setup installed before the ride on the 20th.
newcastle overnight 