Black Stubborn Derby™, Hungary
Zebegény-Budapest late night speed race in the dark on Steyr-Puch Waffenrad
Black Stubborn – is a from town to town veteran bicycle race in Hungary including the Zebegény-Budapest distance being covered late at night with a maximum – possible – speed in complete darkness. It was first done on a Steyr-Puch Waffenrad in July 2018
Hartnäckig Schwarz – dies ist ein von Stadt zu Stadt Veteran Fahrrad Wettrennen welches in Zebegény in Ungarn startet und in der ungarischen Hauptstadt Budapest endet. Dieses geschwindichkeits Distanz Nachtrennen wurde zuerst im Juli 2018 auf einem Steyr-Puch Waffenrad bewältigt
Fekete Makacs – Zebegény-Budapest éjszakai sebességi veterán kerékpár verseny, melyet első ízben 2018 Júliusában egy Steyr-Puch Waffenrad típusú kerékpáron hajtottak végre
Details in English below. Folgende Details auf Englisch. További részletek alant angol nyelven.
Hereby I’m foundig the first modern night race of Hungary for veteran bicycles!
On 26-27 July 2018 I saw the opportunity to cycle a rather (by day) doable distance willingly dealing with unusal circumstances. I was heading into the woods in pitch dark night time to test certain limits. I took off from Zebegény after a concert by Kinetic Erotic – contemporary Hungarian fusion jazz band – only to race down stream along the river Danube to Budapest.
Note that I don’t have a professional bicycle race past and had no preparations done for this particular distance ride. Most of the track was along farms, fields, horse stables or in forests without any sort of light to help the orientation. Often the rarely occurring direction markers are covered by branches or entire bushes; in some cases they are broken down (stolen perhaps). From time to time the road quality changes within a few meters! From bad to generic to mediocre and sometimes to even smooth.
The experience:
Noticing a swamp on your right or being surrounded by an old forest for an hour! Riding along beaches or through a residential area! This track has it all! Don’t be alarmed, the official bicycle road sometimes vanishes! In these cases you have to improvise, ride through the suburbs or find your way within a block house area! An alternative route around is also an option. In some cases you have to use the nearby highway. In the end of the tour changing of terrain mostly means you get a glimps of the former – Soviet period leftover – industrial outskirts of Budapest.
The Hungarian capitol’s downtown World Heritage sights and Prime locations such as Andrássy avenue with it’s decorative lights are the highlights of Black Stubborn Derby!
Additional info:
I lost track of the official EuroVelo 6 bicycle road – called EV6 The Rivers Route – on 3 occasions, was followed by a variety of wild animals, ran into a fallen tree in the middle of the forest along the Danube and had the chance to meet very weird people… hiding, fishing, having sex, camping or chasing each other in the dark.
Difficulty level of the race – visibility:
Lights on the bicycle were intentionally primitive. I used cheap Chinese rubbercase types – and not the original veteran lamps – to make the challange harder. Visibility was approx. 2 meters. This is how you speed up and rely on your reflexes in the dark!
Difficulty level of the race – the gear:
I was wearing long black jeans, heavy boots and had a lightweight backpack with me – 20-25 kg – with a sleeping bag, a tent and extra clothes in it just in case. During this first „pioneer ride” I didn’t had tools with me, technically I wasn’t prepared for any accidents and I only lost a screw and a metal piece of the mud guard due to a difficult – bumpy – section of the race track.
Environmental notes:
Along the river a bit of fog was often a recurring phenomenon, but we had no rain that day and the sky wasn’t all too cloudy. I also have to admit, I benefited heavily from a near full moon – as I took off –, which turned into a perfectly rounded full moon by my spirghtly, but tired arrival to the final destination in Budapest – City Center! In some cases during my trip I turned off the front lamp to not be disturbed by it’s spray!
The track is not crossing the Danube in any form, but includes multiple little bridges!
Hydration and other topics:
During the race no stops were made and no nutriants or water were consumed; I ate two Cornetto ice creams and drank 0,5 liters of Soda (sprakling water) to provide the needed energy and to avoid any hidration issues till the finishing line. I covered the full distance in one stroke. I didn’t use any phone, smartphone or GPS devices to find my way (and in the rules of this analogue race these will be striktly forbidden!)
Details on the pioneer ride of July 2018:
Participant: BikeInfantry
Name of bicycle: „Wingtip”
Type of vehicle: 1971 Steyr-Puch white wing Waffenrad, veteran bicycle
Official take off point: Élesztő Plázs – Krokodil rét, Zebegény, Pest county, Hungary
Official location of arrival: Zsivágó Café, Paulay Ede utca, VI. district, Budapest, Hungary
Distance: 60 km
Start (time): 23:30 / 11:30 pm
Arrival time: 03:40 ( 03:40 am
Time needed: 4 hours 10 minutes
Time not including delays: 3 hours 35 minutes
Average speed: around 20 km/hour
Maximum speed: 30-35 km/hour
Minimum speed: pushing the bicycle up a hill in the most difficult needle curve – where you cannot build up momentum –, which is very steep!
Checkpoints: (mark: 1. sequences between checkpoints have different lenghts;
2. anyone who finds a faster route is welcome to post it!)
ÉLESZTŐ PLÁZS – Krokodil rét (outdoors bar on the river bank)
Zebegény
Nagymaros
Nomad bar
Kismaros
Verőce
Vác – Csillagbörtön (Star Prison)
Sződliget
Gátőrház, Felső-Göd
Göd
Dunakeszi
/// crossing the city limits of Budapest ///
Megyeri-híd (Megyeri bridge)
Váci út
Árva utca
Balzsam tca
Újpalotai út
Göncöl utca
Röppentyű utca
Pap Károly út
/// crossing Róbert Károly körút (main road) ///
Kassák Lajos utca
Lehel tér (Market hall)
Bulcsu utca tunnel / railway underpass
Bajza utca
Russian Embassy
Andrássy út
Kodály körönd
Oktogon
Liszt Ferenc tér
Paulay Ede utca
Zsivágó Café – Vintage venue and meeting point of Waffenradforums.net
Basic rules of Black Stubborn Derby:
- Launch after sunset
- Don’t be drunk or drugged
- Travel only at night
- Do not stop or pause
- Don’t use lights, which are spreading fotons past 3 meters
- Allowed vehicles are pre-1980-s veteran bicycles
- GPS is not allowed
- 3 gear bicycles are welcome
- You don’t have to mount the extra weight (approx. +30 kg), which I carried
- If you do the race in a group and travel in a convoy, always know, safety comes first!
(but) IT'S SO AWESOME TO SPRINT FULL SPEED INTO THE NIGHT!
Looking forward to all who’d like to beat me in this game and would like to set up a better score!
This race is supported and is supervised by WAFFENRADFORUMS.NET – the international association of Waffenrad fans in Hungary (all rights reserved).